Does Epcot Need Saving?

[markjohns1]

Among the things that I would change would be to redo The Odyssey Center.I have always been confused when I walk across the bridge to what looks to be a storage place. What actually is it used for other than restrooms and baby changing/feeding? It sure is a big building for that.

One of the primary cast member cafeterias takes up a good portion of that building. This may have changed since I was there, but it was also a deployment spot for much of the custodial staff (offices, etc.).

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

It actually was refurbed and is currently the host for the IllumiNations Deserts and other special events.

 

[MAGICFLOP]

http://www.wdwinfo.com/maps/epcot.htm EPCOT MAP LINK

I would do 3 things.

I would cut 2 new paths. Looking at the map from (2 to 3) and (2 to 7)From just inside SE along side the bathrooms on both sides of the ball. One to UOE and one to the other side to Nemo. This would increase traffic to the baron UOE and WOL area. That would make WOL more attactive to a sponsor. This would spread more people out in the park. There would be no crunch in the two current breezeways.

Next. I would revamp the "odyessey". I know they use that for private events, but I would change it. I would make it a restaurant pavillion as orig intended. I would set it up similar to the lands food court. Offering different foods of course.

I would set up the wine stands permanant(like during wine festival). This would give the park an even more adult feel.

 

[jakeman]

As for the original park message...They have changed it,but too much.From 1982 to 1993 we had the original EPCOT Center.Then in 1994 they changed the park to Epcot'94.This was the original change that would open Epcot up to characters,bright showy kinetics and the like.Now,it seems,from 2001-to about 2007/8 they've totally done away with ny respect for the future and just focused on current and outdated issues.

That is your opinion that they have strayed to far away from the original marketing premise. You are also stating that you have disagreed with the direction the marketing has portrayed the parks. Your opinions are fine, and I am not going to argue that, but it is not fact and it will never be.

(And,even though It seems like I can't stand the current Epcot,don't let me fool you.I love it.Best place and concept in the world.I just think the park,the Imagineers and Disney has sooooo much more potential.)

But that is not your job, especially not here on a fanboy site. If you think they have more potential then express your concerns to guest relations and take your dollars elsewhere.

I beg to differ that opinion. It seems that those who lament as you say the loss of the original EPCOT Center are suckers for marketing, but I belive they are people who truly want to see what Disney can create that inspires humanity for the future. There is no general idea of what the future will look like now a days. The best thing we have is Will Smith fighting evil/misunderstood robots who threaten all of humanity. There is no idea of a positive future like EPCOT Center presented. There is no general sense of progress among the populous no motivating spark to make people want to be the best they can and build a new future. There is no vision.

You also state that it that this vision of the future became outdated and that is true; but who's fault is that? Disney themselves neglected to continually update and enhance their own vision of the future. They became content and lazy with what they had, even as American Adventure warns, and they fell behind and are now having to play catchup! They now are in a place were they do not feel as if they can create a vision of the future due to the supposed failure they had when it opened, when in fact they are the cause of the vision becoming old due to negligence.

So I personally believe that they need to step back and even look to Walt, and though I may sound like an old guy need to ask themselves what would he look to today and say "That is the future!". They need to help create a new vision of the future that is entirely new. Not one that is based on Jib-Jab and The Jetsons, nor one based on the old idea of the original Horizons, but one that is awe inspiring and unlike anything we have seen.

With regards to your first paragraph, and I ask this in all the five billion "Epcot is broken" threads, what has Epcot inspired you to do. Inspiration without action is just a warm fuzzy that serves no purpose. What have you contributed to society that was a direct relation to your experience at Epcot?

With regards to your second paragraph, I somewhat agree with you. On the other hand, now that the updates have begun, how much complaining is about what has been done. This goes back to my closing statement, the purist aren't going to be happy unless the park is updated to match what is in your head then is is not holding to the "original" idea of Epcot.

For your third paragraph, please see my above statement. They have present their version of the near future in Mission: Space and it has been rejected has a poor replacement for Horizons. If they were to go back to Walt's vision, again, if it doesn't match the purist vision then it is a failure.

In closing, thinking about Epcot is much less heartwrenching if you realize that its sole purpose is to make money and everything around that is to supplement that purpose.

