Today for Epcot Center's Cancelled Attractions, we are doing something different, a look at something not planned for Epcot Center, but based on it. Today we are looking at the proposed concept of WESTCOT.
As always if you missed any previous articles in the series be sure to check here, and come back every Tuesday for a new entry in this series.
In the 1990s Disneyland was looking to expand from one park to a full resort more in line with Walt Disney World. These plans included things like additional hotels, Ventureport, Lucasport, and the one we are talking about today, WESTCOT Center.
This was by far the most elaborate proposal, and took up the most space, taking up all of the space currently occupied by Disney Califonia Adventure and the Grand Californian, as well as some of present-day Downtown Disney.
Just like the original Epcot Center, this park would have been separated into Future World and World Showcase, although there would be some major differences in both of those lands and the attractions in them.
We're not going too deep into any of the individual attractions as they all deserve their own article in the future, but we'll provide a brief overview of some of the main attractions that would have been in WESTCOT.
Let's start with the icon of the park which would have been called Spacestation Earth instead of Spaceship Earth.
Future World would have featured many of the same attractions, although which ones depend on which version of the park proposal you look at. It also would have included a few original attractions, including one inspired by Adventures Through Inner Space.
Then we move on to World Showcase, which would have been based on geographical region instead of by country. This was done likely to conteract the spacial limitations of the park as it would be built on a much smaller plot of land than the original Epcot.
World Showcase would have been much more ride heavy than in the original World Showcase, with at least one major attraction in each land, and multiple proposals for an elaborate ride between each land.
Ultimately this was one of many projects canceled in the aftermath of the early failure of Euro Disneyland Resort (Now Disneyland Paris) and it would eventually be replaced with the much cheaper Disney's California Adventure.
Unfortunately, nothing developed for this park has ever made it into any Disney Park around the world, even the original Epcot. There was so much ambition in this park, and I think if it had been built Epcot would be a much different park. Attractions like Horizons and Journey Into Imagination would have had new life breathed into them through a new version being built of them, and I truly believe that if WESTCOT had been built, much of the classic Future World attractions would still exist not only on the west coast but in the original Epcot as well.
Would you have preferred WESTCOT to Disney's California Adventure? Let us know in the comments below! Also, be sure to go here for all the previous entries in this series. Be sure to come back every Tuesday for the last few entries of this series, including next week's Dreamfinder Short Film.
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