Major downgrade to Morocco area at EPCOT

[ChrisFL]

I haven't seen this posted elsewhere on these boards, but this is a pretty bad thing by Disney, this flies in the face of the artisans that were personally chosen by the King of Morocco when the pavilion was built.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1795200184822968725

 

[Narcoossee11]

I thought that land was going to be featuring a new country. Morocco was not 'supporting ' the land anymore.

 

[Minnie1222]

Lol, I just walked by this area yesterday and didn't even notice it was under construction.

How do we know the tiles are from a bathroom?

 

[Cfabar1]

I thought that land was going to be featuring a new country. Morocco was not 'supporting ' the land anymore.

I'm sure Disney would love to do that provided someone else paid for the demolition of the pavilion and the construction of the replacement... Otherwise I suspect Morocco sticks around with or without Morocco's "support"!

Had a great time at the AP Lounge they set up in the abandoned restaurant. Nice visit from the Genie and so forth... Much better than last year's AP "lounge" in the Garden Grille.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I saw this on Twitter and uh wow. This looks genuinely terrible. I guess this is what happens when "Eh, good enough" is the philosophy.

 

[ChrisFL]

I thought that land was going to be featuring a new country. Morocco was not 'supporting ' the land anymore.

No plans to "change" the country to something else as far as I'm aware. They've never done that before either, even if the "host" country doesn't support them anymore.

 

[Tigger's ally]

Meh, I think it looks fine. It is outdoor in Florida.

 

[ChrisFL]

Lol, I just walked by this area yesterday and didn't even notice it was under construction.

How do we know the tiles are from a bathroom?

It's just what they look like...much different than the proper tile patterns from before.

 

[ChrisFL]

Meh, I think it looks fine. It is outdoor in Florida.

That misses the point. It isn't a proper Moroccan tile pattern the way they had it before which is what the World Showcase is about...authentic representations of each country.

 

[ChrisFL]

This is how they looked before:

 

[Cfabar1]

Didn't know that Bob Chapek got his old job back... You really do see a difference!

 

[Tigger's ally]

That misses the point. It isn't a proper Moroccan tile pattern the way they had it before which is what the World Showcase is about...authentic representations of each country.

Just giving my two cents, like you.

 

[Minnie1222]

This is how they looked before:

Oh yeah, they were indeed nicer looking.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Oof...that pattern looks awful!!

This was always my favorite area of the park and Restaurant Marrakesh was my favorite sit down place. It's such a shell of it's former self over there and quite depressing to walk around now.

 

[zackiedawg]

Sad indeed. The place has been a shell of itself for a few years now, since Marrakesh closed and the pandemic. The authentic details in the design and decor always made it one of my favorite pavilions to wander through, and a favorite for photographing.

Admittedly, the past few years the lovely tiled areas just seem to be filled with people sitting on them looking at their phones - I used to be able to photograph the fountain with nobody in the shot, but not in the past 3 years. With no more support from Morocco, and no anchor restaurant inside, Disney has decided to go with more generic design since most people seem to ignore the details anyway.

 

[Cfabar1]

Sad indeed. The place has been a shell of itself for a few years now, since Marrakesh closed and the pandemic. The authentic details in the design and decor always made it one of my favorite pavilions to wander through, and a favorite for photographing.

Admittedly, the past few years the lovely tiled areas just seem to be filled with people sitting on them looking at their phones - I used to be able to photograph the fountain with nobody in the shot, but not in the past 3 years. With no more support from Morocco, and no anchor restaurant inside, Disney has decided to go with more generic design since most people seem to ignore the details anyway.

I have to assume there is a plan of some sort for Marrakesh... But who knows... Spice Road Table seems to always have availability. I am not convinced people are looking for an "authentic" experience at EPCOT these days (if they ever were) in the World Showcase.

It is working quite nicely as a Passholder Lounge... Makes me think they could move DVC out of the Imagination Pavilion, get some bathrooms, a little more capacity (which is frequently a problem), and call it a day if nothing else.

 

[zackiedawg]

I am looking forward to checking out the passholder lounge - I'll be there in less than 2 weeks. It'll be nice to get back in there - but I did enjoy it as a restaurant. The Spice Road menu never spoke to me, but I enjoyed Marrakech's - and the servers who were all friendly and from Morocco (at least until the last year or so of operation). Epcot was always a favorite park of mine from the day it opened - and the best part was World Showcase's 'authenticity' - in that most of the theming, decor, food, etc were from those countries, and they always staffed with students from those countries and the stores mostly had products from each place. Nowadays, just regular castmembers, the quiet detail places in each country like gardens and museums/displays have been overrun by the interactive phone games, and a lot of food has been homogenized and de-spiced. I still love the general atmosphere, but none of the World Showcase pavilions are quite like they used to be.

I like the DVC lounge - but moving it to somewhere that would include bathrooms would be a massive upgrade. I wonder with the announcement that the DVC lounge will be closing soon might possibly mean some way to add restrooms? They just re-did the furnishings within the past 6 months, so I wonder - would need to know whether any of the 'backstage' area up there has plumbing or an existing restroom that could be added to the DVC lounge - I suspect not though since the closure is only for a month or so. The temporary spot will be Odyssey - which would be a GREAT DVC lounge taken in its entirety - in this case, they're just carving out a space, but it does add restrooms and some counter food purchase options along with the free drinks and snacks - Looking forward to checking out the temp location too next week when I'm there to see how much space they'll give us and what food options they'll have for purchase.

 

[Marek Zyskowski]

I haven't seen this posted elsewhere on these boards, but this is a pretty bad thing by Disney, this flies in the face of the artisans that were personally chosen by the King of Morocco when the pavilion was built.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1795200184822968725

That does not look good. I hope it is temporary.

 

[firefly_ris]

Thumbs down. Ugly. And removed trees to boot.

 

[Kestryl]

It looks like something from a mall. Or a Six Flags.