EPCOT was wildly popular when it opened...Sadly all anyone remembers now is after it's decline a lot of people decided that they didn't like Edutainment any more... But to repeat the lie that it was a failure is simply untrue...Funny, that's what guest satisfaction reviews said too after EPCOT opened!
Do you know of any contemporary reviews of EPCoT from 1982? I searched and only found a Tampa newspaper article...
I got to go like the 2nd or 3rd week it was open. I was 8. My aunt worked for Hawaiian Tropic at the time and got passes to go. I don't remember a lot of it, but I do remember not all the rides were open, and the ones that were didn't all work at the time. We didn't stay all day. I think we walked through some of world showcase, but at 8 I was interested in rides.
There's really no way to prove this, but I suspect a LOT of the more passionate Disney parks fans were formed by early EPCOT. I know I was. It boasted the finest collection of dark rides ever constructed and demonstrated that a theme park could be more then just a collection of loosely linked attractions. It resonated with the very substantial tradition of the World's Fair, and even if most guests don't understand that history and much of the underlying ideology has become archaic or problematic, there is something fundamentally appealing and powerful about that. it was an indication that theme parks could MEAN something, whether or not you agreed with them.
Wow. Thanks for the first-hand report. The Tampa article kinda downplayed the opening day issues. Mainly reported people complaining about not getting to participate in the opening-day ceremonies. Of course, they weren't interviewing any youngsters!
Yeah, I'm sure the views are different between a kid and an adult. It was a big deal about all the issues right after opening I remember. We lived in Daytona Beach at the time, so it was different then what you'd get nationally news wise I'd guess. I remember people talking about how Disney opened it too early, they cut corners, stuff was done cheaply. In the end once all the bugs were worked out, it was great as history has seen. It be came a regular yearly trip, Epcot and MK every summer, till we moved.
Looks like they're finally putting up a model train set for entertainment in the laundromat!
Woah, 20' of new track! Progress!
It's an antique Choo Choo how fast do you want it to go?
If my memory is correct this is the first new track in atleast a year, so 20'/yr, 500' gap.. they'll be up and running just intime for the WDW 75th Anniversary!
Sweet. Booking right now for the 75th
For another firsthand report - I was very young when I first went to EPCOT. Horizons wasn't open, so it must have been the first year. The dinosaurs on UoE terrified me and I spent the entire ride after that section hiding under the seat. WoM, however, was magical, and one of my earliest clear memories is being delighted by the caveman blowing on his sore feet - that moment, reentering the building after the ramp for the first time, is permanently etched in my mind. On that trip and for years afterwards, MY EPCOT was Spaceship Earth and the left side of Future World - nothing else mattered much, although Imagination always got a visit, if only for the cut-paper room.
Lol. It opened the same week i was on my honeymoon there.
My honeymoon, they were just clearing land for AK and building the tree of life
Storybook Circus is before TL, not after, if they keep the direction the same.
