PHOTOS - Center of Future World now closed and eastern bypass walkway opens

By WDWMAGIC Staff · Sunday February 16, 2020 9:54am ET · "EPCOT"
PHOTOS - Center of Future World now closed and eastern bypass walkway opens
Lots of changes to guest walkways today as the entire center of Epcot's Future World is closed off.

The center of Epcot's Future World is now completely closed off as the final locations in that area close and a new eastern bypass walkway opens to guests.

Guests are being directed to use the newly created walkways on each side of Spaceship earth, with the right hand-side leading to The Seas, The Land and Imagination!, and the left-side walkway between Guest Relations and Gateway Gifts leading to Mission: Space and Mouse Gear.

Along with large signs around Spaceship Earth, Cast members are holding signs and advising people on the best walkway to take.

Heading past Gateway Guests, the new concrete design is in place on the ground - replacing the pink color with a stone concrete.

Guest Relations is as far as you can go before hitting a row of walls.


A sharp left turn takes you towards the Guardians of the Galaxy construction site.


The walkway ultimately puts guests by the new Mouse Gear and into Future World East.

The old breezeway is walled off.

New FastPass+ kiosks have been installed by Test track, and near to Nemo in Future World West.


With the closure of Electric Umbrella, Sunshine Seasons offers burgers, the Epcot Experience now serves chicken nuggets and salads, and the Taste Track kiosk will offer burgers and fries near to Test Track, although this is not yet open but expected soon.

Click the gallery for more pictures of today's Epcot Future World changes.

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monothingie6 days ago

I still can't find it.

ToTBellHop6 days ago

It’s not a complete failure. The planter is more informative than high school health class.

Disstevefan16 days ago

You can rush perfection. Or in this case, a complete failure. 😉

ToTBellHop6 days ago

When they lifted up the plastic panels, they found this underneath:

tparris6 days ago

Do we know why this process is taking so long? It cannot be that complicated to fill these in, unless there’s more to it that we don’t know about?

HMF8 days ago

I noticed that long before GOTG was even open in 2019.

Superman688 days ago

I hate that blue box! It ruins Spaceship Earth from so many angles! I’ve wondered if they were to wrap it in a way like the Disney Music hall if it would help!

Br0ckford8 days ago

I get that this is from a hotel and probably wasn't really taken into account at the time but oof...does that thing stick out

James Alucobond9 days ago

These aren’t really the same thing. Piston Peak will be fully themed in all directions, it’s just that the ride vehicles may be visible in places that some of us do not think they should be visible. Whatever happens will be intentionally onstage even if misguided, whereas with Cosmic Rewind, we’re just supposed to ignore the unignorable. Probably an unpopular opinion, but if I were in charge, I would spend more than is likely advisable mitigating the exteriors of Cosmic Rewind, TRON, Ratatouille, and Island Tower. They do more to detract from my general experience than any single aging attraction or show.

Dreamer199 days ago

Maybe this is somewhat unrelated, but since we’re talking about Epcot… I visited a friend at the Wyndham Lake Buena Vista and she has a great view of the Walt Disney World panorama. It looks fantastic and was intended to - all of the distinctive features of the individual parks and resorts are visible above the trees. And thennnnn there’s Epcot. This is why I don’t have much faith in modern day imagineering. It started with sight lines and it continues with Cars in the frontier.

Br0ckford10 days ago

They should put a phone in his hand. 🤣

Casper Gutman11 days ago

I can look around WDW and find two dozen things that needed to be updated much more then EPCOT’s center. Heck, I think four of the Future World pavilions - possibly six - needed an overhaul more then the core did. Electric Umbrella needed an update, the smell in the store needed to be addressed, and the Imagineers needed to come up with something to put in the big empty carpeted areas in Communicore. It’s worth noting the big overhaul totally failed to address that last point. Given the landscaping mess, the removal of the fountain, the lighting debacle, the DJ blaring Fergilicious, the intensely bland store, Ol’ Poopin’ Walt, and the empty “festival space,” - yeah, what’s there now is considerably worse then what it replaced.

TrainsOfDisney11 days ago

Exactly. Haha

V_L_Raptor11 days ago

Potty Walt?