Epcot

Park Dedication

To all who come to this Place of Joy, Hope and Friendship, WELCOME. Epcot is inspired by Walt Disney’s creative vision. Here, human achievements are celebrated through imagination, wonders of enterprise and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits for all. May EPCOT Center entertain, inform and inspire and, above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man’s ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere. -- Dedication, 1982

Park Overview

One of the central portions of project Florida was the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, or EPCOT. Walt Disney's business goals had evolved through his life. He started in filmmaking and grew to amusement parks. This community was his attempt at designing his own city. Epcot was to be a showcase for futuristic technologies. Walt’s plan was to have outside companies sponsor portions of the city. Effectively, he would ask them to build their factories and offices there. He would provide the benefits of the latest advances in technology, including transportation and utilities. The companies would be required to provide something new - something that could become an industry standard. Then, businessmen and tourists alike could come to tour the city and the work-places. They would learn about the new technologies and methodologies. When they got home, they could implement what they saw at Epcot in their homes and offies. This community would be Experimental because of the new technologies, a Prototype because it was for early adopters, and of Tomorrow because the intent was for these technologies to spread.

The lofty goal was toned down after the Magic Kingdom was completed. In many ways, the original idea of Epcot was implemented into the systems of Walt Disney World as a whole. But the entity of Epcot took on new life as a theme park. It was designed with two portions: Future World and World Showcase. Future World was designed with the spirit of Epcot in mind. But rather than being a city to showcase the advances, it used theme park attractions. Companies sponsored the attractions to show where technology had come from and where it was headed. The park was education-oriented, and provided opportunities for people to enrich their lives with what they learned. World Showcase was designed to broaden the perspectives of culture and the brotherhood of the human race.

In all, Epcot left a taste of edutainment in the public's mouth. Its early years suffered from poor reception. To increase attendance, Epcot has drifted from the educational towards the entertaining. The general themes and concepts are still there, but they are less dominating. In a way, today’s entertainment is the “spoonful of sugar” to make the education more palatable.

Wait Times

Below are graphs showing wait times for some of the key attractions at the park. We track posted wait times, and use them to predict what wait times will be each day. We make live updates to these predictions, so they will adjust to the current crowd levels in the park. The orange line with the circle markers shows the wait times that Disney has posted today. The blue line shows our prediction. The light-gold shaded region shows wait times that we would consider average – these are the range of wait times you can expect on a day that’s not too crowded or too slow.

World Celebration

World Discovery

World Nature

World Showcase

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