Epcot Part 5: World Showcase West

Continuing to make our way around World Showcase, we come next to a pavilion that over the years has been rumored to be getting more attractions than any other. The Japan pavilion has a very popular sit-down restaurant in Teppan Edo, an equally popular counter service restaurant, and a very large retail space, but one thing that the pavilion has always lacked is some type of ride. When Epcot was in its planning stages there were plans to create a replica of an attraction found at Tokyo Disneyland called Meet The World, which can best be described as the Japanese equivalent of Carousel of Progress. Over the years there have been other rumors of a Bullet Train simulator taking guests across the Japanese countryside as well as a Mount Fuji rollercoaster.

My plan for the Japan pavilion would draw upon these never-realized ideas. Epcot does already have a couple of thrill rides with Mission Space and Test Track, but one thing the park is lacking is a rollercoaster. For this reason, I think that the Mount Fuji coaster would be a perfect fit for the park. One can argue that Disney already has enough mountain-themed rollercoasters, but each one has its own unique theming, details, and identity. I am envisioning this coaster to be along the lines of the Matterhorn at Disneyland or Big Thunder Mountain at Magic Kingdom in terms of both the ride experience and thrill level. Guests would travel both inside and outside the mountain from its base to the snowy summit, passing through caves, past waterfalls, and even narrowly escaping an avalanche.



Not only would this rollercoaster add a much needed attraction to the pavilion, but it would also make the pavilion even more visually stunning.



In addition to the Mount Fuji coaster, I would also add the long talked-about Bullet Train simulator.



With this attraction, guests would feel as though they were entering into the car of a train only the windows would be replaced with high-definition screens that would display beautiful images of the Japanese countryside. Guests would travel past some of Japan’s amazing natural wonders, some of its most enduring landmarks, and into several of its best-known cities. The compartment itself would lurch and shake to simulate the feel of movement, but the experience would not have the same thrill level of other simulator attractions, such as Star Tours. With these two additions, the Japan pavilion would be able to offer something for everyone.

Morocco is one of the most beautiful pavilions in World Showcase with a level of detail that is not matched by any other country. With its winding alleys and assorted shops you really feel as if you are actually in Morocco. However, like Japan, Morocco lacks an attraction to help draw guests into the pavilion. For this reason, many guests just walk past Morocco unless they have a dining reservation at Restaurant Marrakesh. This pavilion was probably the most difficult to think of an attraction for. I thought it would be best, as a way of balancing the attractions in World Showcase, to have something that would appeal more to children and therefore looked at Moroccan folktales for inspiration. One of the most popular pieces of literature in the Arab world is One Thousand and One Nights (more commonly known as Arabian Nights). This is a collection of various stories and tales that, while they did not originate in Morocco, are reflective of the country’s culture and history.

It would be extremely tempting to put an Aladdin attraction in Morocco since it is one of the stories found in Arabian Nights, but I do not feel that World Showcase is the proper venue. Another popular tale from Arabian Nights is the Seven Voyages of Sinbad and this has actually been made into an attraction at Tokyo Disney Sea called “Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage.”



This boat ride takes guests on a journey along with Sinbad and has a feel that is very similar to It’s a Small World. Along the journey guests visit busy Far East towns, discover vast stores of treasure, encounter mermaids, caravans, and even a gigantic genie. The ride includes hundreds of audio animatronic figures and even features a song entitled “Compass of Your Heart” written by Alan Menken.



Here is a video of the Tokyo attraction:



The France pavilion currently has everything that a World Showcase pavilion should with two sit down restaurants, a counter-service bakery, a variety of shops, entertainment, and even an attraction. As much as I enjoy the film Impressions de France, it gets lost among the various World Showcase films and does not have the same uniqueness as the circlevision films in both Canada and China. For this reason, I would expand the theater and bring in a new stage show.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of Disney’s more underrated movies and features an array of beautiful music that makes its adaptation to stage very easy. With its darker themes and imagery, this is definitely a movie that is appreciated more by adults, but it still includes its lighter moments that children can enjoy. This new stage show would be very similar to the Hunchback show that was orginally performed at what was then the Disney-MGM Studios, but it would also include more dramatic elements more akin to the Hunchback Broadway-style music that was performed exclusively in Germany. While I am not the biggest fan of having Disney characters in World Showcase, Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of the most famous pieces of French literature, written by Frenchman Victor Hugo, and is set in the French capital of Paris and centered around one of the country’s most enduring landmarks. In this way, the show would still be a great tribute to French culture.

