It’s fairly common knowledge that I’m a big fan of the classic EPCOT Center park. I often go on (and on, and on) about Horizons, or about why Journey Into Imagination has sucked ever since they took out Dreamfinder, and I’ve complained about the inclusion of movie-based attractions like the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy ride. Don’t even get me started on my thoughts about Frozen in Norway. Every change to EPCOT over the last several years has been met with intense scrutiny, and I’ve been convinced for a long time that each decision Disney management has made just gets the park further away from its original vision. Basically, I want the park to be what it was when I was growing up, and it’s not, so they’re obviously doing it wrong.

Not long ago, though, I realized how tired I was of constantly fighting this (losing) battle. It was just making me grouchy, which was then making it harder for me to enjoy what was left and to be excited about what was to come. I finally admitted to myself that, unfortunately, the park has been in decline for years. So, I resolved to be much more optimistic about the future of EPCOT. With a huge transformation on the way that’ll be making sweeping changes to the park, I decided that a shiny new EPCOT–even one with stuff I don’t necessarily agree with–has to be better than the rather sad park that we have now.

It hasn’t been easy. We’re losing a few things in this transformation, which can be tough to swallow. Club Cool, the weird little spot where you can get free samples of Coke products from around the world (including the infamous Beverly, which to me tastes like the stuff I had to drink before my colonoscopy), is shutting down. So is the Fountain View Starbucks, the Camera Center, and the Character Spot meet & greet location in Innoventions (as well as Innoventions). In addition, the Fountain of Nations — the big fountain in the central hub of Future World — is going away. While it’s been said that Club Cool and Starbucks will actually return in new locations, the rest are likely gone forever.

At the 2019 D23 Expo in Anaheim, during the Parks & Resorts panel, Disney finally unveiled more of their plans for EPCOT. Up until now we’ve had only a few announcements, and a lot of snippets and rumors, to go on. Now, however, we’ve got a much better view of what’s to come. At first I did feel some of that same “Disney is doing it wrong!” mentality creeping in, and that they just didn’t “get” what the park was supposed to be. That they were just ruining everything (there may have been some foot stomping, arm crossing, and pouting involved). I stepped back, though, and tried to see everything with fresh eyes. Now, I have to say that I’m actually excited about a lot of what’s to come.

So what was announced, and what do I think about it all? Let’s take a (mostly optimistic) trip to the future (of EPCOT)!

Future World will soon be a thing of the past. Rather than be divided into “Future World” and “World Showcase”, the park will be divided into four sections called neighborhoods. Each one will feature attractions based around their particular theme, not unlike the lands in Magic Kingdom.

World Showcase will remain and become one of these four neighborhoods, with Future World being divided up into World Discovery, World Celebration, and World Nature.

There’s definitely a nostalgic attachment to “Future World” for me, but I’m curious to see how these neighborhoods get themed. I do hope that it all still retains at least some of the futuristic vibe, though, since that’s part of what sets EPCOT apart from the other parks and I think is at the core of the park’s overarching theme. It’ll be interesting, too, to see if the current attractions that are staying (like The Land) get any sort of facelifts to fit within the new theming. Honestly, Future World hasn’t really been futuristic for a while, and aside from the nostalgia factor I’m pretty OK with this. Having distinct theming in different areas actually sounds pretty good to me. Though I do wonder who chose those clunky names. Do you think that guests are going to say “let’s start in World Celebration, go to World Discovery, and then cut across to World Nature!” or do you think they’ll just be saying the second part in all of those? We’ll see, I guess.

Let’s break down the new announcements by area, then, shall we? We shall!

World Celebration

Spaceship Earth will be a part of World Celebration, and we’ll be seeing a big renovation of the entire entrance plaza (which has already started with the removal of the Leave-A-Legacy monoliths) which claims to “pay homage to the origins of EPCOT”. I don’t know what that means exactly, but it’s certainly a neat sound bite. There will also be a new structure that has three levels, with a plaza and a new festival center taking up two of those. The top level will be an open-air park, which I’ll bet will be home to an upcharged dessert party for watching fireworks.