Epcot never had or has some higher purpose. It was a grab at the last idea of Walt Disney in an attempt to save a floundering company. Nothing more.

 

[wickedfan07]

In closing, thinking about Epcot is much less heartwrenching if you realize that its sole purpose is to make money and everything around that is to supplement that purpose.

Epcot never had or has some higher purpose. It was a grab at the last idea of Walt Disney in an attempt to save a floundering company. Nothing more.

I feel bad for you. I realize you are being the realist in this discussion, but it saddens me that you don't find one ounce of--dare I say it--magic or inspiration in Epcot or any Disney park. It is very easy to go through this life believing and accepting your fate as a sheep whose only purpose is to allow corporations to empty your wallets, allow a job to steal the "best years of your life" and an eventual death when you get too old. The world can be a cold and heartless place, but I don't think it has to be. The epeople who have made change in this world believed things had a higher purpose and Epcot by its very nature is and should be about how people change the way we live. If you choose to not see the human side of Epcot as opposed to the cold corporate side of Epcot, that is not the problem of anyone who believes Epcot can and should be more. Wanting things to go back to the way they were in 1982 is certainly counterproductive when it comes to a creative discussion, but at least Epcot "foamers" have something to care about.

I am sorry you feel the way you do, and I realize that nothing anyeone says will change the way you feel. You are entitled to your opinion. I,.for one, will continue to visit Epcot can enjoy the idea that anything is possible if you just try. I know the idea of "dream really do come true" seems like a bunch of fluff, but I truly believe that if you have a drwam or a goal in life, your life beomces so much fuller and enjoyable. I have connected the dots myself, and that's the picture Epcot has helped me draw. To each his own I guess.

May Epcot "instill a new sense and pride in mankind's abiklity to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere" and may it do so for amny years to come.

 

[Horizons1]

With regards to your first paragraph, and I ask this in all the five billion "Epcot is broken" threads, what has Epcot inspired you to do. Inspiration without action is just a warm fuzzy that serves no purpose. What have you contributed to society that was a direct relation to your experience at Epcot?

Speaking for myself here. EPCOT Center inspired me to lead my life into science, more specifically biology. The topics presented within Future World, along with the mediums used to present them, got me very interested in science at a young age, practically falling in love with it. This led me to concentrate on mostly science subjects in high school, and is why I'm majoring in a science in college. To say that if I had never been to EPCOT Center I would have never become interested in science would be...foolish. However, EPCOT Center is the inspiration for my fondness and love of the subject. What was presented to me there and what I left there with, did a damn good job of inspiring me.

 

[Legacy]

I feel bad for you. I realize you are being the realist in this discussion, but it saddens me that you don't find one ounce of--dare I say it--magic or inspiration in Epcot or any Disney park. It is very easy to go through this life believing and accepting your fate as a sheep whose only purpose is to allow corporations to empty your wallets, allow a job to steal the "best years of your life" and an eventual death when you get too old. The world can be a cold and heartless place, but I don't think it has to be. The epeople who have made change in this world believed things had a higher purpose and Epcot by its very nature is and should be about how people change the way we live. If you choose to not see the human side of Epcot as opposed to the cold corporate side of Epcot, that is not the problem of anyone who believes Epcot can and should be more. Wanting things to go back to the way they were in 1982 is certainly counterproductive when it comes to a creative discussion, but at least Epcot "foamers" have something to care about.

I am sorry you feel the way you do, and I realize that nothing anyeone says will change the way you feel. You are entitled to your opinion. I,.for one, will continue to visit Epcot can enjoy the idea that anything is possible if you just try. I know the idea of "dream really do come true" seems like a bunch of fluff, but I truly believe that if you have a drwam or a goal in life, your life beomces so much fuller and enjoyable. I have connected the dots myself, and that's the picture Epcot has helped me draw. To each his own I guess.

May Epcot "instill a new sense and pride in mankind's abiklity to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere" and may it do so for amny years to come.

My personal opinion; any thing created by a corporation has to be viewed as a corporate tool. Epcot, the theme park, was not created by a man. It was created by a corporation. Frankly, I think it's easy to accept what is marketed to you as "life-changing and magical" when it doesn't force you to actually change anything rather than make you feel good about life. I seriously doubt Epcot has changed your life. It's a themepark designed to soak up money.