Here is a clip from the original Hunchback musical at MGM Studios:



Here is a montage of the Hunchback musical from Germany:



The United Kingdom is another pavilion that lacks a true attraction and, like with France, I would introduce an attraction centered around a popular Disney movie, but one which has its roots firmly in English culture. Mary Poppins was a series of children’s books written by English author P.L. Travers that was then adapted into a musical film by Disney in 1964 starring Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke. The movie to this day continues to be one of the most beloved of all Disney movies and features an assortment of memorable songs written by the venerable Sherman Brothers. Its combination of music, fantasy, and beautiful scenery make it the perfect candidate for a dark-ride style attraction, something that the United Kingdom pavilion desperately needs.

The exterior of the attraction would be designed to look like Cherry Tree Lane as if it had come straight out of the movie.



The ride itself would be an omnimover that would take guests through various scenes from the movie. The music would be the real driving force of the attraction, with each scene representing a different song. Among the songs highlighted on the ride would be Jolly Holiday, Spoonful of Sugar, Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Feed the Birds, Chim Chim Cher-ee, Step in Time, and Let’s Go Fly a Kite. Mary Poppins remains to this day one of the most beloved Disney movies, and this attraction would pay homage not only to the movie but to an important piece of English literature.







Between United Kingdom and Canada sits the World Showplace pavilion. The building was originally used in the year 2000 for the Millennium Village that housed exhibits from a variety of countries and included shopping, food stands, and even small attractions. Since the end of the Millennium Celebration, however, the building has been used primarily for special events, such as the Party for the Senses during the Food and Wine Festival. This is another large area that would be the perfect location for another new pavilion in World Showcase. I would add a country that has been rumored to be coming to World Showcase for years: Russia.

A formal announcement was actually made that a Russian pavilion would be built in World Showcase. The pavilion would have been surrounded by red brick walls, opening into a recreation of Red Square, with a very impressive recreation of St. Basil's Cathedral, with its multicolored domes and twisting towers, towering over it.



Unfortunately, just after the initial announcement, the Soviet Union collapsed and later Russia faced severe economic troubles. Both of these events meant that Disney couldn't persuade the Russian government, nor any Russian businesses, to pay for the pavilion’s construction and the plans were shelved.

The pavilion was going to include a show entitled “Russia: The Bells of Change.” This innovative theatrical experience would have combined audio-animatronic characters, animated sets, film, and live actors to surround guests with the personalities, achievements, and volatile history of the country. I envision this being a show very similar to the American Adventure only with more live actors and dancers rather than solely audio-animatronics. I imagine the show as featuring music from some of Russia’s greatest composers such as Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, and Stravinsky. The show would also highlight dancing, which is a very important part of Russian culture. Among the dances showcased would be ballet as well as trepak, a traditional Russian dance best know for being in The Nutcracker:



Just as the American Adventure is hosted by two audio-animatronic figures in Benjamin Franklin and Mark Twain, this show would likewise be hosted and narrated by a famous Russian: Leo Tolstoy, who is considered by many to be the greatest literary novelist of all-time.

The pavilion would also feature both a sit-down and counter service restaurant highlighting the various flavors of Russian cuisine. Soups and stews play a very prominent role in Russian cuisine and the counter service restaurant would feature an all-you-can-eat soup bar. The sit down restaurant would be along the lines of the Beirgarten in Germany. Because Russia is such a large country, its cuisine is influenced by people of many different ethnicities and different areas of the country specialize in different types of food. The restaurant would feature a buffet divided into different sections each highlighting a different Russian ethnic group or area of the country. The restaurant would also feature a stage where there would be live entertainment throughout the course of the meal featuring traditional Russian song and dance.

