Dreamers Point is named not only for the dreamer that has and continues to inspire us, but also for all of us who visit EPCOT every day to celebrate the endless potential and possibility of our world.
RIP Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit
Sometimes it takes over 4 years to fill in a dirt pit. There can be good reasons for that, such as shovel shortage. Many rainy days. Ghost of Card Walker haunting the pit. Many meetings held to determine best course of action to eliminate the pit. Unable to stop Andy Dwyer from camping in the pit. (Legend has it that’s where he stayed while filming for Cosmic Rewind!)
While we’ll never know what, exactly, was causing Walt Disney World delays in filling in the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit and reopening it as regular land. Nor is it clear how they’ve managed to overcome these obstacles. Hopefully someday someone will make a motivational movie or write a book about the against-all-odds tale of perseverance. For now, Walt Disney World has made the triumphant announcement that its pit problem will soon be resolved. The World Celebration Gardens will open on December 5, 2023.
Here’s the official announcement from Walt Disney Imagineering–their words, not mine:
In celebration of Walt Disney’s birthday on Dec. 5, guests visiting EPCOT will be able to visit Dreamers Point in the newly-opened World Celebration neighborhood and see our company’s original dreamer in a completely new light. Everyone is invited to imagine alongside Walt himself and look out over World Celebration Gardens together.
This new statue, entitled “Walt the Dreamer,” represents Walt later in his life when he was dreaming up the overall Florida Project and the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. He sits with a sense of fulfillment, enjoying the beauty of his realized dream: a park that represents pure optimism and truly celebrates the magic of possibility.
This new statue of Walt is one of many areas to visit as a part of World Celebration Gardens where guests will be able to relax, unwind, and connect – to EPCOT, to nature and to each other. Each of the gardens found in the center of World Celebration, including Dreamers Point, will connect back to the areas surrounding them, drawing on the architectural legacy of EPCOT, modern lighting elements and a variety of natural textures.
Turning to commentary, I’ll start by saying I’m trying to be a more optimistic, upbeat, and grateful person. But Walt Disney World is really testing my resolve with all of this. I’m not going to dwell much on anything in particular because…what’s the point? Really, what could be said that hasn’t already been said before countless times, including in the commentary to past construction updates about CommuniCore Hall and the EPCOT overhaul?
There is one correction that I, personally, think is important: Walt Disney cannot be enjoying his realized dream, because he never dreamed of EPCOT being a theme park. The EPCOT Center that was built was a moonshot, but it was nevertheless a different project altogether.
This isn’t to say it and the Florida Project as a whole weren’t imbued with Walt’s spirit and elements of his experimental city–they absolutely were! To this day, Walt Disney World is one of the top 5 cosmopolitan metropolises in the United States, and the company should be proud of that. Contemporary projects like the Skyliner advance Walt’s vision and deserve to be celebrated.
Filling in the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit does not. Especially not over the course of 4+ years. That is, arguably, the antithesis of Walt’s vision for an experimental community, and more a lesson in bloated bureaucracy than an efficient futuristic city.
Look, I love EPCOT Center–I think my posting history speaks for itself–but I also think it’s okay to acknowledge that the EPCOT Center that was built in the 1980s was not the EPCOT envisioned by Walt. And the EPCOT of today certainly is not it, either.
As I’ve said countless times, I don’t like Walt Disney being used as a corporate mascot. His quotes shouldn’t be used as a shield or sword to justify whatever business decision or change the company has decided to make. And a statue of him, while a nice tribute, should be the icing on the cake and not the cake itself.
It’s hard to see anything else in the World Celebration Gardens, which I guess is what we’re calling these trees and paths, that qualifies as cake. If there were, Disney probably would’ve shared photos of it instead of multiple images of the sitting Walt statue.
Some diehard Walt Disney World fans who are eternally optimistic might call this overly cynical, and claim we should step foot in the World Celebration Gardens before passing judgment. I generally agree with the ‘wait and see’ attitude, but here, my first question would be: for what?
