Tom’s Top 7: EPCOT GOATs
The EPCOT Center of the mid-1980s through mid-1990s is my favorite theme park of all-time. As much as I praise Tokyo DisneySea (and consider it the modern analogue), I would take the EPCOT of my youth any day if I could choose. Part of that is the prospect of revisiting childhood nostalgia. Another part is that park just being so, so good. In this post, I’ll share my personal list of EPCOT Center’s all-time greatest attractions.
While the EPCOT Center of the 1990s is very different from the Epcot of today, the good news is that about half of the GOAT list still exists. I’ve noted this in the past; in my “Why Can’t We Let Epcot Go?” post, I lamented EPCOT Center having been dead for over 20 years, but much of the original park’s DNA remaining, along with actual substance, including attractions or pavilions that retain their old quality.
That’s the good news, and why I’m willing to be cautiously optimistic about the park’s re-imagining possibly fixing some of the hodgepodge aesthetics of Future World. Since I don’t have photos for some of these things, I’m pulling them from our Photo History of EPCOT Center Project. If you’re a newer reader of the blog, you might’ve missed this, but it was a crowd-sourced effort with a ton of reader-submitted vintage EPCOT photos. People provided excellent (and sometimes scary…those World Showcase dolls are nightmare fuel!) images, so it’s really worth checking that out if you haven’t.
I’ll start with the elephant in the room: Horizons is not on this list. This is probably heresy among EPCOT Center fans, but I have almost no first-hand memories of Horizons. Although it closed around the same time as other attractions on this list, I have only the vaguest of childhood memories of it, whereas I have very strong memories of other attractions. I’m guess this odd knowledge gap is a result of my parents not taking me on it much; so blame them, not me! 😉
In any case, that glaring omission should underscore the point that these lists are my favorite things, so “greatest of all time” might not be entirely apt. These are my all-time greats…
7. Impressions de France – This original EPCOT Center attraction still exists today, and it’s one we discovered as adults. Out of every Walt Disney World attraction, it has made the most indelible impact on our lives since, as we fell in love with Paris and France thanks to Impressions de France. That is a big part of what inspired us to travel to Europe for the first time, which had a ripple effect on subsequent international travel.
Beyond being the spark of inspiration for our international travel, Impressions de France is a flat out exceptional travelogue. The scenery is awe-inspiring, the cinematography is breathtaking, the imagery diverse/varied, and the score is hauntingly beautiful. We now do Impressions de France more than any other attraction at Walt Disney World, and I still spot new things even after dozens (if not hundreds) of viewing.
6. Universe of Energy – I’m not bitter about losing Ellen’s Energy Adventure. It had a good run, and was (over)due for a replacement. I am bitter about it being replaced by a MARVEL roller coaster that won’t fulfill the mission statement of EPCOT Center, no matter how contrived of a storyline involving Peter Quill visiting the park as a kid wedged into it.
For me, both incarnations of Universe of Energy hold a place in my heart for their main commonality: dinosaurs. They terrified me as a small child, and I loved seeing them as I got older. Even as an adult, I had an odd giddiness when first emerging into prehistoric jungle, slowly approaching the family of Brontosaurus. I vividly recall the changing lighting as the scene transitions from night to day, the sounds of the vast wilderness, and even the scents of the swamp. The rest of the attraction never lived up to those couple of minutes for me, but scene that was enough to earn it a spot on this list.
5. World of Motion – I think every kid loved cars, and if not, they loved comical scenes and cute critters, both of which featured heavily in World of Motion. My memory of the attraction itself isn’t particularly vivid, but there were a few scenes I really liked. The Sea Serpent and “World’s First Traffic Jam” scene were the most memorable—and comical—scenes in World of Motion for me.
To be honest, I’m not really sure if this ride totally registered as being one about transportation. I mean, I remembered those aspects of the attraction and I also remember the cool concept cars at the end, but there was something of a disconnect between the two. (Perhaps I just wasn’t a very sharp kid?) My memory of the ride is mostly of its gags and funny scenery. Still, I really enjoyed both, and miss World of Motion, even if I think Test Track is a suitable replacement that is largely in keeping with the spirit of Future World while satisfying guest demand for thrills.
4. American Adventure – “This great attraction will endure as it has endured, will revive, and will prosper.” Franklin D. Roosevelt’s prescient words about American Adventure still ring true, and it remains an only-of-its-kind achievement that represents the best of the incredible engineering and Imagineering that went into bringing EPCOT Center to fruition, and it continues to impress to this day.