If you want to find "magic and inspiration" in life, you shouldn't have to pay nearly $80 for a one-day pass. There are much more worth-wild things in the real world.

 

[darthjohnny]

For argument's sake, many people like to point out the whole futuristic idea of Epcot, but is an entire other half that is dedicated to something completely different, which people tend to forget. When these two things come together, that is what Epcot really is and I'll leave it at that.

 

[EPCOT.nut]

For argument's sake, many people like to point out the whole futuristic idea of Epcot, but don't forget there is an entire other half that is dedicated to something completely different, which people tend to forget. When these two things come together, that is what Epcot really is and I'll leave it at that.

Do you mean shopping?

:lol:

 

[jakeman]

I feel bad for you. I realize you are being the realist in this discussion, but it saddens me that you don't find one ounce of--dare I say it--magic or inspiration in Epcot or any Disney park. It is very easy to go through this life believing and accepting your fate as a sheep whose only purpose is to allow corporations to empty your wallets, allow a job to steal the "best years of your life" and an eventual death when you get too old. The world can be a cold and heartless place, but I don't think it has to be. The epeople who have made change in this world believed things had a higher purpose and Epcot by its very nature is and should be about how people change the way we live. If you choose to not see the human side of Epcot as opposed to the cold corporate side of Epcot, that is not the problem of anyone who believes Epcot can and should be more. Wanting things to go back to the way they were in 1982 is certainly counterproductive when it comes to a creative discussion, but at least Epcot "foamers" have something to care about.

I am sorry you feel the way you do, and I realize that nothing anyeone says will change the way you feel. You are entitled to your opinion. I,.for one, will continue to visit Epcot can enjoy the idea that anything is possible if you just try. I know the idea of "dream really do come true" seems like a bunch of fluff, but I truly believe that if you have a drwam or a goal in life, your life beomces so much fuller and enjoyable. I have connected the dots myself, and that's the picture Epcot has helped me draw. To each his own I guess.

May Epcot "instill a new sense and pride in mankind's abiklity to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere" and may it do so for amny years to come.

You need not feel sorry for me. Just because I see Epcot and the Walt Disney Corporation for what it is does not mean that I do not enjoy the parks.

The parks are just that, parks. They are the memories I make there with the people I care about, not the buildings and the exstential (good lord, I butchered that word) meaning that I assigned to it. The buildings may change but my memories won't.

Walt Disney World is a place to make memories for the cost of admission, one I gladly pay for annually and with a DVC membership. You don't need to feel bad for me, because I look past the "meaning" of everything and look forward to creating fun times with my friends and family without angsting out about every moved stone.

There is a whole world out there to draw inspiration from and to "instill a new sense and pride in mankind's abiklity to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere". If I wanted that I would find it in the real world, not a distilled, packaged, corporate version of it.

 

[wickedfan07]

My personal opinion; any thing created by a corporation has to be viewed as a corporate tool. Epcot, the theme park, was not created by a man. It was created by a corporation. Frankly, I think it's easy to accept what is marketed to you as "life-changing and magical" when it doesn't force you to actually change anything rather than make you feel good about life. I seriously doubt Epcot has changed your life. It's a themepark designed to soak up money.

If you want to find "magic and inspiration" in life, you shouldn't have to pay nearly $80 for a one-day pass. There are much more worth-wild things in the real world.

Bold #1: Maybe Epcot, the place on a map cemented into the ground and built out of steel hasn't changed my life. Maybe what can change lives is the idea that people have the ability to shape the world. Epcot is the showcase for all kinds of human achievements and the use of imagination. The main purpose of the place on the map is to make money, yes. But the impact the place on a map can have is much bigger. It would be the same if someone visited a national park and decided to be a conservationist or zoologist. Inspiration can happen anywhere, even at some money-grubbing company's theme park. The Epcot idea is people helping people through the exchange of ideas.

Bold #2: This is true, and I don't really agree with Disney's high prices either. Disney is a business, there's no denying that.

There is a whole world out there to draw inspiration from and to "instill a new sense and pride in mankind's abiklity to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere". If I wanted that I would find it in the real world, not a distilled, packaged, corporate version of it.

