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Has Epcot reached a new level of depressing?

larryz said:
Not at all -- any time Epcot starts to get a little bit boring, I find a quick trip to any one of the countries in World Showcase can help cheer me right up.

Epcot, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways:
- Frozen Gran Marnier
- Frozen Grey Goose
- 40 different kinds of sake
- German beer
- Chinese beer
- Japanese beer
- Canadian beer
- (yes, even) American beer
- Mexican beer
- Margaritas
- Cava del Tequila
Sensing a trend?

Take any one of those rides, add an ounce and a half (maybe three ounces) of ethanol, and those experiences transform in weird and mysterious ways.

Even Eric Idle is funny after a few beers. Captain EO -- absolutely hilarious! Living with the Land is very amusing (but it's bad form to puke in the river).

Try it, maybe you'll like it.
Click to expand...
I was depressed after trying the milky sake but got happy with a frozen beer.
 
So I came across this blog, which hasn't been updated in close to five years, but it covers a lot of my sentiments in regards to Epcot and other Disney Parks:

http://imagineerebirth.blogspot.com

Spend a little time and read the posts if that's the kind of thing you're interested in.
 
mjallemand, I can't say that Epcot is depressing, but I agree that the changes you describe are depressing, if that makes sense. Every. Single. One of them. But let's face it, EPCOT Center and what it represented died when Michael Eisner took over. He did not believe in the concept.

While I still enjoy Epcot, I recognize that like many aspects of today's Disney it is a story of missed opportunity. Sure, they've put in some fun things, and they've also butchered some things. But when I think about what they could have done if they had stayed on track creatively....

Perhaps what is most depressing is that so many have no idea what we're talking about.
 


I'm one of the few I think who still love Epcot. It is my favorite park right after Magic Kingdom. For me I still get giddy walking into the park and passing by Spaceship Earth and hearing some of my favorite nostalgic music. Though they got rid of WoM and Horizons they put in rides that I love. I think Test Tack is great even though the newer Tron movie was kind of a dud. Mission Space is an awesome thrilling ride and really simulates (according to real astronauts) what it would be like if you were actually taking off to space.

I will agree FW could use a new attraction or two, especially in the old WoL Pavilion. Ellen as much as I love it for nostalgic reasons could use an upgrade or if not make way for a whole new attraction. There's a lot of space there and I think they could do something awesome with it. Also it would be great if WS got a new country or two as well.

For me I do not find Epcot depressing in the slightest. Thousands of people go every year and it has a lot to offer. I'm quite glad they removed some of the slower moving rides and made way for something more thrilling. And the fact that its two parks in one is great! If you don't love FW you can head on over to WS and have some drinks and food :)
 
Not in the least, it's my favorite park and Soarin' is by far my favorite ride I have ever been on. Have to ride it 2-3 times per visit. And love the countries.
 
Love the place, our favorite park when we don't have the grand kids, we will spend three of our twelve days there this fall, lots to do with the wine festival. They have changed things over the years, but there are a lot of things that haven't and that keeps the memories alive. Just have fun with it; it is what it is, the happiest place on earth.

Just my thoughts
 


I haven't read through 9 pages of posts. I only wanted to say this:

OP, I feel your pain. EPCOT Center was my favorite park as a kid visiting in the 80's. SSE, Horizons, World of Motion, The Living Seas, and all the rest still stand as the most amazing collection of Disney attractions (heck, any set of theme park attractions) in my mind. I don't expect those who didn't experience EPCOT, in what I consider to be it's prime, to understand the feeling...to understand the level of nostalgia that park brings about in my mind. I still have fun at the park in its current form, but mostly because my kiddos love it now.

When they finally invent that time machine, I'll swing by your place on the way back to 1987.
 
OP, we're in the same boat! Of course I love Epcot in a nostalgic sort of way, but right now it feels like there's too much empty space. As for the changes, I don't like them--not because I don't like change, change can be great, but because with every update and refurbishment and addition, it seems Epcot is moving further and further from what it was originally intended to be. Personally, I think getting rid of the Maelstrom and adding Frozen to Norway really crossed that line.
 
mickey_mouse_zombie_halloween_wf_black_pr17.jpg

Credit to Fretshirt.com

Bringing your own back from the dead!

I think most would agree that Epcot is in need of some love, energy, redesign and vision - especially in FutureWorld ... depressing, no.

But I disagree with many of your original points and honestly, when Disney begins to infuse some cash...