We already have a really good idea of what’s behind those 4-year-old construction walls. Walt Disney World has released concept art and progress is plainly visible from the monorail. So I’ll ask you this: is there realistically anything hiding behind those walls that would be worthwhile payoff for the front of the park being torn up for 4+ years?
I already know the answer. There is not. I hope to be pleasantly surprised with the look and feel of area, but there is zero chance of it being good enough to justify 4+ years of the park being a veritable construction zone that paying guests had to navigate. There’s absolutely no excuse for this taking so long, especially given the end product.
Ground was broken for EPCOT Center on October 1, 1979. When the park opened exactly 3 years later, an article in the Orlando Sentinel stated that “the nation’s top construction experts say the impossible had been done.” It was a herculean effort and impressive accomplishment that is still celebrated to this day. What a difference a few decades makes.
Speaking of things that have zero chance of happening, there’s also the issue of CommuniCore Hall. Walt Disney World previously stated that the EPCOT overhaul and World Celebration would wrap up this December. CommuniCore Hall is part of both. It will not open on December 5, 2023.
Again, if it were, Walt Disney World would’ve said as much instead of just commenting on the statue and gardens. Speculation isn’t really necessary here, as bioreconstruct recently shot aerial photos (above) that show new construction walls going up around CommuniCore Hall, as the gardens around it prepare to open.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise to any regular readers, as we’ve repeatedly commented on the slow pace of that project and how photos taken ~6 months apart were virtually indistinguishable from one another. After a lot of visible progress earlier this year, this construction slowed to a crawl back before the new fiscal year started.
Since then, it’s picked up a bit, but not enough to have this be done by December 2023. I was actually pleasantly surprised to see it look dramatically different at the start of the Christmas season (my photos above and below from this month) than it did the last time I saw it in September. The outside is coming along and could conceivably be done by January 2024. It’s really a question of where the interior stands.
I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the first festival to use CommuniCore Hall is the 2024 EPCOT International Flower & Garden Festival. Maybe it’s done in time for Festival of the Arts, but I think the fact that Walt Disney World has already made a flurry of announcements for that and mentioned the Odyssey instead of CommuniCore Hall suggests it won’t. Hopefully I’m wrong, though.
Ultimately, I’m just ready for this all to be over and, I guess, I’m glad that the walls will be down soon. This EPCOT overhaul began in earnest on September 9, 2019 and it won’t completely finish until 2024. That’s a ridiculous amount of time to have the main corridor of the park out of commission. The pace of the project has been too slow from the outset, but it’s only gotten worse post-reopening.
At least it was going to be ambitious at one point, overhauling a park that had been stagnating for far too long while adding unique architecture and interactive features. All of that was scrapped over 3 years ago, though. At the very least, as soon as Disney knew that was no longer the plan–back in Summer 2020–they should’ve fast-tracked the filling in of the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit and just walled-off Moana’s Journey of Water and CommuniCore Hall.
It’s incredibly discouraging to go through 3 rounds of redesigns and 4+ years of enduring a maze of walls to end up with this. Not only that, but it seems incredibly short-sighted to build something roughly equivalent to what they tore down (minus the symmetry)–a tremendous amount of time and money have been wasted for a difference amounting to “more trees!” and “one fewer fountain!” Oh, and a statue.
This is going to be around for decades to come, and it looks wholly unambitious and uninspired. It is wildly ironic that this project, of all things, is what they’re trying to spin as the realization of Walt Disney’s dream, a park representing pure optimism and truly celebrating the magic of possibility. Does it really, though? I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. Walt Disney World is capable of so much more.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you excited for the trees, paths, and statue that Walt Disney World will open on December 5, 2023? What do you think of CommuniCore Hall and Plaza? Think it’ll also be done by Late 2023, or agree that it won’t be ready until the first (or second) festival of 2024? Is this an exciting development, or underwhelming as compared to the previous multi-level festival center? Disappointed about anything that has been delayed or cancelled? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
So excited! I played tour guide on a first trip for my brother, sister-in-law and two nieces last year and the start of EPCOT was very “no really, this is an exciting place. Just imagine it’s not a pile of dirt and scrap metal behind ugly poorly placed walls… I promise, it gets better” By the time we half dragged the littles straight to the world showcase to see “the elsa ride” at our assigned LL time, you could tell they were seriously reconsidering my favorite aunt status. This has been an unfortunate phase, especially for first timers who haven’t have any reason to believe there’s a reason to put up with it.
