Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow/ Not feeling it.

[minniemous]

I know it has been said that Epcot really needs an injection of new and updates but I am at a loss as to why they are not renovating.

After spending days at MK, HS and Animal Kingdom it was in our face the lack of renovation at Epcot.

After days of low flow sinks I was surprised how Epcot's bathroom sinks blasted water at you. While it was nice to get the soap of your hands faster considering Epcot is supposed to represent the future you would think they would have more attention to environment and conservation.

Also it was ironic that in my experience the MDE Ap worked the worst at Epcot with connection errors all day from the moment we walked in. I all but gave up with trying to alter my fast pass selections. There was one little section that we found with 4 to 5 kiosks to change fast passes in a sad little dark corner across from Disney Character meet and greet.

Underutilized buildings and space. You get a deserted mall feeling in areas.

I remember as a child being so impacted by Epcot. It is just not the case for us anymore. This past year we decided to go only 1 and 1/2 days out of 10 days to Epcot.

Are there any major plans for renovation I am not aware of?

 

[Robo]

Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow

To be clear, the EPCOT that Walt had in mind was never built.

 

[metzgardesign]

But....hey! They do have that cutting-edge movie Captain EO there! And Ellen's Energy Adventure (which may actually be as old as the dinosaurs represented in it.....I think when they were building it, they had real dino's from the central Florida area come in to be models for the animatronics).

So, there is that.

 

[tim123]

To be clear, the EPCOT that Walt had in mind was never built.

And the Epcot I visited in 1983 is gone and buried and that is very sad.

 

[sukhakuli]

I've always felt that EPCOT is completely underutilized as well. Every time we have gone Innoventions was almost empty, or areas were closed. It's like they don't know what to do with it, or haven't gotten the corporate sponsors to fill it up.

On a side note, I learned recently that Walt's father was involved with the construction of the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. I wonder if that is why he wanted to do the World's Showcase, a perpetual World's Fair.

To be clear, the EPCOT that Walt had in mind was never built.

But it is also completely impractical. You can't have people living in the theme park. And who wants to visit that anyway? If I want to go to see some apartment buildings and condos, I'll go downtown.

 

[Golf4283]

Dang that stinks you weren't a fan. That is our families favorite park right now interestingly enough.

the seas with nemo, the aquarium, Soarin, relaxing atmosphere, all the food and drinks around the world. Mmmm, I'm getting hungry now just thinking about it.

That park is one of the best kept secrets to me cause it's never usually ridiculously crowded because of how large it is.

 

[Robo]

And the Epcot I visited in 1983 is gone and buried and that is very sad.

To paraphrase a great line from The Simpsons...

"What the people in 1983 thought the world would be like in the year 2000."

 

[minniemous]

And the Epcot I visited in 1983 is gone and buried and that is very sad.

I agree. Epcot had such a impact back then.

 

[Robo]

But it is also completely impractical. You can't have people living in the theme park. And who wants to visit that anyway? If I want to go to see some apartment buildings and condos, I'll go downtown.

I didn't say that they SHOULD have built the EPCOT Walt was envisioning.

My remark is directed at the title of this thread.

THAT place (the place in the title) is not the place that was built as a theme park in WDW.

 

[ttintagel]

A little bird told me the reason - cheep cheep cheep cheep.

 

[ArwenMarie]

Epcot is my least favorite park right now.

If I never went back there again I would be fine with that.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

Until attendance decreases at Epcot, I don't see why they'd do anything at all. It's the second most popular park in Orlando and people seem to be satisfied with its use as essentially a big food and drink vendor plaza. I also think that the attendance numbers that get published--which only reflect a first park entry of the day--belies Epcot's true popularity. I think a large percentage of guests use Epcot as their "hop-to" park in the evening. They go someplace else during the day, and then hop to Epcot at night for dinner and drinks. All those millions of guests doing that, but not choosing Epcot as their first park of the day, don't get reflected in those statistics we see, and Epcot is still in the #2 slot. Food and beverage is a great way to make lots of money, and I don't see any business reason why Disney would invest in more infrastructure at Epcot, honestly. Maybe in a few years, after AK and DHS are done, if Epcot's attendance is hurting, maybe they'll do something. But right now, it works, with little overhead. Why fix it if it ain't broken...

 

[Laketravis]

Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Are you suggesting that spending the day at Epcot watching the fountains and listening to music isn't enough?

Well, if that's the case.... here's a little time-consuming game I played with DS8 when he told me he was getting bored:

"See that building over there? It was called "Odyssey". The object of this game is to think up in 30 minutes as many ways you think Disney could use that building."

And as Metz pointed out, there's that timeless classic Captain EO which despite Disney's best efforts at substantially increasing wait times at unpopular attractions STILL doesn't have a standby-line so you can do it over, and over, and over, and over, OH HOOTER!

 

[Laketravis]

I've come to think of Epcot as two separately distinct parks - FW and WS.

Until attendance decreases at Epcot, I don't see why they'd do anything at all. It's the second most popular park in Orlando and people seem to be satisfied with its use as essentially a big food and drink vendor plaza. I also think that the attendance numbers that get published--which only reflect a first park entry of the day--belies Epcot's true popularity. I think a large percentage of guests use Epcot as their "hop-to" park in the evening. They go someplace else during the day, and then hop to Epcot at night for dinner and drinks. All those millions of guests doing that, but not choosing Epcot as their first park of the day, don't get reflected in those statistics we see, and Epcot is still in the #2 slot. Food and beverage is a great way to make lots of money, and I don't see any business reason why Disney would invest in more infrastructure at Epcot, honestly. Maybe in a few years, after AK and DHS are done, if Epcot's attendance is hurting, maybe they'll do something. But right now, it works, with little overhead. Why fix it if it ain't broken...

 

[minniemous]

Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Are you suggesting that spending the day at Epcot watching the fountains and listening to music isn't enough?

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I've come to think of Epcot as two separately distinct parks - FW and WS.

My ILs are snowbirds and live in the winter in Florida, though a couple of hours from Orlando. They usually make it to Disney once or twice a season when they visit friends in the Orlando area, and typically split their time between Epcot and DTD. My MIL once told me that Epcot was her favorite Disney park. I told her that I'm sure that FIL really enjoys Soarin', and she said..."What?" She never realized there was anything to Epcot other than the WS. She had no idea it had any rides at all! They've probably been there at least a dozen times in the last 5 years, too!

They're meeting us at Epcot on the 18th, so I look forward to showing them around FW.