What is EPCOT now?

[Goofyernmost]

EPCOT is simply the nostalgic name of a park that was started with the greatest of intentions, engineering and theme only to have the very thing is was supposed to represent kill it due to technology advancing faster then a theme park could keep up with it. I will admit to loving EPCOT 1.0, but can easily understand why it could not last any longer as it originally was. It never really was the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. It was really meant to be a tribute to Walt Disney and his adoration of technology. It had a good run, albeit shorter than many of us would like, but none the less it was magnificent in its time. Now we, as fans, have to accept that era has passed and try and enjoy what it is today. A beautiful park with many diverse attractions and a fun place to be and try help ourselves to stop trying to flog a dead horse.

 

[Epcot81Fan]

EPCOT is simply the nostalgic name of a park that was started with the greatest of intentions, engineering and theme only to have the very thing is was supposed to represent kill it due to technology advancing faster then a theme park could keep up with it. I will admit to loving EPCOT 1.0, but can easily understand why it could not last any longer as it originally was. It never really was the Experimental Prototype Community Of Tomorrow. It was really meant to be a tribute to Walt Disney and his adoration of technology. It had a good run, albeit shorter than many of us would like, but none the less it was magnificent in its time. Now we, as fans, have to accept that era has passed and try and enjoy what it is today. A beautiful park with many diverse attractions and a fun place to be and try help ourselves to stop trying to flog a dead horse.

Don't disagree - so they need to stop leveraging the nostalgia as it's insulting, remove the name that no longer applies (in the spirit of how it did originally), and create a new strategic vision and name for this park.

The original Epcot frankly should have been named as a play on some sort of "Disney's World's Fair" - which was its intent, to recreate the fantastic world fairs of the time like NY in 1964 with the corporate sponsored technology pavilions upfront and the country operated pavilions in the back.

Obviously the "Epcot" name was a nod to Walt that didn't actually apply, but the "Epcot" brand became synonymous with the "world's fair concept". Now it is meaningless and they need to show they can actually create and inspire with an entirely new strategic direction.

But what they are doing is trying to have it both ways by keeping the Epcot name, logos, entrance, music, etc. all while crapping all over the entire strategic intent of the park. It pleases nobody and has created this embarrassing, rudderless mess.

 

[MAGICFLOP]

I gave a thought out response of my opinion, not trying to belittle anyone else's, you pulled out one line and made a sarcastic response, probably trying to score points with other posters. And you probably did score points, so congrats!
I'm not that dumb. I can figure out the only response wanted here is one where I say "it's a mess!"

Even an eternal optimist like me can only take so much freaking negativity.

Oh, and I see you added the ever so popular insult - you like Disney!

You will find that there are people in here that are masters at that.

I have had the same poster quote my posts and misquote me in their response multiple times.

any answer that has "in other words" is an attempt to misquote, no need to put things in other words, they need to address the words written.

Rant over, time out 1637.

 

[MAGICFLOP]

EPCOT has always been in danger from the beginning, Walt envision and actual live community with residents and such and that can't work inside Disney, this is America and we have voting rights on local issues and a Disney run EPCOT can have that, they may vote something stupid like making Journey into imagination a permanent exhibit. They ended up ramming 2 parks into one, while one kind of stayed true to itself, the other melted in all directions. The opening of this new exhibit, they can change the name to EPJOT = Experimental Jungle of Tomorrow

 

[Jrb1979]

My problem with Epcot and Disney as a whole is they went away from what they excelled at. That is immersive dark rides with lots of AAs. It's why Epcot was my favorite Disney park for so long. World of Motion and Horizons were 2 of the best dark rides Disney had.

Now they are trying to add immersive thrill rides that IMO lack thrill and are just a bunch of screens. I realize Disney will never do big thrill as it's not their audience. IMO leave the thrill to parks that know how to do it good.

Stop hiding coasters in a big box.

 

[Goofyernmost]

Don't disagree - so they need to stop leveraging the nostalgia as it's insulting, remove the name that no longer applies (in the spirit of how it did originally), and create a new strategic vision and name for this park.

