After Disney World announced that the World Celebration Gardens would be opening December 5th at EPCOT, we wanted to take one more spin on the monorail for a peek past the walls before they are (mostly) removed. As you may remember, a box showed up back in October roughly where we assumed the Walt the Dreamer statue would be placed, leading us to believe Walt was in the box. The box had a warning sign on it saying “Limited Access”, so it was likely that the statue was inside, waiting to be unveiled.
Yesterday, as part of the announcement that the World Celebration Gardens and Dreamers Point would be opening December 5th, Disney World shared photos of the Walt the Dreamer statue in the area where we spotted the box. It wasn’t immediately clear if the photos were taken recently or not, but with final preparations underway, we decided to take a spin on the monorail to see if we could spot the new statue.
As it turns out, the Walt the Dreamer statue has been properly unboxed and sits out in the open, waiting for December 5th. Unfortunately, taking a zoom photo through a monorail window is like covering the lens in cellophane and hoping for the best, but at least that’s a better scenario than the Skyliner. Anyway, here’s a look at the statue, followed by some of Disney’s on-the-ground photos.
As you can see, the statue is off-center to encourage guests to sit next to Walt and pose for photos. If the bench is normal height, it looks like the platform under his feet could pose a challenge for photos of guests sitting next to him, but we’ll have to wait and see on that.
The rest of the World Celebration Festival Gardens will also open on December 5th, but the CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza party areas will remain behind construction walls. For more on what to expect when it opens on December 5th, check out our (only slightly outdated) article below!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!