On the past two Fridays, Disney has attempted to “take out the trash” by announcing the closure of two attractions. Last week, Disney announced the closure of Maelstrom. This week, Disney announced the closure of The Backlot Tour. These announcements brought two entirely different reactions from the Disney community. Outside of a few people, there was a collective shrug of the shoulders at the closure of The Backlot Tour. Compare that to the Maelstrom which brought a large amount of outrage to the point where #savemaelstrom was still trending two or three days after the announcement. It even generated a Yahoo! article discussing the outrage over the closure.
There was some big news released, this morning, from the World Showcase at EPCOT. Many popular acts, according to WDW Magic, have been told that their final performances will be at the end of September.
Mo’Rockin at the Morocco Pavilion, Off Kilter in the Canada Pavilion, and Spirit of America at The American Adventure will be making their final appearances on September 27.
The World Showcase Players have been told that their final performance will be on September 25.
There are unconfirmed reports that British Revolution will have their final performance on September 27.
Spirit of America (photo courtesy of wdw info)
No official reason has been issued as to why these groups are being retired. That has left nothing but speculation which I won’t get into here. However, Disney has announced some new groups and shows which will be taking their place.
A lumberjack show in Canada
Flag-waving performers in Italy
A Berber music and dance troupe in Morocco
Celtic folk music group in the United Kingdom
We will have to wait and see if these groups will put a breath of fresh air into the stage performances at the World Showcase.
There are currently 11 countries in the World Showcase at EPCOT. There is reportedly room for more countries to be added. The last country to be added to the World Showcase loop was Norway back in 1988. Like I discussed earlier this week, countries pay for the right to have a pavilion built and then support the pavilion with people from their country working at the pavilion on J-1 Visas.
So, with more room for countries to move into the World Showcase…what countries should be added? There are some glaring omissions from the World Showcase which could be easily filled. In this article, I’m assuming that the country’s government is going to be willing to spend the money to fund the pavilion.
Last week, I talked about my overall top snacks at Walt Disney World. This week, I’m going to focus on snacks that are available at the World Showcase in EPCOT. One of my favorite things to do is to save up Disney Dining Plan snack credits and spend an afternoon or evening snacking my way around the World Showcase. There is a great variety of snacks (sweet, salty, and ice cream) available in the showcase as each country shows off its country’s food to the guests. This tour can also be viewed as “healthy” because you are eating and walking from country to country. Now, let’s go have a snack!
Today’s article is inspired by follower who commented that the movie in Canada needed a reboot when I wrote about it earlier this month. I started thinking about the movies in the France, China, and Norway pavilions. How dated are these movies? I have seen the movies in France and Norway. I haven’t made it back to the movie in China so I’ll be talking about that one in more general terms. I’ll go through each pavilion’s movie and then talk about them as a group. Grab your popcorn and sit back as we explore the movies of the World Showcase.
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