The final country on our journey around World Showcase is Canada. This pavilion already features one of my favorite restaurants in all of Disney World, Le Cellier, and that I would not change at all. However, I would add a counter service restaurant that would serve Le Cellier’s cheddar cheese soup along with an assortment of Canadian pastries. As far as attractions, the pavilion already features the O’ Canada circlevision movie starring Martin Short, but I feel it could use another attraction as well.

I think that the Canadian landscape lends itself very well to a raft ride, something along the lines of Kali River Rapids at Animal Kingdom or Grizzly River Run and California Adventure. The ride would take guests on a thrilling journey through the rapids of the Canadian Rockies, encountering native plants and wildlife, such as audio-animatronic moose, black bears, beavers, and bobcats, in addition to waterfalls, whirlpools, and geysers. Indeed, the appearance of Grizzly River Run is an apt comparison for what this ride experience would be like.





Not only would this raft ride give Canada, and World Showcase, and additional thrill attraction, but it would also serve an equally important aesthetic purpose. As it stands now, when looking at the Canada pavilion from across the water, the view of the pavilion is dominated by the show building for Soarin’ in the background. This new raft ride would help to hide this intrusion.



All of these changes that I have envisioned for World Showcase would help make this area of the park more than just a place for shopping and dining; it could actually now open at 9am along with the rest of the park rather than waiting until 11am. Guests would now have an assortment of attractions to choose from, attractions that would range from mild to thrilling and offer something for everyone in the family. All the while, each of these attractions would still serve to present a view of the country it represents. Overall, my plan for World Showcase would help solidify its purpose of educating and informing guests about the various countries’ cultures, histories, traditions, and people.

This concludes my re-imagining of Epcot. Up next we will move on to a park that has a lot of potential but also needs a lot of work, Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

Epcot Part 4: World Showcase East

Ever since the first time I visited Disney World back when I was just five years old I have always been fascinated with World Showcase. It is no stretch to say that it is one of my favorite areas in any of the Disney parks. Being able to experience the culture, history, traditions, and food of these eleven nations is an experience unmatched in any other theme park and one of the things that makes Epcot so unique. That being said, I feel that there is some room for improvement in World Showcase with the addition of new attractions, restaurants, and even a couple of entirely new pavilions.

Some people may think that there is not much room for expansion in World Showcase, but the reality is that there are several expansion plots, not only for the addition of new countries but also to add to the existing countries as well.



My vision for World Showcase is one where every pavilion has at least one attraction, one sit-down restaurant, and one counter-service restaurant. With these criteria, some of the existing World Showcase countries will need to receive more attention than others.

Mexico has everything that a World Showcase pavilion should: two sit-down restaurants, a counter-service restaurant, shopping, entertainment, and an attraction. In 2007 Mexico’s original boat ride, El Rio del Tiempo, was updated and given a new name and storyline. The new Grand Fiesta Tour staring the Three Caballeros was an attempt to make an attraction that would appeal more to children, but what was lost was the original attraction’s attention to Mexican culture, traditions, and history.

I would create a new boat ride more along the lines of the original. It would begin by introducing the Aztec and Mayan civilizations that once flourished in Mexico, showcasing their unique art, architecture, and customs. The next part of the ride would highlight many of Mexico’s natural wonders, which would be followed by a visit to Mexico’s beautiful coastline and beaches. The ride would finish with exploring some of the country’s biggest cities and a look at modern-day Mexico. This new boat ride would be a far better tribute to the country of Mexico than the current Grand Fiesta Tour.







In recent years the Norway pavilion has become overrun by the Disney princesses who have their own character dining at Akershus Royal Banquet Hall. The first thing I would do to this pavilion is remove the princesses. Even though this character dining experience is one of the more popular in Disney World, the princesses have no place being in Norway. I would restore Akershus to a regular sit-down restaurant, without characters, serving both lunch and dinner.

