Epcot's new vision

August 26, 2019, 2:05 PM

Now that D23 2019 is in the books, rate your top 3 and your bottom 3 in regard to what's coming up.

Here are mine:

Top

1.) Space Ship Earth renovations: I like the shift from the history of communication to story telling, this gives them an opportunity to explore those scenes in more depth compared to a narrated cursory glance at history.
2.) GoTG Cosmic Rewind: I'm not holding my breath but Chapek did not circle back to his "Peter Quill visiting Epcot premise". I hope what we saw was a hint that they will use real knowledge to help explore the universe that we know nothing about and make it fun.
3.) New Spine: Epcot looked dated and if they really deliver on the Architecture, Design, and Gardens, this has the potential to inject new life into the park.

Bottom

3.) Canada: I always thought it would have been great to add a thrill ride water attraction to World Showcase and the Canadian Rockies would have been perfect. An indoor year-round raft ride inside hidden caverns inside those Rockies would have been perfect. Swing and miss, new movie...yawn
2.) 220: Completely not excited for this, this is just a re-tread of the "Hydrolators" from the Living Seas. Unless this turns out to be one the best food experiences in all of Walt Dinsey World, mark this one as a failure.
1.) Play Pavilion: While the new Festival Center has the potential to be a gem, it sure looks like we are going to take a big step back to era of walk through attractions. No amount of technology can remove you from the fact this is another high level tech hall based on IPs

The rest of the field:
Remey's Ratatouille Adventure
Wonders of China
Celebration Pavilion
Mary Poppins CTL incomplete: We really got nothing...yet
France Pavilion shows
Journey of Water

Replies (3)

August 26, 2019, 2:40 PM

To me, the Spaceship Earth announcement held the least interest. In the end, they can't do anything with the actual ride system, so anything they do is essentially "lipstick on a pig". I think the slight tweat to the narrative of the ride could be promising, but it's really not much different than when Judi Dench took over the narration.

The New Spine similarly holds little interest to me, because this is something that Disney needed to address years ago, and instead of creating an attraction that can fit into this space, they're essentially going to turn it into a bunch of upcharge spaces.

I have ZERO interest in Mary Poppins yet, because Disney isn't event confident enough in the attraction to tell people about it. If they don't have a clue what it's going to be yet (at least not sure enough to announce it or they do and knew it's so mediocre that it would go over like a lead balloon), then I'm not about to spend any time getting excited about it.

Journey of Water was one of the most hyped attractions by the non-theme park media. However, anyone who knows Disney, and is aware of the way they hype attractions, it's pretty clear this Moana attraction (whatever it is) will either be underwhelming or never be built. This looks like it's a walkthrough, but might be a movie - it just seems like this is another one where Disney probably doesn't even know what they're doing yet, so they tried to gauge crowd interest in an attraction based on the recent movie.

The EPCOT announcements that got me most excited were the Guardians coaster, which will likely be record-breaker when it opens. Disney rarely touts records with their attractions, but this might be one of those where they could actually appeal to coaster fans interested in riding on the largest enclosed roller coaster. The reported size of this coaster is likely to make it nearly impossible for any other theme park to match.

I'm also excited about Ratatouille, but wish Disney would just come out and give POVs and photos of the attraction in Paris. Everyone knows this is a clone, and Disney has insinuated as such, so just come out and show us what it will be like. World Showcase has always needed more rides, and this one, almost directly opposite from Frozen, fits in perfectly with the park.

I'm actually excited for the Space Restaurant, but the constant delays worry me. The fact that it's slated to open this "winter", but they haven't even released a menu yet is concerning. They've provided some high level concepts of what will be served here, but it seems odd that they haven't even provided any sort of example menu or the anticipated prices to eat here. I was pretty confident that we would be able to eat here during our trip next January/February, but now I think we're going to be cutting it close.

The rest of the announcements are pretty minor for me, and probably are things that should be updated on a regular basis. Updating movies should be an annual thing at EPCOT, and I never understood why Disney did not invest in providing continually updating movies for the countries.

August 26, 2019, 3:00 PM

1. HarmonioUS - Honestly, I never understood why folks love IllumiNations so much. I didn't visit WDW for the first time until 2016, and I was SO pumped to finally experience it after years of hype. "Underwhelmed" is an understatement. A bottle rocket in a kiddie pool is more entertaining. So, bring on the new show!

2. GotG Cosmic Rewind - nothing to add to Russell's thoughts. Bring it on!

3. Ratatouille - It just sounds like a fantastic ride, and I can't wait to experience it.

August 26, 2019, 3:31 PM

Most anticipated to least anticipated:

1. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind - What can I say, I'm a roller coaster person and this one sounds excellent! This is the ride that is determining my next WDW trip, as I will not visit before it opens.

2. Remy's Ratatouille Adventure - I find Ratatouille one of the more underrated Pixar films, and I've always thought the one in Paris looked good. It may be a clone, but nothing wrong with that if it's a solid ride.

3. HarmonioUS - I thought Illuminations was very good but not spectacular. I don't know that this new show will be better, but I am excited to see what Disney brings to the table this time around.

4. Spaceship Earth - Disney has been hit or miss with ride overhauls recently. Given that this was one of my favorite rides at Epcot, I'm cautiously optimistic, but it's still just a redo of an existing attraction.

5. Space 220 - Interesting concept, but need more details on exactly what will be served here.

6. Cherry Tree Lane - The new area looks nice, but I'm not a big Mary Poppins fan and don't think it's necessary for the park. Plus the ride has been rumored to be cut back from a proper dark ride to just an enclosed flat ride.

7. New movies/shows - These are all approximately tied for me, and I don't have any particular like or dislike for them.

8. Dreamers Point - Much needed, but not really much of an attraction.

9. Journey with Water - Worthless addition with no purpose other than to get Moana into the park.

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