Discussing a trip back – Moana would have been enough to get them smiling at the start, but an open green space on the way in with trees, then Moana on the way out, is much easier to sell than winding construction hell. I’m sure there will be music, and Disney is good at making the mundane *feel* like some magical trees and benches with the right sounds.
What was the net gain out of this “overhaul”?
Illuminations was replaced…and is still being replaced.
Universe of Energy was replaced with something that commands much higher crowds (with I would guess lower capacity).
Entry was simply renovated.
I guess Ratatouille is an actual +1….a new ride where none existed previously.
Four years and one D-ticket screen-heavy dark ride cloned from Paris (and inferior overall without the attached restaurant).
Crazy that this is the best Disney can do in half a decade. They used to add multiple all-new rides EVERY YEAR.
The EPCOT overhaul has been massively disappointing and a ton of money has been wasted, no doubt.
But it’s also reductionist to say the end result is only one new screen-heavy cloned ride. Cosmic Rewind is a huge draw because it’s excellent–it’s absurd to call that a 1:1 with Universe of Energy. It’s unfair to point to the restaurant attached to Ratatouille in Paris without acknowledging that new restaurants have also opened in EPCOT.
EPCOT will be a significantly better park in 2024 than it was in 2019. I wish it would’ve been done faster, more ambitiously, and/or with more disciplined spending, but I think it’s unfair to only point to the bad and ignore the good.
I guess the positive thing was that, for once, it wasn’t my job to explain how cutting costs in one place would be partially offset by increased costs by stretching the schedule elsewhere. (If WDW had shaved time off the schedule to save actual costs rather than playing accounting tricks across the past few fiscal years, I’d be more accepting of the result.)
That, and by opening it in December rather than the spring, there will be zero chance of people complaining about a statue of Walt staring at a topiary of a carousel.
This will be the most epic unveiling of a walkway and trees with a statue ever!!
Every time I went into Epcot in the last 2 years I said out loud “This is just embarrassing “.
It looks like I’ll still be saying that….
Hopefully not but we’ll see.
“…it seems incredibly short-sighted to build something roughly equivalent to what they tore down (minus the symmetry)–a tremendous amount of time and money have been wasted for a difference amounting to “more trees!” and “one fewer fountain!””
This. This is it in a nutshell. Am I glad the walls are finally coming down? Of course. Am I thrilled with what they did? Nope. Well, Moana is cool but the loss of the fountain is so sad. Alas.
Disney obviously put more resources into finishing the Moana walkthrough because that was the bigger priority. Now that Moana is fininished they can finish World Celebration Gardens.
Its disappointing the original plans for this were changed, but the pandemic happened, and losses piled up, and the stock tanked, and they have to cut costs somewhere. My expectations were pretty low to begin with for this area, so this change is pretty minor in the overall scheme of things.
Allocation of resources is certainly an explanation, but is it a good one?
I’d understand if this were a complex project and there were a finite number of construction workers with highly-specialized skills that were needed elsewhere instead. But it’s not. It’s trees and concrete paths.
Cutting costs is scrapping the multi-level pavilion. Okay, I get that. I don’t agree with the decision, but I get it. At the exact point that decision was made, someone should’ve said: “we need to fast-track the rest of the central spine to reduce the construction walls.”
I actually wouldn’t be surprised if Walt Disney World lost some attendance and revenue due to those walls. Not hard to imagine people coming back from trips in 2021-2023 and saying to friends: “EPCOT has a couple of cool new rides, but they’re building more in the middle and there’s a lot of construction walls, so wait to go.”
Let’s be honest it took them longer to make this garden that it will for universal to make epic universe, an entirely new theme park from scratch. It’sa shame and there’s no other way to put it. I enjoyed your commentary though
Wow, that is wild to think and an ENTIRE park was created in 3 years, and recent years Disney has struggled to even finish ONE ride in that same time period. I am so tired of the walls around EPCOT, and this announcement doesn’t give me confidence that the center spine will be available to navigate any time soon.
