3 EPCOT Rides We’re Getting Worried About

While EPCOT is currently home to some of Walt Disney World’s most popular rides, including Test Track and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, some of the park’s other attractions have us a bit concerned.

It just looks SO good now!

I’ve been visiting EPCOT for more than 30 years, and over that time, I’ve seen the park transform in a litany of ways. Some for the better, some for the worse. As the park enters its latest new era, there are three rides that stand out to those of us on the DFB team as raising red flags for the park’s future.

Mission Space

Mission Space has never been a “beloved” Disney attraction. The ride opened in 2003 with the unenviable task of replacing the EPCOT classic Horizons, and many fans disliked it based on principle alone for that reason. On top of that, the ride experience was met with… mixed results at best, with some riders enjoying it while others felt sick. This was a big enough issue to eventually lead to the creation of the more toned down “Green” ride experience. Despite this, the ride’s wait times currently reflect waning popularity.

Mission Space

This is only going to be highlighted further by Mission Space’s position in the park. Located in World Discovery, the ride is smack dab in between Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and the new Test Track 3.0. The ride’s shortcomings are only accentuated by its location.

Journey into Imagination

On the other side of the former Future World, there’s the current version of Journey into Imagination With Figment. While most Disney fans are familiar with the ride’s history, a brief synopsis for those who aren’t: The original Journey into Imagination opened in 1983, just months after the park opened. The whimsical dark ride celebrated the very concept of imagination and starred the gregarious Dreamfinder and his purple dragon companion Figment. The ride was one of Early EPCOT’s most popular, and Figment became a symbol of the park and a merchandising cash-cow.

Imagination Pavilion

By the late 1990s, however, sponsor Kodak would only re-up their agreement if the ride was refurbished. So, 1999 saw the closure of the original version of the ride, with Journey Into Your Imagination opening the following year. The new version shortened the ride considerably, eliminated all mentions of Dreamfinder and Figment, and sloppily tied the dark ride into the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience attraction next door. Suffice it to say, this version did NOT go over well. In fact, Disney closed it within two years. The ride was quickly retrofitted into Journey Into Imagination With Figment.

Journey into Imagination with Figment

As the name suggests, the refurbishment jammed Figment into the skeleton of the failed version of the ride. This created something better than Journey into Your Imagination, but which still pales in comparison to the original. At the time, most fans saw it as a stopgap. However, that was nearly 25 years ago and the ride hasn’t been updated since (Holiday sweaters don’t count), despite the ongoing and ever-growing popularity of Figment.

Figment!

Gran Fiesta Tour

Moving into the World Showcase, there’s Mexico’s Gran Fiesta Tour. The boat ride is made up of the bones of an EPCOT original attraction – El Rio Del Tiempo – which was the only opening day ride in World Showcase. The Gran Fiesta Tour version has been open since 2007, and stars the Three Caballeros.

Gran Fiesta Tour

Our worry here is that Disney may believe the Three Caballeros theming is past its prime, especially compared to the other rides in World Showcase. Combined with the news that a Coco attraction is coming to Disneyland, it doesn’t seem out of the realm of possibility that Disney may shoehorn a lesser version of that attraction into the bones of Gran Fiesta Tour.

©Disney

While EPCOT is still basking in the afterglow of the park’s recent multi-year “reimagining”, we’re a bit worried about the future of several of the park’s rides. Stay tuned to DFB for more on Disney World’s evolution.

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Which of EPCOT’s rides are you most worried about? Let us know in the comments below.

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