1982 Guest Suggestions/Complaints About EPCOT Center

[TheBeatles]

I thought I would share some info from the 1982 EPCOT Center edition of The Orlando Sentinel. The following are what guests wished there was more/less of at EPCOT Center. *Note* I will post the entire newspaper in my blog in the future. I know how some people like to complain about EPCOT now, so here are some about EPCOT then. All of these were supposed to be directed to Card Walker.

I'll start with some, but not all of the guest quotes...

"The American Adventure doesn't tell you anything about history that you didn't earn in junior high school."

"I had high hopes for it, but I think they've missed the mark. They're trying so hard to keep out Mickey Mouse that they've forgotten that the company began with a mouse and seven dwarfs."

"They've got to forget the magnifigance of Audio-Animatronics and bring back the fun. People have always come to Disney World to shut out the real world. Now at EPCOT they're bringing in the real world and shoving it down our throats. It's sterile. The light-hearted, happy feeling you get in the Magic Kingdom is missing here.

"It's hard to get food."

"I'm going to recommend EPCOT to my friends, but I'll tell them to wait a year. This place needs to get over its growing pains."

"They need more junky hot dog stands. It's murder without them. When Americans are hungry, they want a hot dog."

"The plastic in the Land Pavilion looked out of place. The real crops and plants they had there were much realistic.

Next up are guest suggestions...

 

[TheBeatles]

Guest suggestions...


Give visitors a souvenir to make them feel like they're not being shuffled out and forgotten at the end of each ride. The Heniz Co. gave out pickle pins at the 1939 World's Fair. Companies could offer similar keepsakes at Epcot.

Disney music, characters, and souvenirs should be allowed at Epcot.

Bring in vendors selling balloons and souvenirs to make the park more festive.

Redesign the entrance way so that SSE lines aren't the first thing visitors see as they enter the park. Give people time to assimilate and be awed by what they see. Use Main Street, U.S.A in the Magic Kingdom as an example.

Make the 3-D movie longer.

Mention Henry Ford in GM's World of Motion.

Erect more signs that tell how long the wait is in each line

Open more stands for over-the-counter beer sales. In many pavilions, you must order dinner to get a beer.

World Showcase buses should stop at each pavilion so senior citizens won't have as far to walk.

World Showcase entertainment should start earlier in the day for people who have to leave on 6 p.m. bus tours.

There should be more places to escape the sun: shade trees or covered areas. Also, more benches.

Bands could play in gazebos for older citizens who are tired.

Turn down the volume in some of the shows.

Street entertainers or video programs could entertain visitors while they wait in line.

As a concession to Walt Disney's original dream that Epcot be a "prototypical community of tomorrow," erect at least one, token futuristic home at EPCOT Center and allow a family to live here for a year. An annual contest could be held to pick the lucky family.


...There was guest praise, but who wants to be positive!? Oddly enough, Universe of Energy was praised. I assumed many people hated it.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Great Post!!!

Do you mean people complained back in 82 or is this all just Merf's father?

All you need to top it all off is to have someone complaining that Horizons is going to ruin the theming of the park...:ROFLOL:

 

[DisneySaint]

The only one I totally agree with and am suprised nothing has been done about is:

"World Showcase buses should stop at each pavilion so senior citizens won't have as far to walk."

With the shear size of the WS, the old busses the characters rode on should be recommisioned for use as transportation that circles the WS, stopping in each country as it goes. I'm young so I can handle it but I can't imagine being 65 with a bad knee and trying to enjoy the WS.

 

[TheBeatles]

Great Post!!!

Do you mean people complained back in 82 or is this all just Merf's father?

All you need to top it all off is to have someone complaining that Horizons is going to ruin the theming of the park...:ROFLOL:

Let's keep it clean!

I left out a complaint about Circle-Vision 360. The guest did not like standing and having to turn their head to watch the movie. They preferred the 180 movies that allow you to sit.

Someone also said it was "An adult park for 12-year-old legs."

 

[mousermerf]

I think this is my favorite ironic quote ever:

"They've got to forget the magnifigance of Audio-Animatronics and bring back the fun. People have always come to Disney World to shut out the real world. Now at EPCOT they're bringing in the real world and shoving it down our throats. It's sterile. The light-hearted, happy feeling you get in the Magic Kingdom is missing here."

They did, eventually.. by removing nearly 75% of them from Epcot.

 

[TheBeatles]

I think this is my favorite ironic quote ever:

"They've got to forget the magnifigance of Audio-Animatronics and bring back the fun. People have always come to Disney World to shut out the real world. Now at EPCOT they're bringing in the real world and shoving it down our throats. It's sterile. The light-hearted, happy feeling you get in the Magic Kingdom is missing here."

They did, eventually.. by removing nearly 75% of them from Epcot.

I had to double check that quote because it sounded so odd.