The way American Adventure presents moments in a poignant and engaging, and its ability to provoke an emotional response (every time!) out of a ‘stage show with robots’ is remarkable. Every scene is brilliantly-done, and tells the story of America in an accessible and interesting way. The culmination of this is an attraction that is, to quote another great American, “Distinctly Patriotic.”
3. Spaceship Earth – The greatest appeal of Spaceship Earth for has always been the wow-factor of the geodesic sphere. It’s one of my key memories from EPCOT Center as a kid, and the luster has yet to wear off. I remain awestruck every time I walk under Spaceship Earth, and cannot resist photographing it at night, even when I am just rehashing photos I’ve already taken hundreds of times.
The attraction itself is also worthy of mention. While there are some elements of the current ride I’m not particularly wild about, I am a sucker for slow omnimover attractions with longer ride times than wait times. The majority of the attraction remains in keeping with the spirit of the original, and I love slowly winding through the scenes, paying close attention to the sets and various details.
2. The Land – Before realizing that I had forgotten to include Spaceship Earth, I had Kitchen Kabaret alone at #3 and Living with the Land listed separately at #7. I had to combine the attractions out of necessity, but the more I thought about it, the more I feel the entirety of the pavilion deserves a spot. Sunshine Seasons is still a personal favorite, I love the rotating of Garden Grill, and even in its CGI heavy-handedness, Soarin’ is good fun.
Aside from Journey into Imagination, Kitchen Kabaret is the attraction I remember most from my childhood. I remember being blown away by the giant foods, and “Veggie Veggie Fruit Fruit” was an earworm that I no doubt repeated ad nauseum to my parents’ annoyance. I also have to admit that I absolutely loved Food Rocks. (C’mon, I was a kid!) As an adult, Living with the Land has become a favorite for the way it weaves together elements of a traditional dark ride with “edutainment” scenes. Plus, who doesn’t love the beautiful load area murals, distinctly 1980s EPCOT Center music, timeless scent of musty Florida water, and rad video footage showing agricultural advancements around the globe.
1. Journey into Imagination – The original is far and away the #1 on this list, and I would forgo all other theme park attractions for the rest of my life if that’s what it took to ride this just once more. Shortly after boarding your omnimover ride vehicle, you entered the clouds. There, we were greeted by the affable Dreamfinder piloting his Dreamcatcher, who introduced us to Figment. It was an attraction with mesmerizing and quirky qualities that endeared it to guests like me who remember it fondly even today.
Journey into Imagination resonated with me the most out of all original EPCOT Center attractions, and sparked my love for Walt Disney World that continues to this day. I can recall it in vivid detail, which I assume is a result partly of riding repeatedly and partly due to it being such a memorable attraction. It was an exceptional attraction in every way, the pinnacle of Imagineering from technical and creative levels, embodying the bright-eyed optimism of EPCOT Center.
Journey into Imagination left an indelible impact on me, probably far greater than I’ll ever know. Figment and Dreamfinder really did spark my inquisitiveness and curiosity as a child. I had a number of Figment toys as a child (although I have even more as an adult!), and remember bouncing them around World Showcase on my adventures with Figment. I don’t think any kid needs to be convinced to use their imagination, but Figment’s nebulous nature was certainly conducive to me envisioning him in any scenario I could dream up, and playing out those scenes on my own. This probably explains why, even two decades later, I’m still not over the loss of Journey into Imagination. As great as the ride was, it was so much more than a ride to me.
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Your Thoughts
Which EPCOT attractions or other aspects of the park are your favorites? Do you agree or disagree with my rankings of the EPCOT GOATs? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Thank you for this Top 7. This made my lunch break fun. My favorite EPCOT rides are all dark/tame rides or shows. It’s a shame that Future World turned into these quick thrill rides. Thank god for YouTube so I can re-experience these rides/shows like it was yesterday. Here are my 7 with my favorite version:
1. Journey into Imagination (Dreamfinder version)
2. Horizons
3. World of Motion
4. Spaceship Earth (Cronkite version)
5. The Land (Kitchen Kabaret/Listen to Land)
6. Gran Fiesta Tour
7. Maelstorm
Honorable mentions: El Rio del Tiempo, Universe of Energy (pre-Ellen), the Living Seas (Alpha Sea Base), American Adventure
I would put the American Adventure first, followed by Horizons and then Journey into Imagination (but Spaceship Earth is pretty close in ranking, in my opinion). I also love Soarin, Test Track and the Living Seas (the aquarium, not the ride).
