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MEMORIES:
Hawk remembers...I really enjoyed the Future World section where they had all the cool rides and stuff. The World Showcase section ... More »
Posted on 08/10/09
PHOTOS:
Walt Disney World has a niche for just about everyone. Want to be a part of the past or the fairy tales you love? Visit the Magic Kingdom. Want to be a star in tinsel town? Come to Disney/MGM Studios. Can't help baby-talking the cuddly-wuddly lemurs? Check out Animal Kingdom. And if you were a science nerd, a travel buff, or a flat-out geek, EPCOT was the one park designed especially for you-- but it didn't start out that way.
After delving into history and fantasy in his films and his theme park, Walt Disney began to thirst for a new frontier: the future. But a true vision for that future couldn't be explored through his Disneyland dabbling. Though Tomorrowland's array of possible future space exploration, travel methods, and product development delighted Disneyland visitors, it did not have much of an effect on society at large. In order to make that mark, Disney began to dream up the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT.
Designed to be an actual functioning city, EPCOT was to be a safe, fair society where no one owned property and everyone was required to work, where public transportation was safe and plentiful, and after which future cities could be modeled. Due to his passing in 1966, however, this dream was never attained. The managers of Walt's legacy decided to open EPCOT in 1982 as a second theme park in Orlando instead, keeping the spirit of educational community improvement, but with the air of a World's Fair to boot. (Face it, not many bucks could be made off of a utopian city. ) Divided in two parts, EPCOT (Or Epcot, as it's now known) is a bit of a dichotomy.
Future World is a celebration of science and knowledge, a slightly more sophisticated (drier, if you will) Tomorrowland, full of opportunity to explore oceanography (at The Living Seas), agriculture (The Land), physics (The Universe of Energy) and communication (Spaceship Earth, located in the majestic geodesic dome that serves as the park's symbol.)
The World Showcase features pavilions themed to some of the nations of the world, including Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, France, the U.K., Canada, and the United States itself. Filled with exhibits, rides and attractions, these pavilions gave land-locked kids and adults a chance to "hop the pond," or at least feel as though they had. Students learning Spanish or French could practice their me gustas and je m'apelles with a shop attendant, as each pavilion hired actual residents from their respective countries. Perhaps the restaurants are the most notable part of the Showcase... many a family has been known to "eat their way through" the cuisines of the "World."
After a day spent exploring the world and the way it works, most guests settle in (with an Italian coffee and a Norwegian pastry, of course) to watch IllumiNations, the fireworks celebration of cultural diversity that has dazzled audiences since 1986. The show--just like Epcot itself-- has grown and changed over the years, but the fireworks and the park at large still delights and informs new travel buffs, geeks and lovers-of-knowledge every day.
