Wonders of Life seasonal?!!

[kilarney]

Sorry if this has already been posted... but did anyone see the latest rumor posted on www.screamscape.com ??:
Here it is:

"Park News - (12/10/03) Sources tell us that the Wonders of Life pavilion will close down Jan. 5th and become another seasonal attraction like CircleVision and Carousel of Progress. Body Wars, Makin of Me and Cranium Command will all reopen on busy days when they feel they need to open the pavilion, but all merchandise and food stands in the park have been closed down for good."

If this is true... the straws are just about breaking the camels back for me. We like to go off-peak, and this is a MAJOR area of EPCOT to have closed. And I thought that they were trying to get people interested in EPCOT again! This is just cheap... and I don't go to Disney to get a feeling that I am at a "cheap" place. I'm usually a big Disney defender, but between Adventureland opening later and this... I will definitely visit Disney less often if things like this continue. It just doesn't feel magical when the bean counting is so blatant.

 

[Horizons16]

i read that someplace else too... seems kind of odd that they would do that...

 

[disneysteve]

It sad to see them doing this and its for all the wrong reasons. As I see it, WoL has not changed a bit since it opened. Its largely old and outdated. All the hands-on things were fun when they were new, but now that we've all seen them a dozen times they just aren't interesting anymore. I think I've got all the hidden objects memorized. We used to love going in there - now we usually skip it entirely unless we go in for a snack. And Body Wars was never as good a show as Start Tours which uses the identical ride equipment.

Just another sad example of Disney taking the cheap way out on everything. All this does is give folks one more reason not to visit and to complain that ticket prices aren't a good value. And since FW opens 2 hours before WS, there will be one less pavilion for people to visit during the early hours of the day.

Steve

 

[jann1033]

i like Body tours , the rest of the pavilion won't be missed by me but it is aggravating with the off season deal...I understand the shortened hrs. you do not miss out on much but you pay the same price tickets for less attractions when they do this which gets to be irritating. since they have less pople then you'd think they would like to keep the ones they have

 

[Joyciemc]

Man, that means when I go in a few weeks, no Food Rocks OR Cranium Command? What are they trying to do to me?? It's like they said; "Joyce is coming on the 4th, lets close some stuff at Epcot before she gts a chance to see it again!" Ok, they probably didn't do it just to annoy me , but it is a crappy coincidence!

 

[GAIL HAYDEN]

Before I would get too upset about this, I would take the time to call Disney and check.

 

[kilarney]

Sorry Gail, but it is official. The Orlando Sentinel has an article about the announcement:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/tourism/orl-bk-disney121003,0,6449127.story

This is REALLY upsetting to me. As I said before, bean counting shouldn't be so blatant - especially at the expense of those people that support Disney during the slower periods. Those people pay just as much to get into the park as anyone else. Sure they can ride more rides, but the hours are cut to compensate for this. Simply put... a Disney experience in January should be the same as a trip in August. (weather excluded!) If not, the price for admission should be lowered.

Again... I don't mind saving money, but the trend of peak-only attractions isn't the right way to do it.

And of course there is a rumored rehab of the Living Seas beginning March 2004. If that happens, and Wonder of Life remains closed, Future World will be in a sorry state.

 

[disneysteve]

Originally posted by kilarney
Simply put... a Disney experience in January should be the same as a trip in August. (weather excluded!) If not, the price for admission should be lowered.

And of course there is a rumored rehab of the Living Seas beginning March 2004. If that happens, and Wonder of Life remains closed, Future World will be in a sorry state.

I agree completely with the first comment. I don't have a problem with shorter hours since crowds are so sparse and you are able to do far more in less time. But Disney shouldn't close entire attractions like CoP, Timekeeper, Wonders of Life, etc.

As for the Living Seas rehab, I have a feeling that when that happens, they'll reopen Wonders of Life. Kind of like what they recently did in Tomorrowland - closed Alien Encounter and reopened CoP and Timekeeper.

Steve

 

[jcemom]

Originally posted by kilarney
Simply put... a Disney experience in January should be the same as a trip in August. (weather excluded!) If not, the price for admission should be lowered.

 

[swankybeth]

I CANNOT believe this. I was so upset when I read this. I was hoping that it was just a rumor, but obviously not. Cranium Command is one of my absolute favorites at Epcot, and I enjoy Body Wars as well. Also, I like the atmosphere and music in the pavillion. I am extremely disappointed in Disney over this. Little by little, they're taking all the good stuff away. At first it's like, "ok it's only one thing", but now it seems like they're coming dangerously close to losing customers over stuff like this.

 

[erikthewise]

I don't like this either; as I just posted on the other thread I won't repost mycomments here.

However I do want to mention that Food Rocks was still open as of two weeks ago, Nov 28, and there were no indications of imminent closure. Has an official closure date been given?

 

[rykdad]

Just for another perspective, last night I told my kids (DS 11 and DD 7 who can still tell me about what they liked and disliked on our trip 3 years ago and the attractions they repeated or won't go on again) that the Wonders of Life may not be open when we visit next May. There response was: "What's that?" My son vaguely remembers the Body Wars as "that ride where we had to remove the splinter". I guess it won't be a big loss for us.

 

[Joyciemc]

Erikthewise- Food Rocks is closing Jan 3rd. Both of these closures are right before my trip, which is what makes me sad.. so close, yet so far.
I will say that Wonders of Life was a ghost town on our last trip, but I love Cranium Command. The Body Wars/Star Tours rides don't do much for me, but I loved them when I was younger. I just hope this doesn't meen they're not going to revamp or replace this. Leaving it sitting there unused like COP and Timekeeper were seems like such a waste!

 

[anotherboardnposter]

I know I'll miss it...

Body Wars was always fun (with the bonus of a totally 80s-looking Elisabeth Shue as the protagonist), Cranium Command was always hilarious, and I enjoyed The Making Of Me.

Also, the root beer floats were to die for.

Aaah, well...Time to move on to attractions new. Next year is my first ride on Mission: Space. PUKE-O-RAMA, HERE I COME!

Sincerely,

John "anotherboardnposter" Kilduff

 

[shelleyz]

Well that stinks. I wanted to do Body Wars in January as we missed it in October on our first trip. Oh well.

 

[danicaw]

This is a bummer.
We are going the last week of Jan. And we are taking my parents who have never been before.
Hopefully they won't declare much more "seasonal".

 

[Micca]

None of those attractions are high on my priority list, but I am sorry to hear this.