Wait, I Thought EPCOT’s Makeover Was Done?
In 2024, the newly created CommuniCore Hall and Plaza opened.
Soon afterward, park officials proudly proclaimed that EPCOT had finished its sweeping transformation.
CommuniCore Hall
Over the past six weeks, Disney has since declared three different changes coming to the park.
Another biggie occurred in 2025 as well as the refurbishment of another.
EPCOT
So, wait, I thought EPCOT was finished? What’s going on here?
EPCOT Reimagined
Disney’s reinvention of EPCOT didn’t quite work out as planned.
The pandemic in 2020 threw a massive wrench into everything and wrecked a few plans.
Concept art for the Play! pavilion
For example, the PLAY! pavilion project died in 2020, while a three-floor festival pavilion never happened. In its stead, Disney modified its plans and built the CommuniCore Hall & Plaza as a de facto pavilion space.
For those of you who weren’t around then, here’s the presentation from D23 2019:
That’s a promise of a total transformation of EPCOT, with some fascinating new ideas.
EPCOT
I didn’t even like one of them, as Disney would have modified the story at Spaceship Earth.
That’s my favorite attraction in the world, and I’d rather Disney leave it relatively untouched.
This seems like a good time to mention one of the five changes, which has already occurred.
With the Spaceship Earth reboot canceled, Imagineers recently refurbished Spaceship Earth.
You can examine the changes here, but they’re mostly quality-of-life improvements:
At one point, a storytelling light would have tied every scene together. We never got that.
However, we DID get three new attractions and several other changes.
For example, Connections Café & Eatery exists due to this transformation.
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure were created, too.
EPCOT also added a highly unusual and imaginative experience, Journey of Water | Inspired by Moana.
Journey of Water
Most importantly, Disney split EPCOT from Future World into three distinct themed lands.
In the process of carving out World Celebration, World Discovery, and World Nature, Disney redefined the vibe.
Journey of Water – Inspired by Moana
Now, management has finally leaned into the reality that fans want EPCOT to be a hangout park.
So, the reimagining of EPCOT is much about populism as it is the introduction of new attractions.
The Changes Never Stopped
Notably, Disney executives explicitly stated that they deemed EPCOT’s transformation complete.
This happened in 2024 and despite the fact that at least one major project was still ongoing.
That’s what makes the whole thing so fascinating. Disney said it was over, knowing it wasn’t.
In July of this year, Test Track reopened as a kind of spiritual successor to World of Motion.
I often speak fondly of the opening day EPCOT attraction, which I vividly remember from childhood.
Even I can admit that Test Track was better as an attraction from day one, though.
Photo: Disney
So, I deeply admire that Test Track 3.0 embraces its World of Motion roots while augmenting them.
Still, I’m a bit confused why Disney didn’t wait until this summer to claim the end of EPCOT’s transformation.
Of course, had the company waited, the changes would have remained a work-in-progress.
As mentioned, Spaceship Earth also just underwent significant changes.
Disney enhanced the ride by improving several of the Audio-Animatronics, a few of which were long in the tooth.
Imagineers also enhanced the projection in at least the Wooly Mammoth scene.
The audio is undeniably better as well, and some scenes like the one in Egypt seem more realistic.
This plussing of Spaceship Earth clearly isn’t the one Disney intended, but it reinforces a current philosophy.
Disney wants to make every part of the theme park experience better.
So, the company appears to have made a list of all the attractions in need of some love.
Photo: Disney
Now, Disney is systematically targeting these attractions by plussing each one to make them better.
I’d hoped that Imagineers would clean up the back end of the attraction, which is *ahem* dated.
Photo: Disney
That move could still come later, but we’re still talking about two 2025 improvements at the park.
The Next Two
Frozen Ever After
In 2026, Disney will make two more changes. Notably, they’ll occur on some of the park’s most popular rides.
First, Frozen Ever After will close for refurbishment early in the year.
Photo: Disney
Unlike Spaceship Earth, we already know the upgrades coming to Frozen Ever After.
Disney will enhance the Audio-Animatronics on this ride to bring it more in line with others.
Image Credit: Disney
When Frozen Ever After debuted, it featured state-of-the-art robotics.
As the Disney Parks Blog notes, Frozen Ever After featured several modern innovations.
Photo: Disney
The ride was “the first attraction to have all-electric Audio-Animatronics figures, and the first to combine electric motors and 3D printing.”
That article explains some of the challenges Imagineers faced in designing the ride.
Disney
For starters, Disney needed to find ways to hide the wires in plain sight.
These are the types of things where people come up with better ideas over time.
Photo: Disney
That’s why World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland features a better version of Frozen Ever After.
Rather than allow the original EPCOT version of the ride stagnate, Disney is doing something about the disparity.
Credit: Good Morning America
I commend park officials for being proactive about this sort of thing, as Disney wasn’t earlier this century.
Countless attractions failed to improve for an extended period of time.
(Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
That behavior violates Walt Disney’s stated expectation for the Imagineers who came afterward.
Recently, Disney has honored that wish, and it will do so again next summer.
In a move Uncle Walt would have loved, Disney will add a patriotic version of Soarin’.
While Disney hasn’t clarified how temporary/permanent the move will be, we know it’s coming.
Soarin’ Across America will debut in time for America’s 250th anniversary.
This version of the ride will fall somewhere on the spectrum between Soarin’ Over California and Soarin’ Around the World.
Will EPCOT Ever Be Done?
In total, that’s five attractions introduced or plussed since the ostensible completion of EPCOT’s redesign.
More are likely in the offing, too. Rumors about a new version of Figment have percolated for years.
As I discussed in this month’s Disney Rumors, something may be happening with Wonders of Life as well.
More importantly, the timeline suggests that EPCOT will get more additions at some point in the mid-term.
Photo: Disney
In 2032, this park celebrates its 50th anniversary. I’m confident Disney will do something special for that.
So, the alleged completion of EPCOT’s 21st century transformation strikes me as illusory.
This park, like every other Disney theme park, will never quite stay the same.
As long as Imagineers can make EPCOT and every other theme park better, they will.
Disney’s saying that the project was complete was an overstatement about what’s happening here.
Photo: MickeyBlog
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