I wish I had a time machine to take some of my fellow CMs back to the 70's and 80's to show them what this place is supposed to be like. I have plenty of friends who have all migrated down here as a result of the College Program, and have only really been here in recent years. It was literally a paradise out in the middle of nowhere, just out beyond some quiet, pleasant farming communities. I think the effect of that isolation had an invaluable effect on the vibe of your experience at Walt Disney World that's lost today. It certainly contributed having local CMs that were generally very excited and pleased to have Disney in town. Now, the growth of the tourism industry here has created a vicious cycle of bringing non-Floridians down here and scaring away the locals. I have a theory that if Universal hadn't come to town, Orlando wouldn't have quite been pushed over the edge like that. Walt bought all this land so that they wouldn't have same problem as at Disneyland of reality crowding in (or used to, I don't think it's as bad nowadays with their expansion), but unfortunately it's happened anyways, with the tourism expansion, and the way Disney has handled and organized its land within its own borders.
If I may address this, the whole point of EPCOT is getting people engaged in a better tomorrow. Not just what will be new in the years to come but also to provide understanding of other cultures to create a hope for peace in tomorrow's world. World Showcase is relatively unchanged, but Future World has several pavilions now that lack conveying any sense of inspiration or optimism, all of which have the potential to, even in today's modern short attention span society. Spaceship Earth is okay, but panders towards giving you a giggle at seeing your face inserted into a cheap cartoon portraying few realistic concepts for the future. Innoventions is a shell of its previous incarnations, showing Disney's desperation at getting somebody, anybody to rent some exhibit space, technology oriented or not (Fire safety? Come on, it's noble and a fun game, but utterly irrelevant to science and technology.) Universe of Energy is an outdated snoozefest for most people, when that is such a hot topic right now. Wonders of Life goes without saying. Mission: SPACE is high on the future theme, but what little information it conveys about space exploration is lost to most of the park Guests who can't or won't ride it. Test Track, once again fun, but just for a pure adrenaline kick, and doesn't teach you anything that you don't already know from your typical car commercial. You can't tell me that people wouldn't love to see and interact with the new concepts of cars and trains and such that could be coming in the future. Supposedly, the concept cars of TransCenter at World of Motion was the most photographed spot in Walt Disney World in its day. We all know what is wrong with Imagination. The Land is a perfect example of an EPCOT pavilion, and Living with the Land is something that most people are interested in (when I am driving Monorails, talking to Guests about EPCOT, they always recognize that as "the boat ride with the hydroponics), is a relaxing, stress-free ride, always has a decent wait time, is actually updated at a very reasonable pace, and actually contributes research to the agricultural industry. Soarin' is somewhat shoehorned into the building and something more of a World Showcase travelogue, but still ties in to the topic of the pavilion, and I suspect will even more so once it is eventually updated with a new film. Circle of Life could use some freshening, but a nice diversion for kids. And finally, The (Living?) Seas is now just a Fantasyland ride with an aquarium attached. It's been said that the pavilion is just using Nemo to lure Guests into learning about sea life, but let's be honest here, they're just going through the ride, stop for a second to look into the tank, the little ones crawl around and get a picture in the big shark mouth, the family gets a kick out of Crush talking to the kids and doing some tricks and saying DUUUUUDE, and Dad maybe picks up a MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! MINE! t-shirt on the way out. Most of the times I've seen Turtle Talk, none of the kids ever ask anything about turtles, usually about something from the movie. Fun stuff, but you're kidding yourself if you think the average family is gaining any kind of knowledge about the oceans at this pavilion, and certainly not a scant thing to be found about sea exploration technology and what we're doing to explore those mysterious depths.
Sorry, that turned out to be more of a fan-boy rant than I intended it to be. :lookaroun
