Epcot's Leave a Legacy

coco · Post by **coco** » Feb Sat 02, 2008 7:59 am

Can anyone tell me why Disney have stopped the 'Leave a Legacy' venture. Has the campany had second thoughts about the aesthetics of the area? Or is the brand now trying to distance itself from such commercially-based projects?

Does anyone know whether Disney has plans to alter the monolith area? Are they contractually required to keep the tiles in place for a set period of time?

If anyone would care to share their thoughts I would love to hear from you...

Post by **YZFDonor** » Feb Sat 02, 2008 8:49 am

I don't *know* but I sure hope they turn those things into gravel for the base of a road somewhere! I want the clean openness of 1982 back! We junked it up like everything else and turned it into a Metropolis that I for one don't want to see.

Post by **js3901** » Feb Sat 02, 2008 2:16 pm

there are tidbits about Leave a Legacy all around the forums. I believe they stopped selling the spaces because they ran out of spaces. either that or they had decided they were going to stop on a certain date. I've seen both reasons, but it's hard to nail down one exact reason.

I believe they are contractually required to keep the images on the stones for a set time, but within the contract, the stones can be moved to a different area of the resort at any time for any reason.

mageloff · Post by **mageloff** » Feb Sat 02, 2008 4:27 pm

I noticed last week between the Transportation and Ticket Center on route to the Polynesian Resort, many of the images are pretty dirty! Maybe the cost to keep them maintained is not worth it.

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Feb Sat 02, 2008 8:16 pm

My personal suspicion is that they weren't selling very well anymore. Disney never seems to discontinue things that are still profitable. One of the reasons my husband and I have two tiles is because we got the second one for free as an add-on to our vacation package. Seems like they wouldn't give them out free if the demand for them was wildly high.

I know the contract we got when we did ours specified a certain display time. I wanna say it was 20 years, but I really don't remember the exact number. It did specify 'displayed' and not 'displayed in the current location' however; I would be very surprised if they're still sitting in the Epcot entryway in 2020.

Something else weird I noted in December - and this may be entirely due to my memory being wrong - but our tile was always in the same spot. I knew where it was by going to a certain distance along the side wall in the 'Epcot foyer' and going left, and it was a certain panel, fourth row, etc etc. When I went to look in December, it wasn't there. All the pictures on that panel were newer than when we'd had that picture done (it was fall 2000, when we got engaged... the panel had some of those 'message' pictures that were dated 2003). I never got a chance to go look at the locater kiosk they have for them in the guest services area, but it makes me wonder if they've shifted things around.

Captain Schnemo · Post by **Captain Schnemo** » Feb Sun 03, 2008 12:00 am

mageloff, they're talking about the pictures on the "tombstones" at the entrance to Epcot, not the bricks around the Seven Seas Lagoon.

On that topic, however, based on the bricks in that area it seems that 95% of the people who get married at the wedding chapel (or at least top off the expense with a brick) are Japanese. Perhaps it has to do with the weak dollar or something. Maybe they're the only ones who can afford it...or maybe it's just that their culture is so charmingly insane.

packwingfn · Post by **packwingfn** » Feb Sun 03, 2008 1:51 am

I also got my leave a legacy for free and I hate when people call them "tombstones". I am not a HUGE fan of them but I am on there and I love that my face is in EPCOT right now as we speak but I feel that they look like tombstones is wrong. It makes it seem like I and all those other people on them are dead...You should just call it ugly or something at least.

boilerbabe · Post by **boilerbabe** » Feb Sun 03, 2008 4:13 pm

I too liked the clean look from the original EPCOT, I think the Leave a Legacy has made the entrance too clutered.

stinoi · Post by **stinoi** » Feb Sun 03, 2008 6:13 pm

I think that the commitment from Disney was for 20 years. We got a tile on our honeymoon in 2001 when it was fairly new, so it will probably be hanging around for quite awhile still.

DisBeamer · Post by **DisBeamer** » Feb Mon 04, 2008 5:02 am

packwingfn wrote:I also got my leave a legacy for free and I hate when people call them "tombstones". I am not a HUGE fan of them but I am on there and I love that my face is in EPCOT right now as we speak but I feel that they look like tombstones is wrong. It makes it seem like I and all those other people on them are dead...You should just call it ugly or something at least.

I dunno. I like-not-love them myself, and I'm certainly with you in the whole 'my goofy smile is at Epcot as I'm typing this - cool' thing, but I do have to admit when I look at them they have a memorial-esque feeling. I think the design of them over all is fine; it's really the granite that says tombstone to me. On the other hand, if I'm gonna be dead, feel free to scatter my ashes at Epcot (at the very least, I might be able to posthumously shut down a ride for a bit... if someone really wants to honor me they can try to permanently gum up the Journey Into Imagination in its current state...).

I do find the joke a little overused, though, particularly when it's used to try to make people feel bad for having a tile or thinking it's a neat idea or whatever. If you don't like it, that's fine, but don't be a jerk about it. Pre-emptive edit: Not that I'm saying that's happened on this forum - it hasn't, but I've seen it elsewhere.

bart12 · Post by **bart12** » Feb Mon 04, 2008 2:36 pm

its a very probleme for the epcot

Croaker · Post by **Croaker** » Feb Mon 04, 2008 3:49 pm

pardon the pun...but the entrance is just "dead space" i say leave the legacy.

lebeau · Post by **lebeau** » Feb Mon 04, 2008 5:18 pm

I've seen a lot of explanations as far as why they stopped this program. I'm not sure what's real and what's not. So, I won't venture a guess as to why the program stopped. But I will say I am glad they stopped it. Those things were ugly. And, yes, they looked like some kind of memorial. Not what I wanted to see at the entrance to a theme park!

Cheshire Cat · Post by **Cheshire Cat** » Feb Mon 04, 2008 5:53 pm

it's really the granite that says tombstone to me

It would have been cool if they left the original founatin and made them out of the same transparent material. Then pictures could be etched in like the logo on the fountain.

Although, I'd much rather just see planters there, I think building them out of that plexi-glass material would have made it look better than stones that completely block the view and were forced to match the surrounding area. (the fountain is boring now, they might as well just tear it up and save on energy)

Stones make me think "archaic" too, like the stone age. Stones aren't futuristic looking. Plexi-glass or even a silvery material to echo SSE may have fit into future world better.

(I'm not saying I want anything there at all, just how the severity could have been lessened if they MUST ruin the entrance)

yodiwan1 · Post by **yodiwan1** » Feb Mon 04, 2008 11:15 pm

i was going to actually get my own piece finally when I head back in May.

I'm sorry that so many people feel thy are not needed, but I would love to know a part of me in some way was always there, especially in my favorite park.