World Showcase in Epcot at the moment is really short on ride through attractions, with the only formal rides being Frozen Ever After and Gran Fiest Tour. But it was not always supposed to be like this. There were many rides proposed for different countries over the years, they just never made it to the construction stage.
Today we discuss all of the lost attractions planned but never built for the Japan pavilion. We explore attractions from Meet the World, to an Mt. Fuji roller coaster, to a Bullet Train Simulator and why they never got built.
Which of these attractions would you have liked to see in Epcot? Let us know in the comments below.
Sorry, you are mistaken. I enjoyed this report, but...
ReplyDeleteI was at Epcot Center three weeks after Opening Day.
In the early 90s, I was a season pass holder and visited like once a month.
And: in the late 90s, I had the opportunity to go on a "behind the scenes" tour of all of (then-existing) Disney World. I was inside the "body tours" ride while it was operating! Not the ride vehicle -- the floor of the building under it, where the hydraulics operated the ride vehicles!
I was also driven around the back of all the pavilions. The tour van stopped at the Japan area, where a concrete pad with roughed-in metal brackets, plumbing, and electrical poked up from it.
Tour leader described how this had originally been intended to build an attraction on. At this time, there was no building there -- just the concrete pad with the roughed-ins.
I am not sure when the building you point out multiple times was built -- but it was certainly not before the late 90s!
(BTW it was really cool to watch a parade being run from the computer room under the Magic Kingdom ("DACS", off the "utilidors" at the NW corner of the corridor leading to Adventure/Frontierland, and the corridor leading toward Main Street).
That backstage tour sounds like a lot of fun! In research for this article/ video I utilized historical Google Earth imagery and construction photos of the Japan Pavilion, both of which show the building having been in the park since opening day, in a relatively complete state. Personally I have never been backstage in this section of the World Showcase. Wish I had a chance to take a tour like that!
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