Is The Land.....???

[jfelcie]

I read a while back that "The Land" in Epcot was closed while the boats were being upgraded. I have not read anything lately. Does any one have an update?

 

[blondeheroine]

The Land isn't closed as a pavilion. Soarin', Garden Grill, Circle of Life, etc. are all running. Living with the Land (the boat ride) however is closed at the moment. I've read that they're doing away with the human tour guides and instituting a recorded tour schpill.

When we went on the ride in December, they were having LOTS of problems with the audio and the tour guides were having to try and yell to all the passengers in the boats. We were in the back and couldn't hear most of what was going on.

 

[resol37]

Aww, I hope they don't get rid of the CMs on the boats. Last time I was there we had a great CM who answered a lot of additional questions. It's always been kind of hit or miss (like on Jungle Cruise or Kilimanjaro Safaris) when it comes to the CMs doing the spiel, but he was great.

 

[safetymom]

They are adding more boats and got rid of the CM's. There will be a recorded presentation when they reopen.

 

[Robo]

Aww, I hope they don't get rid of the CMs on the boats. Last time I was there we had a great CM who answered a lot of additional questions. It's always been kind of hit or miss (like on Jungle Cruise or Kilimanjaro Safaris) when it comes to the CMs doing the spiel, but he was great.

The CM guides are gone.

 

[Hannathy]

We went on the behind the seeds tour last Wednesday and they were running the boats thru with the water filled plastic dummies in the seats and our guide said they were working on getting the timing right for the new recorded spiels. I won't mind the recordings because I have had some very hard to understand or hear CM's on this ride, and it should speed up the line a lot.

 

[dbm20th]

It also seems as though they are removing the FastPass machines. The apparent logic is that the new ride system will somehow increase capacity. Don't ask me to explain the logic

 

[civileng68]

Aaaah, out of my super long live trip review a couple of weeks ago, I forgot to mention this.

I watched from the stairways (as you could see over the wall) what they were doing.

They were running the boats. When i was there, they were not running "dummies" but they did have 3 CM's (one handicap, possibly testing something in that regard) getting into a boat and taking off.

I know nothing about the length of time it will be closed, but, it doesn't "seem" that it will be long as it seemed to me that they new audio format is in place and may just need tweaking as someone else said.

 

[Ashley80]

Anyone know the date as to when it will reopen?