Too Much Disney at Epcot?

Lately I’ve been adding some #ThrowbackThursday and #FlashbackFriday pictures to the Disney Over 50 Facebook and Instagram accounts. It’s fun to look back and think about rides and attractions that aren’t around anymore. With Epcot being the current park under construction, it makes me wonder; is there too much “Disney” at Epcot?

What first got me thinking about this is the pictures I added of Maelstrom. I loved that ride, we’d always try to get FASTPASS (later FastPass+) for it. In October, 2014, Maelstrom closed, and Frozen Ever After opened in January, 2016. For me, Frozen Ever After is not even close to being a must-do. It’s the same track and the same ride vehicles, but just not the same ride.

Maybe it’s because I’m not a huge Frozen fan. We live in Florida in part because I grew up in New England and have had my fill of snow. Sorry, Elsa, the cold does bother me. But I don’t think that it’s just because I don’t go crazy for Frozen that I’m not a fan of the new theme. For me, a great ride was downgraded because it was Disney-fied.

I do see the benefits of a Frozen-based attraction at Walt Disney World. When Frozen Ever After opened, the movie was the hottest thing out there! (Pun intended.) The Walt Disney Company is a business, and if a Frozen ride will get guests into the parks, then they’re going to build that ride, even if it means sacrificing a classic.

A huge miss lately when trying to add more Disney to Epcot was Harmonious. It replaced the insanely popular IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. (I’m not counting Epcot Forever, since that was a temporary replacement.) Harmonious was a beautiful show, I honestly loved it. The problem, though, was that a beloved classic ended for another fireworks show with Disney songs and projections. How many times can we see scenes from the same animated movies at the end of an evening? I understand that the idea was to travel around the world, using Disney movies to do so, but too many people didn’t get that. It will be interesting to see what the theme is for Luminous The Symphony of Us when it debuts on December 5. The description that Walt Disney World has given us is pretty vague.

Some of the attempts to add more Disney to Epcot have been successful. I love Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. It’s a thrill ride with a thrill level that I can handle. The queue is great. It’s fun to see which song you’re going to get. (It took me well over a year to get I Ran!) Only a few people say that Ellen’s Energy Adventure was better. We need thrill rides at Walt Disney World to compete with the other area theme parks. Cosmic Rewind fills the bill perfectly.

Since Disney does want to add more Disney touches to Epcot, I hope that they are mostly along the lines of what they’ve done with Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana. The walk-through attraction is about the stages that water goes through. It’s educational, it’s interactive, and it can be fun! The Moana part is mostly subtle. Okay, the giant Te Fiti isn’t exactly subtle, but she fits in with the attraction’s theme, and there are other things to do in her area. Overall, the focus of the new attraction is the journey of water, not Moana.

I also think that the princesses and other characters around World Showcase are a good fit. The characters mostly match the lands, and who doesn’t love meeting their favorites?

For the most part, people don’t like change, and will complain about favorites being gone. I’m like that too. But Disney is a business, and the top goal for Walt Disney World is to get people into the parks and have them spend money. I don’t know if Disney-fying things have helped the profits to go up, but I’m sure that we’ll still see more of it. I just hope that at Epcot they can find ways to tie into what people love about the park. When people think of Epcot, they should think of something that is both unique and uniquely Disney, not think about all the different movies represented.