Original Epcot In 2018

[BraveGirl]

Very good point. When I first visited Epcot in 1990, at 16 years old, I was a fairly quiet kid with very good grades who was into technology, the future, and soaking up as much knowledge as possible, so when I experienced Epcot for the first time, I was right in my element-I would have spent the whole day in Communicore if I could have-but even then, that was not representative of your typical Epcot guest. I think, to borrow your phrase, Epcot 30 years ago was set up in a much better way to fool visitors into thinking they weren't being educated than it is now. I do have to say, though, I was surprised during my last WDW visit at my 13 year old DD-she does not particularly like learning, and there were a few attractions, like SSE or CoP, that I thought she would find boring, but she loved them. Maybe there is hope for the current generation, but not really with Epcot in it's current state.

My 8 year old's two favorite rides are SSE (we rode it twice on Tuesday) and CoP

 

[danheaton]

I'm not convinced that EPCOT Center would fail today. My daughters love Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land. I think the biggest issue like others have mentioned was the lack of updates to those attractions. I love Horizons, World of Motion, and The Living Seas, and all could have retained a better audience with updates with better technology. We've seen the way Disney has given TLC to The Haunted Mansion that have helped that attraction seem modern. SSE has made some nice jumps in its ascent over the years, and it really just hurts because of the bad descent. There are ways to update Omnimovers and make them easier to enjoy for a wide audience. Given where we are now, I don't mind thrill rides at Epcot. A mix of attractions is great. What bothers me is when Disney disregards any overall theme and just drops attractions anywhere in the parks. Epcot should have at least an overall theme. I could fit Test Track and Soarin' under the Future World umbrella without a huge stretch. Will Guardians feel that way. That's a pretty big ask at this point.

 

[ChrisFL]

This is a very broad ranging topic with a lot of things to think about. Of course, most of this is about Future World.

I think one of the main reasons that it failed is that Disney put SO MUCH time and money into the project for Walt's vision (as changed as it became, it was still spiritually very similar), and then the company fell on hard times around that same period and management changed completely.

We still got some things like The Living Seas, but other than that, the idea that the pavilions would receive much needed upgrades over time seems to have been forgotten, save for Spaceship Earth.

As mentioned on other threads, the radical change in the keeping and attracting sponsors also affected EPCOT Center dramatically. The way companies can do marketing to people is completely different than it was in 1982....ironically, the marketing is mostly with the internet which was first shown as concept to a lot of people IN EPCOT Center.

Another thing is that even though we have obtained and live with a lot of the technology that EPCOT Center showed us....it hasn't had as big of a positive impact as expected. Many people these days are still not too different than the cavemen depicted in the first scenes in SSE.

 

[Lensman]

I can't but help thinking that it would succeed, but only if the pavilions got actual inspired updates. I wouldn't mind if we focused on that a bit.

Spaceship Earth - communication. The ride system is fine. As will become a pattern, this needs constant today/tomorrow upgrades. Maybe they could have audio-animatronic Disney vloggers? I'm not sure what tomorrow would look like and I don't think they do either which is a problem. I guess an inspirational tomorrow would include some virtual telepresence technologies.
Universe of Energy - This might have become too controversial a topic, but today would controversially include fracking and tomorrow would point to various renewables and storage. I bet they could do something cool with concentrated solar and molten salt - and maybe they could orchestrate a thrilling crisis that (almost) vaporizes all the guests in the moving theater? As for the future you could always feature nuclear fusion power since it has been an energy technology of the future for the past 50 years and will continue to be for at least the next 50 years. You'd never have to update that part! And yes, this include "moving" the dinosaurs to DAK.
World of Motion - Keeping the focus on automobiles, I think there's a lot going on now and in the near future to have people interested with electric vehicles and self-driving technology. I'd add an attraction where you can ride in a self-driving EV.
Imagination - This they could have kept the same and just maintained or re-engineered it for reliability.
Land - I may have fallen asleep the last time I rode Living with the Land, but I still feel like it's been maintained and updated appropriately. Maybe they could add a section on growing potatoes on Mars? And I think Soarin' is a decent example of how to expand the pavilions to include more than one attraction/ride system - though it may not be a good example since The Land was always designed for that, right?
Living Seas - This is a tough one, but I'd like to see an expansion with environments that you don't see that often like polar krill, weird deep sea creatures, or chemosynthetic ecosystems.
Horizons - This is too almost too painful to think about, but I'd move the desert scenes to terraformed Mars, keep Space as space stations, either near-Earth or in the Belt, and I'd replace undersea living with a future metropolis.