Epcot expands 25th anniversary plans

This sort of goes hand-in-hand with this.

I really wish I could get down there for the anniversary. EPCOT (notice Disney - ITS ALL CAPS) has always been my favorite park.

EPCOT was all caps. Now it's not. No more acronym. :( It reflected the change of EPCOT into just another theme park with non-educational attractions. Animal Kingdom surpassed Epcot as my favorite park as soon as it opened. :)

Always nice to have your symbol attraction at the park walled off for construction during your anniversary celebration :( (for those that don't know, Spaceship Earth is closed until November for a major overhaul. At least they took off the big ugly wand)

I will say, however, that Epcot has come a long way in 25 years. Of the parks at WDW, it used to be the one that was okay to miss. Now, I think it is the one park you DON'T want to miss. The major overhaul of Future World that has been done in the past few years has really made Epcot a lot of fun. Now, if they can start putting attractions into each of the World Showcase countries, I would be happier.

See, I like the World Showcase. But then, I like to eat too. What I found unfortunate on my last visit is what became of The Living Seas. That was a killer attraction back in the day.

Kick - part of that was because the people they had in there before weren't going to do a celebration. They were going to let the anniversary slide by with only minor acknowledgement of it. So the rehab got scheduled and was in place before the change in culture and management opened up the possibility of an actual celebration.

Tim - the change in name also reflected the change in management. As the bean counters got control of Imagineering, so did the marketers. It will be interesting to see if some of those changes are un-done as management gets reshaped.

The other thing about the SSE construction is that Siemens is pushing it to be done this year. It started with the rehab of the post show during the winter, but the ride rehab was going to take 5-6 months which meant that it had to be closed in Oct for the anniversary, over Christmas, or for the 4th of July, they wisely choose the lesser of three evils considering what a people sponge that ride is.

Wow. I actually agree with Jeff on something. :) The Living Seas used to be awesome. The whole Finding Nemo "refurb" just bastardized the attraction. I want the hydrolators back. Those things rocked! There used to be so many cool attractions in Future World and now it's just sorta eh. Soarin' and the refurbed Land are kick a$$. Mission: Space is really cool too. While I love Test Track, I was sad to see the old transportation ride go away. The downfall of Wonders of Life, the removal of the AMAZING pre-show at Universe of Energy and the horrific "refurb" of Journey into Imagination just left a really bad taste in my mouth. I don't think they've ever brought CommuniCore/Innoventions back to the level it was at back in the day either. Instead of doing some massive celebration for the anniversary, I would have rather seen them pump some major cash into bring the luster of EPCOT back.

Give it time Tim. Lasseter's been in just over a year. I say give him some time. We should start to see some great things.

Bring back Star Wars to Spaceship Earth. :)