Epcot (General Discussion)

[mccgavin]

I admit to not knowing much about the storyline of WISH... but why Epcot instead of Magic Kingdom? Is it set in a real country?

Epcot is hosting the Disney 100 celebration in Florida (for some strange reason...)

 

[belloq87]

Epcot is hosting the Disney 100 celebration in Florida (for some strange reason...)

That's not a good enough rationale for me!

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

I admit to not knowing much about the storyline of WISH... but why Epcot instead of Magic Kingdom? Is it set in a real country?

Epcot needs visitors

 

[Nick]

So now that pretty much everything at Epcot is done except for Communicore Hall, I still think the park needs about $1B-$1.5B more, but after that spend it’d be a park in really good condition.

The money they just invested into the park pulled it out of the gutter imo, but it still has a lot of room for more improvements.
Just rattling off top of my head:

Spaceship Earth Overhaul
Imagination 4.0
Do something with Wonders, preferably add a ride.
Add another ride to WS

On top of the Test Track upgrade that’s happening, this would fill out the park and make it a pretty solid two day park, especially if they put a ride in the wonders space.

Of course I’ll simply take Imagine 4.0 if that’s all we can get with DAK and MK seemingly also in line for future spending at WDW.

 

[Disneyhead]

I mean it's.... IDK. I just spent $165 to get in, and there is a nice urban park?

It just needs some festival food/craft beer kiosks, and the gentrification of EPCOT Center will be complete.

 

[Nick]

I mean it's.... IDK. I just spent $165 to get in, and there is a nice urban park?

It just needs some festival food/craft beer kiosks, and gentrification of EPCOT Center will be complete.

I mean, we're talking about more than just the center gardens, which I think is very Epcot in style (and like that they synchronized so the lights on SSE coincide with the lights in the garden).

I guess now is as good of a time as any to remind people that I think Epcot has been a disgrace since roughly the early 2000's. I do want it to have it's own distinct identity from the other parks and tbh, I still think it does in most cases. The issues that I see as someone who doesn't care/never saw Epcot Center in it's glory days are spaces that are either not being used or are just a shell of what they used to be. Fix that and add another ride to WS and the park is looking good imo.

When they replaced UoE with GotG, that was essentially expanding the park since nobody rode UoE by the end of it's lifecycle. Wonders isn't pulling anyone in and an actual new ride in WS would both essentially be thought of as expansions in my eyes since both would be filling a spot that currently are not guest areas.

 

[SkiBum]

I mean, we're talking about more than just the center gardens, which I think is very Epcot in style (and like that they synchronized so the lights on SSE coincide with the lights in the garden).

I guess now is as good of a time as any to remind people that I think Epcot has been a disgrace since roughly the early 2000's. I do want it to have it's own distinct identity from the other parks and tbh, I still think it does in most cases. The issues that I see as someone who doesn't care/never saw Epcot Center in it's glory days are spaces that are either not being used or are just a shell of what they used to be. Fix that and add another ride to WS and the park is looking good imo.

When they replaced UoE with GotG, that was essentially expanding the park since nobody rode UoE by the end of it's lifecycle. Wonders isn't pulling anyone in and an actual new ride in WS would both essentially be thought of as expansions in my eyes since both would be filling a spot that currently are not guest areas.

If Epcot had the revived Imagination and two new rides as you proposed, it would definitely feel like a complete park that would necessitate the majority of a day to enjoy. I would prefer them add the ride to Germany as that would spread the crowd around World Showcase more effectively. Even longer term would bring a new ride to Canada or the UK pavilion.

 

[GA-MBIT]

My grand list of updates that would make this park personally the best it could reasonably be would go something like this.

1. Spaceship Earth Renovation ( Already promised and relatively needed given the age of the last update and just how much communication has changed post-Smart Phone.)

2. Wonders of Life Building Renovation (I'd be fine with literally anything as long as the space is open. Honestly, the Play Pavilion is a pretty decent idea for that side of the park to give kids who can't ride TT, GotG, or Mission: Space more to do outside of the Mission: Space playground and jumping in and out of the Model Vehicles in the TT showroom haha. They should reference Buzzy though.)

3. Test Track 3.0 (Confirmed! And necessary, 2.0 stinks badddddd. I hope they give the ride more life like 1.0 had.)

4. Tuning up the effects on the Nemo & Friend's Dark Ride. (I've got a thread in the making about this, but this ride is in poor shape. And that's a real shame!)

5. Remaking Soarin' Around the World to be more atmospheric and with a greater focus on the beauty of real skylines, as opposed to CGI Landmarks and Animals that don't give the same wonder of human flight as Over California did. As well as removing the jarring Transitions and restoring SOC's oddly smooth jumpcuts between scenes.

