Disney’s parks and resorts chair Bob Chapek has confirmed plans for a major overhaul of Walt Disney World’s Epcot theme park, starting with a new festival celebrating visual, culinary and performing arts to kick off in January.
Speaking at D23 Destination D – a weekend of panels and presentations about Disney projects – Chapek revealed that he was telling his team of Imagineers to “dream big” in terms of reimagining Epcot.
According to Chapek, the plans will remain true to Epcot’s original mission – celebrating human achievement, technological innovation and international culture – while also being “Disney, timeless, relevant, and family friendly”.
No details were released beyond this, with Disney to reveal more details about the scope of the project at a later date.
Epcot’s most recent notable addition is its Frozen Ever After ride,
which was introduced in June to much fanfare, garnering lines more than five hours long on its opening day. Disney sees Frozen Ever After as a huge shot in the arm for Epcot, which has comparatively low visitor numbers (11.4m) compared to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom (19.3m).