 

[Captain Hank]

"The plastic in the Land Pavilion looked out of place. The real crops and plants they had there were much realistic.

So the fake plants looked fake, and the real plants looked real, eh? Who would've thunk.

World Showcase buses should stop at each pavilion so senior citizens won't have as far to walk.

Now, this I definitely agree with. I've talked to several elderly people after working at Epcot, and many have said that they really want to go back to WDW, and Epcot in particular, but don't want to have to walk so far around WS Lagoon.

 

[DisneyAnole]

So the fake plants looked fake, and the real plants looked real, eh? Who would've thunk.

Now the only question is: Did the guest who wrote this know that the plants in the greenhouses are real? Because...you know...there are those guests who think the stuff growing in the greenhouses is fake. These are also the same guest who think the ducks at MK are fake, too.

 

[STGRhost]

Give visitors a souvenir to make them feel like they're not being shuffled out and forgotten at the end of each ride. The Heniz Co. gave out pickle pins at the 1939 World's Fair. Companies could offer similar keepsakes at Epcot.

Oh, wow, can you imagine that? Instead of being dumped into a gift shop, Disney would actually GIVE us stuff at the end of each ride? :ROFLOL: (Although I have to say I LIKE the sound of these pickle pins. Hmmm....off to Ebay...)

World Showcase buses should stop at each pavilion so senior citizens won't have as far to walk.

This isn't really a ~bad~ idea, but is it feasible? By the time a guest walked to the front of a pavilion, waited at the bus stop, boarded the bus, rode the maybe ten yards to the next stop, got off, walked into the next pavilion, etc, they probably could have walked there on their own AND found a spot to rest if needed. Plus the crowd control would be a nightmare with the buses stopping, unloading, loading, moving, and stopping again, over and over, every 30 feet., not to mention the lines at the bus stops... :shrug:

 

[primetime52]

I thought I would share some info from the 1982 EPCOT Center edition of The Orlando Sentinel. The following are what guests wished there was more/less of at EPCOT Center. *Note* I will post the entire newspaper in my blog in the future. I know how some people like to complain about EPCOT now, so here are some about EPCOT then. All of these were supposed to be directed to Card Walker.

I'll start with some, but not all of the guest quotes...

"The American Adventure doesn't tell you anything about history that you didn't earn in junior high school."

I guess the education system was much better when these people were in middle school. Personally, I am a history buff, but I've attended AA with various friends and relatives who are completely clueless about American History and actually learned alot from this attraction (even though they may have taken lengthy naps for the bulk of it).

Most people from my generation and below (30 and under) are clueless about American History and it's quite a shame. If you've ever seen the "Jay Walking" segment on the Tonight Show or other things like that, you probably know what I mean....

 

[Captain Hank]

Now the only question is: Did the guest who wrote this know that the plants in the greenhouses are real? Because...you know...there are those guests who think the stuff growing in the greenhouses is fake. These are also the same guest who think the ducks at MK are fake, too.

Presumably. They used the word "crops," which suggests the plants grown in the greenhouses. And believe me, I know how many people think the plants in LWTL are fake. During my internship in the greenhouses, I'd usually get at least one guest a day yelling out "are those plants real?" What was really fun was when I was actually working in a crop and got the question. Once, while I was pruning the eggplant, a guest on a boat asked whether the plant was real, and I really wanted to say "No, ma'am, Disney pays me to stand here and cut the leaves off of a plastic plant all day." I just smiled and nodded.

 

[DisneyAnole]

Presumably. They used the word "crops," which suggests the plants grown in the greenhouses. And believe me, I know how many people think the plants in LWTL are fake. During my internship in the greenhouses, I'd usually get at least one guest a day yelling out "are those plants real?" What was really fun was when I was actually working in a crop and got the question. Once, while I was pruning the eggplant, a guest on a boat asked whether the plant was real, and I really wanted to say "No, ma'am, Disney pays me to stand here and cut the leaves off of a plastic plant all day." I just smiled and nodded.

Yeah, I got the same question multiple times when I worked at the Land doing the spiel for LWTW. Ah, nothing like doing 8 trips in row. Thank God, that's over!

 

[TTARider]

I guess the education system was much better when these people were in middle school. Personally, I am a history buff, but I've attended AA with various friends and relatives who are completely clueless about American History and actually learned alot from this attraction (even though they may have taken lengthy naps for the bulk of it).

Most people from my generation and below (30 and under) are clueless about American History and it's quite a shame. If you've ever seen the "Jay Walking" segment on the Tonight Show or other things like that, you probably know what I mean....

As a History major it sickens me to watch people that clueless:hurl:


I do enjoy AA though...

 

[brkgnews]

Give visitors a souvenir to make them feel like they're not being shuffled out and forgotten at the end of each ride. The Heniz Co. gave out pickle pins at the 1939 World's Fair. Companies could offer similar keepsakes at Epcot.

