Join Theme Park Vacations in Wishing EPCOT a Happy Birthday!
History
Opening October 1, 1982, EPCOT was originally planned on being an actual community celebrating technological achievements and world culture. This was to be call the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (E.P.C.O.T.) A community that was always pushing technological advancement, never settling for the status quo. As designs came together a different idea came to the forefront and the evolution of EPCOT transitioned to Walt Disney World’s second theme park. At 305 acres EPCOT is more than triple the footprint of Magic Kingdom. With a visitor count of 12+ million, it has the 4th most visitors in the USA and 7th most visitors in the world among all theme parks.
Beginning in the 1990s EPCOT began offering festivals to bolster attendance. EPCOT International Festival of the Arts runs from January to February and showcasing visual, performing, and culinary arts. In the spring, running from March to July, what else would we be celebrating but EPCOT International Flower and Garden featuring amazing floral and garden designs such as Disney characters comprise of flowers and shrubbery. Our favorite festival is up next, EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival runs from July to November. This festival features many smaller “pop-up” food and snack stands celebrating foods from around the world. We have had bao buns, tacos, lobster rolls, and melted Alpine Swiss cheese with ham and potatoes. Many of these booths offer lower cost and smaller sized dishes allowing you to eat a large variety of dishes from around the world. Finally, the festival and calendar year wraps up in November and December with the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays celebrating decorations and holiday festivities from around the world.
Evolution and Reimagination of EPCOT
Originally designed to be part futuristic themed and part a celebration or world culture. EPCOT had stayed true to that for about 3 decades. In 2016, Disney announced EPCOT would undergo a multi-billion-dollar reimagination and we ended up with a perpetual construction site affectionately (or not so affectionately) referred to as Wall-Cot. As we are approaching the end of the Wall-Cot era, we are seeing the results of the reimagining. We are now beginning to see the three distinct regions of what used to be Future World of EPCOT: World Celebration, World Discovery, and World of Nature as well as the World Showcase which largely remained without major overhaul. World Showcase is the largest neighborhood of this theme park allowing visitors to “explore the world” set-up as 11 different segments each representing a country of the world. Visitors can immerse themselves in the environment, décor, sounds and aromas, and food of these countries and a smaller representation of some other countries depending on the time of year you visit.
Future of the Futuristic Theme Park
As you can see, although EPCOT has undergone some major changes, its focus remains on world culture and technological and human advancement. As the redesign is winding down, we can’t help but wonder what new changes are in store for the future of EPCOT. Disney is certainly on the right path. Could we see the DREAMFINDER join Figment? What will Test Track 3.0 be like? Any other plans to bring more Marvel Cinematic Universe to Florida? All we can do is wait and see. We never make a Walt Disney World vacation without at least one visit to EPCOT and the world showcase. We can help you book or plan your perfect EPCOT theme park vacation.
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