Epcot - Future World, how did it get so screwed up?

[sunshine1]

Tear the whole thing down and make a Disney version of Sea World .. a gigantic aquarium/aquatic park that is like Animal Kingdom.

Hell no: alot people have moved on from the 1980s when it comes to whale and dolphin captivity people are a bit more educated now and thanks to a couple of documentaries realise the implications of taking wild cetaceans from the ocean and putting them in tanks.

SeaWorlds business model is outdated and attendence is down so i doubt Disney would copy that.

There are already dolphins at Epcot and the conditions they are kept in is shameful. Disney has escaped the heat with that as SeaWorld have taken the brunt of it.

I love Disney but am disappointed at the way those dolphins are kept.

 

[Nancyg56]

Soarin' was not an original Epcot attraction and has nothing whatsoever to do with the mission statement of the park. It was an attraction built for California Adventure which proved to be popular and they decided to replicate it at WDW. Epcot just happened to be the park where they pigeonholed it. Probably because Future World was in such drastic need of an infusion of rides. The ride itself is simply a riff on the Magic Kingdom's Circle Vision 360 attraction that featured "America The Beautiful" film, only limited to California due to the ride's original purpose in DCA.

While there are some who pine for a return to the "edutainment" aspect of Epcot, it appears that this aspect of the park's purpose fell flat with most visitors. The "We don't come to an amusement park to be taught a lesson" voices were always much louder than the "We learned so much" voices. For every person who likes to learn about solar energy (as if that is some new, cutting edge technology), there is someone else who thinks that this is an affront to the coal, oil and gas businesses of which they are a part. For every person who thinks that a mission to Mars would be cool, there is someone else who thinks that such a program would be a tremendous waste of hundreds of billions of dollars. The original Epcot vibe of educating people about the future is hard to pull off. There is a reason why World's Fairs and Expos are so widely spread apart. The last one was in 2000 and the next one is in 2017. Keeping up with these ideas on a daily basis is next to impossible.

I must admit on my first visit to FW with the kids, there was no WS, I was under impressed, and had vowed not to return. By that portion of our family trip I was done, and our last attraction we visited on that Epcot day, Captain EO gave me a walloping headache. It is about all I have not blocked out! 10 days with 4 kids did me in.

 

[Nancyg56]

Epcot is basically a large outdoor bar and restaurant in an awesome park like setting; I suspect it's very profitable that way.

Yes, and for the most part, it is a nice place to visit. WIth the interactive activities for kids, the shows and entertainment that is available, it is a way of adults to get away fromt some of the stimuli the rest of the parks offer, and still keep the kids entertained. It is a favorite plae fo our family.

EPCOT still remains my favorite park, as a kid and now as an adult.
But it's definitely not the same. We visit it now more for a couple of rides, a tour, and mainly.. nightly dinner options.

Small things like updating some of the videos would be simple and effective upgrades.
-Like... the Living with the Land video is easily from like '91. Just show me some new clips of people farming at least.

I agree! I love this little film, but holy outdated!!! I think that even a little attention to some of the overlooked attractions that are in FW would make a World of difference.

Universe of Energy should be much shorter. The 45 minute length is what makes it a must avoid for me. I really hope that gets to be much shorter (closer to 20 minutes). I wish Imagination and SSE had more to it especially the ending third of SSE. It makes me wonder whether they tear down alot of Future World at some point in the next 10 years to re do it to be IP's.

Again, I totally agree. By the time you wait for the show to start, you have allocated a good hour to this attraction. I think right now it is a good place to get out of the heat in the summer, which is a shame. Someone upheld posted that it would be an opportunity to discuss energy alternatives, and this is a good idea IMO. Disney already is working hard to be environmentally responsible in a way that many other theme parks would do well to model, so I do not think it would be a leap to bring attention to how we can do this as well. The queue to Living with the Land has little
notes" on environmental responsiblity which mirrored what my DGD was learning in school. I believe that to springboard on the environmental sciences that Maoist schools have encorporated into their Earth Science courses would work well in this pavillion.

I just got back from a wonderful vacation, but I was surprised that the old Odyssey restaurant was still abandoned! How many years has it been since it closed?

I just read a blog post about this restaurant and thought that same thing. What a waste of a beautiful space. Again, someone up thread posted an update that woudl certainly interest my family. One reason people choose to spend an exorbitant amount of money at CG is the magnificent view. Can you just imagine the meals that we could enjoy sitting in an elevated restaurant with Illuminations in the sky? Oh my gosh....I think that this space is one more wasted opportunity that fo some Eason Disney just cannot seem to grasp.


