Credit: Inside The MagicIn 1988, Ronald Regan was still the President of the United States. His vice-president, George H.W. Bush, was running against Michael Dukakis to replace Reagan.
The Walt Disney World Resort consisted of only two theme parks, with Disney’s MGM Studios set to open a year later. Two new Disney World Resort hotels opened that year, the Grand Floridian and the Caribbean Beach Resort, bringing the total number of hotels on property to five.
On June 3, 1988, the Norway Pavilion opened its doors to guests in EPCOT’s World Showcase. The following month, the Maelstrom would open, taking guests on a boat ride through Norway’s past and present.
It’s hard to believe that the last country in the World Showcase opened 37 years ago. There have been plenty of rumors and hopes for new countries to join the showcase, but nothing has emerged since 1988.
However, new information has emerged that Disney has plans to build another pavilion in the 1990s, which includes a brand new attraction. Former Imagineer Eddie Sotto took to social media to share the designs he created in the 1990s for a Switzerland Pavilion, which would have included a Matterhorn bobsled-type ride, much like the one at Disneyland. He wrote:
The idea for the EPCOT Swiss Pavilion had been explored before. I was invited to submit my take on it in the mid-90s amid renewed interest, but I was not involved any further. I wanted the Bobsleds to be a kinetic element throughout the area, weaving it all together with a skate village restaurant inside the Mountain’s base. The sketch was done in a day.
Sotto spent 13 years with Disney Imagineering, ultimately becoming the senior vice president of concept design in 1994. He worked on Indiana Jones Adventure in Disneyland, master planning for Tokyo Disneyland, and Mission: Space at EPCOT.
However, Sotto’s design work for this new pavilion at EPCOT has drawn fans’ interest and reminded them that it’s been over thirty years since a new country has opened in the World Showcase. With no new countries on the horizon, it reminds them of what could have been at EPCOT, and if Disney is feeling up to it, what might someday be again.
What do you think of Sotto’s design for a Switzerland Pavilion in the World Showcase at EPCOT? Let us know in the comments.