Hot Take: Epcot, Are You Okay?

Let me preface this by saying I adore Epcot. There’s nothing quite like grabbing a margarita from Mexico and walking around the World Showcase. You can peek into gift shops and try new foods. It’s like a separate vacation inside of a vacation! And with attractions like Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Frozen Ever After, and Soarin’, there’s no shortage of thrills either. However, I would be remiss if I didn’t point out Epcot’s obvious identity crisis.

I’m in my twenties, so trust me I know what I’m talking about. Our dear Epcot is not to blame. Epcot has trouble knowing what it is because it was never built as Walt Disney intended it to be.

Epcot was Walt’s vision of an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, and it’s what excited him most about the Florida Project. The idea was to bring together the brightest people in the world to “live, work, and play.” Walt wanted to make a utopian city with state-of-the-art technology and modern urban planning that would be unlike anything people had seen before.

Unfortunately, this idea fell by the wayside when Walt passed away in 1966. In order to become more marketable for tourists, but still pay tribute to Walt, Epcot would become a theme park representing a permanent World’s Fair. This resulted in the former two sides of the park: World Showcase and Future World. This is the Epcot that many of us grew up visiting, and it will always hold a special place in my heart.

But this version is also not quite right. A World’s Fair occurs every five years. Even though the theme is a “permanent” World’s Fair, it stands to reason that whatever was built would grow more outdated as the years passed. This is the same issue that we encounter with Tomorrowland, as it is the world of tomorrow as imagined from the 1960s, and we don't have vacations to other planets as Space Mountain would suggest.

In order to mimic this cultural event, the park would have to be updated just as often. Sure, new pavilions were designed, but they were also abandoned due to a variety of cultural/financial reasons. It wasn’t until the D23 Expo in 2019 that major plans to reimagine Epcot were revealed.

Part of this involved adding Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure from Disneyland Paris to the France pavilion and adding a… prominent... barge in the lagoon for a new nighttime show, Harmonious (just look at the pictures and you’ll understand my trauma).

The other, more extensive part, involved a complete overhaul of Future World. Three new areas would be built: World Discovery, World Nature and World Celebration. The World Discovery “neighborhood” would include the new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind attraction and the Space 220 restaurant. World Nature would incorporate the existing Seas with Nemo and Friends/The Land areas and would add a walkthrough attraction called Moana’s Journey of Water. World Celebration would update the area around Spaceship Earth to include a Festival Center and a new entrance with more greenery.

All of this sounds great, but also familiar. What is World Nature if not Animal Kingdom? What is World Discovery if not Tomorrowland? These are ideas from other parks that complicate the already confusing identity of this park. And while the artist’s renderings promised a great deal, we all knew that 1/5 of what was planned would actually to fruition. I'm talking about you, CommuniCore Hall. It looks like a forgotten cafeteria.

Additionally, parents have also long complained that Epcot doesn’t cater to children. Similar to Disney Springs, Florida locals use Epcot as a hub for dinner and drinks. And thousands of tourists descend upon the World Showcase for the booziest ball of the season: The International Food and Wine Festival. So, Epcot is now trying to cater to kids by things like the ¡Celebración Encanto! show, even though it’s primarily a theme park more enjoyed by adults?

Clearly, there is still some cohesive element missing. I would also love to see Epcot expand with more pavilions. Think of what could be done with pavilions for India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Portugal, Argentina, Brazil, Greece and more! Even more importantly, there are many people who don’t see themselves represented in the World Showcase and that contradicts what this park is supposed to embrace: different cultures.

What do you think of Epcot's reimagining? Did it deliver? Tell us below!