The original Epcot frankly should have been named as a play on some sort of "Disney's World's Fair" - which was its intent, to recreate the fantastic world fairs of the time like NY in 1964 with the corporate sponsored technology pavilions upfront and the country operated pavilions in the back.

Obviously the "Epcot" name was a nod to Walt that didn't actually apply, but the "Epcot" brand became synonymous with the "world's fair concept". Now it is meaningless and they need to show they can actually create and inspire with an entirely new strategic direction.

But what they are doing is trying to have it both ways by keeping the Epcot name, logos, entrance, music, etc. all while crapping all over the entire strategic intent of the park. It pleases nobody and has created this embarrassing, rudderless mess.

I suppose, but I have bigger things to get upset about besides the name of a Disney Theme Park. World Showcase is still very much like a Worlds Fair. The inclusion of a cartoon or two isn't unlike an actual Worlds Fair, or at least the ones I went to in Montreal in 67 and Osaka in 70 and since unlike actual Worlds Fair's that are there for a year or so and then are torn down, the buildings are pretty much permanent and would require different stuff to have a chance of anyone showing up,

 

[NickMaio]

Just got back and I gotta say - Guardians was really cool, with a really great theme and ride story.
I'm getting to that point of - eh, it is what it is.
My boys loved every minute - - as did my wife and I.
At the end of the day, for me, that's why we will still end up going.

My little guys could care less about light bulbs, broken AA's, overflowing garbage <we did see much less of this compared to last year>. They got lost in all the fun and fantasy. And my wife and I followed them>

TRON was a family favourite. So much more fun than what it looks like.

Honestly - WDW with little kids is something else.
We are already planning our trip back next summer.

 

[Epcot81Fan]

Disney inspirational motto for 2023:

“Eh, it is what it is.”

 

[NickMaio]

Disney inspirational motto for 2023:

“Eh, it is what it is.”

I thought that was their 2001 motto.........

 

[BuddyThomas]

An embarrassing mess.

Hmmmm, that conflicts with your screen name.

 

[NickMaio]

There is no denying EPCOT is different now. This thread is to discuss what EPCOT really is now. I don't know. A mishmash of IP, nature, and countries? With a random Imagination ride? What is the point of it all? Or, to paraphrase EPCOT resident Drax the Destroyer, "Why is EPCOT?"

Let me ask you this one time......what is EPCOT?

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Let me ask you this one time......what is EPCOT?

I agree with a lot of the posts here, but it's a tough question.

I think the simple answer is that EPCOT itself doesn't really have an identity right now. It doesn't know what it is. It's a celebration of world cultures, of nature, of discovery, and of, um, celebrations (all with Disney IP integrated into it)? Aside from the "celebration of 'celebrations'", I think I would applaud them if they were building a new theme park based around these ideas. For the purposes of this post, let's pretend they actually built a theme park from scratch based on World Cultures, Nature, and Discovery. We'll call it "Disney Destiny Park" (just made that up, doesn't matter what you call it).

EPCOT had an identity and a purpose back in the 1980s and 90s that doesn't fit in well with the theme park expectation of today. It wasn't your typical theme park. There were no thrill rides until Maelstrom (thrills debatable) and Body Wars. But EPCOT still thrilled people with the tech/countries/optimism. But as the theme park industry expanded in Florida, EPCOT became the boring park. So it changed, and I understand why.

But it's just hard to watch it change from a very good not-really-a-theme-park park to a lame version of "Disney Destiny Park" as I laid out earlier.

So what is it? Something that can't really be fixed. To really do what they're trying to do, they'd have to bulldoze the whole thing. I don't want them to do that, and neither do they, so instead we get whatever this is: Remnants of what was once the most unique theme park experience in the world, with glimpses of a cool concept for a modern theme park that can never be fully realized.

 

[Advisable Joseph]

Let me ask you this one time......what is EPCOT?

It's a permanant World's Fair, featuring the nations of the world and exploring the world via the arts and sciences.

No real lost direction unless you want one.

 

[Epcot81Fan]

It's a permanant World's Fair, featuring the nations of the world and exploring the world via the arts and sciences.

No real lost direction unless you want one.

By “exploring the world” you mean intergalactic battles with comic book characters in space?

