Wednesday December 6th 2023

Disney’s EPCOT got my attention today. Big changes began yesterday, so I have been planning to visit today for a few weeks now. The weather didn’t really cooperate. The high temperature today was in the low sixties and as soon as the sun went down it dropped another ten degrees. I planned ahead for the temperature by wearing two warm layers and bringing a third in a backpack to put on after dark. It all worked out. I was comfortable for the entire ten plus hours I was at the theme park.

Monday night Disney took down most of the construction walls that had been a fixture in the center of the old Future World section of the park for close to half a decade. Yesterday, Tuesday, the new World Celebration area opened. I watched some of it on YouTube videos giving me a little bit of an idea what to expect. It met and exceeded many of my expectations, but I really don’t understand what took so long. The area behind Space Ship Earth has been turned into a park like area with lots of trees, plants and seating. The Communicore Hall building is still under construction, so a few construction walls remain. One of the focal points of the new area is a statue of Walt Disney sitting on a bench looking out at his vision called EPCOT. That was a very popular area. Everyone, except me, had to get their picture taken on the bench with the Walt Statue.

The new area is also filled with fiber optics and LEDs. The area color matches with the various nigh time shows on Space Ship Earth. As the colors change on the globe matching or complementary colors light up in the World Celebration area. This makes the seating and walkways in the area very popular after dark.

The other big new thing at EPCOT as of Tuesday was the first showing of the new nighttime fireworks show, Luminous. This is the long term replacement for the Harmonious night time show that ended last spring. An interim show, EPCOT Forever was performed during the wait for this new show. The big thing about this show is the absence of permanent barges in the lagoon. The six big barges and a bunch of little ones are brought out from “back stage” late in the afternoon and are gone by the next morning. I liked the show it was very fireworks intensive and could be watched from anywhere around the lagoon. Harmonious used lots of projections on water screens which required you to be in certain locations to really see the show.

I thought the cold might keep the crowd down today. It didn’t. The place was mobbed. Probably because of all the new stuff the park was very crowded. It also didn’t help that one of the most popular narrators for the Candle Light Processional, Neal Patrick Harris, was in place for the three nightly shows. People were lining up for the 5:30 show at 2PM. I walked by during two of the shows and the overflow of standing room viewing was ten deep along the walkway at the back of the theater.

It was a long day. I got there a little after noon and departed after the fireworks show. I got back to my RV home shortly before 11PM. In between I did a lot of walking, so a few shows and road a few attractions.