I am not an Epcot detractor. It is one of my favorite parks, and we spend a good deal of time there. I do think that as a company, Disney needs to decide how they want Epcot to be perceived in the future. RIght now they have an identity crisis, IMO. Is Epcot a Park that is once and done fo the majority of families? A park that is adult oriented with food and wine being the main reason to visit? Because if they do not look to the future and start making changes, this is where they are heading. It takes years to get up to speed with updates, and people tend to percieve the value of parks based on attractions. We see this with DHS and the disdain a lot of people have due to the closure of some attractions. How many people decide Epcot has no merits until Soarin reopens? I think that Disney waited too long to recognize what many people have been saying for years: they need to make sure that there is enough to fill in the gap between the "our first time, blow out the budget because we only can go one time" guests and the rest of us who are "frequent flyers" who visit often. Giant F&W festivals will not cut the mustard for a lot of us anymore, so there needs to be activities and attractions that are relevant, updated, and that keep us interested.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

We love Epcot and WDW and go once a year, but after just returning from our visit we both said that so much in Epcot has not been changed in years that we may skip it next visit. Things like Living with the Land, Ellens Energy Adventure, the movies at the various pavilions in World Showcase (China, France, etc) are same old, same old and really need to be updated or changed.

 

[newdeal]

I just watched a youtube video of Horizons and everything they have done at Epcot became clear to me. Technology is moving too quickly for them to keep up and they can't afford to update the park at that pace so they don't know what to do and have instead let it languish. Horizons was the prime example of this, a cross between spaceship earth and carousel of progress it was a great ride but instead it focused on the future and as such would have needed to be updated at a pace that Disney didn't want to invest at. Its a great ride, but if you are talking about the future and you are using things more than 5 years old then you are out of touch. They like to get 15 years out of their rides at least so it had to go. Not sure what they are going to do, I am sure they would love to do a retheme but don't want to spend the money with so many other projects going on, and fear the backlash of retheming one of Walts visions.

My opinion is they should allow companies to set up booths in Innoventions FOR FREE to show off new technology. Oculus Rift VR, Tesla motors, etc etc I am sure would LOVE to do this and while Disney wouldn't make sponsorship money it would keep the park together and allow them to update quickly as the world changed by booting old demos and getting new ones

 

[starjazz]

One of the neatest things we saw this trip was the Agent P's WS Missions. Wow - they had so many cute surprises in those countries. Me and my kids LOVED playing, and were just totally shocked that they built all of those neat little gadgets and gimmicks into the pavilions that no one even knows about!

 

[DSLRuser]

Management has basically done nothing to Epcot in 10 years in terms of adding something new. The last major attraction was Mission Space.

Yes, they did a re skin of Test Track, but the ride itself is nothing new.

Disney gambled, correctly, that they could do nothing to Epcot, and people would still come. And the have. It is only those of us with 15-25 years of Epcot history who realize how much of the park is just a shell of it'self.

Disney had to scale back spending because of the economic slump that started in 2008. Remember the stopped the all stars / pop hotel phase 2 mid construction.

When things picked back up a few years ago, Disney had to finish the hotels (Art of Animation) and fix it's media empire. The movie and tv side were in the red big time.

 

[MrKnight]

One of the neatest things we saw this trip was the Agent P's WS Missions. Wow - they had so many cute surprises in those countries. Me and my kids LOVED playing, and were just totally shocked that they built all of those neat little gadgets and gimmicks into the pavilions that no one even knows about!

True this! I have never really been drawn to this but on a recent visit a good friend of mine convinced me to do this (practically by force lol) and I must say I was rather impressed at all the hidden props and interactive effects throughout the WS pavilions, the thought and detail that they put into it is incredible! I don't think I would do it again as it is somewhat time consuming, however, anyone that hasn't done it I recommend it at least once!

 

[larryz]

True this! I have never really been drawn to this but on a recent visit a good friend of mine convinced me to do this (practically by force lol) and I must say I was rather impressed at all the hidden props and interactive effects throughout the WS pavilions, the thought and detail that they put into it is incredible! I don't think I would do it again as it is somewhat time consuming, however, anyone that hasn't done it I recommend it at least once!

Sounds like a good mixer...

 

[MrKnight]

Sounds like a good mixer...

Great thinking larryz!