Neat idea (and well-remembered, whomever you are, original suggester); trouble is a World's Fair was only a two-year commitment (and for that matter, were usually collosal flops in terms of actual attendance versus predicted attendance). Getting someone to commit to doing that for as long as the pavilion lasted in EPCOT (which was all but guaranteed good numbers due to the Disney tie-in) would have been hard. Of course, there were those little GM badge pins that they gave out for a while (or am I getting confused with the 1964 GM Futurama? Some days it's hard to bushwhack through the undergrowth in my brain. :hammer: )

Disney music, characters, and souvenirs should be allowed at Epcot.

Be careful what you wish for. :lookaroun Nothing says "Futureworld" like Johnny Depp.

Mention Henry Ford in GM's World of Motion.

Ha! If I had my druthers, everybody in Guest Relations would get a mulligan each year. I would have used mine to pimp-slap that guest and then politely remind them who laid down the cash for the pavilion. Of course, I suppose they could have sneakily intergrated it, in the way that Apple is showing up in Siemens new ride.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Thanks for posting those. It's fun to see how much has been taken into consideration, reflect on the changes that have been made thru the years, and chuckle over the comments/suggestions that are waaaay out in left field. LOL!

I remember Epcot in her original glory so this was fun for me. I was 8 years old when Epcot opened and 9 when I made my 1st visit. The one thing that stood out to me was that Universe of Energy was praised. Gosh, I remember when I was a kid we would nearly cry when our parents made us go thru that attraction. The movie part before and after the dinosaurs was so painfully boring to my siblings and me. I know a lot of people criticize the addition of Ellen to this attraction but it's far more entertaining now than what it used to be...to me at least. Of course I've only taken the time to go thru there once since Ellen's entrance. I guess old sentiments die hard. Just the sound of the name "Universe of Energy" brings back that oh-no-not-again feeling. LOL! :lol:

 

[sweetpee_1993]

I guess the education system was much better when these people were in middle school. Personally, I am a history buff, but I've attended AA with various friends and relatives who are completely clueless about American History and actually learned alot from this attraction (even though they may have taken lengthy naps for the bulk of it).

Most people from my generation and below (30 and under) are clueless about American History and it's quite a shame. If you've ever seen the "Jay Walking" segment on the Tonight Show or other things like that, you probably know what I mean....

Actually, I think it depends on the person. My 11 year old son loves history. The first time we took him to the American Adventure pavilion was last year when he was 10. Same trip we took him to the Hall of Presidents. He was enthralled. I had to shoosh him because he got excited rattling off all kinds of information, names, dates, stories about the people he was seeing. Especially the presidents. He was pointing and naming off every one of them. It was really cool. And made me feel really dumb because I didn't know that much about history. It's not that I wasn't taught it. I just don't remember it like he does because it's not as interesting to me. I was able to tell him more about the things that happened in history closer to my generation. He's always a big bucket of questions.

I love both shows. I'm really patriotic and come from a military family. The American Adventure always makes me get teared up at the end of the movie bit. The Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC always does that to me. And I'm just 33.

 

[TheBeatles]

Most people from my generation and below (30 and under) are clueless about American History and it's quite a shame. If you've ever seen the "Jay Walking" segment on the Tonight Show or other things like that, you probably know what I mean....

As somebody who is below 30 and loves history, I know many people who are clueless about the subject. Not that I'm a history know-it-all, but I enjoy it.

A lot of my friends hate history and I could never understand why. It's better than math and chemistry!

Of course, there were those little GM badge pins that they gave out for a while (or am I getting confused with the 1964 GM Futurama? Some days it's hard to bushwhack through the undergrowth in my brain. :hammer: )

Those badges were from World of Motion.

Did anybody notice the futuristic house idea? Would spending the night at EPCOT Center be fun?

 

[brianplace]

ws buses

The only one I totally agree with and am suprised nothing has been done about is:

"World Showcase buses should stop at each pavilion so senior citizens won't have as far to walk."

With the shear size of the WS, the old busses the characters rode on should be recommisioned for use as transportation that circles the WS, stopping in each country as it goes. I'm young so I can handle it but I can't imagine being 65 with a bad knee and trying to enjoy the WS.

The double-decker buses were originally used as general transportation. I think they stopped using them because the size of the crowds and width of the promenade led to safety issues.

This is a park whose attendance has grown every year since it opened; I think they've literally just run out of room for this.

 

[primetime52]

As somebody who is below 30 and loves history, I know many people who are clueless about the subject. Not that I'm a history know-it-all, but I enjoy it.

A lot of my friends hate history and I could never understand why. It's better than math and chemistry!




Those badges were from World of Motion.

Did anybody notice the futuristic house idea? Would spending the night at EPCOT Center be fun?

Much better than Math and Chemistry! Those are the worst by far. History was my favorite subject.

AA and Hall of Presidents are actually 2 attractions that I love, but I can rarely ever convince family or friends to watch them with me.