One Week Till Disney Trip

So it is exactly one week till we leave for Orlando and spend a whole week (9 days to be exact) at Walt Disney World. I am extremely looking forward to this trip because of all the things we will be doing that are new or haven't done before. We had never done the Food and Wine Festival, so this will be something we'd like to experience. Of course, there's the Epcot 25th Anniversary on Oct. 1st. We will be joining the festivities with the Celebration 25 people on both Sept. 30 and Oct 1st. Since we're also signed up for the evening Illuminations Dessert reception, we hope to get to attend, during the day, the talk by Marty Sklar. That would certainly be the highlight of this trip.

Then, as if that's not enough, we will be attending the Mickey Not So Scary Halloween Party on the evening of Oct. 4th. I'm doing to dress up as a Chef/Cook, which is in-themed with Ratatouille.

I've been catching up with a lot of Epcot's history, and the beginnings of the park. I've been reading this large coffee-table book titled "Walt Disney's Epcot Center - Creating the New World of Tomorrow". The book was produced only a year after Epcot opened, so there's a lot of historical notes and pictures of what it was like back then when it was still known as Epcot Center.



It is interesting to note that with the approaching anniversary, and the rumors that Epcot may revert back to its original name of "Epcot Center", many Disney fans are urging the park to go back to its "original roots" or mission, or soul, whatever you call it. And my question is, what "original soul", or rather, which one?

Walt envisioned it as a park where innovations and future products are part of what people can learn. He didn't envisioned World Showcase, and certainly not in the same theme park. So when Epcot Center really opened 25 years ago, its "soul" is the future plus something resembling a world's fair. Thus, when people want the current Epcot to go back to its soul, what exactly do they want it to go back to, Walt's original vision, or the one that opened back in 1982? It would be almost impossible and highly impractical to transform Epcot to Walt's original vision. You'll either have to split Future World from World Showcase, or move World Showcase elsewhere. I don't see this happening. And if going back to its soul means going back to what we had back in 1982, I'm not so sure I'm in favor of that!

I fell in love with the park as in its present version, not the one back then. And if we were go to by the theme park attendance statistics, with Epcot being the 3rd or 4th most attended theme park in the world, I'd say a lot of people feel the same way as well. Has it kinda lost a little bit of its aim? Sure! No one is arguing with that. But attraction like Soarin' and Finding Nemo are bringing the crowds in. In fact, Soarin' was voted as the most favorite attraction in the first ever Zagat Survey of WDW. So this certainly isn't anything to sneeze at.

There are plenty of underused areas of Epcot (Innoventions, the old Odyssey building) that can stand an infusion of modern and future-looking technology and science. These are enhancement that would bring Epcot into a more distinct focus with some of what Walt had in mind. But I think that there's no going back. It's never going to be what he imagined it to be. All that can be done is make it as good as it can be with what it is now. Your kids will never turn out the way you intended or imagined. You just have to give them everything you can and just love them for what they are. So love Epcot for what it has become, one terrific place to visit.

Zz.