Although we Disney fans love to complain about the stagnant state of the Florida parks, Disney is always tweaking and changing the park’s dining, attraction and entertainment mixes. They also make larger changes, but less frequently, of course.
Here are some announced upcoming changes coming to EPCOT along with some rumors of possible projects:
Frozen is coming to World Showcase
Not only is a Frozen themed boat ride taking over the Norway pavilion, but a new meet and greet location will be coming to the previously vacant land between the Norway pavilion and Mexico. Learn more about that project here.
New sponsored exhibit for Innoventions
Glidden Paint has been announced as a new sponsor of an exhibit called Colortopia. While they didn’t announce which side this would be on, my guess is West. The East side is completely shut down right now, while Innoventions West does have a couple operating exhibits.
New Future World Marketplaces for Food and Wine
For the first time Food booths from the Food and Wine Festival will be located in Future World. Technically they have offered food at the Odyssey building before, but why quibble, it’s food and wine, just have a drink.
Third theater for Soarin’ and possible new film
Construction is currently underway on a third theater for Soarin’ in The Land Pavilion. It will, hopefully, provide some much needed relief for an attraction that always has a very long standby queue.
The big question is will the long rumored new film debut with the new theater? We recently learned that Shanghai Disneyland will have a new film “Soarin Over the Horizon” which will focus on famous landmarks around the world. Expect to get a tweaked version of that film for EPCOT. We shold hear more about this at D23 Expo.
Below are some recently rumored changes coming to EPCOT
Inside Out
The success of Inside Out has lead to some very recent rumors that Disney would rush an attraction into the parks to capitalize on its popularity.
It seems like a perfect fit for the former Cranium Command attraction inside the Wonder of Life pavilion. However, given how Disney uses that venue for events and the very low capacity of that attraction, there is another possibility – the Imagination pavilion.
Whether that would be a total makeover of the ‘Journey Into Imagination with Figment’ ride or just a new movie for the Magic Eye Theater remains to be seen.
Illuminations
Word is that the laser light and firework show that caps each night at EPCOT will be getting a makeover. It’s been a very long time since the last serious makeover of this show. They’re still playing the exit music from the Millennial Celebration 15 years ago. Alas, the Disney Imagineers who would be involved in this project recently denied it is coming, so don’t get your hopes up. Good news, the current show, while old is still very good.
A new Country?
Sadly, as much as I want to give credence to rumors that a new country is coming, I just don’t see it happening. The one that was sort of ‘unofficially’ announced last year is Puerto Rico, but given the state of their economy (think Greece), I don’t see that happening.
What other changes would you like to see happen at EPCOT?
More countries!
Much as I love “Frozen” and “Inside Out”, I hate the idea of mixing movies in with EPCOT attractions. This kind of blurs the line between what should be in the Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT. It takes away from what made EPCOT special. Love the injection of new stuff into Innoventions though.
Absolutely agree. I want to leave Future World excited about the future. Keep characters at meet & greets and/or at restaurants, but move them out of the pavilions entirely. They’re detracting from EPCOT’s profoundly unique potential.
I think you’re absolutely right, Kai!
Bring back Journey Into Imagination. Or just gut the building completely to add a state of the art dark ride similar to Pooh’s Honey Hunt from TDL. As the ride stands now, it is an embarrassment compared to what “could” and should be in that space.
Would love to see an extended version of the people mover put together at EPCOT. Could COVER the whole park. That would be great!
I’d be on board for that
It is interesting to me….people use the blurring of lines argument and never protest the appearance of all the princesses in the WC. To me, that is instilling movies into the world.
Trey, I have to ask — where are there princesses in the bathrooms? (A “WC” is what more Europeans call the restroom.) What at Epcot has the acronym WC? Future World is FW, World Showcase is WS, Wonders of Life is WOL, etc. I’m not following your point, so I don’t know what there would be for anyone to protest.
I would love to see some new countries come in. I’ve heard that there are plenty more spaces available and even though it doesn’t seem like it when there, you can still see lots of green around World Showcase.
Need to see the all the circle vision theaters updated to at least digital projection. The tech is out there to make it seamless, no black bars between screens. My dream, 3D circle vision seamless theaters. The tech is out there to do it, but they will need to re-shoot.
More countries. Brazil, Argentina, Australia, Ireland.
Inside Out at Wonders of Life? Sure. Anything to resurrect that pavilion. It’s not much different than Cranium Command. Just add extra characters for the other body parts and you’re good to go. WOL was always one of my favorites. We could use more health conscious rides considering the obesity epidemic…and more Yanni. lol
Keep Figment! We love that ride! It’s bad enough they got rid of Mr. Toad’s Wild ride!
I would love to see more countries, specifically Ireland, Scotland, Brazil or South Africa!
I would like to see one side of Innoventions used for start-ups to present their ideas and allow guests to contribute to their crowdfunding efforts. The other side could be a rotating display of school kids Science Fair projects with a stage area to be used for STEM talks that could be live streamed. I’m sure Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye could provide some great ideas to the Imagineers for a project like this.
Love the idea of adding crowdfunded startup display booths. It would keep a constant flow of new stuff at Innoventions.
I can’t imagine very many people spending money to go to Epcot and then spending time to watch streamed STEM talks. I mean, my son and I love watching STEM talks, but I’m not going to pay admission to Disney to watch them when I can watch them for free on the web.
I also don’t mind Disney discretely adding characters to World Showcase. When my kids were little, World Showcase was their least favorite place at Disney and one of my favorites. It was a struggle to find things to engage 2-3 year olds. As they’ve gotten older, they’ve grown to appreciate it. But, I think it’s not a bad thing to make it a little more kid friendly when it’s tastefully done. (Don’t care for the Mexico ride, for instance).
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