Epcot should never be a substitute for seeing and experiencing the real world. However, Epcot draws upon the real world for its inspiration. IF Epcot can be a microcosim of the real world and intentionally or unintentionally inspire people to go into the the real world and make change, then it has a real purpose. Epcot the IDEA is bigger than Epcot the PARK. This is more than Disney, the money grubbers, will ever acknowledge or build upon. But that doesn't mean we can't.

Maybe I'm some kind of sentimental fool who has been duped by a marketing strategy. But I really think that Epcot, the park and the ideas within, is a respresentation of the good that exists in the world. Its all up to interpretation. This is mine, and I understand and accept yours. I hope you in turn will accept mine and those of the so-called "Epcot foamers".

 

[MR. CRAFTSMAN]

I hate to be called a Epcot Center Purest but if you must then call me one!
I think that most of Future World has gone to the Dogs and Worls Showcase is soon following. Do the Imaginears not have any Ideas any more? I am sick of fealing that my IQ is less when I leave the Park. This past trip in April my wife and I saw a bunch of drunks walking around WS with shirts that said "Gett'n Drunk around the World". I am not against drinking but the drunkeness is out of hand.
The Disney Charactures should stay at the other parks. I still remember my first visit to EPCOT opening year! I felt like I learned something and it was made fun, unlike school! Know we have to ad charatures and take out all the learning! No I was not sold on the corperate sales crap, I just liked the fact that you could make learning fun. Disney Imaginears are failing the park! I see on YAHOO yesterday that Disneyworld was rated 15 for the top 15 places to take your kids, I wonder why? Was it that the others were more meaning like Gettesburg, Williamsburg, Lincoln monument,etc,etc. Think about it sociaty says to just do what you want and don't care about the conceqences.:brick::brick::brick::brick:

 

[yankspy]

That is your opinion that they have strayed to far away from the original marketing premise. You are also stating that you have disagreed with the direction the marketing has portrayed the parks. Your opinions are fine, and I am not going to argue that, but it is not fact and it will never be.

But that is not your job, especially not here on a fanboy site. If you think they have more potential then express your concerns to guest relations and take your dollars elsewhere.

With regards to your first paragraph, and I ask this in all the five billion "Epcot is broken" threads, what has Epcot inspired you to do. Inspiration without action is just a warm fuzzy that serves no purpose. What have you contributed to society that was a direct relation to your experience at Epcot?
Since everyone else is picking on you I figured I will take my shot as well. I will say what I said in the last "broken epcot" thread in response to your warm fuzzy comment. Sometimes being inspired to inaction is the proper course. The Tao Te Ching talks of this.With regards to your second paragraph, I somewhat agree with you. On the other hand, now that the updates have begun, how much complaining is about what has been done. This goes back to my closing statement, the purist aren't going to be happy unless the park is updated to match what is in your head then is is not holding to the "original" idea of Epcot.

For your third paragraph, please see my above statement. They have present their version of the near future in Mission: Space and it has been rejected has a poor replacement for Horizons. If they were to go back to Walt's vision, again, if it doesn't match the purist vision then it is a failure.

In closing, thinking about Epcot is much less heartwrenching if you realize that its sole purpose is to make money and everything around that is to supplement that purpose.
[COLOR="teal[COLOR="darkorange"]"]Why can't a place be inspiring and make money as well? Teachers make money. Are there not many of them who try to inspire?[/COLOR].[/COLOR]Epcot never had or has some higher purpose. It was a grab at the last idea of Walt Disney in an attempt to save a floundering company. Nothing more.

Congrats! Not only for finding inspiration and acting on it, but being the first person to every answer that question.

You need not feel sorry for me. Just because I see Epcot and the Walt Disney Corporation for what it is does not mean that I do not enjoy the parks.

The parks are just that, parks. They are the memories I make there with the people I care about, not the buildings and the exstential (good lord, I butchered that word) meaning that I assigned to it. The buildings may change but my memories won't.

