Save the Wonders of Life Pavillion

[JonnyK]

Uh this may sound dumb...but what exactly were they using the Body Wars pods for the last six months?

Its being used for testing star wars 2.0, its on page one, jedimaster mentioned it.

 

[Brwneyedgirl72]

I say get rid of it and give us something new and wonderful.

 

[MKCP 1985]

The only Wonder of Life is why that pavilion was ever green lighted over all the other exciting projects that never got past "go." (Grizzly rapids, Mount Fuji, etc.)

The Major Highlight of Wonder of Life: Get shrunken down to the size of a grain of rice, go into the bloodstream where there's a lot of blood and get shaken around a lot with the objective of the mission being to remove a splinter. :hurl::hurl::hurl:

Umm . . . .wouldn't it be easier to just grab a pair of tweezers and avoid all that blood? Was that question never asked? :lol:

And let's design the pavilion to look like you are in a shopping mall. :brick:

The making of me? Don't even get me started on that one, except to ask this question: Of the very few who were curious enough to see it the first time, was anyone ever enthusiastic about seeing that a second time? I doubt it.
- - -

I liked Cranium Command well enough, and little Buzzy, but not enough to save that stinker of a pavilion. Good riddance!

 

[fngoofy]

Not to be the bearer of bad news but...

1. The Wonders of Life pavilion is all but gone in reality.
2. Body Wars' pods are beyond repair considering what they have been used for over the last 6 months.
3. Cranium Command has been removed as well. Buzzy, the theater and the pre-show room have all been razed. Basically, those rooms sit there unused (except for event speaker preparation).
4. The Making of Me film has been replaced with a computer input allowing for event-based films to be played. Currently, the Festival Center does not use its theater.
5. Anacomical Theater and Goofy About Health have both had their stages razed and repurposed for general event presentations.
6. The Sensory Funhouse was removed completely.
7. Coach's Corner has been boxed up with most of its skeleton left unusable.
8. Frontiers at Body Wars remains the only untouched aspect of the pavilion. It still glows from the inside of the room, though it is heavily walled off--as is the entrance and exit of Body Wars.
9. It isn't scheduled to be demolished anytime soon.

As a whole, the pavilion has been transformed beyond the point of even the slightest possibility of a return to Wonders of Life. Expect the pavilion to be used for special events for a long time...

I'm just happy its being used at all, considering how poor of a condition it was two Winters ago before it closed for good. Now, at least it looks presentable and has a decent purpose. Wonders of Life is a part of Yesterland. Plain and simple.

Just as well. Body Wars was cool, but the over-sized dome tent of a pavilion was always the weakest in my opinion. Everything had the feel of a mall kiosk setup, cheap and disposable.

I hope they use the real-estate for something else cool in the future. My guess is that this will be the site of the next E-tic addition. 5 years and we'll have something neat there.

 

[joel_maxwell]

Ill be happy to sign the one for the Demo. Fitting a new pavilion (we assume one day) in an existing building is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. You are very limited to being creative with "new" and future plans. It just isnt worth it. It is cheaper to rebuild then bring things to code sometimes.

 

[chels26]

edit

 

[marni1971]

Did Martin not say that some new ideas for wonders were being worked on?

He did - with demolition being last on the list.

It suffers from several fatal flaws: first, it's entirely too small. Although it is aethetically interesting, the pavillion feels very tiny indeed (at least those areas that are now in use).

Second, it's tucked away between UoE and M:S almost as an afterthought. You can tell that its budget was smaller than others when it was built, and it suffers from a lack of foot traffic..

Not really - the main dome is a 50,000sq ft space. The ammount of closed and covered areas now don`t lend well to the actual size. The area was always an expansion pad - and a sizable one. Once a pavilion sits between Seas and Land it`ll have the same effect. After MetLife pulled out the trees and landscaping were allowed to hide the pavilion from view. The original berm and plants gave it a much more welcome, open feel. The design helped hide the bulk from view, much like The Land does. As for budget, it was the most expensive pavilion in Futureworld. A little over $100 million to open. The building is a stunning piece of architecture, with a geodisic dome larger than either of the two which make up SSE. I`d hope the demo option isn`t chosen. As of now no option is concrete.

 

[yankspy]

He did - with demolition being last on the list.
Not really - the main dome is a 50,000sq ft space. The ammount of closed and covered areas now don`t lend well to the actual size. The area was always an expansion pad - and a sizable one. Once a pavilion sits between Seas and Land it`ll have the same effect. After MetLife pulled out the trees and landscaping were allowed to hide the pavilion from view. The original berm and plants gave it a much more welcome, open feel. The design helped hide the bulk from view, much like The Land does. As for budget, it was the most expensive pavilion in Futureworld. A little over $100 million to open. The building is a stunning piece of architecture, with a geodisic dome larger than either of the two which make up SSE. I`d hope the demo option isn`t chosen. As of now no option is concrete.

Care to elaborate on that statement?

