Morocco Pavilion facing financial troubles

[castlecake2.0]

Wake me up when the world history lessons are over, and the discussion moves back to the pavilions financial struggles.

I’m curious if the pavilion will be closed for a few days to switch over? I’m also assuming they’ll move to just having one of the shops open in the beginning, wondering if it will be the one along the promenade or if it’ll be one of the ones further in the pavilion to try to absorb crowds. I’m curious about the restaurant at the back too. I could see Disney using it as overflow dining during crowded times of year with a less adventurous menu.

 

[SpaceMountain77]

We visited the Morocco Pavilion last night. All but one of the indoor shops, off the interior courtyard, are now closed and only fixtures remain. The shop that was open had hardly any merchandise on display. Remaining merchandise, which is truly sparse, has been brought to and displayed in the open market area of the courtyard. Sadly, it looks more like a yard sale rather than a shopping district. It also reminded me of a store that is closing, and has little to no merchandise left, but remains open to sell the little that remains because the lease expires on the 31st of the month.

Based on our observations, one cast member, located at the register in the interior courtyard, staffed the pavilion from the fountain to Restaurant Marrakesh. Additional cast members could be found at Spice Road Table and the shop adjacent to it.

If that was not sad enough, the host at Spice Road Table was pleading to guests, "Please join us for dinner."

Although it seemed as though photos for the 'gram were being taken in full force, the experiences are now limited to the Gallery of Arts and History and Spice Road Table. Regarding the former, because the doors are always closed, I cannot help but wonder how many people realize it is an open museum.

 

[LittleBuford]

It indeed predates the 1001 arabian nights and was only included by an enterprising Frenchman's translation at a later date. That said, it would be disingenuous to not call Morroco a pan arabic country.

No, the tale of Aladdin doesn’t predate the rest of the One Thousand and One Nights: as you yourself note, it wasn’t added to the other stories until Galland’s eighteenth-century translation (though his source does appear to have been Middle Eastern).

Morocco is not “pan-Arab” (just as the UK isn’t “pan-European” and Japan isn’t “pan-Asian”). It is a particular country within the Arab world with its own customs, own cuisine, own dialect of Arabic (unintelligible to most other Arabs), and own style of architecture. The Epcot pavilion does a very good job of capturing this distinctiveness, which would be clearer to people if they knew more about the region in question.

 

[crawale]

As far as I know Norway had no say. I’m not sure how connected the country was to the pavilion anymore. Spirit of Norway had lost its sponsor years ago.

Loved Norway. Ate there every time we visited. The servers were the nicest people - great with kids. Wish it wold open up again.

 

[LittleBuford]

Wake me up when the world history lessons are over, and the discussion moves back to the pavilions financial struggles.

I apologise for contributing to the derailment. Some of the statements posted here are so wildly inaccurate that I can’t stop myself from correcting them.

 

[marni1971]

Give it a little time for the cast to switch over (and the dust to settle). Not good I know but the pavilion isn’t going anywhere.

 

[UNCgolf]

I apologise for contributing to the derailment. Some of the statements posted here are so wildly inaccurate that I can’t stop myself from correcting them.

You'll get over it eventually. I used to have the same issue with historical inaccuracies, but it gets to a point where it's just no longer worth your time (and I'm not really talking about this forum specifically; I mean on the Internet in general). Especially since some (if not most) people won't listen to the correct information anyways and continue to believe whatever they already chose to believe.

 

[MisterPenguin]

Give it a little time for the cast to switch over (and the dust to settle). Not good I know but the pavilion isn’t going anywhere.

Are you sure Disney isn't going to bulldoze a national pavilion worth millions of dollar of an underrepresented continent and religion, only to spend more millions on new pavilion to only have to run it themselves which they could have done on the many unused pads but have not done so for decades??!!?!

 

[marni1971]

Are you sure Disney isn't going to bulldoze a national pavilion worth millions of dollar of an underrepresented continent and religion, only to spend more millions on new pavilion to only have to run it themselves which they could have done on the many unused pads but have not done so for decades??!!?!

