Disney4me Posted Friday at 03:00 PM Report Share Posted Friday at 03:00 PM Over the last 40+ years, EPCOT has experienced its fair share of massive changes, which have left some essentially abandoned areas of the park needing serious TLC. EPCOT Some of these spaces are completely abandoned, while others do house something… but they fall short of their former glory and/or their potential futures. Wonders of Life Wonders of Life opened to much fanfare at EPCOT in 1989. The pavilion, dedicated to health care, the human body, physical fitness, medicine, and nutrition, was initially a hit thanks to the advanced-for-the-time simulator attraction Body Wars and the popular Cranium Command show. However, as EPCOT evolved with the additions of Test Track, Mission Space, and Soarin’ in the late 90s and early 2000s, its popularity sagged. The Wonders of Life Pavilion The pavilion closed in 2007, and for the next decade was used as a temporary Festival Center during the park’s annual events. In 2019, Disney announced plans to turn the space into the new Play! Pavilion, which would be themed to be an “interactive futuristic city where guests would be able to interact with a variety of Disney characters.” At the time, planned attractions for Play! were announced to include an Animation Academy-like experience where Edna Mode teaches guests to draw, the Hotel Heist interactive game hosted by Zootopia’s Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, an Arcade, a Monorail Mark X, and a water balloon fight video game experience with various Disney characters. ©Wikipedia As with many projects during this period, work on the Play! Pavilion was paused. However, unlike much of the rest of EPCOT’s “reimagining”, work never resumed. In 2023, Disney confirmed that the space was being “reevaluated” and the former Wonders of Life has remained vacant since, a massive “black hole” ironically standing between two space-based attractions: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Mission Space. PLAY! Pavilion Odyssey Restaurant Located between the former Future World and World Showcase, Odyssey has held many roles over EPCOT’s lifespan. During the park’s first decade, the structure was home to The Odyssey Restaurant as well as a center for first aid, lost children, and baby services. The restaurant, which featured a performance stage, closed in 1994, and the building became a flexible private event space for the next two decades. The Odyssey Beginning in 2016, Odyssey was repurposed into a space for EPCOT’s festivals, currently serving as the home of Brew-Wing Lab during EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival, Holiday Hearth Desserts during EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays, Figment’s Imagination Station during EPCOT International Festival of the Arts, and The Citrus Blossom during EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival. Lots of seating! In addition, the pace has hosted temporary exhibitions on EPCOT ’s history and its late 2010s “reimagining.” However, while the space isn’t abandoned in the same model that Wonders of Life is, we can’t help but think that much more could be done with it. The Outpost Located between the World Showcase’s China and Italy Pavilions, the Outpost is an outlier area. It features themed rock work and a small snack bar, all of which seems somewhat temporary in nature… because it was. Refreshment Outpost Originally, the small setup was built the year after the park opened, and was meant to be a placeholder until the planned Equatorial Africa Pavilion was built. The issue? That pavilion was never built — and now likely never will be, thanks to a combination of Animal Kingdom’s existence as well as Disney’s reluctance to add to World Showcase. So, The Outpost stands as an anomaly, a small area, forever a preview to an abandoned project. ©Disney The Former Millennium Village/World Showplace Moving from the (former Future World to World Showcase, our next stop is the former Millennium Village located near the U.K. Pavilion. The centerpiece of the park’s Millennium Celebration, this purpose-built 60,000 square foot area housed exhibits — ranging from small presentations to elaborately themed environments, and even a virtual reality “ride” — showcasing countries that weren’t represented in World Showcase proper, including Brazil, Chile, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Sweden, and others. ©shopDisney The Millennium Village opened in October of 1999 and became quite popular, so much so that many hoped the concept might become a permanent part of EPCOT after the celebrations ended. However, that wasn’t meant to be, as the village closed when the celebration ended in January of 2001. The structure is currently used during Food & Wine and other EPCOT festivals; however, for most of the year, it sits empty and vacant, taking up a World Showcase expansion pad. Germany’s Abandoned Attraction During EPCOT’s design, the Germany Pavilion was meant to include a boat ride attraction based on a cruise down the Rhine River. As described in Disney’s 1976 annual report, the then-scheduled-for-opening-day attraction was to be “… a cruise down Germany’s most famous rivers — the Rhine, the Tauber, the Ruhr, and the Isar. Detailed miniatures of famous landmarks will also be seen, including one of the Cologne Cathedral.” ©Disney The attraction was still on schedule to be built as EPCOT was under construction, to the point where the load/unload portion of the ride’s show building, as well as an entrance gate to the queue, was built at the back of the pavilion. However, budget issues led to the ride being postponed to EPCOT’s “phase 2.” As usual, when a project is pushed ahead in such a way, the attraction was eventually quietly cancelled, and the space still sits abandoned. The Imagination Pavilion Circling back to the World Showcase, we’ve arrived at our final destination: The Imagination Pavilion. While not technically physically abandoned, many would argue that the pavilion and its attractions were abandoned by Disney decades ago. Imagination Pavilion This wasn’t always the case, however. Beginning in 1983, the pavilion had been home to Journey Into Imagination, a tour de force attraction which starred the whimsical scientist Dreamfinder and his purple dragon assistant Figment. The omnimover dark ride took guests on an adventure through the concept of imagination, with the two lead characters as their guide, all set to the iconic song “One Little Spark”. The ride was complemented by a 3D film attraction. Initially, this was Magic Journeys, then the Michael Jackson-starring Captain EO, and finally Honey, I Shrunk the Audience. Things changed in the late 1990s, when Disney closed the iconic attraction thanks to a new deal with then-sponsor Kodak, and it reopened as Journey into YOUR Imagination. The new ride replaced Dreamfinder and Figment with Eric Idle’s Honey, I Shrunk the Audience character Dr. Nigel Channing, and physically changed the ride, shortening the track and removing nearly all of its best-loved elements. Figment Reaction to the ride was so negative that Disney closed the attraction and haphazardly refurbished it into Journey Into Imagination With Figment, a light retheme that jammed Figment into the ride wherever possible. While slightly better than the version it replaced, the ride didn’t hold a candle to the original. For most of the last two decades, fans have clamored for the ride to be refurbished to something close to its former glory, yet Disney has let it sit as is. Meanwhile, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience was replaced by Captain EO (ironically, the film it had replaced over a decade earlier). After that comeback had run its course, the theater became home to a Pixar short film festival and has remained so for the last decade. Will it ever change? Even with EPCOT’s early 2020s “reimagining”, these areas of the park remain underutilized if not essentially abandoned. Stay tuned to DFB for more on the current state of Disney World. My Millennial Mind Is Literally on Fire After Learning That Disney World Used to Have… Join the DFB Newsletter to get all the breaking news right in your inbox! Click here to Subscribe! WE KNOW DISNEY. YOU CAN, TOO. Oh boy, planning a Disney trip can be quite the adventure, and we totally get it! But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE Disney vacation. Whether you're a rookie or a seasoned pro, our insider tips and tricks will have you exploring the parks like never before. So come along with us, and get planning your most magical vacation ever! GET YOUR GUIDE NOW Which of these areas would you most like to see Disney revitalize? Let us know in the comments below.The post 6 Abandoned Places in EPCOT in Desperate Need of Life first appeared on the disney food blog.View the full article Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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