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Credit: Inside the MagicEPCOT’s big closure at the Walt Disney World Resort will send thousands of guests to other locations around the sprawling Central Florida destination.
Disney World Is Changing
It would not be Disney World (or any Disney park, for that matter) if there weren’t a sense of evolution laced through its bones. Ever since the Disney theme park empire began in 1955, the House of Mouse has consistently revised, amended, rebuilt, and rethemed aspects of its many locations.
For Walt Disney World, the multi-thousand-acre site in the Sunshine State, that has never been clearer. Throughout its 53-year history, the Disney World theme parks have changed exponentially.
What started with just Magic Kingdom has become home to three more theme parks: EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom, as well as two water parks: Disney’s Blizzard Beach and Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon. Adding the multiple hotels and Disney Springs area, Walt Disney World has quite an impressive footprint.
However, evolution is not always welcomed. The retheme of Splash Mountain has been met with incredible resistance, and even during its opening this month, naysayers are still being vocal about Disney’s decision to replace the classic water ride. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, based on The Princess and the Frog (2009), is now entertaining guests in Frontierland at the Magic Kingdom.
It’s not just Magic Kingdom that has lost a popular iteration of an attraction. Earlier this week, on June 17, Disney shuttered Test Track at EPCOT indefinitely. The retheme of Test Track was announced last August at the Destination D23 event at Disney’s Contemporary Resort.
“Test Track—one of the most thrilling attractions at EPCOT—will be reimagined,” The Walt Disney Company website divulged last September. “Imagineers and the team at Chevrolet are reaching back into history for inspiration—including the original World of Motion—and bringing that spirit of optimism to the next evolution of Test Track.”
With its June 17 indefinite closure, guests will soon feel the result of Disney shuttering one of its biggest and most popular rides.
EPCOT’s Big Closure
The closure of EPCOT’s Test Track comes as Disney World approaches its busy summer season. Disney World fans have already noticed a surge in demand for other attractions, with Frozen Ever After, Mission: Space, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Journey Into Imagination With Figment all reaching higher-than-usual wait times, per a recent Reddit thread.
Another worrying element of this Test Track closure is the continuing use of the virtual queue system for EPCOT’s most recent ride, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. The Marvel-themed attraction opened in 2022 and quickly became a fan-favorite amongst parkgoers. Two years on, Cosmic Rewind remains EPCOT’s sole virtual queue experience.
Virtual queues are a divisive feature of the Disney experience. At present, there are three available at Walt Disney World Resort: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT, plus TRON Lightcycle / Run and the new Tiana’s Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom.
With Test Track now closed, displaced guests don’t even have the option to queue for the big e-ticket Guardians ride. Instead, they must continue to secure virtual queue boarding passes at either 7 a.m. anywhere on Disney World property or at 1 p.m. while inside the EPCOT theme park.
Related: Disney World Location Closing Imminently, Guests Must Head Elsewhere
More than anything, though, the biggest risk to guest experience may come with the arrival of the International Food & Wine Festival that commences on August 29 at EPCOT. The popular event follows the International Flower & Garden Festival, which runs from February 28 through May 27 and runs from August through November 23, where the Festival of the Holidays will once again take over.
EPCOT is known as the festival park, and the new opening of the CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza in World Celebration will act as the hub of all festival-themed events at the Disney World park.
The International Food & Wine Festival is one of EPCOT’s most popular events. The influx of footfall at the park will put even more pressure on the attractions left available now that Test Track is officially down. Not only this but for international guests, such as those from the United Kingdom, the July through September period is the official school break, meaning many families take their summer vacations during this time.
According to Travel Weekly, 1.14 million people traveled to Florida from the United Kingdom in 2023. However, new figures from Visit Orlando show that a total of 917,000 seats have been booked on flights to the Sunshine State for the May through October period, a 10% increase from the same period in 2023.
Related: Disney World Guest Kicked out for Costume: “Am I Not Allowed To Express Myself?”
EPCOT’s big closure this summer may prove to be a challenging period for the Disney park, especially when considering the aftershock of effects caused by the shutdown. The aforementioned issues suggest that, operationally, Test Track’s summer retheme will see thousands of guests displaced.
Do you think the Test Track closure will affect your Disney World vacation? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!