Walt Disney World is a place to make memories for the cost of admission, one I gladly pay for annually and with a DVC membership. You don't need to feel bad for me, because I look past the "meaning" of everything and look forward to creating fun times with my friends and family without angsting out about every moved stone.
[COLOR="teal"]You spoke of the purists being duped. I find it hard to believe that you are beyond duping if you "look past the meaning of everything".[/COLOR]There is a whole world out there to draw inspiration from and to "instill a new sense and pride in mankind's abiklity to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere". If I wanted that I would find it in the real world, not a distilled, packaged, corporate version of it.

It is hard to find a place in the real world that has not had some corporate influence. As far as hope, that has to be the biggest marketing scheme of all time.

P.S. Please do not take this post too seriously. I am merely poking fun.

 

[jakeman]

Epcot should never be a substitute for seeing and experiencing the real world. However, Epcot draws upon the real world for its inspiration. IF Epcot can be a microcosim of the real world and intentionally or unintentionally inspire people to go into the the real world and make change, then it has a real purpose. Epcot the IDEA is bigger than Epcot the PARK. This is more than Disney, the money grubbers, will ever acknowledge or build upon. But that doesn't mean we can't.

Here is the difference though, in your opinion (which you are entitled to) there is the IDEA of Epcot. The idea of Epcot that you have is marketing. The idea of Epcot is layers upon layers of your interpretation of what the park should be and your opinion that Epcot is more important than it really is. Having this idea is fine, blasting those who do not get it and criticising Imagineers that cannot read your mind and build the park with your higher purpose is unfair and egotistical.

As to yankspy, no worries! I don't think I've ever gotten upset over anything written on the internet!:wave:

With your first statement, not to wax philisophically, because I'm not good at that, but I would disagree that the inspiration of inaction does anyone any good except the person that is "inspired". This is a contradiction of the Epcot purist arguement. You can't inspired by the spirit of Epcot to build a Walt utopia but then just say, "That was nice." If this inspiration is really that heartfelt and important there would be action beyond preserving your vision of the parks.

It's not a theme parks equally duel purpose to inspire and make money. It's primary purpose is to make money. If you get inspired, fine, but it's like finding $20 in the bathroom. You weren't in there to find money, but it was a nice surprise.

With regards to my being duped, I would have to disagree. I don't care about how the parks are marketed right now. I go to Disney to spend time with my family and friends and make memories in a fun, relatively safe environment. Additionally, if the quality of Disney or their marketing changes in a direction that I don't care for I have no problems taking my dollars elsewhere.

When it comes down to it, it goes back to the change arguement. I don't get to worked up about the changes because WDW is bigger than the sum of its parts for me. Not the idea, or the social impact, but the good times I have with friends and families. Nothing more and nothing less. I don't go to WDW to be educated or to be inspired. I go to eat until I can burst, ride some rides, and spend time with the ones I care about.

 

[tdonald]

Epcot will be fine.

As much as I liked the Jeremy Irons SSE more than what it is now, and as much as I wish I had ever seen WoM, the Original UoE, Symbioses, and the Sea Cabs, or even remember seeing Horizons, JII, and Kitchen Kabaret, they are gone, and will never be back at Epcot, at least in any exact version of how they were.

I'm glad there's youtube and online videos, and maybe some day there will be virtual ride-throughs of any or all of those attractions. That type of technology isn't very far off. Who knows?

But Epcot will never be how it was. It just won't. Sorry.

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to dream about Epcot's future, not just it's past.


"Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is Imagination left in the world."

-Walt Disney


I think he meant for the same thing to be true about Epcot...

 

[Legacy]

Bold #1: Maybe Epcot, the place on a map cemented into the ground and built out of steel hasn't changed my life. Maybe what can change lives is the idea that people have the ability to shape the world. Epcot is the showcase for all kinds of human achievements and the use of imagination. The main purpose of the place on the map is to make money, yes. But the impact the place on a map can have is much bigger. It would be the same if someone visited a national park and decided to be a conservationist or zoologist. Inspiration can happen anywhere, even at some money-grubbing company's theme park. The Epcot idea is people helping people through the exchange of ideas.

Epcot should never be a substitute for seeing and experiencing the real world. However, Epcot draws upon the real world for its inspiration. IF Epcot can be a microcosim of the real world and intentionally or unintentionally inspire people to go into the the real world and make change, then it has a real purpose. Epcot the IDEA is bigger than Epcot the PARK. This is more than Disney, the money grubbers, will ever acknowledge or build upon. But that doesn't mean we can't.

