EPCOT Journey of Water featuring Moana coming to Epcot

wdwmagic

wdwmagic

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Here are some more angles of Te Fiti

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Views of Te Fiti in position at Journey of Water Inspired by Moana

Views of Te Fiti in position at Journey of Water Inspired by Moana
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Journey-of-Water-Inspired-by-Moana_Full_49652.jpg


Journey-of-Water-Inspired-by-Moana_Full_49654.jpg



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Views of Te Fiti in position at Journey of Water Inspired by Moana

Views of Te Fiti in position at Journey of Water Inspired by Moana
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_caleb

_caleb

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Bocabear said:
This is absolutely right!
I don't think there was really a time when guests didn't "get" EPCOT... they made assumptions about it, but it was always busy until they started removing/shuttering attractions and not updating within the framework...and even then the park always seemed busy. The Booze tourism of EPCOT was created by TDO with the addition of the festivals... I think until then people assumed the restaurants in World Showcase were unapproachable... So the positive side is that there seems to be more awareness to the food offerings within World Showcase.
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I've heard similar perspectives before from others. But if the idea was "nothing at all wrong with Epcot-- guests understand the concept and it resonates with them; the park is packed!" of course Disney is going to leave well enough alone, right? Until it "suddenly" became known as outdated, insufficiently Disneyfied, and in "need" of Frozen and taco barges and a roller coaster in a box?
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

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_caleb said:
I've heard similar perspectives before from others. But if the idea was "nothing at all wrong with Epcot-- guests understand the concept and it resonates with them; the park is packed!" of course Disney is going to leave well enough alone, right? Until it "suddenly" became known as outdated, insufficiently Disneyfied, and in "need" of Frozen and taco barges and a roller coaster in a box?
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“Nondescript roller coaster themed like India or whatever.”

The franchise mandate came in the midst of Expedition Everest’s success. So no, Disney was not going to leave well enough alone.
 
Sir_Cliff

Sir_Cliff

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_caleb said:
I've heard similar perspectives before from others. But if the idea was "nothing at all wrong with Epcot-- guests understand the concept and it resonates with them; the park is packed!" of course Disney is going to leave well enough alone, right? Until it "suddenly" became known as outdated, insufficiently Disneyfied, and in "need" of Frozen and taco barges and a roller coaster in a box?
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Must admit that I also suspect there is a middle ground between the perspective that Epcot as originally envisioned and built was a smash hit right out the gate that Disney for some reason just decided to start dismantling piece by piece around the mid-1990s and that it was a flop that Disney struggled to make work from the beginning. Either way, I think Disney has been unimaginative in trying to make particularly the Future World/World whatever section work as the original concept began to show its age. They could have leant a lot more into science, for example. It's tough to know, though, because at least Test Track and Mission:Space are expensive, ambitious thrill rides that more or less fit within the original concept of the park, but they're among the dullest thrill rides in the entire resort.
 
Epcot82Guy

Epcot82Guy

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Having just walked through,
Sir_Cliff said:
Must admit that I also suspect there is a middle ground between the perspective that Epcot as originally envisioned and built was a smash hit right out the gate that Disney for some reason just decided to start dismantling piece by piece around the mid-1990s and that it was a flop that Disney struggled to make work from the beginning. Either way, I think Disney has been unimaginative in trying to make particularly the Future World/World whatever section work as the original concept began to show its age. They could have leant a lot more into science, for example. It's tough to know, though, because at least Test Track and Mission:Space are expensive, ambitious thrill rides that more or less fit within the original concept of the park, but they're among the dullest thrill rides in the entire resort.
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I think the dedication would be a pretty good guiding principle to this day.

May EPCOT Center entertain, inform and inspire, and above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man's ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere.

Make sure your additions are focused on how our world inspires - and can be made a better place. There are so many ways to showcase why our real world is pretty incredible - and how humans can create and collaborate to make wonderful things - to fill several theme parks. And, that could easily include IP tie ins as well.

