Wonders of Life, no more?

Post by **spaulo** » May Fri 12, 2006 11:03 am

Regarding WOL, there was a great post this week on the EPCOT Central blog regarding its fate:

http://epcot82.blogspot.com/2006/05/real-wonder.html

Post by **addlema** » May Sat 13, 2006 12:15 pm

Makes me very sad that any pavilion should sit empty. They should at least be refurbing it or changing the inards.. ugh.

not letting it just sit there.. 2007 is the 25th of EPCOT for gods sake.. The park should be 100% fully operational

foldmama · Post by **foldmama** » May Tue 16, 2006 9:07 am

I just returned from WDW and I took the Backstage Magic Tour. The CM told us that the Wonders of Life area was closed because they had no current sponsor for the pavillion. She told us that they opened only in busy seasons without a sponsor. At this time she knew of no plans to destroy the pavillion.

SimonTemplar · Post by **SimonTemplar** » May Wed 24, 2006 2:29 pm

I'm with G2-4T, they need to have another Omnimover type ride. As much as I enjoy TestTrack, Mission Space, etc., they need a few more that families can ride together. As strange as it may seem, even my small children enjoy SSE, Living Seas....... Just don't leave it sitting there as a vacant eyesore for months and years.

Cheshire Cat · Post by **Cheshire Cat** » May Wed 24, 2006 2:35 pm

As much as I hate to say it, I doubt they will make an omnimover...EPCOT's makeover was meant to get rid of the omnimovers (If it wasn't for SSE's arctitectural problems there wouldn't be any omnimovers left)

G2-4T · Post by **G2-4T** » May Wed 24, 2006 10:05 pm

Yeah, but the so-called makeover hasn't exactly gone as well as they hoped. I'm still hoping they have an ounce of sense left and leave the thrill rides behind for a bit and actually do something innovative, fun, and maybe even just a bit futuristic again in Epcot. Everyone has thrill rides, no one else has master the omnimover...

SimonTemplar · Post by **SimonTemplar** » May Thu 25, 2006 10:38 am

I fear that you are correct, "Cheshire", in that omnimover type rides are not the direction they are going. I still love going to Epcot, but I really miss the days of World of Motion, Horizons, etc. I hate that my kids never got to experience those attractions. That's one of the things that made Epcot so appealing.......it wasn't home to more thrill rides. Oh well, at least we have the memories.

Post by **rdeacon** » May Thu 25, 2006 9:57 pm

foldmama wrote:I just returned from WDW and I took the Backstage Magic Tour. The CM told us that the Wonders of Life area was closed because they had no current sponsor for the pavillion. She told us that they opened only in busy seasons without a sponsor. At this time she knew of no plans to destroy the pavillion.

Hate to say it but that sounds like a line of bull

There have been many attractions/pavillions without sponsers and they remain open, a prime example is Space Mountain. It has not had a sponser for over a year. I just think they don't want to say its closed.

Rich

Post by **horizons1** » May Tue 30, 2006 1:12 pm

rdeacon wrote:There have been many attractions/pavillions without sponsers and they remain open, a prime example is Space Mountain. It has not had a sponsor for over a year.

Yeah, but compare how much bad press they'd get for closing Space Mountain compared with closing WOL!

foldmama · Post by **foldmama** » May Tue 30, 2006 2:38 pm

I know you are mostlikely right rdeacon, but I have never had a chance to see the Wonders of Life pavillion (because it has always been closed when ever I am down there) and I find it sad to think I probably never will.

Horizons1 is right. Could you just picture it, if they tried to close down an extremely popular attraction just because they did not have a sponsor! Ticket prices are not cheap and people want to see the popular attractions. Maybe we need to start complaining! I bet there are a ton of people who visit who do not even realize that the Wonders of Life pavillion even exists!

Post by **rdeacon** » May Wed 31, 2006 9:25 pm

foldmama wrote:
Horizons1 is right. Could you just picture it, if they tried to close down an extremely popular attraction just because they did not have a sponsor! Ticket prices are not cheap and people want to see the popular attractions. Maybe we need to start complaining! I bet there are a ton of people who visit who do not even realize that the Wonders of Life pavillion even exists!

Yeah there would be an uproar with closing Space Mountain. I just don't know how important a lack of sponser is, after the ride is built. I can see the need for sponsership ( well not really since WDW makes like 600 million a year) at the creation of the ride to offset costs. But once the ride/pavillion is built I can't see the costs being that high. My guess is that WOL was getting dated and Disney was looking for a new sponser, and found one that wanted to go in a new direction. I guess time will tell.

Rich

Captain Schnemo · Post by **Captain Schnemo** » Jun Thu 01, 2006 5:56 am

They also seem criminally disinterested in upgrading (or even maintaining) Epcot attractions that have lost sponsors. Maybe sponsors don't want to put money into an attraction that might still be linked with another company in the minds of guests?

Hmmm, no, scratch that. The Land changed hands, as did Space Mountain. Is it's a small world still sponsored by Mattel?

Maybe it's that new sponsors don't want to dump a ton of cash into an existing attraction. Just enough to keep it going and rebrand it.

SimonTemplar · Post by **SimonTemplar** » Jun Thu 01, 2006 10:32 am

WOL was a great venue for kids, so hopefully whatever replaces it will be something that kids of different ages can enjoy.

Post by **rdeacon** » Jun Thu 01, 2006 1:12 pm

Captain Schnemo wrote:
Is it's a small world still sponsored by Mattel?

No it currently does not have a sponser.

Rich

knedeau · Post by **knedeau** » Jun Thu 01, 2006 1:27 pm

It would be cool though... if Disney would let the general public sponsor it.....