Project Ideas - EPCOT Armchair Imagineering

I've been thinking over the past few weeks as I start to wind things down here in Cincinnati.  I'm going to have some extra time on my hands, becoming a short-term stay-at-home-dad; there's a need to keep some sort of productive goal so I don't get swallowed up in tending house and child rearing.  One of the ideas I've been tossing around has been to take my interest in urban planning and try to apply something to the Walt Disney World resort areas.

3 out of 4 parks are either going through a big update (Animal Kingdom), have gone through an update recently (Magic Kingdom), or is in the process of having one planned (whatever Hollywood Studios is going to be called).  So why is it that EPCOT is a bit of the red-headed step child in this group?  In the annals of Disney theme park history, there's so much story to the idea of EPCOT.   It's really hard to list all the wonderful background behind WDW's second park.

So... Let's build a better EPCOT.  A lot of us in the Disney parks community have dreamed of being in a position of an Imagineer and build a park from the ground up.  Many of us would love to fix something that was most beloved and bring it back to it's former splendor.  Let's be honest here... EPCOT hasn't been the park we loved for quite some time now.  Many of the beloved attractions have been removed or rendered silly by time, neglect, and the Disney profit grab.  It's time to put those dreams together and make up a better EPCOT.

I'm asking for your input on this.  What makes EPCOT magical?  What makes EPCOT a wonderful theme park?  What makes EPCOT a good money maker for Disney?  Let's not take the easy way out and just add tons of E-Ticket attractions or get away from the story that this park was trying to tell in the first place.  I'm proposing that we redesign EPCOT not only be a theme park that churns guests and makes money, but to also go back to Walt's dream of Progress City and the vision that EPCOT once was when it first opened?  Who's with me?

I've got some ideas for what I'd love to see happen with EPCOT.  I imagine that there are quite a few other people that have great ideas too.  So... leave some feedback, either here or through Twitter (@enlaycock), or even my Facebook page.  I know that there's quite a few of my Disney Twitter pals that already have some projects or ideas on paper (ahem @wesleymjames).  I'm hoping to have some time in the next few weeks to post a couple high level ideas and I'd love to know your thoughts about them.  So... follow along.  Let's pretend that Bob Iger has given us a blank check and slate and that our budget is only as wide as our imagination is.  This is going to be fun.

Building excitement for the big move

Over the past couple of weeks, I've only had a couple of second thoughts about our impending move to Orlando.  However most of those thoughts have centered on "how are the kids going to adapt to this?"  It's already a bit overwhelming to be a toddler or starting kindergarten, but to throw in a move that's 12 hours drive from what they only known has to be a challenge.  Luckily, I've had some of hose fears allayed tonight.

One of my favorite ways to get my Disney parks fix is to watch YouTube videos of rides, shows, and parades.  Usually, we sit the kids down on the couch with their bedtime snacks and throw a video up on the TV.  Tonight, as the wife (known as K from here on out) was making dinner, I realized that Disneyland's 60th anniversary celebrations have kicked off this week.  So, I decided to check out the new Paint the Night Parade.  Within seconds, my daughter (now referred to as Princess) was jumping up and down, screaming at the TV "DADDY, IT'S MICKEY!!!"  That's when it hit me that we're making the right decision for us.

I've always wanted the kids to grow up and experience everything they possibly can.  Why not have them experience it in a world of magic and wonder?  The cynical among us might think that I'm wrong to have my children grow up in a world of make-believe or surrounded by so much commericalism.  I say that every child should have a sense of wonderment about their world.  To be so serious and to grow up so quickly takes the imagination out of your soul.  I don't want that for my kids.  There's many of times that Buzz (my son) talks about the theme park that he's built in his head. Or course, I do anything I can to encourage this, but what happens when he's forced to grow up? Should that imagination die with the maturation process?  Honestly, there's enough bad in this world that our kids get exposed to.  If I can keep that imagination or sense of wonderment alive, I think that they'll have a foundation to do whatever they set their minds to.  That's why this move really makes sense to K and me.  The kids get that have that sense of wonderment that I want them to have.  Nothing makes me happier than seeing their eyes light up and their imaginations run wild.  This excites me to no end and I can't wait until I can walk through those turnstiles again.

-E

For reference, here's the link to the Paint the Night Parade video.  I hope you agree with me that it's pretty spectacular.

https://youtu.be/mDGDTpAipzw

Beginning a new adventure

Hello, my name is Eric and I originally planned to write this blog a while ago to discuss things happening in the Disney theme park space and to help me learn to write better.  However, life gets in the way and well-intentioned plans go by the wayside.  A couple of months ago, my wife and I started down a path that we hadn't taken before, one that we thought we would never dream of taking... We decided to relocate our family to Florida and she would take a dream job with the Walt Disney Company.

It's a bit funny how I originally titled this blog, "Into the Briar Patch."  Splash Mountain has easily been my family's favorite Disney attraction since we've been going to the parks or our children have been tall enough to ride.  I just named this blog after something I found dear to my heart, but in the end, it's a great metaphor for our new adventure. Moving out of state to someplace that feels like a permanent vacation seems like we're Brer Rabbit setting out to find some new fun.  However with everything that that the wife and I have to accomplish, it feels like Brer Fox has us in his lair.

It's been a bit overwhelming, to say the least, to start packing our lives up.  We've built a great life in a wonderful town that we've called home for so long.  I've been finding myself getting choked up when we visit our favorite places one last time before we move down to Central Florida.  It's a little sad to see me tear up walking out of Skyline Chili or one last stroll through Washington Park.  However, it's all overwhelming to know how much I'll have to explore once we setup shop in Orlando and that's not even considering being 20 minutes from my favorite place on Earth.

I keep telling myself that this move is just like Splash Mountain, it's a journey (and a boat ride for that fact), and all boat ride journeys are pretty awesome.  At this point, I'm just going to take them one scene at a time.

So... There's the beginning.  I'm going to try and write to the blog as often as I can.  Most of my writing is going to be for me.  I'm sure some of my posts might only be a few sentences.  I'm not professional in the slightest, but I hope that you might enjoy taking this journey with me.  Feel free to comment, commiserate, congratulate, critique, or any other verb that begins with C.

Thanks,

-E