Spaceship Earth was an opening day attraction. Taking guests through the history of communication, the slow dark ride “in the giant ball” has been more or less unchanged since 1982, other than some new narration now and again. Which is all about to change. Except for the part about being in the giant ball. And probably the slow dark ride part. But everything else is changing. The attraction is going to no longer be about technology through the ages, but about storytelling. Bob Chapek, who was presenting this at the D23 Expo, did say that “many of the scenes that you know and love will remain” while also bringing new ideas and technology into the experience. As he was talking, the familiar caveman scene played on a screen behind him, but projections were happening on the walls of the cave. There’ll be a completely new narration, as well as a “Story Light” who will act as a sort of guide through these tales.

One thing that has fans concerned, though, is the inclusion of intellectual properties (meaning movie characters) into the mix. That’s been an ongoing sticking point for fans anyway, and the idea of franchises making their way into this classic attraction has made a lot of folks upset. While Chapek didn’t actually come out and say that it’s going to become a ride about a bunch of Disney characters, while he was talking the glowing manta ray (Grandmother Tala’s spirit form) from Moana was shown. This naturally led to speculation about the inclusion of IP, though nothing has been confirmed. Not even the schedule of closing/reopening has been officially announced.

Here’s the thing, though: Spaceship Earth was tired. As much as I love it, as a fan even I have to admit that it’s seen better days. Plus, storytelling is a form of communication (and let’s not forget that the beloved IllumiNations was about storytelling), so it could all work out wonderfully. If it’s sorta the same ride, but with new technology and a new focus on stories rather than simply communication through history, it could be really cool. Yes, if it becomes just a dumping ground for scenes starring Disney characters I will be quite disappointed, and there will be much proclaiming of my displeasure on Twitter. It could all go very wrong. It could, however, go very right and become something new and wonderful.

Whatever happens, they still better thank the Phoenicians, and also keep that sleeping monk. I’m just sayin’.

There will be a new exit from Spaceship Earth called Dreamer’s Point, which (based on concept art and the description) will be elevated to allow guests a view of the other areas. There will also be a new statue, honoring Walt Disney. The original idea of a futuristic community was Walt’s dream, but of course it eventually became the EPCOT park instead. Now, he’ll have a presence in that park.

Also, I hope that those fiber optic sidewalks stay in some fashion. I think the current ones are getting torn out to make way for the changes, but hopefully they’ll return. There’s something wonderful about them.

World Nature

The World Nature area will include existing attractions The Land and The Seas with Nemo & Friends, and it sounds (so far) like they’ll be largely unchanged. The Land is getting a new movie, though, called “Awesome Planet”, starting in January of 2020. The film “showcases the spectacular beauty, diversity and dynamic story of our Earth”. Parts of the film were created by the FX wizards at Industrial Light & Magic, and the theater will have special effects in it. This new movie will likely go into the space that previously housed the Lion King Environmental Fable (and Food Rocks before that, and Kitchen Kabaret before that). It does, in fact, sound pretty awesome. I mean, maybe not a “veggie veggie fruit fruit” level of awesome, but still pretty darned cool.

World Nature will also be the home of the very first Moana attraction. Called Journey of Water, it’s going to be a thing in which guests interact with “living” water. Yeah, I’m not sure what that means either. It’ll be a walkthrough, that much we know, and my suspicion is that it will be a replacement for the jumping fountains that have been in the park forever. The concept art showed fountains amid lush greenery, but until more details are released it’s not entirely clear what any of it will actually be. Even a grumpy old EPCOT Center purist like myself, though, thinks that walking through this pretty environment sounds better than the stark cement that we’re used to. Plus, I’m of the mind that more water features in a park is never a bad thing.