I will venture you probably won't be happy with the results.
 
Last edited:
This thread is more than a year old! I do think the OP is a bit too nostalgic in places (e.g. I don't have a problem with some of the Nemo changes to living seas), and change is not going to be to everyone's liking... But, I don't know how anyone would disagree that Epcot has not been kept up-to-date as it should.

What I've said before is that Disney needs to have full-scale overhauls of Future World pavilions with about one totally redone pavilion every 2 years. Same for some of the World Showcase (either something new or a big overhaul every 2 years). A "redo" might not necessarily mean scrapping everything that was there, but it ought to be more than a short maintenance refurb. A schedule like that would basically mean something big and new in either Future World or World Showcase each year (making it continually seem "fresh") and nothing more than 20 years old. Really, unless they do something at about that rate, Epcot is always going to seem dated/rotting. When they have a park focused on the "future", it's not enough to just build something and let it sit until it feels obsolete.

Instead, I don't get any long-term planning sense about Epcot - they just sort of deal with one thing at a time. I'm sure that now with Frozen and new Soarin' they see things as "fixed" for the moment, and will sit back and enjoy the increased crowds for a while. Then, in another year or so they'll decide what they maybe want to do next, and start planning and 2 years later have something new, during which time everything else gets more dated. Instead, they should already be in the middle of another pavilion overhaul, and have another one about to start up, and know which one they'll be looking at starting on next year.
 
:confused3

If this had been my thread and I saw that article, I probably would have posted it as an update as well.
 
Epcot used to be my favorite park. But now.....

Poor quality entertainment. (They lost me with chain saws)
Boring shopping. (Selling the same things year after year after year....)
Poor quality dining.
Closed attractions
Removal of the benches.


If you're favorite park suffers from neglect you quit going. For the first time in over a decade I don't have an AP. I was just in Orlando. No Need to go to Disney.
 
My 5 and 3 year olds like it so I'm good. If Soarin was down and it was just DH and I, I'd probably pass on going.
 
Future World needs to be in one of those slideshows that show shuttered mega-malls.
How many square feet of dead space is in just that part of the park?

I give Disney somewhat of a pass on its current state because its not like you can have 3/4 of your properties under the knife at one time.
Have to assume that when Star Wars Experience is near completion Miley Cyrus and her wrecking ball come to FW.
 
mjallemand said:
After reading recent blog posts over at EasyWDW and seeing how a big chunk of Innoventions has now closed up shop in addition to Norway being gutted, it's occurred to me...has Epcot reached a new level of depressing? I covered this in a previous thread a few years back, but amazingly somehow Epcot has gotten worse since then.

Shall we go down the list?

