EPCOT Introduces New Rope Drop Welcome Announcement Featuring Walt Disney Quotes

Posted: Monday December 1, 2025 9:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

A new EPCOT rope drop welcome announcement is now greeting guests as they enter the park each morning. The short message highlights Walt Disney's original vision for EPCOT.

The new announcement features an archival Walt Disney quote:

"The heart of everything we'll be doing in Disney World will be our experimental prototype city of tomorrow. We call it EPCOT."

From there, the message shifts to EPCOT's broader theme of imagination, innovation, and the park's connection to Walt's original idea. The full text reads:

"Walt Disney believed that imagination would lead humanity to achieve the impossible. EPCOT was built on that dream. A celebration of our world and its promise. Today, we invite you to share in that celebration and hope that you, too, will be inspired by the magic of possibility. For your safety, please walk to your destination. Thank you and enjoy the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays."

EPCOT World Celebration

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

marni19716 days ago

Walt’s “Epcot will always be in a state of becoming” has been trundled out ad nauseam to justify the continued destruction and dumbing down of the park. Despite it being a quote that’s nothing about what was built. So why not use Walt quotes taken out of all context. He also went on about the blessing of size and we know how that’s currently working out.

jah49556 days ago

I know I'm "grasping at straw" but slivers of his plans did include what ultimately became World Showcase and Communicore (at least 1982's).

jah49556 days ago

I, as a boy, never liked being called a boy (& don't get me started on "junior"). Children want to be treated like adults. So I didn't cry a river when this went away lol.

jah49556 days ago

Now hold on there...I know a counterfactual can't be proven, but IF anyone could have pulled it off it would have been Walt. While Walt's Imagineers ultimately acknowledged that they couldn't do it (& I just acknowledged in another forum regulations would have made it all the more prohibitive than in Walt's time), most of them went to their graves believing that if anyone could have pulled it off, it was Walt. [if it hasn't been asked yet, maybe we should still get Bob Gurr's opinion on this while we still have the chance?) It was Bob Gurr who said he was present as Walt pointed-out the bench that he and Lilly would sit on at EPCOTs completion and people watch. Walt lamented in 1966 said "if I just had 15 more years." (number may be slightly off...caffeine hasn't kicked in yet). That tells me he had quite the plan in his head. I can't think of a biography I've read where the drive to make EPCOT didn't consume him in his last years/months/days. For example, I don't agree with everything in Neal's book, but I do agree with how EPCOT was everything to Walt. We'll never know. Yes the more research was done the more impossible it seemed. But with all Walt did in his life, and how he did it, it will always remain a hypothetical. John Hench said Walt would have ultimately wanted what EPCOT became in 1982. Although he was Walt's "right hand man" in so many things, I still don't quite agree with that statement, and John wasn't always right.

Gary77777776 days ago

Is “welcome boys and girls “ coming back?

Mr. Sullivan7 days ago

And thank god for that. It was maybe the worst idea the man ever had and would've absolutely been doomed to complete failure.

Ayla7 days ago

"Welcome to the park that looks nothing like Walt wanted! Enjoy your day!"

HauntedPirate7 days ago

Not going to lie - that sounds pretty damn lame. "Trot out a quote from the dead guy again because those pesky old farts aren't happy and aren't spending money!"

HMF7 days ago

EPCOT, The Park has never been and will never be Walt's "Original Vision for EPCOT" no matter how many statues and out of context audio clips the company uses to try to twist the facts.