The Malestrom boat ride is an interesting attraction. With its audio-animatronic figures, detailed scenery, and even a small drop it is like the Norwegian equivalent of Pirates of the Caribbean. The problem with this attraction is that it is far too short and really lacks a coherent storyline.

I would expand and remake Malestrom into a boat ride centered on Norse mythology. Guests would now sail to Valhalla aboard their Viking ships to the halls of Asgard, the home of the Gods. Once there they will encounter many of the various Norse Gods including Odin (father of the Gods), Thor (the God of thunder), Baldur (the God of peace), Aegir (the God of the sea), Tyr (the God of war), and many others. Things go awry when Loki (the trickster God) fools us into trying to take one of the Golden Apples, the source of the Gods' immortality and perpetual youth. Guest then find themselves in a race to escape Valhalla, fleeing from Idun, Guardian of the Golden Apples, and the Valkyries, warrior maidens on flying horses. This ride would become a true E-ticket attraction with state-of-the-art audio animatronic figures and multiple drops.







China is a pavilion that I would not do too much with; it already has an attraction with its Reflections of China circlevision film as well as both a counter-service and sit-down restaurant. The only change I would make to the pavilion is with the Nine Dragons restaurant. With Chinese restaurants being so common, there is really nothing about Nine Dragons that makes it stand out; it is just a regular sit-down restaurant. I would convert it into a buffet-hybrid type restaurant comprised of different stations. Each station would highlight one of the eight culinary traditions of China including the bold and spicy flavors of Szechuan cuisine, the predominantly seafood Shandong cuisine, and the hearty Cantonese cuisine. At each station, in addition of a selection of pre-prepared items, diners would also have the option of selecting various raw ingredients to be prepared by a chef stir-frying on a wok right in front of them. This would not only help provide a greater and more varied selection of Chinese cuisine, but also help make the restaurant a more unique dining experience.

Moving away from China we cross a bridge into the African outpost. This area is actually one of the larger expansion plots around World Showcase and is more than big enough to be the home of an entirely new pavilion. One country that offers great potential for a new pavilion is Egypt. The pavilion would be one of the most visually impressive in World Showcase, with replicas of the Great Pyramid and the Sphinx. Inside of the pyramid would by an actually Egyptian archeological and historical museum, housing various treasures from the pharaohs’ tombs.





The pavilion would also contain an E-ticket attraction using a similar ride system of Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom. The attraction would be called Curse of the Pharaohs and would be housed in a building designed to look like the grand temples of Karnak, which was the most important place of worship in ancient Egypt.



Although similar in name and theme, this attraction would be totally different from Universal’s Revenge of the Mummy. The storyline for the ride is that guests are invited to join an expedition to a previously unexplored tomb, being dubbed as one of the biggest discoveries in the study of ancient Egypt. Guest start their journey through torch-lit rooms filled with hieroglyphics and then into a series of chambers containing immense treasures of incalculable value. Finally guests will enter a chamber with an ornate sarcophagus in the center of the room, but it is here that things take a turn for the worst. Guests then encounter a series of unfortunate events as they attempt to race out of the tomb and escape with their lives. Their escape will leave guests wondering whether or not these events were natural or supernatural and wondering whether or not the curse really exists.

This Egyptian pavilion would also include a sit-down restaurant. Egyptian cuisine is know for its kababs, meat and vegetables that are grilled on skewers. The concept for this restaurant would be that diners walk through an area designed to look like a market and select different types of meat, vegetables, spices, and sauces they want on their kababs. Diners then take their ingredients to a large open fire pit where a chef will place the ingredients they have chosen onto a skewer and they can watch as the kababs are prepared over the open fire. The pavilion would also have a counter-service restaurant that would be a bakery featuring a large selection of breads, which form the backbone of Egyptian cuisine, as well as numerous Egyptian pastries. The bakery would offer a variety of different sandwiches and guests would have the opportunity to select which type of bread on which they would like to have their sandwich.

Germany is a pavilion that was planned to have a ride when Epcot first opened, but for one reason or another it was never constructed. According to the Walt Disney Company's 1976 annual report, the Rhine River Cruise was to be “... a cruise down Germany's most famous rivers– the Rhine, the Tauber, the Ruhr and the Isar. Detailed miniatures of famous landmarks will also be seen, including one of the Cologne Cathedral.”



