I guess then we can just shut down the boards because if there are no valid arguments concerning the integrity of the THEME parks we can all just go back to our hunt for Pokemon. Enough said lets get back to the point of this thread.
Theme parks, and not just Disney, have to operate with a balance of theme and practicality to provide for the needs of the guests. The theme is very well maintained by the external components of MSUSA. Other then that theme has no other purpose other then what would seem to be a museum like recreation of everything. That would be complete theme but lacking in the realities of the needs of guests that very much live in the 21st century. Without that balance the appeal would be lessened considerably. You may not like Starbucks (personally, I have no use for it either) however, many do appreciate it being there. It is a compromise between the past and the 21st century. I can assure you, from reading things from Walt Disney, that he did not want a museum.
Epcot is far from the image Walt Disney wanted. Arguments can be made on if it's just natural adjusting to technology and all, but regardless the park isn't what it was designed for. WS is my favorite part of WDW, so Epcot will always be my favorite park. I love Soarin, TT, Mission Soace and Nemo, but they're not rides that go with the flow of the park. GG will just add on to that. It's almost like Epcot is 2 parks for me. Where the rides are and WS. I will say I'm torn on it though. Bc Epcot is not a park designed for kids and after all kids are the main reason most families and people go. So adding more rides and kid stuff makes Epcot a more rounded park for all ages. I for one will raise my children to find the beauty in every park. But not all people do that.
You are correct about EPCOT being far from Walts Image. It isn't at all Walt's image. He wanted a city not a theme park. The WS was a different desire and in it's time would have been completely self sustaining, not in todays world however. People travel more, have access to the internet and TV and are exposed to other places on a daily basis that didn't exist back in Walt's day unless you were enormously wealthy.
As far as Future World, that was a convoluted idea on how to connect EPCOT and Walt's memory to a theme park. It was new and different, but, if you allow yourself, with the exception of a few things it is much more future now then it was back then. What was Future about Energy. What was future about The seas. What was future about the Land.They were all established things in a form or the other that were today, not tomorrow. The only one that came close was was Horizons. Even Imagination was a lecture on the possibilities that the imagination can and does create, but, it didn't project anything serious that didn't already exist. In many ways EPCOT was more designed for kids then even MK. MK was and is much more of a fantasy, amusing and fun place, but, not a whole lot was there to educate and show kids what they could expect in the future or what happened in the past in any reality. Epcot taught them things that they did not know and tried to present it in an entertaining way.
If as adults, we didn't already know about that stuff, we must have done a lot of daydreaming while we were in school. I don't remember learning anything at all that I didn't know before I got there. I was 35 when it opened. Married with two kids, I think that qualifies as grown up. I enjoyed it, but, I never learned anything that I didn't already know.
