News Big changes coming to EPCOT's Future World?

Mike730

Mike730

Well-Known Member
CaptainAmerica said:
That's a hippie protest song against the use of DDT. The environmentalists who got DDT banned are responsible for 50 million malaria deaths worldwide. It's not about "spots on your apples," it's about killing disease-bearing mosquitoes that kill millions of people. We've been letting human beings die because Joni Mitchell and Counting Crows care more about birds than people. We could eliminate Zika tomorrow if we wanted to.
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I often agree with your posts but other times the confidence in which you throw out these misleading 'facts' is frightening!

First:
There indeed have been 50 million malaria deaths worldwide since the ban of DDT in the US(1972). However, those deaths are overwhelmingly in Sub-Saharan Africa where DDT was not banned and is still not completely banned. DDT was not even controlled in this region until 2001. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (2001) specifically outlined effective ways to use DDT as an indoor insecticide and gave permission to countries to use DDT for malaria control. Since this agreement, yearly deaths cause by malaria have dropped dramatically (48%). This is mostly due to education and implementation of mosquito control techniques (IVM) that are more effective than DDT usage. DDT was never very effective in Africa due to the utter lack of infrastructure to support its usage. You can't spray an entire continent with insecticide. Even localized success with DDT (re: cities/villages), required constant DDT application to the point where DDT-resistant strands of mosquitoes were born, ending its usefulness. Integrated Vector Management(IVM) has been much more effective and continues to be effective around the world. So, the environmentalists who banned DDT in the US are certainly not responsible for the deaths of Malaria victims in parts of the world where their ban has no effect.

Second:
"We could eliminate Zika tomorrow if we wanted to" is certainly NOT true. DDT would not help Central and South American countries that already use effective adulticide alternatives. Thats like saying "If everyone just used Raid instead of Ortho then no one would have to worry about ants EVER AGAIN. SAD!"
DDT has almost nothing to do with Zika prevalence. IVM is most effective in these regions. Kill mosquitoes in a larval state and prevent breeding. When necessary, use an adulticide that isn't needlessly controversial. If you can't afford IVM, than DDT wont help you. Anyone whose ever killed a wasp knows you have to spray the nest or the wasps will keep coming.

Please stop repeating what you hear from your news outlets before doing your own research first. They are certainly not telling you the whole truth. Read Journals. Analyze Data. Form your opinions based on reality.
 
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Marc Davis Fan

Marc Davis Fan

Well-Known Member
Can the insiders - perhaps @marni1971 - share anything else about the plans for the Innoventions areas (and related buildings, e.g., Club Cool and Mouse Gear)? How will the outsides of these buildings and the central plaza be altered? Any idea as to the timeframe for starting this work? The Innoventions / central plaza areas becoming a non-mess can't happen soon enough!
 
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marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Mark Davis said:
Can the insiders - perhaps @marni1971 - share anything else about the plans for the Innoventions areas (and related buildings, e.g., Club Cool and Mouse Gear)? How will the outsides of these buildings and the central plaza be altered? Any idea as to the timeframe for starting this work? The Innoventions / central plaza areas becoming a non-mess can't happen soon enough!
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If plans come through it will be a large redesign of the buildings, both inside and out. All that could remain familiar would be the building footprints.
 
R

Ralphlaw

Well-Known Member
Edward M said:
Disney World's new direction leaves Epcot sort of lost in the crossfire. In the eyes of Disney, a ride about the future is a stupid decision since the present is always becoming the future. In 5 years, a high budget educational futuristic ride will be outdated. An IP Future World/World Showcase just makes more sense I guess. IPs age very slowly compared to technology. Frozen may not be as big as it was in 2014 in 2024, but it will always be a pretty popular Disney movie. Right now, Epcot is already looking very aged. Once AK/HS are fixed, it will be VERY aged. I don't really support a GotG ride at Epcot, like at all. I think Inside Out edutainment ride would make a lot more sense for both Epcot and money. I would even be cool with a Ratatouille ride in France. However, I can see the point of a GotG ride. It would be popular with people. I love Epcot, but people don't want to spend $100 just to go to a place with a few old rides and a big, well themed shopping center. Epcot really needs something, but I don't know what that is.
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I think Disney understands this, and is now making flexibility and adaptability a huge part of any new attraction. Soarin' Over California, with a short shutdown for a tweak, is now Soarin' around the World. Star Tours has been adapted. Maelstrom becomes Frozen, and El Rio Del Tiempo becomes three loud birds around Mexico. Even Test Track was readapted, not torn down and replaced--and I love it.

The attractions that aren't easily adapted become an embarrassment. The American Adventure still has Lance Armstrong riding his bike alongside Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Oops! It's too bad we can't edit him out. At least Bill Cosby isn't in it.