Maybe I'm some kind of sentimental fool who has been duped by a marketing strategy. But I really think that Epcot, the park and the ideas within, is a respresentation of the good that exists in the world. Its all up to interpretation. This is mine, and I understand and accept yours. I hope you in turn will accept mine and those of the so-called "Epcot foamers".

All Epcot is is a place on the map, though. If Epcot is the E.P.C.O.T. that Walt really wanted, then inspiration would be warranted because it would be a technologically utopian city where people's lives were directly affected by the structure of the city. Epcot isn't that though. Epcot is a highly themed amusement park. The only difference, realisticly, between Six Flags and Disney park is that one is highly themed. You can ride rides anywhere. You can see shows anywhere. Disney is nice enough to spend a lot of money on theming so it doesn't look like a Six Flags.

An amusement park cannot be a microcosm of the real world because there is nothing real about it. Nothing. I don't have an omnimover in my school; I sit in class. I don't have multiple foreigners walking around Walmart with me; they're all locals. I don't have talking trashcans, pyrotechnics or big-headed fuzzies in my real life. I can't really say I have ever been "inspired" by anything Disney, other than to say, "I want to work here."

I hate to be called a Epcot Center Purest but if you must then call me one!
I think that most of Future World has gone to the Dogs and Worls Showcase is soon following. Do the Imaginears not have any Ideas any more? I am sick of fealing that my IQ is less when I leave the Park. This past trip in April my wife and I saw a bunch of drunks walking around WS with shirts that said "Gett'n Drunk around the World". I am not against drinking but the drunkeness is out of hand.
The Disney Charactures should stay at the other parks. I still remember my first visit to EPCOT opening year! I felt like I learned something and it was made fun, unlike school! Know we have to ad charatures and take out all the learning! No I was not sold on the corperate sales crap, I just liked the fact that you could make learning fun. Disney Imaginears are failing the park! I see on YAHOO yesterday that Disneyworld was rated 15 for the top 15 places to take your kids, I wonder why? Was it that the others were more meaning like Gettesburg, Williamsburg, Lincoln monument,etc,etc. Think about it sociaty says to just do what you want and don't care about the conceqences.:brick::brick::brick::brick:

The bolded statement makes you sound like a purist.

"Drinking Around the World" concept is probably one of the most realistic aspects of Epcot, and by that token, one of the more inspirational aspects. Does it inspire everyone? Heck no, but people who like to drink want to do it.

Another aspect of reality is that most people don't go to Disney to learn. They go escape. They want the characters. They want the fanciful aspects. Imagineers haven't failed the park; they have given what the general populace wants. Other places, such as Gettesburg, Williamsburg, the National Mall have infinitely more meaning to this nation, and more educational and inspirational value than ANYTHING Disney can imagine. Battlefields where people died for this nation; monuments dedicated to people who fought and built this nation... THAT'S inspiration. They involve sacrifice, not corporations. Children NEED to experience things like that. Disney, as much as the people on this board would disagree, is not that important.

 

[Timmay]

I feel bad for you.

Don't.

It saddens me that you don't find one ounce of--dare I say it--magic or inspiration in Epcot or any Disney park.

Magic is found in almost every place at WDW. Magic does not = inspiration.

It is very easy to go through this life believing and accepting your fate as a sheep whose only purpose is to allow corporations to empty your wallets, allow a job to steal the "best years of your life" and an eventual death when you get too old. The world can be a cold and heartless place, but I don't think it has to be.

Non sequitur...don't you think?

I am sorry you feel the way you do, and I realize that nothing anyeone says will change the way you feel. You are entitled to your opinion. I,.for one, will continue to visit Epcot can enjoy the idea that anything is possible if you just try. I know the idea of "dream really do come true" seems like a bunch of fluff, but I truly believe that if you have a drwam or a goal in life, your life beomces so much fuller and enjoyable. I have connected the dots myself, and that's the picture Epcot has helped me draw. To each his own I guess.

Where would you get the idea that because people don't get inspiration from
Epcot they don’t have ‘dreams” or “goals’? You are connecting dots that simply are not there, and in the process have created a straw man.