And you should take full responsibility for your failing to love Horizons. My mom hated that ride, but I still managed to love and remember the ride in spite not getting to ride very often as a child ;). Horizons is Carousel of Progress, the sequel (the carousel being my all time favorite WDW ride).
Great article, but I began suspecting this was fake news when Body Wars didn’t make the list.
To this day I still miss the space-walking astronaut at the top of the ride in Spaceship Earth! Thanks for the retrospective. EPCOT has always been my favorite park.
I enjoy posts like this – thanks. Perhaps because I’m a bit older than you , my memories of some of Future World are opposite. I remember Horizons being my favorite attraction in EPCOT (and perhaps WDW), but I have little to no memory of the original World of Motion.
Making a GOAT list would be tough for me because times change, and I change as well as I age. As a kid, Impressions de France would have way down the list and certainly below the Canada movie (I liked the Canada song). Now, IdF would possibly be #3 behind American Adventure and SSE. SSE would also have risen on the list through time. The original Imagination was #1 or 2 (with Horizons) as a kid. Would it still be there? I don’t know. I wish I could see it again to make that judgement (and as great as Matin’s vids are, they aren’t the same thing as riding it again).
I agree with Journey Into Imagination but wish it had been the entire Imagination Pavillion. Walking out of Journey and into that pavillion was a 1 -2 punch of awesomeness. The rainbow tunnel was magical.
I still miss the fountain in the Land. It was so much more peaceful before Soarin’ came. (incidentally, thanks for using my picture of it from the photo history project. 🙂
And if you had remembered Horizons, it definitely would have made the list. Such a great ride, and my personal #1 GOAT for EPCOT Center.
I loved the Tapestry of Nations parade around the world showcase and the Millennium Village in 2000.
My most vivid memory of EPCOT is the multicolor tube you walked through in the Imagination Pavilion. I’m so sad I will never be able to share this experience with my daughter – along with the original Journey into Imagination.
I miss the Teacher’s Center in Communicore – it was around during the opening until about 1990. It contained lots of free stuff I could use in my classroom. Still using some of it today.
The original Universe of Energy was a favorite – Ellen just made into a commercial for Jeopardy ,and the original O’Canada – who needs Martin Short – Disney should just updated the film.
While I enjoyed your article, I too thought it would be about the four-legged goats, and was a little disappointed. Maybe a future article??
The five legged goat at the Contemporary.
Do you mean Greatest Of All Time for GOAT? Just because they’re around doesn’t mean they are GOAT. Spaceship Earth is the only remaining original ride that is still a must see. In my last visit 4 years ago, I skipped Maelstrom, Energy, American, and France. With a kid, Imagination and Living Seas are must-see attractions despite the Imagination being a total waste. I don’t have that much faith in the original attractions and don’t care if they are further replaced. I’m looking forward to Frozen, Ratatouille, and Guardians at my next visit in a few years.
One of my most wonderful memories was taking my Mom to Disney World in September of 1989 (a huge splurge for me then). We arrived a day or two after Hurricane Hugo, and there were no crowds. We stayed at Disney World five days, four of which we spent at EPCOT (one hour at the newly opened MGM Studios since almost nothing was open yet and the rest of that day at Magic Kingdom–of course Animal Kingdom did not yet exist). We never waited longer than 10 minutes to board a ride (September was low season, but I am sure Hugo helped to keep the parks empty). We rode Horizons, World of Motion, and Spaceship Earth over and over since there was never a line at all at these omnimovers–we just walked on every time . These dark rides were our very favorites with the bonus of air conditioning and rest for the weary feet. Everything in EPCOT was perfection from the rides to the entertainment around the World Showcase. I have returned a couple of times since, but nothing can hold a candle to the heydays of the original EPCOT Center.
I was there at the same time, and I agree it was awesome. I live in Charleston, SC, and we had no school (and green water) for weeks after Hugo so we stayed with a relative in Florida and spent a week at WDW. EPCOT was awesome, but my strongest memory was riding Spaceship Earth 5 times in a row with no wait. Magic.
I am from near Columbia and my parents from near Camden. My mom almost changed her mind about going and leaving my father behind to do the hurricane clean-up on their acres of land. Luckily, he insisted she go. We both loved EPCOT, so we spent four of the five days literally running through the parks to see all of the acts and of course ride all of the rides over and over. We did the same as you, but it was The World of Motion that we rode many times in a row. I remember how great it felt to walk onto that omnimover to rest our feet. Then the ride took you briefly from the inside to an open area overlooking the park and then back into the cool air. The fireworks and laser show was the best–we saw it every night.
