Originally Posted By HauntedMansionFan I was just thinking...unless I'm not mistaken, Norway was the last country to be added to World Showcase. And that was ALL the way back in...1988, if I'm not mistaken? Or 1989? Almost 20 years! Either way, does anyone know if there are any plans to add any more countries to World Showcase? Methinks it's getting a little dull there...
Originally Posted By CMM1 Isn't World Showcase pretty much constrained in terms of available real estate? Where would they put any new country if they wanted to add one? There might be some space between the service canal for the lagoon and Germany, but thats about it. Or perhaps they could remove the worthless Odyssey Center and put something small there. There was that intriguing idea of a Mt. Fuji roller coaster for the Japan pavilion - that might have been something they could do with a Canadian theme but that area is now very much constrained behind the scenes with the Soarin building and World Showcase Events Pavilion. Besides, with EE over in AK who needs another "mountain coaster"? So I guess the only real excitement one might look for would be ......... new movies?
Originally Posted By DouglasDubh There is space between several of the countries. Between France and Morocco, for example.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj There really needs to be some representation from South America in World Showcase.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj I think there is room for at least 5 more countries in WS. If I could pick a top 5, it might look something like: 1. India 2. Russia 3. Greece 4. Brazil 5. Turkey
Originally Posted By Boardwalkbum I'm pulling big time for a Liechtenstein pavillion. >>There really needs to be some representation from South America in World Showcase<< Actually a Brasil pavillion with a sort of Carnival/Rain Forest flavor might be kind of a cool thing.....
Originally Posted By Boo Antartica used to be present... or at least hinted at.... with Ice Station Cool. Which has melted. Global warming.
Originally Posted By CMM1 "I think there is room for at least 5 more countries in WS. If I could pick a top 5, it might look something like: 1. India 2. Russia 3. Greece 4. Brazil 5. Turkey" Possible attractions: 1. India Omni-mover attraction showing how many different types of high-tech jobs have been farmed out to India (sponsored by Microsoft and Dell!) Highlight will be a final running "tote" board showing how many jobs each minute are being lost in USA to less expensive Indian professionals. 2. Russia Film showing how many professional ice skaters, ice hockey players and tennis players are now making big bucks thanks to state-sponsored programs. In the same vein as the "Turtle Talk" over in the Living Seas, the Russia pavilion will feature an AA Anna Kournikova making suggestive or rude comments to impressionable young American boys. Sideshow will be a refrigerated room where actual peasants from various regions will hawk their wares at faithful representations of the Moscow kiosks you find near the train stations in that great city. 3. Sponsored by McDonalds - enough said. 4. Brazil - Taxicab ridethrough attaction featuring sights and smells of Brazil: beachfront sights and smells at Rio, jungle sights and smells of Amazon rainforest, awful sights and smells of the hideous faevela slums. 5. Absolutely out of ideas at this point.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 CMM1 -- you don't know how right you are with the India exhibit - however make sure you put the Brazil center next door for a continuation - the high tech companies have moved over 100,000 jobs there in the last few years -- and it is growing. It is a lower cost country than India
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Looking at Google Earth, there is room for expansion between Mexico and Norway, room for two between Germany and the canal (if they take out the Outpost), between Germany and Italy, on either side of the American Adventure (if they are clever about making it really skinny, so not the best place to do it), on either side of Morocco (the Japan side is a little tight, but do-able), possibly between England and the International Gateway if they rearrange the backstage stuff, and between England and Canada (if they remove the huge Millenium Village building). There's plenty of room, but the designers just have to be smart about how to use it.
Originally Posted By avromark But why not us the Millennium Village building for now to put in a "temporary" pavilion. It may even be nice to rotate out different countries that would probably not get their own pavilion. For example it could start out as Philippines, then become Trini-Tobago, then become Zaire... Make it a "museum", each year you come back it would be different. If they did add permanent pavilion's I'd like to see one every 3-5 years added. Beats the rate they're being added now, besides it would be a reason to come back over and over.
Originally Posted By CMM1 vb - interesting point - haven't seen much of a South American presence at this point in the business but will keep an eye out.
Originally Posted By danyoung >But why not us the Millennium Village building for now to put in a "temporary" pavilion.< Because that would do away with a large structure that Disney uses for big corporate events that make them buckets of money.
Originally Posted By CMM1 Certainly interesting discussions on possible new additions, but at the end of the day does anybody at Disney see any reason to mess with the "cash cow" tht Epcot still seems to be? Doesn't Epcot still draw in its 10-million visitors a year (compared to the MK's 14M, 8M a year each for MGM and AK)? All the money is being spent on FutureWorld stuff (Soarin, Mission:Space) and that seems to keep the attendance moving so why expect any changes in World Showcase (outside of the upcoming minor change to the Mexico ride). Why not spend money on MGM or AK where you might pick up those extra guest days with more to see and do in those parks?
Originally Posted By oc_dean >>but at the end of the day does anybody at Disney see any reason to mess with the "cash cow" tht Epcot still seems to be?<< If the current crop of execs want to keep up that attitude ... It's only detramental to the long term health of EPCOT .. and simply cannot continue forever. But if they want to slowly let it stagnate .... and never get anything new in World Showcase ... go for it. I like that "we don't care" attitude. Real winning attitude! I haven't been to WDW in 11 years. I absolutely loved World Showcase .. but there's no reason to get back there anytime in the near future. It's the same as it was in 1995.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 ^^No. In 1995, you had a greater variety of shopping and the menus hadn't gone thru their deep dumbing down. Oh, and Illuminations is a different show, albeit a very old one too now. There are also lots of way kewl tables where CMs color and create masks for young kids, like at a preschool (all for $75 a day). And they have some great new restrooms, unfortunately they are unacessable unless you're there for a private party at the World Showplace Convention facility.
Originally Posted By mrichmondj I personally like abbreviated menu options, in general. I don't need a restaurant to try and recreate every dish known to man -- let them focus on a genre and five or six excellent dishes. It's not like these places are right down the street and I'll be patronizing them several times a month. Unless you are a local, you might eat at a restaurant once per visit that happens over the span of years. I don't think a short menu is any reason to gripe. How many different restaurants are lined up side by side at WDW? If you don't like the menu at one, why not walk down to the next one?