World Discovery

The upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster, which has been officially named Cosmic Rewind, will be found in this neighborhood. It claims to be a “storytelling coaster” with vehicles that rotate 360 degrees throughout the ride to focus on scenes, and it will feature a backwards launch. I’ve been salty about this attraction since it was announced at the last D23 Expo, simply because I was angry for a long time about comic book heroes replacing an edutainment attraction (even if that attraction was Ellen’s Energy Adventure, which was pretty lame). I do know that one of the early story hooks was that Peter Quill (Starlord) had visited EPCOT Center in the 80s and loved it, and I’ve heard that many folks involved in the creation of the new ride are also fans of the classic park, so I’ll bet that there’ll be plenty of nods to old attractions. I still think that it’s a stretch and that it doesn’t necessarily belong in EPCOT, but who knows. Maybe it’ll all be fine and I’ve been totally overreacting this whole time. Maybe I was right and everything will be terrible. I guess we won’t know until it opens.

Then again… is Guardians of the Galaxy an better or worse of a fit than a 3D movie starring Michael Jackson and some puppets that fly around through space and save planets with the power of pop music? I loved Captain EO, but it wasn’t exactly educational. Entertainment for entertainment’s sake isn’t a bad thing, and it’s hardly a new concept in EPCOT.

Mission: SPACE will also be a part of World Discovery (which I suppose is pretty obvious). Its pavilion will be expanded with a space-themed restaurant called Space 220, called such because it’s meant to be 220 miles above the Earth. Guests will get there via elevator (maybe a new version of the old Living Seas hydrolators, or maybe a real elevator that probably goes way less than 220 miles up), and the view out the windows will be of outer space and the Earth far below. The restaurant will open in Winter of this year (provided you’re reading this in 2019).

Also new to the park, found in World Discovery, is going to be the Play! Pavilion. Because Disney does love putting punctuation in their attraction names, like Fantasmic! and Toy Story Mania!

Going in the former Wonders of Life building, and designed as a futuristic metropolis (at least that’s what the cool concept art makes it look like), the Play! Pavilion will be a place all about interactivity. Games, activities, experiences, and meet & greets (both real and virtual, whatever that means) will be part of this new area. While there’s not a ton of details yet, it’s been revealed that a game involving Edna Mode from The Incredibles as well as one featuring characters from the (absolutely amazing) TV series DuckTales will be a part of the pavilion. The timeframe for all this is unknown, other than that it’ll be open for Walt Disney World’s 50th anniversary in 2021. I’ll definitely be checking it out, because it’ll have DuckTales. It also sounds kind of like a modern version of the old Innoventions, which was basically a huge hands-on technological play area.

World Showcase

The United Kingdom pavilion will be getting an expansion themed to Cherry Tree Lane in Mary Poppins. This new section of the pavilion will have an attraction (which was announced by Dick Van Dyke at the Expo, which isn’t relevant but is really neat). Nothing is known about what sort of attraction it’ll be yet — not even whether it’s a ride or a show — but it’s still exciting. Also unknown is whether it’ll be based on the original film or the much more recent Mary Poppins Returns, though one piece of concept art did look like a scene from the new one. Still, this is really cool news. World Showcase often gets bashed for just being mostly shops and restaurants with not a lot of attractions, and this is another step on the way to changing that.

Also coming to World Showcase: a Ratatouille ride coming to the France pavilion, a new French restaurant, a Beauty and the Beast singalong (again, in France), all opening in 2020. Also, the Canada pavilion will be getting a new movie, “Canada Far And Wide” and the China pavilion will also be getting a new film called “Wondrous China”. It certainly does seem like there’s going to be a lot more to do in World Showcase that’s not just shopping and drinking. Now there’s shopping and drinking and new attractions!