While a majority of the show building was never actually constructed, the load and unload area of the ride would have been located next to the entrance to the Biergarten restaurant. Today, this area is hidden behind a giant mural depicting the German countryside.



My version of the ride would be along the lines of what was originally planned and similar in style to the boat ride in Mexico. The ride would feature a dramatic score comprised of music from some of Germany’s greatest composers including Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and Wagner. Guests would sail past scenes of some of Germany’s most enduring landmarks such as the Neuschwanstein castle, the Brandenburg Gate, the Cathedral of Cologne, and the Schwarzwald (Black Forest). The rest of the pavilion would remain the same with its various shops, and both a sit-down and counter-service restaurant.







Italy, like Germany, was also supposed to have a boat ride. This one was to be a gondola ride through various Italian scenes. Even though World Showcase is already heavy on boat rides, I think this idea is too good to pass up and there is something about gondolas themselves that would add extra allure to the attraction and make it somewhat unique. Guests would enter the attraction by first walking through a replica of ancient Roman ruins along the lines of what one would see today if walking through the Forum in Rome.



Guests would then board their gondolas and travel through scenes from some of Italy’s best-known cities, including Venice, Milan, Florence, Pisa, Rome, and Naples, and encounter some of the country’s most enduring landmarks.



Italian cuisine has so much to offer and it is for this reason that the pavilion features two sit-down restaurants. However, the pavilion is lacking a counter-service restaurant which I feel would be immensely popular. For this reason, I would first construct a counter-service pizza parlor adjacent to Via Napoli that would serve the same style pizzas as in the sit-down restaurant but with the option of ordering pizza by the slice. I would also construct a Gelateria (ice cream shop) and bakery that would offer a wide assortment of gelato as well as numerous pastries, such as biscotti, cannoli, and zeppole.

At the center of World Showcase is the American pavilion. The American Adventure is a classic and I would not touch it at all. The changes I would make to the pavilion would be with the dining offerings there. All of the other countries of World Showcase have great restaurants, but America is severely lacking in this category. The Liberty Inn counter-service restaurant does not do justice to American cuisine; burgers, chicken strips, and French fries are not the best that America has to offer. I would completely reinvent this restaurant into more of a food court-style eatery with divided into different sections each highlighting a different part of the country. There would be a New England section offering various seafood dishes, a Louisiana section featuring jambalaya and gumbo, a Southern Barbeque section with ribs, grilled chicken, a pulled pork, and a Hawaiian section offering dishes with a tropical flare.

I would also construct a new sit-down restaurant. Here guests would dine in an upscale, colonial-inspired dining room surrounded by antique furniture and paintings of the Founding Fathers; Guests will feel as though they are dining at Mount Vernon or Monticello. The menu would change each day of the week, highlighting a different regional cuisine each day. These changes would help make America a more complete pavilion and do greater justice to American culture and cuisine.

Stay tuned as we continue making our way around World Showcase with even more changes and additions.

Epcot Part 3: Future World East

Future World East is an interesting area. It includes two of Epcot’s marquee attractions with Test Track and Mission Space but at the same time there are two other pavilions that need a lot of attention, with the former Wonders of Life building sitting empty and Universe of Energy needing a major overall.

Test Track and Mission Space are each in a unique situation. Both replaced beloved attractions that had been part of the park since it opened (Horizons and World of Motion), both are major E-ticket attractions, and both really do not have a lot to do with the future. My solution would be to give each attraction a series of tweaks and updates in theming and storyline to help tie them in better to the overall theme of Future World while still keeping the thrill aspects of the attractions that guests enjoy.

Disney recently announced that Test Track will be undergoing a major refurbishment beginning at the end of this April and extending into the Fall, but gave very few details about what updates would be taking place. Personally, this is what I would like to see. My new Test Track would pay tribute to the original attraction housed in this location, World of Motion. To start, I would remove the giant canopy in the front of the building because it really takes away from the beauty of the structure itself.

