Epcot: New and Improved!

The big buzz today is about the announced changes to Spaceship Earth at Epcot that will be occurring over the next year or so that relates to Siemens recent sponsorship of the attraction. Both the Disney Blog and All Ears Net have very good articles on the details of the refurbishment.

Despite the misgivings of a very vocal but still relatively small minority of Disney Park enthusiasts (who seem to read negative into every proposed change for Epcot-- i.e. Caballeros in Mexico, Alfredo’s closing in Italy), there is clearly the very positive perception recently that post-Eisner Disney is really making an effort to extend some much needed TLC to the 25 year-old park.

Put it all together--

• The very much needed overlay/enhancements to the Mexico pavilion, resulting in the Gran Fiesta Tour featuring the Three Caballeros.
  

• The forthcoming new CircleVision 360 film currently in production that will hopefully debut at the Canada pavilion later this year.

• The updating of the American Adventure attraction via additional elements added to finale montage.

• Ongoing refurbishments to World Showcase restaurants, notably the already mentioned Italy and also China and Canada as well.

• Another extensive wave of refurbishments to Innoventions.

• And the totally unconfirmed but somewhat reliable gossip that the Wand will be coming done by year’s end.

I wouldn’t be surprised that when much of these smaller scale enhancements are completed, we’ll see more announcements relating to the park’s larger venues. There has been blue sky gossip circulating about Imagination in the last year that certainly isn’t completely fan-contrived, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience is long overdue for retirement.

And one way or another, the company has to at some point address the embarrassment that Wonders of Life has become. It appears it’s time to throw in the towel in the quest for corporate sponsorship. The attractions under the golden dome have become so worn out and dated that there is little incentive for a corporate partner to come on board with the pavilion in its current state.

A couple of personal wishes on my part--

• Relocate the Leave a Legacy monoliths and restore the entrance plaza to the more open and welcoming environment it once was.

• Revisit some of the early attraction ideas proposed for existing World Showcase countries. There has been no new World Showcase attraction since Maelstrom in 1988. Extreme wait times at Soarin’, Test Track, and even Mission Space and Nemo during off seasons demonstrate the need for some crowd-eaters outside of Future World.

While I am still disappointed that the will be no public 25th Anniversary celebration for Epcot, I have to say I’m happily encouraged by all the recent efforts being made on the park’s behalf.