My favorite is that it took 2 years to build the walking path from the Magic Kingdom to the Grand Floridian. And there were no guest and crowds in the area that they needed to work around either.
I’m curious, when we look back a decade form now, do you think Disney’s approach at Epcot versus Universal’s approach with Epic Universe will be viewed as a turning point between the two resorts? Universal opted to charge on full steam ahead and in some ways take advantage of the situation that arose during Covid (construction workers looking for work, low interest rates, etc.). Disney on the other hand got cold feet, changed plans, scrapped plans, and never really could decide what to do which led to this “meh” outcome after a significant amount of wasted time. And now they’re looking at increased costs from worker shortages and higher borrowing rates for any future projects. Obviously hindsight is 20/20, but it really feels like Disney missed the mark the last 4 years.
“when we look back a decade form now, do you think Disney’s approach at Epcot versus Universal’s approach with Epic Universe will be viewed as a turning point between the two resorts?”
No.
I know that’s not the answer Universal fans–or disgruntled Disney fans–want to hear, but I think that the hype about Epic Universe and its “gamechanger” potential is overblown, and high hopes for its impact necessarily require looking at the respective resorts during a shorter timeframe.
Zoom out and there’s still a big difference. At least, in my opinion. This isn’t to diminish what Universal is accomplishing. It’s impressive and they’re definitely deserving of praise for going all-in on theme parks. It’s also not to excuse what Disney has done. Stopping construction and restarting slowly was an unforced error, and everything is going to cost more in the next decade for the reasons you point out.
Thanks for the response, Tom! I always enjoy your insight. 🙂 Fully agreed that there’s still a big difference between Disney and Universal on a resort-wide level, but it is fun to think about Universal getting closer to Disney’s realm where it might really start to push Disney if they wish to maintain their edge.
Having had some time to cool on the glacial pace of building will this affect the route for early morning movement as you won’t have to go through the walls from the front gate to say Frozen or is looping left just after spaceship earth optimal. Its been so long my brain can’t process the geography of there not being an Epcot Dirtpit(tm).
It shouldn’t change anything Early Entry or rope drop-wise. The path in front of Connections/Creations Shop will still be more or less the fastest, and I wouldn’t be surprised if everyone is routed that way.
I remember a younger, more innocent self standing in the Odyssey watching the Epcot reimagining presentation–all giddy and optimistic. What an absolute clown!
I honestly think Disney should not release so much concept art at the beginning of projects. I know lots of people go wild for this stuff, but it rarely lives up to the early ideas. I’m STILL bummed about New Fantasyland. We were supposed to get an enchanted forest. We got concrete.
Welp! We certainly have trees now. Plenty of them. Annnndddd some benches.
It’s going to be wild to be able to walk somewhat efficiently from test track to soarin’!
When did Creations shop and Connections open? I want to say that was for the 50th in Oct. 2021. So basically it was 2 years for them to turn over a restaurant and shop in existing spaces, then it was an additional 2 years for them to open Moana and a few more months for the central spine. I can only guess that they wanted to hold the central spine for a big epcot relaunch… I feel very whelmed about it.
Creations Shop and Club Cool opened shortly before the 50th (Fall 2021) and Connections Cafe opened the following year ahead of Cosmic Rewind (Spring 2022).
At the time, it felt like those were taking forever, but I think both of those projects were in the range of reasonableness, all things considered. Had the World Celebration Gardens opened in mid-2022 with Connections, I wouldn’t have (most of) this criticism. Journey of Water and CommuniCore Hall taking longer and being behind (a smaller set of) construction walls would be understandable. But taking 4+ years to “open” some trees and walkways? Come on.
I’m viewing this positively that they are moving on, even if we are disappointed with what they have. At least they aren’t trying to cram something in and won’t fit the park’s vision. At least they have something that’s “completed” and they can re-focus on other areas.
Totally agree; this “project” falls far below any standards that Walt himself would have held. It is a significant letdown and a far cry from the days of fantastic EPCOT achievements such as Horizons and the original Journey Into Imagination. To call what they have done a project even seems too generous.
