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Walt Disney's Epcot vs. Today's Epcot
- Thread starter cba
- Start date
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
I might prefer a turkey leg up me .... over current Epcot.
Classic EPCOT Center, that I woud prefer over Walt's vision. Walt's vision was rushed, the hurried effort of a man whose days were numbered. A concept. Like the many concepts that led to Disneyland. It was all very interesting, but would it have been fun to visit EPCOT the city, America's capitalist-corporate answer to utopian socialist Brasilia?
I like WDW as a holiday destination. I love it, love EPCOT. I can't see that an experimental city would've had the same impact on my life.
Classic EPCOT Center, that I woud prefer over Walt's vision. Walt's vision was rushed, the hurried effort of a man whose days were numbered. A concept. Like the many concepts that led to Disneyland. It was all very interesting, but would it have been fun to visit EPCOT the city, America's capitalist-corporate answer to utopian socialist Brasilia?
I like WDW as a holiday destination. I love it, love EPCOT. I can't see that an experimental city would've had the same impact on my life.
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AllyInWonderland
Well-Known Member
Epcot Center.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Walt's dream of EPCOT, was just that, a dream. I have no doubt if he had lived he would have spent every nickel the Disney Co. had to try and make it work, but, it is my feeling that it just wouldn't have. Maybe when it was first started but by now it would have been sold into scrap. That system has been tried before and it never works over the long haul. So, in spite of it's flaws, which in recent years are plentiful, Epcot Ctr. is far better then the ghost town that EPCOT (the city) would have been by now.
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ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
I picked Epcot today but I would prefer Epcot of the late 1980's-mid 1990's better.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
SMRT-1Michael
Well-Known Member
EPCOT Center! Not current Epcot though. World of Motion, Horizons, Journey into Imagination...YES!
SMRT-1Michael
Well-Known Member
Agreed. While I love World of Motion, I'd sacrifice it to have everything else back. I honestly think Ellen is fine too.
Cmdr_Crimson
Well-Known Member
It wouldn't have been a park at all...So I'll go with 1982 Epcot..
I picked Epcot today but I would prefer Epcot of the late 1980's-mid 1990's better.
Same here actually.
GrumpyFan
Well-Known Member
I prefer what they built over what Walt planned. That said, though, I think it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he lived another 10 years or so and had the opportunity to build his vision. Sadly, I think it would have ruined him and the company as we now know it, at the least it would have ruined the WDW we all know and love. While it was an incredible and grand plan that had its merits, I just don't see how he could have pulled all the pieces together to make it work without bankrupting the company. I also tend to believe that he wouldn't be all that pleased with what was done with the property. It just seemed like in his last days, he had changed direction and was trying to do something different.
Polydweller
Well-Known Member
Me too!
When I look at the plans and the model of Walt's Epcot it doesn't look at all practical. That city woud have had major expansion and rejuvenation problems. I always have thought that the plans were either a major trial balloon to try to get investors interested or put out as another elaborate way to throw people off the real plans for the Florida project.
righttrack
Well-Known Member
Let's look at this a bit broader. Walt's vision of what was right for the "Florida Project" was clouded by a demographic misunderstanding. When the park was being developed and opened, they planned on an older clientele, given this was in Florida. Senior citizens, retirees, etc, plus Florida families. They never imagined that WDW would be the travel destination it became. So the EPCOT imagined by Walt, needed to become the "theme park EPCOT" that it eventually became. I for one, would have loved to see Walt's vision fully realized. I was (and still am) a very geeky child who wanted to see this work.
This is still a place to discover the world in a theme park setting. To many Americans this is the most of the outside world they will discover. I encounter people who eat nothing but fried chicken nuggets, meat and potatoes. I encounter people who never tour the world; I encounter people who have never used public transportation; all in EPCOT. There is something that reaches them here.
This is still a place to discover the world in a theme park setting. To many Americans this is the most of the outside world they will discover. I encounter people who eat nothing but fried chicken nuggets, meat and potatoes. I encounter people who never tour the world; I encounter people who have never used public transportation; all in EPCOT. There is something that reaches them here.
GrumpyFan
Well-Known Member
Interesting thought, but none of the people who were around after he died, ever mentioned anything like this. I've never heard it mentioned by any of them, but I would be curious what the general consensus was among them. Did they think "the old man's gone off his rocker", or "this is brilliant, let's do it". I tend to think they were probably more along the lines of the first thought, since what they built was nothing at all like what Walt envisioned, at least not in its function.
GrumpyFan
Well-Known Member
Perhaps, but Walt's Epcot was not a theme park, it was a bold new concept on the urban metroplex in an attempt to redefine what a major city center could be.