With the impending aniversary of the WDW in Orlando a Lot of changes are coming to the resort, in the form of rides, shows, FOTL apps, prices, experiencies and a long etcétera. In this times of celebration must also come a bit of reflection.
Mr. Disney, before his premature passing, had a very different idea of what his proyect would be. Not a theme park, not a simple resort, but rather a fullblown Community, that would grow and evolve, benefiting from the lessons in Urban mobility, waste disposal , food and supply distribuition, and Many other aspects that Disney learned from building and operating his crown Jewel : Disneyland. The proyect would find it's focus in EPCOT (experimental prototype Community of Tomorrow ). But fate had Another idea and changed everything. His brother ROy would see the making of the Magic Kingdom, and the first stage of the resort, but also passed away before the completion of EpCot, that ended be something different that the company planned.
EpCot is not a Community (it migth simulate something in the world Showcase but thats very abstract). It's not a representation of Tomorrow ( it actually fells dated sometimes ), it's not very experimental ( but we are waiting for announced new experiencies like the Moana área and the space restaurant). So this THEME Park ( thats what it is ) should have a name that represents more of it's spirit and themes? Should it keep the name to honor Mr. Disney intention, even if it is something vastly different from his original idea.??
What it should be.??
I vote for:
1) Awsome Planet.
2) World Quest.
What do You think!!!
I think the executive decision was to build an exposition that presents the technology and cultures that would be a part of an experimental prototypical community o' tomorrow.
As for a name change ... Hmm ... I'm thinking "EPCOT Springs"! ... No? Then how about "Universal Escape"? I hear that one is available.
Every Paycheck Comes On Tuesday
"Thursday"
When I was a cast member in the early 1980s I was a big fan of Elvis Costello and (ironically) the Attractions. Anyway, as a single young man who spent a fair share of his time at The Giraffe and the legendary Big Bamboo, I always laughed at the lyric "Thursday to Saturday, money's gone already."
I still remember the genius bit of Disney explaining it in the EPCOT opening celebration with Danny Kaye:
"Just so there's no confusion, EPCOT Center is located in the center of EPCOT. And EPCOT Center is made up of two parts, which is Future World and The World Showcase. It's 2.5 miles from The Magic Kingdom, which is also part of EPCOT, which is what the entire 2700 acre area known as the Experimental Protype Community of Tomorrow or EPCOT or Walt Disney World is called. Just so there's no confusion!"
Now that's fun spin.
Been absent from this site for some years now but return to find that TH Creative is still providing insightful, intelligent and humorous contributions.
Nice to see that some things don't change.
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Epcot will never be renamed, the park is world famous and successful regardless of what Walt originally intended it to be.
Also the reason the park was named Epcot is because when The Walt Disney Company figured out building a city was a bad idea and instead wanted to build another theme park, Jack Lindquist basically said "whatever we build we have to call it Epcot because people keep asking us when we're going to build Epcot" (because of the video Walt made pitching it to the Florida legislature). So they put together a park loosely inspired by some of the ideas Walt was floating around and called the park Epcot Center, the "Center" part being kind of an inside thing since it was the center of Disney World. Then they realized most people just called it Epcot and that was better for marketing anyway so took out the "Center" part.
I think the executives decision in the late 70's to build a theme park instead of a city was entirely justified when Celebrtaion was deemed a huge waste of time and the company pulled out.