Rumor: EPCOT New Countries Coming!

[arazamataz]

INDIA

 

[EUROPACL]

I'm hoping for Transylvania, Persia and Papua New Guinea.

 

[crazy4wdw]

Actually "Africa" isn't missing at all. Morocco is technically part of Africa.

Plus Africa is a continent, not a country. Egypt would also be considered Africa.

There was a proposal to build an "area" in World Showcase that would have been named "Equatorial Africa" which would have represented several African nations. Alex Haley, author of Roots, served as the consultant for the pavilion. There were numerous concept drawings and models and the pavilion was to be built between Germany and China. I have no idea why WDW pulled the plug on this "country".

 

[ChrisFL]

There was a proposal to build an "area" in World Showcase that would have been named "Equatorial Africa" which would have represented several African nations. Alex Haley, author of Roots, served as the consultant for the pavilion. There were numerous concept drawings and models and the pavilion was to be built between Germany and China. I have no idea why WDW pulled the plug on this "country".

Yes, I remember seeing a TV special about it with James Earl Jones presenting it. I've heard rumors that the reason it wasn't built was due to the political problems facing parts of Africa at the time

 

[AKV707]

New countries would be great. More food! The OP mentioned Argentina and Spain. The Argentina kiosk was really great. The "Equatorial Africa" concept would be interesting, but with AK, AKL, and now AKV, including Kidani, that might be covered. I don't think that they could top Jiko at Epcot.

 

[EUROPACL]

Yes, I remember seeing a TV special about it with James Earl Jones presenting it. I've heard rumors that the reason it wasn't built was due to the political problems facing parts of Africa at the time

Aren't most of the current countries in EPCOT sponsored by the country they rep? I'm sure that would be a big hang up. I'm pretty sure things haven't gotten much better in Africa either. Several Countries in Africa and large parts of Asia still sell their people into slavery...not to mention the Genocide, conflict Diamond mining and the fact that some tribes still practice cannibalism.

 

[flyinglizard]

There was a proposal to build an "area" in World Showcase that would have been named "Equatorial Africa" which would have represented several African nations. Alex Haley, author of Roots, served as the consultant for the pavilion. There were numerous concept drawings and models and the pavilion was to be built between Germany and China. I have no idea why WDW pulled the plug on this "country".

The "Equatorial Africa" pavilion never became reality simply because there was no nation, coalition of countires or corporation, that had the money to sponsor the pavilion.

However, the Animal Kingdom Lodge does a pretty good job representing what might have been...

 

[Uncleromulus]

I'll believe the new countries when I see them--.
Am wondering what sort of culinary delights we'll get from Argentina??

 

[DancingBear]

The cuisine of Argentina is distinctive in South America because of its strong resemblance to Italian, Spanish, French and other European cuisines rather than the other Latin American cuisines.

Another determining factor in Argentine cuisine is that Argentina is one of the world's major food producers. It is a major producer of meat (especially beef), wheat, corn, milk, beans, and since the 1970s, soybeans. Given the country's vast production of beef, red meat is an especially common part of the Argentine diet (in many periods of Argentine history the annual consumption of beef has been above 100 kg per capita and during the 19th century, neared 180 kg per capita.) Similarly, the enormous quantities of domestically-harvested wheat have made white bread (made with wheat flour) the most commonly found on the table. This explains, to a great deal, the popularity of wheat-based Italian dishes, as well as the fact that Argentine pizza uses more dough than Italian pizza.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuisine_of_Argentina

 

[Michael623]

Ah Wikipedia:

Did you read this too?

Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information.

or how about...

Wikipedia cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here.

 

[Wick]

Ah Wikipedia:

Did you read this too?

Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information.

or how about...

Wikipedia cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here.

Not the biggest fan of wikipedia myself (certainly wouldn't use it as a scholarly source), but it is useful for quick bits of info.

Are you disputing the Italian cultural influence in Argentina?

 

[aclass]

So why does the package of coins of the world you can buy at Epcot have all the countries that are already there plus Malawi? At least that's what was there in July - so we assumed that was what the next country was going to be.

 

[G8RFAN]

We go to a lot of Argentinian restaurants here in South FL (DW is from Peru), and they are generally steakhouses with incredibly flavorful dishes. Most common and well known is the churrasco which in Argentina is grilled marinated skirt steak with chimichurri sauce. Their version of chorizos is also our favorite and we buy it all the time for home grilling. A grilled link on a split baguette with a drizzle of chimichurri and you've got yourself the best "sausage sandwich" in town. Yumm. The neat thing as mentioned by a previous poster is that ethnic food such as Italian and Chinese, etc all take on a different slant in each respective South American country. We are starting to see such restaurants making their way into South Florida, adding new flavor to the diverse choices we have.

 

[redoschi]

I think we should have 2 more countries at least in EPCOT to represent other parts of the world.

Some ideas are:
Greece (my favorite choice - Greece was one of the cradles of western civilization)

India (great culture and having the Taj majal as one of EPCOTs country landmarks would be awesome)

Russia (great culture and surely just didn't enter EPCOT when it started because of the Cold War)

Australia (another english country, but we lack a country from South Pacific)

Brazil (we need a SOuth American representative, and my country would be a nice addition, adding Portuguese as one of the languages of EPCOT countries and offering some nice food choices!)

Argentina (like brazil it could be a nice south american representative with a nice culture with maybe a show of Tango and another steakhouse)

Peru (could be a south american representative my be too similar to Mexico in its theme of the Incan culture)

South Africa (we need another african country and this would be pretty different in comparison with Morocco)

Egypt (another cradle of civilization and the Sphinx and Pyramids could be an awesome attraction, but might be too similar to Morocco)

Israel (we don't have any middle-eastern countries and this could be a nice addition, but maybe too religious-centric for Disney)


-----
about other European countries like Spain, Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland: we already have 5 of the 11 countries coming from Europe (France, UK, Norway, Italy and Germany), so except for Greece and Russia (which is part of both Asia and Europe) I don't think we need another European country.

 

[TiggerFreak]

Just to be fair, maybe they should add "Tralfamdor" as a new country(?) !

 

[doombuggy]

I like the idea of another country, but I will believe it when I see/hear the announcement.

I'd love to see India or Russia; Egypt would be great too!

 

[DancingBear]

Ah Wikipedia:

Did you read this too?

Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information.

or how about...

Wikipedia cannot guarantee the validity of the information found here.

As Wick pointed out, I'm not citing Wikipedia in my doctoral thesis, but it seemed like a nice little summary of what Argentinian cuisine is about.to post on an internet chat site. Do you actually have any dispute with the contents of the article?

 

[AKV707]

DW just chimed in:

1. greece
2. Australia
3. Egypt
4. null

I suggest Scotland. Not so much for the cuisine, but the accent is the best!

 

[Peter Pirate 2]

New Country??? How about Miami, it IS a 'foreign country' with real, albeit minimal, ties to Florida and the United States. The cuisine is heavily Cuban based with pinches of Jamaican, Creole and most Central American influences. Archecture could range from Art Deco to modern faux Spainish (with turnpike view) townhouses...

The Pavillian could be worked by volunteer Real Estate Agents who really have nothing else to do right now and could feature lessons on how to be a Miami Dolphins fan despite the fact that they haven't won anything since most people (still living) were born and as an alternative "how to maximize your road rage opportunities without getting arrested."

What do you think?

 

[diznyfanatic]

I'd love to see any new countries added but would be especially excited to see:

Egypt
Greece
India
Australia
New Zealand
Fiji
Thailand
Costa Rica
Peru
Kenya
South Africa
Russia
Czech Republic
Turkey
Ireland
Scotland
Wales