 

[joel_maxwell]

He did - with demolition being last on the list.
Not really - the main dome is a 50,000sq ft space. The ammount of closed and covered areas now don`t lend well to the actual size. The area was always an expansion pad - and a sizable one. Once a pavilion sits between Seas and Land it`ll have the same effect. After MetLife pulled out the trees and landscaping were allowed to hide the pavilion from view. The original berm and plants gave it a much more welcome, open feel. The design helped hide the bulk from view, much like The Land does. As for budget, it was the most expensive pavilion in Futureworld. A little over $100 million to open. The building is a stunning piece of architecture, with a geodisic dome larger than either of the two which make up SSE. I`d hope the demo option isn`t chosen. As of now no option is concrete.

$100 million on that pavilion alone. HOLY COW. I will have to say that back in the day, it was the shizzle of a place. I was always fond of the batting cages.

 

[Crazy4WDW1]

I'm just glad that I have the WOL background music on my Ipod. That music is just cool.

Jeff - is that your contribution on Mousebits? :shrug:

 

[mcjaco]

The design helped hide the bulk from view, much like The Land does.

It's amazing when you look at aerial photos, that there are literally maintenance paths almost next to the entrance of the Land, yet know one knows because of how they used that berm and landscaping to hide them.

I don't see another E-ticket going in at FW East. TT and M:S are enough. If, and that's a big if, they put anything in like that, it'd be better served in FW West.

 

[marni1971]

Care to elaborate on that statement?

Oops.... for once I can say I have no knowledge of anything planned for here. Well, not since Journeys in Space or the Genesis version of Soarin'.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

I am not that fond of the WoL pavilion, to be honest.

Together with Communicore (innoventions) I always thought it to be the least aestethically pleasing.

WoL looks like a cross between an eighties mall, and Eisner's beloved Entertainment Architecture. Maybe they can relocate it and use it as the Dolphin and Swan's convention centre.

Not that they have to gut it asap, but if a FW pavilion were to be demolished, it would be this one for me.

 

[jt04]

I agree with the folks who want the pavillion removed but it could easily be gutted and connected to "Space" to create a single very large pavilion on the scope of "The Land" with several "Space" based attractions.

The pavilion that needs to be fixed or demolished the most though is "Energy". It is so obsolete at this point it has become a parody. It's a blight on the Epcot landscape.

 

[KaliSplash]

Always loved Wonders of Life. Particularly the wide variety of things to do in there. Did you ever watch Goofy About Health? Did you ever see the Anacomical Players perform? Ride the bikes, get in the batting cage. Play in the Sensory Funhouse? Get something to eat? Buy something in the shop? (OK, I never did do the frontiers of medicine

And then there was Cranium Command, one of the funniest shows ever, and Body Wars. (There is, of course, a reason both these attractions resonated with Star Trek fans) (Thanks Leonard)

Some of us are not bothered by things that look like they are from the 80s. (Some of us wish we were that new

But yes, I realize this is gone and not coming back. I've long since come to grips with this. (Along with the loss of the Plaza Swan boats :ROFLOL:

RIP, WOL.

And yes, I do wish they would do something new with this location!

 

[EpcotServo]

He did - with demolition being last on the list.
Not really - the main dome is a 50,000sq ft space. The ammount of closed and covered areas now don`t lend well to the actual size. The area was always an expansion pad - and a sizable one. Once a pavilion sits between Seas and Land it`ll have the same effect. After MetLife pulled out the trees and landscaping were allowed to hide the pavilion from view. The original berm and plants gave it a much more welcome, open feel. The design helped hide the bulk from view, much like The Land does. As for budget, it was the most expensive pavilion in Futureworld. A little over $100 million to open. The building is a stunning piece of architecture, with a geodisic dome larger than either of the two which make up SSE. I`d hope the demo option isn`t chosen. As of now no option is concrete.

I agree! I think the Show Buildings for Body Wars and Command would make it easy to remodel and expand those into theatres from TDS' StormRider. The main dome could then be repainted and repurposed into a queuing area and weather-based pavilon.

 

[montyz81]

knock it down and rebuild Horizons in that spot.. where the real sink hole is!

 

[mcjaco]

The pavilion that needs to be fixed or demolished the most though is "Energy". It is so obsolete at this point it has become a parody. It's a blight on the Epcot landscape.

I don't think it needs to be demolished. It needs a complete re-do. It can't be that difficult to start brain storming ideas in this era of alternative fuels.

A pavilion based on oil consumption is dated.

 

[IfWeCanDreamIt]

I do believe that Wonders should be heavily redone. The fact is that health is such a major issue these days. I think if they did a re-do, and maybe focused a little more on making everything look futuristic, they could pull it off. They would just have to really fire up their brains to figure out a good E-ticket to attract the crowds. Body Wars was attractive at one time-in the 80's. that is the problem with film and simulator ride mediums.

 

[yankspy]

I agree with the folks who want the pavillion removed but it could easily be gutted and connected to "Space" to create a single very large pavilion on the scope of "The Land" with several "Space" based attractions.

The pavilion that needs to be fixed or demolished the most though is "Energy". It is so obsolete at this point it has become a parody. It's a blight on the Epcot landscape.

Unfortunately, they already have a "Space" based pavillion. I say unfortunately because Disney has never really done a good job with the "Space" theme. I do not mean to say that they have not created good attractions that have that theme, just that they have never seemed to go deeply into the latest or most interesting aspects of space. IMO.