  1. Spaceship Earth: While this one hasn't suffered too terribly over the years, it still feels fairly lifeless compared to the previous Jeremy Irons and Walter Cronkite narration. The lack of an interesting motif during the descent after the grand finale seems weird and overall it just feels very sterile.
  2. The Land: While I was never particularly crazy about Soarin' in the first place, I can understand its appeal. Kitchen Kabaret wasn't exactly high art, though I did enjoy it, and I can understand it being replaced eventually. But even now Soarin' has some film issues and overall is in need of a refresh. Thankfully this is coming soon, if the rumors are true, though it likely won't make me fall in love with the attraction. The theater that's playing that Circle of Life film could use a refresh, because that's 20 years old now, but I have no idea what they would put in there. Perhaps I could keep my mouth shut, because before I know it'll be rethemed to "Let It Go: An Environmental Film Staring Elsa" Living with the Land is still great, and I'm glad they didn't throw stupid Disney characters in there, because god knows that absolutely ruined...
  3. The Living Seas: I have fond memories of the original iteration of The Living Seas, and it was my second-favorite pavilion next to Horizons. The Seabase Alpha theming was amazing and the Hydrolators, though simple in design, were super effective and convincing. These days it's Nemo...Nemo Nemo Nemo Nemo Nemo...seriously, count the number of times that "Nemo" is said during that puppet show ride before you hit the main attraction. It's downright maddening. I still enjoy the sea life in the actual attraction, and Turtle Talk with Crush is always a riot, but still, I massively prefer the original version of this attraction I mean, it could be worse, it could be...
  4. Journey Into Imagination: Do I really need to go into detail here? What the WDW staff did to the Imagination pavilion is arguably the worst thing that has happened to Walt Disney World since 1971. The upstairs Image Works has been gone for a half a decade now and it's sorely missed by those of us that remember how...imaginative it was. I also miss Honey I Shrunk the Audience, though I understand that the film probably hasn't aged particularly well, so I'm okay with it being replaced overall. However, bringing back Captain Eo wasn't the solution to this problem, and now making the theater a place to show promos of upcoming Disney films is just a slap in the face.
  5. Innovations/Communicore: Jeez laweez. What was originally the closest thing to Epcot being an ongoing World's Fair per its original design has now been turned into a brand-centric children's museum...and now they're closing a bunch of it on top of that? How depressing...though its much more depressing than...
  6. Universe of Energy: Okay, this one is rather difficult. I understand the whole Global Warming/Climate Change thing is something that Disney likely doesn't want to be a part of because they want to avoid any sort of public backlash, but man oh man with the proper refresh this pavilion could be more important now than its ever been. I love Bill Nye and Ellen is okay, and overall the mid-90s refresh of this attraction wasn't as offensive as the numerous Imagination refreshes and what happened to The Living Seas, but the original Universe of Energy was really impressive. The "Kinetic Tiles" presentation in the pre-show is still amazing to look at today, and the laser effects during the end of the attraction were great. All those are gone now though, so its just a bit more lackluster than it used to be.
  7. Mission Space: I'm gonna keep this simple. Horizons is gone, and it upsets me. It was the headlining attraction at Epcot right after Spaceship Earth, and I really miss it. I understand it was dated and needed some work, but they should have updated it instead of tearing it down and replacing it with a fancy space simulator-themed centrifuge right with no further meaning past its initial impression. Ugh.
  8. Test Track: Like Horizons, I really dug the original World of Motion, and like Horizons, I realize it needed some work. Once you've ridden that attraction a few times, you've seen all there is to see. The post-show attractions were neat as well, though they were in the same boat...you can't only see the Bird & the Robot so many times before you've seen all it has to offer. The original Test Track wasn't super offensive, and a clever idea for an update, though I'll still prefer World of Motion. I haven't ridden the ride since its recent refurbishment, but everything I've read has led me to believe that they've made it worse now, so that's kind of terrible.
  9. Wonders of Life: Wonders of Life was great, and I really miss it. Body Wars was a headlining attraction at Epcot and just really cool. Cranium Command was great, as were all the other attractions in the pavilion. Sure, this was the "Children's Museum" setup long before Innovations was refurbed, but at least it had a few headlining attractions to level things out a bit. There isn't really a lot to say here because unlike everything else, it hasn't been replaced but just scrubbed completely from the park. How sad.
  10. World Showcase: There isn't a whole lot to say here, because World Showcase is more or less the same as its ever been, outside of Norway's recent bullshittery. I wasn't crazy about the Three Caballeros characters being shoved into Gran Fiesta Tour, but I guess that was thematically okay overall. Norway though...holy ****. Maelstrom was the defining attraction of World Showcase, and now its gone, soon to be replaced with the most annoying Disney animated film characters in recent history. I didn't hate Frozen, I actually rather enjoyed the film, but it doesn't deserve a full attraction, especially not in Epcot, especially not in World Showcase, ESPECIALLY NOT REPLACING MALESTROM. I might actually get thrown off of the ride because I will throw things at the first Olaf animatronic I see. Ugh.
  11. Many other minor things: Leave a Legacy? Ugly. Its always hilarious that the Walt Disney World website lists it as an attraction when its really just an eyesore. The Odyssey restaurant is long gone, and it's just weird to walk past because its almost like you're walking past a corpse of a building that's just decaying from disuse. The multitude of musical acts gone from World Showcase, along with a bunch of the unique vehicles and other miscellaneous attractions they used to have back there. I'm sure there's a bunch of stuff I'm forgetting, but you get the idea.

Now, don't misunderstand me here...I understand that Epcot can't stay the same forever; the park needs to evolve and grow as time passes. Attractions such as Horizons and Universe of Energy get outdated as time goes on and occasionally need a refreshing to stay relevant. The larger problem here is that these attractions seem to be getting replaced with worse iterations of themselves instead of getting better with time.

Is it wrong for you to enjoy the attractions that I've trashed above? Of course not, enjoy what you enjoy, don't let my inane ramblings affect you. I love Epcot, and I have fond memories of the park living up to its original intentions, it's just a shame that so much of that has fallen to the wayside over the years in favor of commercialism and thrill rides.
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Totally agree
 
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