The grand opening of Communicore Hall and Communicore Plaza at EPCOT marked the end of the Central Florida theme park’s long-postponed transformation, originally scheduled to coincide with Walt Disney World Resort’s 50th Anniversary.
The reimagining included transforming Future World into the World Discovery, World Nature, and World Celebration neighborhoods, aligning with the existing World Showcase name. It also brought the new Space 220 and Connections Cafe restaurants and attractions like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind; Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana; and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
Some Disney Parks fans have been disappointed with the EPCOT overhaul as promised expansions were scaled down or altogether canceled, like the Mary Poppins (1964) area in the United Kingdom World Showcase Pavilion. Some Walt Disney World Resort guests called the completed Communicore Hall and Plaza “lifeless,” slamming the Disney park for spending years constructing a disappointing Future World replacement.
Now, just months after renovations ceased, EPCOT guests are fleeing the World Celebration neighborhood as it reportedly “falls apart.” Disney Parks fans recently discussed ongoing maintenance issues in the area on Reddit.
Broken Things Stay Broken
“World Celebration is falling apart before our eyes,” u/jayhero19 began. “Listen… I’m a diehard EPCOT fan. I’ve made many posts in the park’s defense since the walls came down earlier this year. But I am beyond stunned at how quickly this 5+ year-long refurbishment has deteriorated.”
The Disney Park guest said some recently repaired lighting fixtures had already failed.
“If you haven’t noticed yet, the lighting fixtures on the pavement, in the trees, and around CommuniCore Hall are either broken completely, or are in such abysmal shape that it would be in their best interest to break,” they continued. “They actually just got the LED lighting beneath the centerpiece planter working again, unfortunately, after a week or two of operation, they are back to their prior dilapidated state.”
Is World Celebration Dangerous?
The EPCOT fan also warned about potential tripping hazards.
“I noticed on a recent visit to the park that there are temporary ropes around random sections of pavement,” they recalled. “Upon closer inspection, it appears that large cracks have formed. Large enough to trip an unsuspecting guest. I know these are minuscule details, but it’s sad and borderline embarrassing for Disney to invest so lazily in one of their most magnificent parks.”
Other Disney Parks fans overwhelmingly agreed.
“It’s such a shame that they completely disrupted the entire front half of the park for the better part of a decade only to budget cut the update into the ground and not even have what’s left functioning properly,” u/LadPrime commented. “If you are going to have the guest experience so significantly disrupted for that long a period of time for the purpose of updating the entire hub of the park, you’d think you would do it right so that it is set up to last for the next 40 years. But I guess that was too much to ask.”
u/observer_of-reality replied:
“Was there tonight. I work with RGB lighting for my home Christmas lights, and it was embarrassing to see the large number of lights stuck on one color in the rings. The stuck LEDs either have bad drivers, bad connections, or bad programming, any of which is inexcusable in a new ‘professional’ display.
I also spotted, and called my wife’s attention to, one LED on Spaceship Earth that was dimmer, and sometimes displayed a color that clearly was not supposed to be in the pattern.
As it was dark at the time, I didn’t notice any roped or barricaded areas, but I did trip once while walking across the plaza, and looked back to see what looked like an uneven joint in the pavement.”
Another Disney Park guest confirmed that the recently fixed World Celebration light features have broken again.
“Was there last week and a chunk of the lights were having a seizure,” u/vette91 wrote. “Couldn’t tell if it was purposeful or something broken.”
Guests Flee Walt Disney World Resort
Many Walt Disney World Resort fans gave up on the theme park altogether.
“Don’t support any company for the companies’ sake,” u/N64SmashBros commented. “They could not care any less about you, just your attendance and $. If you think it is more than that, you are sadly mistaken. For me, it’ll be Epic Universe in 2025 because they seem to have a better product. I am not worrying about Disney nor Universal. I worry about where I should spend my money.”
“I’ve been going to Universal more frequently as a local and the overhaul experience and morale over there just feels brighter,” said u/horizons_butler83. “No hassles in the experience, lots of excitement for the new park…I wanted to be excited about Disney stuff but all they seem to do is announce closures of classics for stuff that doesn’t stack up the old things…”
Have you noticed maintenance problems at the Walt Disney World Resort theme parks or Disney Springs? Inside the Magic would love to hear from you in the comments!
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