News Big changes coming to EPCOT's Future World?

mikejs78

Premium Member
I honestly believe that that some people within TWDC legitimately think, "Epcot? Rides? We don't need many of those anymore. Most people don't go there for rides, they go there to eat and drink. And our numbers back that up!".
That's why they are adding 2 rides and replacing an outdated C ticket with an E ticket, and overhauling the park's signature ride in the next 2-3 years.
 

tirian

Well-Known Member
Tonight the added bushes to seal off Club Cool area made for an interesting evacuation of guests at closing after Illuminations. The entire guest load that was heading to parking, Monorails and buses funneled to the narrow Mouse Gear walkway to the side of the Fountain wasn’t pretty. Disney Management everywhere observing

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“Disney MGMT everywhere observing”—because after operating parks for nearly 70 years, the company still doesn’t know how to plan for crowd flow during a major construction project. DCA was a disaster during its reboot.

On a related note, that window display for Illuminations is gorgeous.
 

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
And they’ll still be below what they had when the park was great.
I've always said EPCOT seems so ride-less is because originally the Future World rides were long. Like 12-15 minutes. So if you were to do just Energy, Horizons and WoM in 1982 thats nearly a hour-plus of ride time (not including waits. Now with Guardians, Space and test Track, 20 minutes and you're done. Same for the other side.
 

tparris

Well-Known Member
I've always said EPCOT seems so ride-less is because originally the Future World rides were long. Like 12-15 minutes. So if you were to do just Energy, Horizons and WoM in 1982 thats nearly a hour-plus of ride time (not including waits. Now with Guardians, Space and test Track, 20 minutes and you're done. Same for the other side.
Except if you take into account the wait times, riding Guardians, Space and TT will be much longer than it would have been to ride a few rides in 82. Gotta love Fastpass.
 

RoysCabin

Well-Known Member
Just saw an Offhand Disney video in my YouTube subscriptions and, man...I wish I had the faith in current management a lot of the commenters there seem to have.

Have to say, it's frustrating to see people continuously trotting out the old "Walt never wanted the parks to become museums" quotes while ignoring that neglect by Disney management in recent decades are what made places like EPCOT into "museums" in the first place (the poor show and neglect on the Fountain of Nations is beyond dispiriting), and acting as if most of what management's been doing in recent years is what Walt would be interested in. We don't know where Walt would have been at if he had lived longer, so the changes need to speak for themselves, not trot out cliches to defend anything the company does.

Context matters, it's important, and most "purist" or "classic" fans aren't upset that the parks have to change over time; if anything, the frustration has been that the parks haven't been plussed or maintained well. Most classic EPCOT fans have spent 20+ years begging for any kind of investment in the park by Disney, and if regular investment meant a classic attraction here or there had to change or be removed most people wouldn't be bent out of shape about it - e.g. people don't hate Test Track for replacing World of Motion because TT is a decent attraction; people dislike Mission Space partly because it replaced Horizons, but mostly because, well, it's not terribly good. But now we're finally here, and it means the park will be a landfill for a few years, something that could have been avoided with regular maintenance and thought-out plussing.

More than that, I'm just really astounded at the dismissal of those who do take issue with the IP invasion...not just of EPCOT, but of literally every single new project announced for the domestic parks since Iger and Chapek took over. I've never seen anybody say "get all IP out of Disney parks!", I've never even seen somebody say "get rid of IP from anywhere that isn't Fantasyland/Studios!", but are fans not allowed to feel disheartened over the last non-IP attraction in a domestic park being Expedition Everest? That was a dog's age ago, and acting like there isn't an issue here that's worth critiquing and scrutinizing closely just seems willfully obtuse to me.

Sorry, rant over; I'm still interested in how the aesthetics of the redone EPCOT turn out, but while some fans are just toxic and blindly nostalgic and deserve calling out, you can't chalk up a slew of wary, skeptical, or at times negative reviews to just "haters"; there's something under the hood that's not quite right, and maybe, just maybe, it should be talked about.

EDIT: I'm getting somebody in those comments telling me that "something had to be done with EPCOT because it hasn't been profitable over the years" and such and such. Trying to say World Showcase was meant to have 31 countries and settled for 9 at first, and that during the late Eisner era there was thought of selling EPCOT to a non-Disney entity.

I'm sure this person heard this from people they know, but my word, don't believe everything you hear second or third hand.
 
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Chris82

Well-Known Member
... are fans not allowed to feel disheartened over the last non-IP attraction in a domestic park being Expedition Everest?

Thanks for this - captures a lot of how I feel :D

I compare Disney's approach to its parks to the way I feel trying to shop at the PC game aisle at Office Max - movie tie-ins and sequels as far as the eye can see - and being told that there's nothing else. That's it. Forever.
 

Gabe1

Ivory Tower Squabble EST 2011. WINDMILL SURVIVOR
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The walkway is walled off on that side. They are widening it like the Imagination side was widened last year. Good thought though.
 

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