EPCOT transformation to be complete by end of 2023, Disney says

EPCOT’s multi-year transformation will be complete by the end of the year, Disney announced today.

The transformation has taken place over the last couple of years, Scott Mallwitz, Executive Creative Director Walt Disney Imagineering, said. “We started at the front gate kind of re-imagining the turnstile and the whole entry sequence to our guests, kind of softening and making it a little more organic, taking away a lot of the hard edges, and then reconsidering some of the paint colors there to kind of bring in that classic EPCOT architecture and amplify it,” Mallwitz said.

Then Community Core East was reimagined to include Connections Cafe and Creation Shop, all In an effort to preserve the strong EPCOT architecture. “But we made it more intriguing by actually separating and removing some of the hard walls, exterior walls, and replacing those with ceiling, the floor glazing,” opening up and creating sight lines between those shops.

The open windows is also creating opportunities for guests to “see through to World Discovery across the gardens that are coming later this year,” Mallwitz said.

When CommuniCore Hall opens in World Celebration later this year, it will be the center of festival programming throughout the park. It will be home to a new character greeting location called Mickey & Friends.

CommuniCore Hall will also be the home of a dynamic exhibition space that will transform with each festival throughout the year, such as the EPCOT International Festival of the Arts. “We’re able to host giant outdoor performances, small, intimate, intimate experiences and extend those into a wonderful condition like control space that can deepen that programing and like guest experience, chef demonstrations, special mixology experiences, art artist demonstrations,” Mallwitz said.

Playing with light, shapes and reflections, the architecture of this building was designed by Walt Disney Imagineering to celebrate the legacy of EPCOT and the original CommuniCore buildings.

Guests will be able to explore the wonders of water when Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana opens later this year.

Guests will walk through “the exploration trail, engaging with water in multiple ways. It’s going to start with the birth of water, as rain, as it comes down to our Earth through our streams and rivers, to our oceans, and back to the skies by engaging and playing with water. We hope that our guests take away a sense of stewardship and friendship towards our natural resources,” said Chelsea Whikehart, Producer at Walt Disney Imagineering.

Along the way, guests learn about the importance of water and discover its playful personality – just as Moana did on her heroic voyage,” Whikehart said.

Guests will also be treated to the debut of an all-new EPCOT nighttime spectacular later this year. A dazzling display of music, pyrotechnics, lasers and lighting, the show will feature an original composition and evocative selections from the Disney songbook – all woven together to remind us that we are more alike than different.