Slightly OT - Epcot Lights discontinued

[nutterbutter2010]

Oh NO, not them! The Lights of Winter were...

and

And this is them in action...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44F6uRm0C9g

agnes!

I saw them last year, and was really looking forward to them being there this year - there not?!?!? Thats so wrong! I LOVED going under them, and would get so mad at DH when he would go around to "avoid the croud".

 

[OK!]

I'll reserve judgement, but I am disinclined to acquiesce to being content with change.

agnes!
PS - If I were a betting person, I'd put money on 'slapped-together' and 'cheaply-done' as the design esthetic for all this.

This, unfortunately. A choir does NOT take the place of the Lights of Winter, at least not in my heart, no matter how good they may be. I'd always wanted to ride the monorail through the LoW when they were lit; we tried to do it last Christmas but there was some sort of technical glitch about 20 seconds (seriously) with the lights before we went through and we missed our window.

 

[DebbieB]

For additional info, there is a long thread on the theme parks board:

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2326473

 

[Chicago526]

I have to say, of the four parks it's Epcot that should change the MOST. It's supposed to be about cutting edge technology and science. MK and the other parks can be as frozen in time as we want (I myself dang near cried when I learn Mr. Toad was being pulled out), but I think Epcot (and it's guests) should embrace change. It's the whole point of Future Showcase.

 

[bicker]

WDW is the last place we care about outmoded ... Next year will they say the Osborn lights are outmoded ....

By comparison, WDW, and especially Epcot, is one of the places we do get concerned if things start becoming stale. I agree that the Osborne lights qualify, I want to see them gone. I would prefer New York Street be as it was originally created, or updated somehow, for some reason, rather than "adorned" by strings of lights for a good portion of the year. Disney will have to decide whether to satisfy your preference or mine (since there is no way to satisfy both).

With regard to most things, I don't get upset if my preference doesn't prevail, though, because I realize that Disney has a lot of objectives to pursue, and my personal preferences, while they matter to me, and are conceptually factored-in to decision commensurate with how widely and strongly they are held, are not going to trump all other considerations.

nostalgia is why we go back to WDW

Yes, we're very different. I really don't place much value on nostalgia at all. I really focus on how the parks foster great family fun during this vacation.

if they keep chipping away at our memories they are just chipping away at my desire to return ...

I'm sorry that the changes that effectively please me are the same changes that effectively displease you. That happens, though; one of the great things about our society is that there are so many different perspectives.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

Oh NO, not them! The Lights of Winter were...

and

And this is them in action...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44F6uRm0C9g

agnes!

Yes, maybe they were dated but I still enjoyed them!!!!

 

[Geoff_M]

And the excuse that management used? Ridiculous. The "obsolete" comment was badly-worded and to casually tweet it as if the Lights wouldn't matter to people?

The guy that writes the WDW park update at MousePlanet has a write up on the lights. He said there's two popular theories to what happened to them. The first is that the "obsolete" part may be that they use incandescent lights (as opposed to LEDs) and therefore don't fit in with Disney's "green standard". The author finds the second theory more likely. The lights were in fact seen being cleaned and prepped for installation in a back-lot area by the Ecpot parking lot recently, but then they were removed and the announcement was made that they were being "retired". He thinks that it's likely that the workers prepping the display found that there was damage to the display that may have occurred during storage or transport and that it was determined to be not repairable within current budgets.

 

[FireDancer]

I have to say, of the four parks it's Epcot that should change the MOST. It's supposed to be about cutting edge technology and science. MK and the other parks can be as frozen in time as we want (I myself dang near cried when I learn Mr. Toad was being pulled out), but I think Epcot (and it's guests) should embrace change. It's the whole point of Future Showcase.

I agree with this.

If anyplace should be innovating and not stuck in the past it is Epcot, especially Future World. Someone mentioned the Osborne lights being outdated, they are right. I am pretty sure that those were either all or mostly replaced with LED's recently.

Disney does evolve. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. I loved Horizons and World of Motion but their time has passed. I don't mind updates to classics like the Haunted Mansion, PotC, or IASM because to stay stuck in the past is not good. Walt himself was a proponent of always changing and evolving.

Sometimes the thing we love about WDW changes and it is sad, I'll give you that. It gives us the opportunity to find something new to love.

 

[Planogirl]

How are lovely things that provide enjoyment ever outdated? I can see that they can be replaced with a more modern version but to just completely ditch them seems sad. And no, a choir will not replace these lights.

 

[bicker]

Sometimes the thing we love about WDW changes and it is sad, I'll give you that. It gives us the opportunity to find something new to love.