Call it a wild hunch.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Give it a little time for the cast to switch over (and the dust to settle). Not good I know but the pavilion isn’t going anywhere.

Agreed, WDW doesn’t want to spend a cent to reopen this pavilion. When it economical to do so, they will reopen with their own cast members.

 

[UNCgolf]

Are you sure Disney isn't going to bulldoze a national pavilion worth millions of dollar of an underrepresented continent and religion, only to spend more millions on new pavilion to only have to run it themselves which they could have done on the many unused pads but have not done so for decades??!!?!

Right??? It's crazy. Of course they're going to do that.

 

[Dr.GrantSeeker]

If that was not sad enough, the host at Spice Road Table was pleading to guests, "Please join us for dinner."

This makes me sad. Spice Road Table is very good imo. Not sure how others feel about it but the food and service there has been excellent for me. Makes me nervous for how Disney will run it.

 

[Wngo905]

This makes me sad. Spice Road Table is very good imo. Not sure how others feel about it but the food and service there has been excellent for me. Makes me nervous for how Disney will run it.

You're not the only one who is sad. The family and I are still upset about this. We had a reservation to Spice Road Table 12 days from now that was canceled. My wife keeps asking "are you sure it is closed? It says on MDE it is open."

 

[castlecake2.0]

This makes me sad. Spice Road Table is very good imo. Not sure how others feel about it but the food and service there has been excellent for me. Makes me nervous for how Disney will run it.

I’ve always liked it when I’ve ate there, but I hate how this and the Mexican restaurant take up so much space on the water. Mexico especially now has become the sister bottleneck to small world/peterpan corridor and I really think shows a great example of profits>design.

 

[Dr.GrantSeeker]

You're not the only one who is sad. The family and I are still upset about this. We had a reservation to Spice Road Table 12 days from now that was canceled. My wife keeps asking "are you sure it is closed? It says on MDE it is open."

My girlfriend and I ate there last week and still can't get over how good the food is.

I’ve always liked it when I’ve ate there, but I hate how this and the Mexican restaurant take up so much space on the water. Mexico especially now has become the sister bottleneck to small world/peterpan corridor and I really think shows a great example of profits>design.

I do agree with this. But the view of SSE is great from the inside of the restaurant.

 

[Lilofan]

I’ve always liked it when I’ve ate there, but I hate how this and the Mexican restaurant take up so much space on the water. Mexico especially now has become the sister bottleneck to small world/peterpan corridor and I really think shows a great example of profits>design.

There are some guests that pull up in these little private motor boats coming from the Swan / Dolphin / Boardwalk hotel. They drive up with their Disney driver and park next to the Mexican restaurant at Epcot on the water. They have a birds eye view of the Epcot fireworks at ground and lagoon level, sitting in their private boats and from the looks of it the guests feel the intense heat of the fireworks at water level. This type of excursion probably doesn't come cheap.

 

[techgeek]

My wife keeps asking "are you sure it is closed? It says on MDE it is open."

It seems there’s been a lot of day-to-day adjustments to operations that don’t make it to MDE, especially around World Showcase. Possibly adapting very fluidly to crowd levels with some of the shopping / food service options.

 

[larryz]

Have you tried more fiber and fruit ?

Most of what passes for "history" is just processed fiber and fruit.

 

[larryz]

It was mostly the condescension that I was reacting to. The reasons I said that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about:

• Mesopotamia is a region and Spain is a country (which didn’t exist during the time of the caliphate). It would be more accurate to say “from Mesopotamia to the Iberian peninsula” or “from modern-day Iraq to modern-day Spain."
• The early (Rashidun) caliphates did include Egypt, but did not stretch into modern-day Morocco or Spain.
• The "moorish" occupation of southern Europe does not mean that Morocco has the same culture or architecture as Egypt (this was the point being responded to).
• The World Showcase country pavilions are based on modern-day countries, not historical ones. Otherwise, huzzah! The Morocco pavilion is ALREADY a Spain pavilion!

If he's going to "well, actually..." he should be kind and more accurate.

I understood what he meant without getting my briefs in a bunch.

 

[larryz]

Call it a wild hunch.