The fact that is being abandoned for corporate profit and synergy is an interesting statement in and of itself.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
lazyboy97o said:
“Nondescript roller coaster themed like India or whatever.”

The franchise mandate came in the midst of Expedition Everest’s success. So no, Disney was not going to leave well enough alone.
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So (and I'm genuinely trying to understand here), Epcot was really great, and Disney started messing with it by adding IP?

From my perspective, things seemed old (UoE), broken, abandoned (WoL, central hub), and outdated (Innoventions). And then Disney eventually started to "address" this by adding "updates" (Hub "refresh," Test Track, JII) clones (Soarin", Rat), IP (Mikey Wand, Nemo, Frozen, Rat, Guardians), etc. that cheapened the experience and strayed from the original intention of the park.

Possible I'm missing some pieces.
 
_caleb

_caleb

Well-Known Member
Epcot82Guy said:
Having just walked through,


I think the dedication would be a pretty good guiding principle to this day.

May EPCOT Center entertain, inform and inspire, and above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man's ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere.

Make sure your additions are focused on how our world inspires - and can be made a better place. There are so many ways to showcase why our real world is pretty incredible - and how humans can create and collaborate to make wonderful things - to fill several theme parks. And, that could easily include IP tie ins as well.

The fact that is being abandoned for corporate profit and synergy is an interesting statement in and of itself.
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This seems like a really neat concept for a theme park.
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
_caleb said:
So (and I'm genuinely trying to understand here), Epcot was really great, and Disney started messing with it by adding IP?

From my perspective, things seemed old (UoE), broken, abandoned (WoL, central hub), and outdated (Innoventions). And then Disney eventually started to "address" this by adding "updates" (Hub "refresh," Test Track, JII) clones (Soarin", Rat), IP (Mikey Wand, Nemo, Frozen, Rat, Guardians), etc. that cheapened the experience and strayed from the original intention of the park.

Possible I'm missing some pieces.
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EPCOT was really great, but Disney either didn't update attractions/areas or updated/replaced them in ways that made them worse (as well as significantly cutting capacity in places). The whole thing just kind of fell apart by the late 90s/early 2000s due to the combination of outdated attractions and replacements that didn't live up to their predecessors.

I think a lot of this was due to the sponsorship method. If a sponsor didn't put up funds then Disney didn't make updates, and when a sponsor did put up funds they sometimes wanted something new/different, like the Imagination replacement. That doesn't make Disney blameless -- it's not like the sponsor designed the replacement attractions, nor did Disney actually need to rely on corporate sponsorships, especially by the late 90s -- but it's part of the story.
 
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WondersOfLife

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
UNCgolf said:
Even there I think it was more that the content became outdated than anything else, from a guest perspective. EPCOT was seemingly very popular in the 1980s, but it started to drop off in the early 90s as everything aged.
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That's with almost anything. Let something sit and rot long enough, it'll become dated of course. Epcot was popular in the 80s because it opened in the 80s.

But things cannot sit around for 10+ years without efficient updates, refurbs, or replacements. Test Track got a big update and it worked. Energy got a big update, and it worked (30 years ago). Even American Adventure got a major refresh a few years back.

But let stuff sit and rot (Horizons, SSE, ect.) Or create an incredibly stupid replacement (imagination twice), then no. The concept of Epcot doesn't work. Just like any park concept doesn't work.

MGM studios "doesn't work" if you don't update the concept of how movies are made.

Solution for BOTH parks? Shove a bunch of Magic Kingdom crap in them. 🤷‍♂️ Easy peasy. Lazy lazy lazy. No creativity anymore.
UNCgolf said:
Using IP is a more cost-effective solution for Disney, though, because those attractions don't really require updating.
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Lazy lazy lazy. They will need updating at some point, too. Anything built today will no longer have "classic opening day charm". So when something starts to show it's age, it just becomes bad. Little Mermaid, Splash Mountain, and Buzz Light-year are prime examples.
 

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