6. A full teardown and ground-up build inside the Imagination pavilion turning Journey into Imagination into a wonderful, E-Ticket trackless ride with all of the same tech and budget as Mickey & Minnie or Rise. Figment has become so ingrained into the parks through marketing, festival tie-in's, products and merch in stores both inside and even outside of Disney World that he deserves to be given something huge. Journey Into Imagination deserves to be the dual Thesis Attraction / Headliner E-Ticket alongside Spaceship Earth. This is my biggest wish and the most important of any of these.

6. Giving World Showcase one more major attraction. Big Hero 6 in Japan, Mulan in China, Turning Red in Canada, something to fill out the back of the park and tie it all just a little more together. Coco would be perfect if it didn't already have a very cute, enjoyable, and incredibly low capacity dark ride already. It would probably mean gutting not just Three Cabelleros but the indoor dining and shopping areas as well simply to make space for a queue line possible of holding that many people.

7. Sora, Donald, and Goofy Kingdom Hearts themed Meet and Greet in the Japan Pavilion on select days. (I lied, this is more important than any of these. Non-negotiable.)

Frankly, especially after the hub (almost) completion, Epcot looks and feels great. It has some notable holes, but a good number of these feel pretty simple. It doesn't, or at least shouldn't, take 5 years to fix the effects and speakers on Nemo, or to rerecord some new drone footage for a better Soarin'.

Spaceship Earth, Test Track, and especially Journey into Imagination are the plots that should be up next for renovation. If only just to finish the nuEpcot project Disney has started here. Test Track is already confirmed, Spaceship Earth has been pretty dead in the water since it's announcement, and Figment is a known issue and golden child for the marketing branch at least. I hope these get tackled very soon. This park is so, so close imo.

 

[Nick]

Spaceship Earth has been pretty dead in the water since its announcement,

I think we got super lucky here based on the rumors of what this was going to be. It still needs an overhaul desperately, but what was proposed wasn’t it.

 

[HandsomePete]

5. Remaking Soarin' Around the World to be more atmospheric and with a greater focus on the beauty of real skylines, as opposed to CGI Landmarks

Yep.

6. A full teardown and ground-up build inside the Imagination pavilion

Yep. And I hate to say it but Epcot “purists” … it’s time for Figment to go.

2. Wonders of Life Building Renovation

I’d be fine with a scrape or finish the playground to draw in the kids.

I mean it's.... IDK. I just spent $165 to get in, and there is a nice urban park?

It just needs some festival food/craft beer kiosks, and gentrification of EPCOT Center will be complete.

So… dues at Bay Hill are like $5k a year, after your $15k initiation fee, and there’s at least a $1k F&B minimum on that. People always zero on the “lifestylers” but there’s a *very* large market of people in Central Florida who are more than willing to pay Pirate Pass prices to have a non-country club country club to wander around in the evenings. My first take was that the center section could use a full liquor bar - it’s surprising they haven’t leaned in on $20-25 cocktails like DCL has… and I mean legitimate, quality drinks - not a $14.99 SeaWorld Bud Light that gets surcharged and tipped up to $19.

Magic Kingdom isn’t really my thing, so I’d say Epcot is probably the most balanced park in Orlando.

 

[Nick]

Yep.


Yep. And I hate to say it but Epcot “purists” … it’s time for Figment to go.


I’d be fine with a scrape or finish the playground to draw in the kids.


So… dues at Bay Hill are like $5k a year, after your $15k initiation fee, and there’s at least a $1k F&B minimum on that. People always zero on the “lifestylers” but there’s a *very* large market of people in Central Florida who are more than willing to pay Pirate Pass prices to have a non-country club country club to wander around in the evenings. My first take was that the center section could use a full liquor bar - it’s surprising they haven’t leaned in on $20-25 cocktails like DCL has… and I mean legitimate, quality drinks - not a $14.99 SeaWorld Bud Light that gets surcharged and tipped up to $19.

Magic Kingdom isn’t really my thing, so I’d say Epcot is probably the most balanced park in Orlando.

I'm far from an Epcot purist, but Figment doesn't need to go at all. He needs a good ride, that's it. Figment is a huge cash cow on the merch side. Figment is essentially a full IP at this point with how he has been incorporated into other media. Figment is like I say with any IP: Huge IPs can make a bad ride and smaller IPs can make for great rides. The public doesn't care what the name brand on the ride actually is, they just want a fun ride. Disney just needs to provide that.

I do agree they should bulldoze the Wonders building and start from scratch there though.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Figment's current iteration desperately needs to go... but not the character. Hugely popular and a heck of a merch seller. The ride system is dying (same with SSE), so I'd imagine those will be the next two projects for Epcot in the next 40 years or so.

 

[JungleSkip]

Yea, my daughter, who had no prior indication of who Figment was before last month, now carries her Figment stuffy around all day at home.

