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Credit: Unsplash - Robert HorvickAs the Disney parks experience continues to decline, fans have continued to share their stories and their complaints to social media. And according to one recent guest, it’s just sad.
The Walt Disney World Resort located in Orlando, Florida, is made up of four major theme parks. Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. While each of the four parks features their own special events, attractions, and various offerings, they each make up a core part of the Walt Disney World Resort. Although Walt Disney didn’t live long enough to see his Florida park open, he did have a hand in creating the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT.
Originally, Walt Disney had planned for EPCOT to be known as the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow, an area where people could live and work while creating and exploring technologies of the future. Unfortunately, Walt passed before he could see the idea come to fruition, and although the park does exist, it doesn’t quite exist in the same way that Walt had once imagined.
When EPCOT was opened to the public in 1982, it was praised for being educational, a park focused on the advancement of technology and the sciences with a focus on world cooperation. Much of that idea stayed within the park for decades and could be seen throughout the World Showcase’s 11 international pavilions, and the park’s former Future World pavilion, which promoted space, the land, and the seas. However, over the last few years, the Disney parks have shifted their focus, with the inclusion of various Disney IPs (intellectual properties, or known franchises) being at the center.
This shift has led to major disappointment among Disney fans, even as CEO Bob Iger promises to bring more IP-based attractions and experiences to the parks. This change hasn’t escaped EPCOT either, with the park now featuring the all-new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, which joined The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Frozen Ever After.
In a recent Reddit post, u/VoltyMcVolt called the park “sad,” recounting their recent disappointing visit to a much-beloved park.
“I know, everyone is going to say “stop going” – I pretty much have. I have used 2 days of admission on my annual pass that expires early next year.
All the new stuff at Epcot is “ok” at best while the old stuff in the park is absolutely falling apart.
Last week I got to watch Spaceship Earth just flicker on and off all evening. The CMs generally not caring. Every surface that isn’t brand new is absolutely dirty, scuffed, chipping paint. No one cares about safety – exposed wires from broken light fixtures still sitting out in the planters in future world west between two different visits despite telling guest relations and showing them pics. Visits months apart mind you.
I know I can’t make people care, and I’m just asking the pixie dusters to insult me for any level of standards, but Epcot used to be so well kept and run like a well oiled machine.
The first CM I tried to talk to at Guest Relations about the exposed wires was confused because I referred to the Imagination pavilion. “You mean the Figment ride?” “Yes at Imagination…” “Imagination…?”
A guest relations CM had never heard that the pavilion’s name was Imagination. That’s how bad the brain drain and loss of tenured CMs has damaged the park.
When just taking about Spaceship Earth flicking instead of illuminating, “Yeah the big ball doesn’t want to work tonight” and I’m like “… and that’s ok?” And they replied “Yeah, it happens a lot.” Then shrugged and went back to other stuff. 3 screens in Spaceship Earth’s postshow had “replace bulb” warnings projected. No one cared there either.
Going from a park that very much had a purpose of pride and education to this just bums me out.”
Many of the comments shared their agreement, with u/HardSteelRain stating, “Nothing will compare to EPCOT in those first few years, watching all those great pavilions vanish was heartbreaking.” Even cast members chimed in, with u/IndependentDistance3 saying, “As CM’s these experiences make us sad too. We see the things falling apart, report them and then it goes ignored. Even the small things like fixing broken cabinets that guests see. 5 minute jobs and no one is doing them.”
u/chambees took the opportunity to point out EPCOT’s seeming lack of standards these days, chiming in with “Every one of these is a valid complaint. I’m going to add the fact that they have had construction walls up for almost 5 years now, which is absolutely embarrassing.” u/doctor-quest also spoke up, saying, “I’ll just say this, the Disney of today isn’t the Disney of old. I’ve been going to the parks for 25 years. It starts from the top and you can tell there’s issues. With that we just got back from there, 2 days ago and had a wonderful time and actually was at Epcot 3 days.”
Several comments pointed out that unless the guest dissatisfaction starts to interfere with the park’s revenue stream, it’s unlikely that any major impact will be made at Walt Disney World. Several suggested filling out the guest satisfaction surveys or continuing to let guest relations know if there’s an issue they can solve. Unfortunately, it may take some time and some heavy complaining for Disney to be truly made aware of the problems facing their parks, but sharing experiences and opinions on social media is one way to commiserate with others who feel the same way and warn others who may not know.
What do you think of EPCOT and the rest of the Walt Disney World Resort? Is it still the most magical place on earth? Or is it just sad? Let us know what you think in the comments below.