Here is a look at the pavilion now:



Here is the pavilion when it was World of Motion:



The interior of the ride would change significantly. Rather than focusing on the various test that new cars go through before being put onto the road, I would focus instead on the evolution of transportation. This indoor portion of the ride would be reminiscent of the original World of Motion. Guest would travel past a series of scenes depicting advancements that have been made in the history of transportation starting with the invention of the wheel to horse drawn chariots, wagons, and carriages to railroads, the first cars and airplanes, and finally the future of transportation.





One of the final scenes in the original World of Motion was a city of the future complete with lighted roads and highways curving around tall skyscrapers.



I would use this scene to segway to the high-speed loop outside with the narrator telling guests that “with each new technological discovery and innovation we are racing into the future of transportation.” With the completion of that sentence the vehicle would be launched into the high-speed exterior portion of the ride.

Mission Space replaced the much beloved Horizons, but unlike Test Track replacing World of Motion, the entire look and theme of the pavilion changed. Mission Space, however, is much more futuristic in theme than Test Track and thus requires only some minor tweaks. I would change the queue portion of the attraction as a way to pay tribute to the history and evolution of space exploration. In many ways, the queue would become more of a walk-through museum with various artifacts and displays designed to give guests a greater appreciation of all the advancements that have been made in space exploration. In fact, Disneyland had something along these lines with an exhibit in Tomorrowland called The American Space Experience.





With the ride itself I would make only a couple of minor changes. The first change would be to give guests the option of experiencing multiple missions instead of always going on the same mission to Mars. Guests in each pod would now get to decide which planet they will travel to, allowing them to have a variety of different experiences. I would also update and improve the graphics to create a more realistic and immersive experience.

Universe of Energy presents an interesting challenge because the type of ride system it is now limits what you are able to do with it and basically forces the attraction to be as long as it is. It is the ride’s length that is the main problem with the current Ellen’s Energy Adventure. Many guests avoid it because they do not want to be stuck on one ride for almost 45 minutes. Thus, any change to the attraction will require a major overhaul of the ride system itself.

My new version of the attraction would keep the same basic theme of the current Ellen’s Energy Adventure, beginning by taking guests back into the past to see where the enegy we use today came from, bringing guests into the present to look at the various forms of energy available, and then looking into where we might be able to get our energy from in the future. I would, however, completely overhaul the ride system replacing the current slow-moving vehicles with vehicles similar to those used in the Spiderman attraction at Universal. This would allow for a greater range of motion and movement, faster speeds, and an overall more thrilling experience for guests.

The building that was originally occupied by the Wonders of Life pavilion has been sitting empty for years except when being used during the Food & Wine and Flower & Garden Festivals. This is a large piece of under-utilized space that could make for a great addition to Epcot and Future World.



Rather than restoring a Health-themed pavilion I would completely shift direction to a Weather-themed pavilion that would incorporate a series of attractions and exhibits looking at the study of weather, its evolution, and advancements that could take place in the future. The headline attraction of this new weather pavilion would be a flight-simulator to take the place of the Body Wars attraction that used to be a part of Wonders of Life. This new attraction would be based upon the Stormrider attraction at Tokyo Disney Sea in which guests would travel into the middle of a violent storm and experience its full fury.

Here is a glimpse of the Tokyo attraction:



Also included in this weather pavilion would be an experience similar to Storm Struck currently found in Innoventions. My new version of Storm Struck, however would be more akin to Twister at Universal but with a few enhancements. Guests would first get to choose what type of extreme weather they would want to experience (hurricane, tornado, or blizzard) and then be subjected to the full brunt of that storm, not just viewing it on a screen but actually experiencing the wind, rain, and snow right in front of them. The rest of the pavilion would be filled with different interactive exhibits devoted to how meteorologists study and predict weather patterns as well as advancements that are being made in this field.

Overall, these changes to Future World East would improve upon the attractions that are currently there, provide new experiences for guests to enjoy, and bring the whole area more in line with the theme of Future World.