The Yeti goes down in Expedition Everest, and the best they can do is flash a disco light instead of flipping a switch for a legitimate and adaptable B mode that would still be cool. Nope, not adaptability, just a "Gee, it's broken. Quick, run to Ace Hardware and check the John Travolta aisle for something to replace it."

Tower of Terror in Disneyland is being adapted. Wise? I guess we'll find out.

New adaptations aren't as amazing as a whole new attraction, but they do keep things from becoming stale. They're also much much cheaper to put in place than a teardown and start over. From a corporate standpoint, they're great. The Spaceship Earth redo was easy and quick compared to a whole new rebuild. From a guest standpoint, they're not quite as amazing as a whole new attraction, but at least they don't gather dust like Mission Space kind of is right now. Even the Hall of Presidents gets a facelift every time the U-Haul pulls in and moves a new tenant into the White House. And that 45 year old attraction keeps rolling along with few complaints.

So, how do you justify the expense of today's cutting edge scientific attraction that may be obsolete in a few years? Engineer in adaptability, and change it over when the time is right. My dad always said, "Don't design an engine that requires removing the carburetor just to change spark plugs." Today's version: "Don't build an attraction that may become embarrassing or out of date that can't be easily upgraded."
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Ralphlaw said:
The attractions that aren't easily adapted become an embarrassment. The American Adventure still has Lance Armstrong riding his bike alongside Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Oops! It's too bad we can't edit him out. At least Bill Cosby isn't in it.
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Am Ad is on its 3rd finale film. It's easily upgradable. It just needs a budget to update - which isn't for a few years yet.
 
R

Ralphlaw

Well-Known Member
Not to put too fine a point on it, but it should probably be more easily upgradeable given the fact that Armstrong's Q rating is in the basement and his name has become synonymous with bully/cheater. I assume the next upgrade will allow digital editing with an hour or two's attention from a good computer geek. Can you imagine the cutting edge image Epcot would have if the film could already show Simone Biles doing flips instead, or even Aaron Rodgers winning on Jeopardy and giving the pot of cash to charity? A projection, whether film or digital, should be more easily changed in 2016, especially with living people on them who can go from hero to scumbag in the course of a single news cycle.
 
Phineas

Phineas

Well-Known Member
Mike S said:
And yet there's no problem with a similar effect taking us miles below the surface to the cart station deep in the vaults of Gringotts.
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That was one of my biggest pet peeves about that attraction: Take an elevator down to the vaults, and then climb some stairs. What? What?
 
montyz81

montyz81

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
I'm assuming they won't change save for perhaps the odd moved staircase.
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Is it really that extensive? Gosh this seems like a very strange change. It feels like they are changing Energy and Innoventions (E/W) and leaving everything else as it is. If things are mishmosh today, it will really look like a mishmosh after these changes.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
montyz81 said:
Is it really that extensive? Gosh this seems like a very strange change. It feels like they are changing Energy and Innoventions (E/W) and leaving everything else as it is. If things are mishmosh today, it will really look like a mishmosh after these changes.
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Innoventions proposals? Yes they're extensive.

Things won't be just left though. Expect appearances to change from the turnstiles (or not) through to under SSE, around the fountain and to south of Innoventions. East will look very different eventually aside from Test Track which is still considered new. Factor in possible Imagaination and Land works eventually plus possible way finding, landscaping and lighting changes half park-wide and there's a glimmer of hope the north half of the park may begin to get a cohesive theme and feel back again.
 
Haymarket2008

Haymarket2008

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Innoventions proposals? Yes they're extensive.

Things won't be just left though. Expect appearances to change from the turnstiles (or not) through to under SSE, around the fountain and to south of Innoventions. East will look very different eventually aside from Test Track which is still considered new. Factor in possible Imagaination and Land works eventually plus possible way finding, landscaping and lighting changes half park-wide and there's a glimmer of hope the north half of the park may begin to get a cohesive theme and feel back again.
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When can we expect to see some of these changes taking shape? Very near future or 5 years away? I'm assuming they'd want the majority of the cosmetic changes in their parks completed by the 50th.
 
Thanks phoenicians

Thanks phoenicians

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Innoventions proposals? Yes they're extensive.

Things won't be just left though. Expect appearances to change from the turnstiles (or not) through to under SSE, around the fountain and to south of Innoventions. East will look very different eventually aside from Test Track which is still considered new. Factor in possible Imagaination and Land works eventually plus possible way finding, landscaping and lighting changes half park-wide and there's a glimmer of hope the north half of the park may begin to get a cohesive theme and feel back again.
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Hmm a hint at removing the turnstiles for an entrance much more futuristic maybe...
 
Mike S

Mike S

Well-Known Member
Phineas said:
That was one of my biggest pet peeves about that attraction: Take an elevator down to the vaults, and then climb some stairs. What? What?
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The stairs up to the cart station aren't so bad. It's the stairs you go down after the ride that lead to a simple hallway to the surface that make no sense ;)
 

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