News New Experience Center to open in the Odyssey Events Pavilion

MisterPenguin

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
FigmentFan82 said:
Hadn't seen their statement
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Ah. Being discussed here:

News - Disney confirms multiple EPCOT projects are paused

https://www.wdwmagic.com/attractions/epcot/news/15jul2020-disney-confirms-multiple-epcot-projects-are-paused.htm
forums.wdwmagic.com forums.wdwmagic.com

MisterPenguin said:
The Festival Center is not RIP. According to Blog Mickey, a source from Disney confirmed to them -- in response to a query about the Epcot Experience redactions -- is that:

...the company [Disney] has issued a statement saying that they will be “taking a different approach” to the previously announced Festival Center. ... Disney said that work is set to resume for the new World Celebration neighborhood soon, but that there will be changes to the previously announced Festival Center. They didn’t say what changes would be made, and they didn’t say that it was cancelled outright. ​


Additionally, Poppins is postponed according to Disney as reported by Laughing Place.
  • Today, some guests visiting the EPCOT Experience preview center noticed that references to the Spaceship Earth and Mary Poppins projects had been removed.
  • When asked about the change, Disney confirmed that both attractions were postponing development.
  • Disney is reassessing projects in light of the current situation, with some projects moving forward such as the recently announced retheme of Splash Mountain to feature characters from Princess and the Frog.


So, an updated list:

Epcot Spine:
  • Entrance landscaping construction: Done, but further enhancements like flowers and topiaries are delayed
  • Entrance fountain: waiting for signs of construction to pick back up
  • Spaceship Earth Thematic Refurb - Delayed until beginning of next year (confirmed by many insiders), or later if things aren't going well (which is the case of just about everything)
  • Festival Center - In the process of being reimagined (so, it's likely that the three tiered Center won't be built)
  • Innoventions West - status unknown, was supposed to be demo'd to make way for Festival Center and part of Journey of Water
  • Journey of Water feature featuring Moana-ishisms - Still on, but maybe will have to be redesigned if Innoventions West isn't demo'd
  • World Celebration - "World Celebration" is still a thing. Parts of it that were revealed now have an unknown status including:
    • Dreamer's Point,
    • Wishing Tree,
    • new hub fountain, and
    • entertainment.
  • Mouse Gears - fully demo'd. Waiting to see if construction starts on a new store with a new theme.
  • Electric Umbrella - Supposed to become a newly themed table service and QS restaurant. However, no demolition was started before the lockdown. So....
    • it may have a chance to come back as is (and save money), or,
    • they may go ahead with the retheme and refresh, or,
    • they leave it shuttered.

Elsewhere:
  • Poppins - Delayed, as in won't even start until who knows when
  • Harmonious - Delayed, still a lot more construction to go. Epcot Forever may return if Harmonious isn't ready for when fireworks shows are allowed again.
  • PLAY! - Still on
  • Guardians - Still on
  • Rat - Still on
  • Space 220 - Still on, but construction isn't finished and the opening is dependent on 3rd party vendor, so, unknown timeframe
  • Wondrous China seamless 360 - Still on, but even before COVID, timeframe was unclear
  • Imagination: Stop. Asking. Please. Disney decided not to do anything with Imagination for the 50th, so if anything were to happen, a decision to do something is still years away, if ever. Having ideas floating about, is not the same as planning to do any of them.
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Haymarket2008

Haymarket2008

Well-Known Member
Beacon Joe said:
I'm not gonna lie - I was pretty jazzed after visiting the preview center. Except for the whole raccoon/gotg thing. But everything else was cool.
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Yeah, I agree. Despite me being an Epcot Center fan/purist, the future looked bright. Not for everyone, but it seemed exciting. Hopefully things will continue to truck along. (Although within a year or so an entire new neighborhood will be totally complete: World Discovery. So a large chunk of the planned work will be online. Silver linings!)
 
DreamfinderGuy

DreamfinderGuy

Well-Known Member
Apologies for bumping such a long dead thread, but this seems the most appropriate place to ask this.

Do we have any idea when/if the Ratatouille and Harmonious segments will be removed from the show? They’ve both been open for nearly a month now and their segments are still there. I can see Harm remaining since it uses more time neutral language and loops back to the intro, but keeping Rat confuses me since it’s presented as “coming soon”. Is it more of a case of just keeping the show long since it’s already been trimmed since opening?
 
UNCgolf

UNCgolf

Well-Known Member
DreamfinderGuy said:
Apologies for bumping such a long dead thread, but this seems the most appropriate place to ask this.

Do we have any idea when/if the Ratatouille and Harmonious segments will be removed from the show? They’ve both been open for nearly a month now and their segments are still there. I can see Harm remaining since it uses more time neutral language and loops back to the intro, but keeping Rat confuses me since it’s presented as “coming soon”. Is it more of a case of just keeping the show long since it’s already been trimmed since opening?
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They should really shut the whole thing down. Guardians and Moana are basically the only things left in there that are still coming and haven't already opened. Turn that space into something better (not that they're going to do that anytime soon).
 
Sirwalterraleigh

Sirwalterraleigh

Premium Member
UNCgolf said:
They should really shut the whole thing down. Guardians and Moana are basically the only things left in there that are still coming and haven't already opened. Turn that space into something better (not that they're going to do that anytime soon).
Click to expand...
Well…it was an empty restaurant for about 20 years before it became festivalapalooza…

define “better”
 
monothingie

monothingie

Nakatomi Plaza Christmas Eve 1988. Never Forget.
Premium Member
Translation: More than half the crap we promised ain’t gonna happen. So no point keeping this going….enjoy the mediocre nighttime show and construction walls for the next 5 years.

BTW, what in the hell is an “activation”? Did some intern at Disney PR misread the memo when they posted Zach’s message.
 
monothingie

monothingie

Nakatomi Plaza Christmas Eve 1988. Never Forget.
Premium Member
So I guess this also means that the Star Wars Launch Bay’s days are numbered more than 2 years after SWGE opened???
 

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