The Journey of Water – Inspired by Moana attraction is set to open this Fall at EPCOT, and over the next month or so, Cast Member playtesting will allow Disney to put the finishing touches on the self-guided nature trail. Aerial photos from friend of the site bioreconstruct show the Cast Member play testing in progress and show some of the effects that guests can expect to experience when the walkthrough opens this Fall (an exact date hasn’t been announced).
We’ll start at the beginning/end of the walkthrough, where misting effects and even faux thunder sounds will welcome guests to the nature trail. The entrance and exit to the circular trail will be close to each other, perhaps a strategic move to allow parents to allow their children to wander and explore the trail without fear of them getting lost. The trail is an enclosed circle.
The enclosed circle trail actually works much like the water cycle, as shown in the graphic below. Guests will start with the “Rain” portion in the first few steps of the attraction, and walk through interactive areas that demonstrate various cycles that water goes through.
The next segment of the trail represents the streams and wetlands in the water cycle.
At the furthest point of the trail, guests will see the “Spring”, “Land”, “Lake”, and maybe even river portions of the cycle represented. It’s here that the 16-foot-tall Te Fiti figure can be seen protecting the water.
In this final segment, jumping water effects and even crashing waves will represent the “Ocean” before the “Sky” segment at the very end of the trail. As you can see below, the uncovered portion of the trail looks to be quite wet as seen with the darker color of the pathways. The splash area will be avoidable should you not want to get wet.
And there you have it – the Journey of Water walk-through experience. We will have more thoughts when the experience opens to guests, but for now it appears to be a nice little distraction from the hustle and bustle of EPCOT (especially during Festivals), and perhaps a place to cool down, although it doesn’t make sense why Disney didn’t open it during the summer months.
For more on Journey of Water – Inspired by Moana, check out our project overview page below!
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