Walt Disney World has resumed some construction projects ahead of select resorts reopening on June 22 and the theme parks starting to reopen on July 11. We’ve already seen construction activity resume at the entrance of Disney’s Animal Kingdom and crews are back to work transforming Cinderella Castle. So, what’s going on over at Epcot?
The announced overhaul of Future World at Epcot includes the demolition of Innoventions West, removing the Fountain of Nations and significant overhauls to the MouseGear store and Electric Umbrella restaurant. A new three-story pavilion and a water attraction featuring Moana were among the scheduled additions. But, budget cuts due to the ongoing pandemic may force Disney to scale back on some of their plans.
Today, the center of Epcot is fairly quiet and we can see where work left off before everything was paused.
Aerial view yesterday of construction site of World Celebration at EPCOT. pic.twitter.com/DBtXVjBWL9
— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) June 13, 2020
Taking a closer look, we can see that the Fountain of Nations has been completely removed and is now nothing more than a puddle. We can also see that the walls of MouseGear have been removed, but work hasn’t yet moved over to the Electric Umbrella and its outdoor seating.
Aerial view of the redo of the main EPCOT gift shop (Mouse Gear). All exterior walls were removed before the pandemic closure. Nearby Electric Umbrella quick service restaurant was in redo too, its outdoor seating is seen. pic.twitter.com/kui7B0Mrdv
— bioreconstruct (@bioreconstruct) June 13, 2020
It doesn’t look like any significant work has started back up at Epcot at this time. That could change in a hurry once Disney decides how they want to proceed with their projects in the light of saving money.
Disney has announced that they intend to reduce capital expenditures by $900 million over the next year in response to their current financial hardships. That will inevitably mean that announced projects may be delayed, altered or cancelled entirely to save money. It may be too late to turn back now in regards to Epcot’s transformation (RIP Fountain of Nations), but we may see adjustments from the original plans.
