Guardians of the Galaxy coming to Energy Pavilion at Epcot

[ToTBellHop]

I'll be ok with that and I assume plenty of others. When I was there for the night hours the place was pretty much dead. There's not enough there to keep it open that late yet. Get Avatar open sooner.

Hindsight being 20/20, they should have just delayed the nighttime hours until next year. Granted, I give Disney credit for trying to do something for us guests and keep the park open late as promised. But I think they could quietly retire the nighttime offerings for awhile once Awakens goes back to sleep (did it ever awaken?).

 

[Captain Neo]

I had heard April would be quite the achievement at this point.

Hasn't it been slated for Summer 2017 for awhile now? At least thats the impression I always had.

 

[PhotoDave219]

I'll be ok with that and I assume plenty of others. When I was there for the night hours the place was pretty much dead. There's not enough there to keep it open that late yet. Get Avatar open sooner.

I know we've really strayed from Epcot/GOTG.... sorry kids....

I think DAK's nighttime experiment will end sooner than later. If this is still going come mid-August, I'd be shocked.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Hasn't it been slated for Summer 2017 for awhile now? At least thats the impression I always had.

I don't know that they gave a season. I heard summer or even fall of 2017 are more realistic than April right now.

Gotta get ourselves back on topic!

 

[doctornick]

I heard a very similar statement today as well.... but i believe they can start catching up if DAK stops staying open late.

Why do the extended park hours have much of an impact? Aren't they building during the day as well given that Pandora is isolated from the rest of the park?

 

[Captain Neo]

What type of ride system are we talking about for Guardians? and will it feature real sets with Audio Animatronics or be another ol' Fitzgerald special (video screens galore)?

 

[PhotoDave219]

Why do the extended park hours have much of an impact? Aren't they building during the day as well given that Pandora is isolated from the rest of the park?

There's apparently exterior work thats within guest view on the safari.....(?)...... thats how it was explained to me.

Interior is moving right along, exterior seems to be the issue.

AND.... with the extended hours they cant do much testing of ROC or work on that. So thats a problem too.

Not to mention wasted labor hours.

 

[Thanks phoenicians]

Hate to continue off topic but what about ROL will that just debut next year now if they're going to postpone nighttime ops until next spring again?

 

[MagicHappens1971]

Hate to continue off topic but what about ROL will that just debut next year now if they're going to postpone nighttime ops until next spring again?

Disney's last official statement stated it will be opening later this year. Most insiders are hearing the fall, plus Disney already started to extend the hours past September 5th, just not super late.

 

[WEDwaydatamover]

Captain Neo- As much as Tom Fitzgerald is part of the problem at WDI, the current UofE is just as much screens as animatronics. It works for me. I don't have faith in today's WDI to show any wisdom or do the right thing any longer. They do not hire the best and brightest available. It's diversity quota filling. PC at its worst. This is why things are so bad in the parks.

 

[flynnibus]

Maybe I was in a minority but visiting Epcot as a 10/11 year old child in the very late 90s didn't inspire me in any way shape or form. In fact I couldn't wait to get out and get back to MGM or Universal.

Because if you saw the park after 1994 it was already on its way down.. Fast.

 

[WEDwaydatamover]

fynnibus is right on this one. Epcot '94 is when things turned south. MK later in the year.

 

[**Stacy**]

Oh....a giant King Louie obsessed with fire(energy)! It can be Disney's version of Universal's old Kong..I like it!

I will cast the first stone!

Zootopia and The Jungle Book grossed $1,019,578,799 and $934,622,327, respectively, at the box office while Guardians of the Galaxy grossed $773,312,399. There are other higher grossing films that can be more closely tied to the life sciences, further building upon the storylines of Future World West.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

1994 is definitely the year I started noticing the beginning s of a decline at WDW overall (and i was only a child at the time). Innoventions replacing Communicore, Horizons losing its sponsor and soon becoming seasonal and the closure of 20k Leagues Under the Sea.

There were obviously still some good projects occurring during that time as well such as SSE 94 and Tower of Terror, but the consistency was falling off sharply. The next few years after also saw the destruction of Imagination and World of Motion and the Ellen-izing of UoE. Not a very fun time to be an EPCOT fan from my perspective, got rather depressing actually. Especially from the perspective of a kid who loved the park as it originally was and had to witness its destruction while growing up.

I'll also mention that upkeep and cleanliness started to show subtle signs of diminishing around this time as well. Nothing compared to how it did in the 2000's and particularly the past 6 months (and also nowhere near the levels Disneyland dropped to in the late 90's and early 2000's), but little things here and there started to deteriorate.

 

[marni1971]

Do any of our insiders actually have a possible timeline for this? Is it dependent on how DCA's ToT project goes as far as popularity or is it being pushed independently of that just so they can have something "Marvel" in WDW?

@marni1971? @Lee?

Before the 50th.

 

[Disneyhead'71]

Has anyone made the IPcot joke yet? If not, kudos.

Not sure if it was Me or @Mike S We've both been using it for a while.

 

[Mike S]

What type of ride system are we talking about for Guardians? and will it feature real sets with Audio Animatronics or be another ol' Fitzgerald special (video screens galore)?

I think he does it the worst. From what I've seen of Ratatouille it doesn't have any of the things that help immerse you in the onscreen action. Even from video I can tell there's no motion and you just sit there in front of them. To those who have ridden it are there any effects like wind, smells, etc.?

Was he the guy behind the Nemo ride in The Seas too?

 

[Mawg]

The rumor is that Energy is first. WoL is "Phase 2."

So what phase is Imagination in?

 

[tl77]

Gotta disagree here. There aren't many IPs that fit in the Animal Kingdom, but I think Avatar fits the bill. I also think they wanted a way to get dragons in the park without calling them dragons. This accomplishes that as well.

My point is... why is a "Pre-existing Movie IP" the default setting in theme park design? The Yeti doesn't have a movie tie-in, it's a shame he don't work right, but why couldn't they just add some dragons to AK like they added one under Sleeping Beauty Castle in Paris?

And the big selling point with Epcot originally was how unique it was, Disney has lots of Magic Kingdom Parks and a few movie studio type parks now, and every Universal and Six Flags has stuff based on movies or comic book characters, but there's only one Epcot, and the theme of "Energy" is so broad that they could literately do anything with it, and Epcot's 2 most popular attractions, Soarin' and Test Track aren't based on any Pre-existing IP.

The movie "IP thing" reminds me of the "magic feather" in Dumbo, Dumbo didn't really need the magic feather to fly, and Disney doesn't really need movie IPs to build theme park attractions... they just don't seem to have the confidence try anything else anymore

 

[lazyboy97o]

What type of ride system are we talking about for Guardians? and will it feature real sets with Audio Animatronics or be another ol' Fitzgerald special (video screens galore)?

Apparently Fitzgerald doesn't want Rohde playing in his sand box.