Updated aerial photos from friend of the site bioreconstruct reveal the latest progress in The Pit at EPCOT. World Celebration is the official name for most of the area behind construction walls at the center of EPCOT, and there are a few new offerings that will be opening later this year.
Before we jump into the photos, let’s take a look at a site plan to familiarize ourselves with the layout of the World Celebration area:
- Dreamers Point – located behind Spaceship Earth
- Journey of Water – located in World Nature, near The Seas Pavilion and close to Spaceship Earth
- CommuniCore Hall – new building that is currently being built in the southwest section of World Celebration
- EPCOT Festival Gardens – centralized gardens
- Connections Cafe & Eatery – already open
- Creations Shop – already open
Ok, with that bit of background, here’s a look at the area that presents the points of interest quite similarly to the site plan above.
Zooming out a bit, we can see the scale of the project at the heart of what used to be called Future World at EPCOT. On the far left side of the image below, we can see World Discovery, which contains rides like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Test Track. To the right, can see World Nature with The Seas Pavilion and The Land Pavilion. World Celebration is right in the middle as the “spine” project.
We’ll start with Dreamers Point, which is the area behind Spaceship Earth where the ‘Walt the Dreamer’ statue will be found.
As you can see in the photos below, there is hardscape work well underway and even some foliage installed.
This second, reverse angle seems to reveal that there is quite a bit of conduit in one of the hardscape areas near where the ‘Walt the Dreamer’ statue is expected to sit. While unconfirmed, it’s possible that we could see the return of some in-ground lighting effects in this area. Disney has previously said that the entire World Discovery area will come alive at night with lighting effects that will play along with the Points of Light on Spaceship Earth. We hope that’s still the plan.
In this next photo, we can see that some of the walkway and hardscape has been poured for the EPCOT Festival Gardens area. In this area, guests will be able to experience shaded gardens that will be the home to Disney’s festival signage throughout the year, and a space where guests can find “new playful, innovative lighting”.
In the overhead shot below, we can see some of the garden hardscape taking shape near Creations Shop, and some early work for the centerpiece EPCOT logo in the middle.
Here’s some concept art for how the area will come alive at night during various festivals throughout the year.
Continuing on, we find a wonderful view of the Journey of Water – Inspired by Moana construction site. As we previously wrote, this walkthrough experience is basically completed and could be open this summer. Officially, Disney World has said it will open this fall.
Finally, here’s a closer look at the CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza area of the construction site. We recently took at a look at the construction from the monorail, so if you’d like a more detailed look at the work, check out our article below.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!