IllumiNations, the nighttime show that has taken place on the World Showcase Lagoon for almost twenty years, will be ending on September 30th of this year. We knew this already, and we also knew that it would be temporarily replaced (starting on October 1st) by a show called “EPCOT Forever” that would feature music from the park’s history. What we now know is what will be coming after that. Expected to start in May of 2020, the new show — HarmonioUS — claims to be the largest nighttime spectacular that Disney has ever created. Featuring floats, fountains, pyrotechnics, lasers, and more, the show will be set to Disney music that has been reinterpreted by artists from around the world. I’m sad about IllumiNations leaving (it’s been around for almost half my life), and admittedly the idea of yet another show just revolving around Disney tunes raises my hackles a bit. However, it’ll probably be very pretty, and it’s possible that this idea of the music being “reinterpreted” could fit within the idea of World Showcase. If it has a story that transcends just “hey, look at all these neat Disney characters”, then I’ll be very happy. If not, then I suppose I’ll just go on rides while the crowd is watching the show. I also think that typing out HarmonioUS (with their capitalization) will get old really fast.

There are still things that haven’t been revealed about the new EPCOT. Test Track hasn’t come up, though I’d be surprised if it sees much of a change. We know that the Mouse Gears gift shop and the Electric Umbrella restaurant are getting renovated, but we don’t know in what ways or if they’ll even keep those names. There was also no mention of Journey Into Imagination, nor of the future of beloved character Figment. Right now, some fans are hesitantly taking a “no news is good news” stance, as there was no announcement about him leaving, but it also seems unlikely that the janky old attraction will have a place in this flashy new park. Will it get refurbished but still be a whimsical Figment-centric ride? Will it get gutted and become something film based? Nobody seems to know yet. Obviously, many of us hope that the purple dragon will stick around, and maybe even get reunited with his pal Dreamfinder in some new version of the attraction. Disney has to know about the huge cult fandom that Figment still has, and that we want him to always have a home in EPCOT. Until we get an official announcement, though, it’s all just speculation and hope.

Being the little futurist nerd that I was as a kid (as opposed to the bigger futurist nerd that I am now), EPCOT represented a physical way to experience the stuff that I had only seen in science fiction. I was immediately taken with the park’s aesthetic, and to me it offered a tangible look at the future. I’m not even just talking about the attractions — EPCOT itself was a manifestation of the world that I wanted to live in. It wasn’t the living city that Walt envisioned, true, but it was still a place devoted to the future and to the real human experience. It’s something that I’ve kept clinging to, long after what made me fall in love with the park has gone away. I miss the educational entertainment that it offered — the history of transportation, possibilities of the future, etc. — that was truly unique and special. I’m still not convinced that they need to be throwing a bunch of movie characters in there, but I don’t know if I ever will be at this point (though, I did write a post about some great options they probably haven’t considered).

EPCOT Center inspired me as a kid, and that inspiration helped shape the adult that I became. So rather than just pine for things that are gone, like I’ve been doing for a long time, I took a step back and considered it all with fresh eyes. Who am I to say that one of these new attractions won’t do the same for a child now? It’s easy to discount the Moana attraction as just another thing based on a movie that’s killing the soul of the park, but what if a kid gets inspired to help save the planet’s natural beauty? What if a roller coaster featuring a talking raccoon inspires a new generation of writers and comic book artists so that science fiction entertainment can continue? What if wanting to see Norway, because Arendelle in Frozen was based on it, encourages world travel? Maybe a park about the future is a hard thing to maintain, simply because it ends up outdated so quickly, and it’s time for a different approach. Maybe it’s time for me to accept that I got what I needed from the park that was, and now it’s someone else’s turn to get something out of the park that will be.

The fact is, I’m excited that I’ll be able to eat in outer space, to interact with a futuristic playground, to journey through water, to see how storytelling has evolved throughout the ages, and even (still rather grudgingly) go on an adventure with comic book heroes. Most of these announced changes sound really cool, and I can’t wait to see them come to life. As much as I enjoyed the edutainment, and as much as I’ll always miss what the park was and what it meant to me, it does sound like this new version of the park is going to be a lot of fun… and isn’t fun ultimately why we go to theme parks?

So, for me, it all comes down to this: I can be optimistic and even excited about the new experiences that the park is going to offer, or I can continue to be grumpy and bitter about what’s no longer there. If those are my options, well, I think I’m going to give the optimism thing a try.

After all, isn’t being optimistic about the future what EPCOT Center inspired me to do?