I mean, I would have been fine with this being a simple place-making project. I do think the central spine needed at least a refresh–I would’ve been okay with Disney walling off the Innoventions/Communicore buildings in halves for ~8-10 months at a time and bringing them out of the 1990s. I didn’t need to be, and never could’ve been Horizons or JII level ambition.
The problem is how much time and money were wasted to achieve so little.
Tom, I could not agree more. This is a massive disappointment, especially for APs, DVC members, and routine visitors to WDW, parties all invested in the Disney experience.
While I’ve (obviously) been annoyed by the walls as a regular, I actually feel worse for the first-timers and one-and-done Walt Disney World visitors. The impression they’re left with is one of EPCOT as a construction zone. At least all of us knew the park before and get to see it when it’s done.
The big reason for the delay? The pandemic, period. 2020 through early 2022 were a mess!!
Projects all over Central Florida, including at Universal, continued full steam ahead during the pandemic.
It’s an excuse, but that’s it.
Similarly, how many years of construction walls did we have in AK that resulted in an amphitheater and a lake with no show?
Obviously this isn’t a competition, but I think the EPCOT overhaul has been way worse for the guest experience. This is the main traffic corridor at EPCOT–at least DAK’s construction was mostly out of the way (or in the water).
Animal Kingdom also had a good excuse, as working in that water and on the floats proved much more difficult than originally anticipated.
This was an unbelievable waste of time and resources. Connections/Creations has been an improvement, but that’s about it. Overall this is very disappointing, but I guess at least it’s over?
I will give disney some credit for some of their projects. Indiana Jones refurb was good, Mickey and Minnies was well themed in California as was the new treehouse from what ive seen. Arrendelle in Hong Kong does look spectacular and Disney Springs will be in Tokyo.
The problems is ‘unambitious and uninspired’ unfortunately seems to sum up a lot of the projects atm although over cost and overtime might also be appropriate. I mean it took an extra 9 months to build the treehouse for goodness sake. Neither Marvel Campus ive seen so far has been that great(I like the California one more then the Paris one). Arrendelle in Paris is now going to be delayed a whole year past the Olympics when it was meant to be ready for the Rugby World Cup held earlier this yearand is still a dirt pit which is inexusable even with Covid.
It seems that imagineering just can’t build anything quickly anymore and the problem is I cant work out the reasoning for it. Is it that Disney Corporate takes forever to approve it or that they are deliberately spreading the time out as much as possible so the funding is in multtiple yearsdespite it increasing overall cost? Im not quite sure what the issue is but it seems that there are building bottlenecks all over disney. If the investors really want park expansion then it might not be Iger’s reponsibility to break the go slow but someone should be certainly pressuring Josh D’Amaro over it because after all the sooner you build the attractions the sooner more people come into the park instead of the slowdown they might face over the next 3-4 years.
You’re lumping a lot of things together, understandably, but that all have different “causes” for taking so long.
The smaller scale delays in California are the result of an especially brutal winter and red tape. There might be more blame to go around, but you can blame a large portion of that on the weather and government.
Certain projects were delayed because of Disney hemorrhaging money and economic uncertainty. It’s easy to forget, but there was a point into early 2021 when economists and analysts were forecasting that travel would take 5 years to recover, and even then, might not ever reach 2019 levels. At the same time, Disney was losing money both due to the closure and slow reopening, as well as Disney+ rollout. So delaying the WDSP overhaul and other big projects made at least some degree of sense.
By contrast, I don’t think there’s anything that excuses this taking so long. They had already torn up the front of the park, and it was in a high-traffic area of EPCOT. The money would have to be spent at some point to fix it. Why not use the closure and subsequent phased reopening (lower attendance) to fast-track the project and at least get this “garden” and walkways open sooner? If anything, that would’ve helped with attendance and crowd flow once Cosmic Rewind opened.
While there have been some creative failures in recent years, I don’t blame Imagineering for anything on this list–including the EPCOT overhaul. I don’t think anyone at WDI set out to “achieve” this as the end result. They’re playing the cards they were dealt.