I have been back a couple of times since with my husband, but the magic of the original EPCOT can never be recaptured.
Hey Tom, what type of click bait title are you using? I fully expected you to tell me all about Tom’s top 7 GOATS at EPCOT. You know, the 4 legged animal goat. I thought you were going to be on one of your writing sessions where you write about the bizarre (e.g. your favourite toilets at WDW) or obscure (e.g. your post a few years ago about how much attention Imagineering spends on lighting effects, lighting fixtures etc – something that I noticed ever since you highlighted it and very much appreciated).
No goats. It took until two full screens to get to paragraph 5 when I finally found out that GOATS was “greatest of all time”. Oh…now the post makes sense.
Otherwise, a great post except for the missing Cranium Command which you acknowledged with an earlier commentator.
Sorry? I thought GOAT was a pretty widely-known acronym, especially when capitalized like in the title.
Haha— I was all “Leave it to Bricker to have top 10 goats of WDW.” I guess this means I’m old. You kids and your lingo!!!! Seriously though, I bet you could come up with a top 10 goats post.
PS–I would give anything to be able to walk through that rainbow tunnel one more time.
Me too! I was trying to remember what rides had animatronic goats on them–thought it was going to be like hidden mickeys but with hidden goats 🙂
Great tribute! As an adult who first visited EPCOT in ’95 with husband, 2 teens, & 1 preteen, we were all impressed. Magical ingredients included: Peacefulness; Long (hot) walks rewarded with dramatic (cool, literally) destinations, each vastly different than the other; Beauty & color along the way; Saving the Imagination Pavilion for last, because it was the most colorful, lighthearted & fun, both inside & out; Innoventions because it appealed to our teens.
The most adult of the parks, EPCOT balanced WDW. Countries carried goods you wanted to buy, stores were delightfully air-conditioned, and that cool air wafted freely out open doors. Each country had multiple, enjoyable reasons to visit & linger within.
Back then, EPCOT as a whole gave us many diverse things to come back to again & again, all of it inventive, hopeful, beautiful, culturally rich, and discovery-based.
It became our favorite park.
We miss that feeling. Hopefully, it returns…in the future.
The only addition I’d make to this would be Horizons. I know that it probably would also demand an update, but I thought it was a great fit for EPCOT as it was.
I think a lot of attractions (even Journey into Imagination) would’ve needed updates; it’s really too bad they didn’t receive updates. Thrill rides could’ve been added to round out the lineup without removing the omnimover/dark ride attractions.
I missed communicate it was a really futuristic look at a lot of things. I remember being a preteen and just loved epcot. It made the future look fun
Sorry stupid ac said communicore
Maelstrom was amazing! I fell asleep on The Land, soooo boring if you come from rural farm country.
I’m from a rural farm community. 🙂
Although not my favorite experience at EPCOT, I thought “The Making of Me” was one of, if not the most thoughtful attractions at WDW. Remember? “Martin Short tells the story about how we are born, by explaining how his parents met during the course of their lives – at a high school dance, getting married, on their honeymoon, and having their first child.”
I vaguely remember a lot of stuff in Wonders of Life, but I’ve only come to appreciate the sly humor of the Making of Me as an adult.
I miss Wonders of Life, at least parts of it. I never cared for Body Wars, but I adored Cranium Command and the interactive elements in the middle of the pavilion (not unlike the interactive elements at Imagination). I still remember putting my hands on some coils and yanking them away because they were burning up, or so I thought. The signage explained that the coils alternated between very cold and warm, and my brain interpreted that as very hot. I miss those little things. (And I also loved Horizons, but I’m older than you.)
In hindsight, Wonders of Life deserves a spot on this list. It really should’ve been a fully-fledged top 10 instead of just 7.
Absolutely Agree, great fun! “Cranium Command took Buzzy’s host through a typical day: getting up, skipping breakfast, running to school after missing the bus, meeting and falling for a cute new girl, protecting her from bullies, getting involved in a food fight at lunch, getting sent to the principal, and being thanked by the girl, then kissed after asking her out. At each point in the day, the various organs of the body talked to Buzzy, explained the problems they were facing, and in many cases argued over how Buzzy should deal with the situation. In the end, Buzzy (via help of General Knowledge’s advice) eventually learned how to effectively balance the needs of his body crew in order to combat potential stressful situations.)