 

[Advisable Joseph]

By “exploring the world” you mean intergalactic battles with comic book characters in space?

That's the Big Bang/cosmology/astronomy ride, yes. The other stuff is just for fun.

 

[ohioguy]

Sure I can. Future World circa 1995 was awesome. What is there now sucks.

Absolutely. You have your own life to live. Nostalgia is a powerful draw.

 

[Brer Panther]

You don't understand! EPCOT had to have Frozen and Moana and Guardians of the Galaxy shoehorned in because we're all just dumb hicks who aren't interested in "edutainment" and science and whatever!

 

[Goofyernmost]

I agree with a lot of the posts here, but it's a tough question.

I think the simple answer is that EPCOT itself doesn't really have an identity right now. It doesn't know what it is. It's a celebration of world cultures, of nature, of discovery, and of, um, celebrations (all with Disney IP integrated into it)? Aside from the "celebration of 'celebrations'", I think I would applaud them if they were building a new theme park based around these ideas. For the purposes of this post, let's pretend they actually built a theme park from scratch based on World Cultures, Nature, and Discovery. We'll call it "Disney Destiny Park" (just made that up, doesn't matter what you call it).

EPCOT had an identity and a purpose back in the 1980s and 90s that doesn't fit in well with the theme park expectation of today. It wasn't your typical theme park. There were no thrill rides until Maelstrom (thrills debatable) and Body Wars. But EPCOT still thrilled people with the tech/countries/optimism. But as the theme park industry expanded in Florida, EPCOT became the boring park. So it changed, and I understand why.

But it's just hard to watch it change from a very good not-really-a-theme-park park to a lame version of "Disney Destiny Park" as I laid out earlier.

So what is it? Something that can't really be fixed. To really do what they're trying to do, they'd have to bulldoze the whole thing. I don't want them to do that, and neither do they, so instead we get whatever this is: Remnants of what was once the most unique theme park experience in the world, with glimpses of a cool concept for a modern theme park that can never be fully realized.

I have to disagree with the line I put in bold. EPCOT absolutely knows what it is now. It's the previous fans of the old Disney that find it unbearably difficult to accept an identity that doesn't have a theme that could be identified by a 5 year old and allowed themselves to be more diverse in what they create.

EPCOT was able to realize that in the early 1980's it was much easier to show an otherwise unsavvy public the new things that technology had to offer. They were even confident that they could predict things to come. How silly is that! By now we have all been over saturated with stuff the was obsolete before it ever came out of the package. Technology has automatically created a world where we know more than we really need to know and anything new is instantly in our reach at the push of a button. There was no longer a need to display something that we already knew. When EPCOT opened what we all enamored by things that were new to us and that we otherwise had no ability to easily find out. Those days died off as technology advanced at warp speed.

In the case of EPCOT it was cursed with the same problem that Walt thought was a blessing. Size! It is huge and beautifully designed as a land itself. Water, landscaping and class that I can think would be difficult to be confined to just one thing. Even when it opened it had two completely different theme's; Future World and World Showcase. Todays EPCOT is a potpourri of themes now and it has something for everyone from 3 years old to 100! That's its theme overall now. It isn't like it started, just like ourselves, it has evolved to be different but still highly entertaining and still a beautiful place to spend a day. They have taken so many Walt Disney identifying things away over the years that the idea of keeping the park named after one of his last dreams is not only appropriate but very much the right thing to do.

 

[Goofyernmost]

You don't understand! EPCOT had to have Frozen and Moana and Guardians of the Galaxy shoehorned in because we're all just dumb hicks who aren't interested in "edutainment" and science and whatever!

No we aren't all "dumb hicks" but those of us that could see the value and enjoy the edutainment factor were not a big enough group to support the cost of operation. I think the last few years have shown that no one has ever won when they overestimated the collective intelligence of the modern world.

 

[Lilofan]

You don't understand! EPCOT had to have Frozen and Moana and Guardians of the Galaxy shoehorned in because we're all just dumb hicks who aren't interested in "edutainment" and science and whatever!

Back in the day I was educated in a beer tasting seminar at Epcot.