The Orlando Sentinel reports on expanded plans for observing EPCOT’s 25th Anniversary on October 1st. After the former park VP announced there would be no public observance of the date, fans took it upon themselves to organize events at the park that weekend. Now, the park is coming through with a ceremony, a new exhibit, and some other ‘retro’ takes on souvenirs, maps, and more.
MacPhee, one of Epcot’s original employees from 1982 [and the new Epcot vice president, ed.], said the anniversary is still focused on employees, particularly the 300 who both opened the park and still work there. That effort began earlier this month, with various commemorative decorations, giveaways and employee recognitions.
"We’ve always planned to celebrate the 25th anniversary for our cast. It began to evolve very quickly as we focused on what a great milestone it is," MacPhee said. "It’s great. I love the fact that people have such huge passion about what we’re doing."
That’s incredible that there are still 300 original cast members still working at EPCOT Center. It’s even more amazing that the new park VP is one of them. Glad to see they’re getting some much deserved attention during this celebration. I hope they’re all brought out on stage at some point during the ceremony on the 1st so we can get a photo of them together.
Are any The Disney Blog readers planning on being at Epcot on the 1st? Perhaps we should get together too. (Read)
I am sooooo there! It’s my first trip back to WDW since 2005. What am I most excited about? Epcot’s 25th Anniversary naturally! I went with my parents to EPCOT Center back in the summer of 1982 when there was optimisim about the future and technology was going to enhance our lives. Today’s Epcot has the merest glimmer, but then that’s what the park was always about – hope!
What would I like to see?
A new pavilion replacing the Wonders Of Life. I still think there is “life” in a pavilion focusing on health science especially considering health care is one of the fastest growing industries in this country.
While Test Track certainly pushed the boundaries of logistics and computing power, it does not offer a look at the future of transportation. Mission Space does to some degree, but I think there’s a (future?) Imagineer that has an awesome, non-nauseating, experience in them that will give us the sense of flying cars or teleportation. Contact me for details! :) I wanna travel like Skippy from Alien Encounter – just not quite so singed!
An industry that Disney hasn’t tackled to my knowledge – fashion! Fashion is a huge industry these days and to see cutting edge wearable fashions as well as potential future materials for furniture (how about shirts with scrolling messages on the torso; organic materials for furniture; Tron costumes!). Bring back the House Of The Future! :)
Another industry that is growing is weather science. The Land and The (Living) Seas touches on weather to a small degree, but there are ALL kinds of opportunities for an experience/ride here.
Finally, Future World East needs a Garden Grille-style restaurant in Mission Space with a space theme. The restaurant slowly rotates as families dine under spectacular views of nebulae, quasars and galaxies (oh, my!).
As for World Showcase, just fulfill the promise of new countries. While Europe does have cultures that many American tourists can relate to, I’d like to see Peru, India, Egypt, Thailand, Australia, Kenya, Brazil, Qatar, Dubai, etc. I loved the Millenium Village where countries could participate at Epcot without the tremendous long-term investment of sponsoring a full-blown pavilion.
My hope for Epcot’s next 25 years will be to reclaim its uniqueness displaying an optimistic future.
We’ll be there – luckily our 15th anniversary trip is coinciding with the Epcot 25th on the 1st. Maybe we’ll be able to get together this time? We haven’t been to WDW since we were all there in 2004.
I will be there with the Celebration 25 fans, who, I believe, at last count, had more than 1000 already registered to attend.
Zz.
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