Maybe some of us go to Epcot to be entertained, instead drawing our inspiration from other things. Perhaps from specific people like Wernher von Braun, Rosa Parks, Harry Truman, John Adams, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr., Thomas Jefferson, Jesus, Stephen Hawking or Thomas Edison. There may be groups of people that were involved in enormous events that shaped the world, like the men who stormed the beaches of Normandy and Iwo Jima, the men and women in the USA and the USSR who risked their lives to venture into space, the people who travel thousands of miles to other countries and help victims of earthquakes or floods or the men and women who fought for the rights of people who have different colored skin. Sometimes our inspiration comes from a little closer, like seeing a loved one battle cancer to the bitter end or watching a local community come together to honor a Nave SEAL who gave his life so that others would live. Maybe we are inspired to be better parents, wives or husbands when we remember our own parents and perhaps our goals and dreams come from us wanting to make a better life for our children and grandchildren.

Epcot pales in comparison to what truly should be inspirational.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

Needs more obsessed internet geeks like Merf to preach that the sky is falling and that Epcot isn't what it was first developed to be (even though few actually experienced that)

Other then those naysayers, maybe, just maybe Epcot is doing just fine, and maybe it is more popular than ever, and maybe it has adapted (as intended) to meet the interest and preferences of the majority of visitors, even if it is at the expense of pure science and discovery (that was labeled as boring from day one).

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

But that is not your job, especially not here on a fanboy site. If you think they have more potential then express your concerns to guest relations and take your dollars elsewhere.

.

Job,what job?IT's not a job to believe that the Immagineers could do something better.It's a belief.Belief that Epcot could be so much more creative.

I feel bad for you. I realize you are being the realist in this discussion, but it saddens me that you don't find one ounce of--dare I say it--magic or inspiration in Epcot or any Disney park. It is very easy to go through this life believing and accepting your fate as a sheep whose only purpose is to allow corporations to empty your wallets, allow a job to steal the "best years of your life" and an eventual death when you get too old. The world can be a cold and heartless place, but I don't think it has to be. The epeople who have made change in this world believed things had a higher purpose and Epcot by its very nature is and should be about how people change the way we live. If you choose to not see the human side of Epcot as opposed to the cold corporate side of Epcot, that is not the problem of anyone who believes Epcot can and should be more. Wanting things to go back to the way they were in 1982 is certainly counterproductive when it comes to a creative discussion, but at least Epcot "foamers" have something to care about.

I am sorry you feel the way you do, and I realize that nothing anyeone says will change the way you feel. You are entitled to your opinion. I,.for one, will continue to visit Epcot can enjoy the idea that anything is possible if you just try. I know the idea of "dream really do come true" seems like a bunch of fluff, but I truly believe that if you have a drwam or a goal in life, your life beomces so much fuller and enjoyable. I have connected the dots myself, and that's the picture Epcot has helped me draw. To each his own I guess.

May Epcot "instill a new sense and pride in mankind's abiklity to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere" and may it do so for amny years to come.

Quoted for truth.What ever happened to EPCOT's purpose?

Epcot will be fine.

As much as I liked the Jeremy Irons SSE more than what it is now, and as much as I wish I had ever seen WoM, the Original UoE, Symbioses, and the Sea Cabs, or even remember seeing Horizons, JII, and Kitchen Kabaret, they are gone, and will never be back at Epcot, at least in any exact version of how they were.

I'm glad there's youtube and online videos, and maybe some day there will be virtual ride-throughs of any or all of those attractions. That type of technology isn't very far off. Who knows?

But Epcot will never be how it was. It just won't. Sorry.

I don't know about you, but I'm ready to dream about Epcot's future, not just it's past.


"Disneyland will never be completed, as long as there is Imagination left in the world."

-Walt Disney


I think he meant for the same thing to be true about Epcot...

And I'm glad that EPCOT will never be that way again...but if we look to the past we can see a better,more organized EPCOT.A new future is needed....One that incorperates the "fun" feel of EPCOT now,and one that reflects the vision of a optimistic bright and inspirational future.


Epcot is in NO means broken.It could however,be better.

 

[Legacy]

Quoted for truth.What ever happened to EPCOT's purpose?

It proved to not be profitable.