The character has legs and is a merch generator. They’re also making a movie for him.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that building was gutted and a new ride was installed in the next 5 years. Well…maybe I’d be surprised that they were actually doing something, but not that it was that.

 

[UniversalRBLX]

Yea, my daughter, who had no prior indication of who Figment was before last month, now carries her Figment stuffy around all day at home.

The character has legs and is a merch generator. They’re also making a movie for him.

I wouldn’t be surprised if that building was gutted and a new ride was installed in the next 5 years. Well…maybe I’d be surprised that they were actually doing something, but not that it was that.

Even if the ride's refurb is dependent on the film... I can't imagine it will last that long in its current iteration. Maybe WDI has a Plan A if the film does well and a Plan B if the film doesn't and they get a smaller budget for the refurb.

Imagination Pavilion is pretty much a Ghost Town now, can't imagine Disney is happy with that.

 

[HandsomePete]

I'm far from an Epcot purist, but Figment doesn't need to go at all. He needs a good ride, that's it. Figment is a huge cash cow on the merch side. Figment is essentially a full IP at this point with how he has been incorporated into other media. Figment is like I say with any IP: Huge IPs can make a bad ride and smaller IPs can make for great rides. The public doesn't care what the name brand on the ride actually is, they just want a fun ride. Disney just needs to provide that.

I do agree they should bulldoze the Wonders building and start from scratch there though.

That’s fair - I think it’s that I don’t have any faith in them building a ride that does him justice as a standalone IP that doesn’t feel like pandering.

 

[GA-MBIT]

The iconic Glass Pyramids of the pavilion itself, the prominent location right on the edge between World Showcase and old Future World, the scale of the building with the reverse waterfall, jumping fountains, adjoined show space & meet n greet areas, and bright eye-catching sign and color scheme scream "This building has something wonderful to show you inside." Then you walk in and it's possibly the worst, cheapest, and most neglected dark ride in all of Walt Disney World.

The character of Figment, and even the Dreamfinder to an extent, have grown to the point where they are slapped on just about any piece of park memorabilia and promotional materials you can think of. They just redesigned him, Oswald, and Dumbo as mascots on a lot of new marketing materials right next to Mickey and Minnie. He's getting a Little Golden Book next year.

Figment should be an E-Ticket, and if there was an incredibly well-made family friendly dark ride in that pavilion it would round out Epcot to a point where I don't think much else would bother me all too much about the park. It's the last major plug to fill and it's probably the most important one.

 

[tielo]

The original version of the Imagination ride had the origin story of Figment. Many generations don't know that and see the purple dragon just like a fun thing but the story was brilliant. I'd like to see a version of that origin story come back into the ride. Have the ride trackless and interactive so you can let you imagination run wild would be a huge plus.

 

[IzzyB]

The iconic Glass Pyramids of the pavilion itself, the prominent location right on the edge between World Showcase and old Future World, the scale of the building with the reverse waterfall, jumping fountains, adjoined show space & meet n greet areas, and bright eye-catching sign and color scheme scream "This building has something wonderful to show you inside." Then you walk in and it's possibly the worst, cheapest, and most neglected dark ride in all of Walt Disney World.

The character of Figment, and even the Dreamfinder to an extent, have grown to the point where they are slapped on just about any piece of park memorabilia and promotional materials you can think of. They just redesigned him, Oswald, and Dumbo as mascots on a lot of new marketing materials right next to Mickey and Minnie. He's getting a Little Golden Book next year.

Figment should be an E-Ticket, and if there was an incredibly well-made family friendly dark ride in that pavilion it would round out Epcot to a point where I don't think much else would bother me all too much about the park. It's the last major plug to fill and it's probably the most important one.

I agree. I feel that area looks good, but needs a better ride so that people want to go over there.

But I do think they also tcould use one more ride in the countries and refurb SSE and Nemo. Then that park would be complete. But I am not sure they do any of it as festivals have always kept that park popular.

 

[SkiBum]

The original version of the Imagination ride had the origin story of Figment. Many generations don't know that and see the purple dragon just like a fun thing but the story was brilliant. I'd like to see a version of that origin story come back into the ride. Have the ride trackless and interactive so you can let you imagination run wild would be a huge plus.

Symbolica is a great example of what they could do, with different screens or set pieces coming to life with imagination.

 

[Chumpieboy]

Remaking Soarin' Around the World to be more atmospheric and with a greater focus on the beauty of real skylines, as opposed to CGI Landmarks and Animals that don't give the same wonder of human flight as Over California did. As well as removing the jarring Transitions and restoring SOC's oddly smooth jumpcuts between scenes.

Also fix the projection such that everyone* can see a normal non-bent Eiffel Tower and un-curvy Pyramids.

* not just the lucky duckies sitting in the middle of the second row of the middle flight pod with the perfect alignment to the center of the screen