Future World:[Spaceship Earth][Universe Of Energy][Wonders of Life][Mission:Space][Test Track][Imagination!][The Land][The Living Seas][Innoventions]
World Showcase:[Mexico][Norway][China][Germany][Italy][American Adventure][Morocco][Japan][France][United Kingdom][Canada][Map]

An ever-changing international and discovery showplace covering 260 acres.
Opened Oct. l, 1982.

Future World — Theme areas focusing on discovery and scientific achievements. Major attractions: Innoventions, Spaceship Earth (AT&T), Universe of Energy (Exxon), Imagination! (Kodak), The Land (Nestlé USA), The Living Seas, The Wonders of Life (MetLife) and Test Track (General Motors).

Science class never had as many surprises as Future World’s pavilions about energy, automotive development, communications, agriculture and ecology, the seas, health, the imagination and leading-edge technical innovation. And the world-renowned "IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth" spectacle of fireworks climaxes every Epcot evening.

Spaceship Earth, presented by AT&T, is Future World's landmark adventure. Dramatic new scenes in the attraction and its post show depict life in the 21st century's "Global Neighborhood." With all-new narration by actor Jeremy Irons and an impressive new musical score, guests experience a time-travel journey from the beginning of time to the electronic age.

Crescent-shaped buildings just beyond Spaceship Earth to the south house Innoventions, a dazzling new showcase where guests can be among the first to touch the technologies of today that will shape their lives tomorrow.

To the east of Spaceship Earth: Test Track, presented by General Motors, is a mile-long, heart-pounding adventure that takes guests through hairpin twists and turns. The high-speed attraction mimics an actual proving ground where vehicles are put through their adrenaline-pumping paces -- testing brakes, acceleration, incline and climate control -- all in the name of safety. Universe of Energy, presented by Exxon, features "Ellen's Energy Adventure," with Ellen DeGeneres, Jamie Lee Curtis and Bill Nye the Science Guy. DeGeneres plays a woman who dreams she's on the popular game show, "Jeopardy!" -- only to discover that all of the categories deal with one thing she knows nothing about -- energy. Her challengers on the show, hosted by Alex Trebek, are former roommate and current "rival" Dr. Judy Peterson (Curtis) and Albert Einstein. As part of the show, guests venture into a re-creation of the primeval world complete with moving, roaring life-size dinosaurs. Also to the east: Wonders of Life, presented by MetLife, featuring "Body Wars" flight-simulator thrill ride and a variety of shows and activities celebrating human life.

To the west: The Living Seas, a ride through a Caribbean coral reef contained in a tank 200 feet in diameter and 27 feet deep; The Land, presented by Nestlé USA, which features the motion picture "Circle of Life," an environmental fable starring several characters from "The Lion King," "Living With the Land" boat ride through greenhouses of the future, and the zany "Food Rocks" concert about good nutrition; and the all-new imagination! presented by Kodak, with the new ride-through attraction Journey Into Your Imagination.

World Showcase — Eleven nations surrounding World Showcase Lagoon: Canada, United Kingdom, France, Japan, The American Adventure (American Express), Italy, Germany, China, Mexico, Morocco and Norway (Nora Industrier).

The journey begins around a 40-acre lagoon beyond Future World. World Showcase nations, in all of their majesty, dot the shores of the lagoon as recreations of landmark architectures and historic scenes familiar to world travelers. Built with finite attention to detail, the villages have buildings, streets, gardens and monuments designed to give Epcot guests an authentic visual experience of each land.

A must is The American Adventure, a 108,000-square-foot Georgian-styled structure featuring perhaps the most impressive Epcot theatrical performance. Sponsored by Coca-Cola and American Express, The American Adventure presents a 29-minute drama of 350 years of our nation’s history, utilizing elaborate three-dimensional settings and a new generation of Disney Audio-Animatronics® characters. Host figures Mark Twain, who carries a smoking cigar, and Benjamin Franklin, the first Audio-Animatronics character to walk, narrate the progress of America from the era of the Pilgrims to the present.

Cuisine? L’Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante, designed in rich Florentine style, and Chefs de France offer world-famous dining experiences. There’s also a version of the San Angel Inn of Mexico City and the Mitsukoshi Restaurant of Tokyo, plus authentic dining and cooking styles of Germany, the United Kingdom, Morocco, China, and Norway.

Motion pictures? Both Canada and China present spectacular versions of Circle-Vision 360 films. Disney filmmakers gave new mobility to cameras that captured such grandeur as the Forbidden City in China, seldom-seen Tibet and Inner Mongolia, and views of the ancient silk route once followed by Marco Polo. The full-circle “O Canada!” production even takes viewers on a rip-roaring buckboard ride in the famous Calgary Stampede.

Visitors to France see a 200-degree screening of “Impressions de France,” a spectacular airborne travelogue set to classical music, and shown in a replica of a Paris theater.

Live entertainment? World Showcase presents artisans, artists and performers dressed in traditional costumes. In the United Kingdom, Cockney buskers entertain with sidewalk comedy. Visitors can enjoy a strolling mariachi band in Mexico, a high-energy troupe of student acrobats in China and much more throughout the other World Showcase nations.

World Showcase is designed to entertain and inform visitors as well as provide a two-way cultural exchange for nationals working in the showcases. Each showcase is staffed with young men and women from that country.

The cultural ambassadors provide a unique opportunity for Epcot guests to become “caught up” in celebrations of holidays and festivals from around the world. An entire slate of “World Showcase Celebrations” let the ambassadors celebrate special days just as they do at home.

Each World Showcase experience is based on concepts chosen for their contributions to social, cultural and architectural heritages. Following is a summary description of the patterns involved in the design of each showcase.

THE AMERICAN ADVENTURE 

From the late 1790s to around 1830, American public architecture was designed from a mixture of styles, including English Georgian -- developed during the reign of King George III --which captured the spirit of the American Revolution. The American Adventure combines Georgian-style classic buildings in what is intended as a people’s mansion and includes examples from Williamsburg, Independence Hall, the Old State House in Boston and Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello.

CANADA 

The Canada showcase includes examples of buildings and scenes found throughout the nation. The romantic 19th-century French Chateau-style hotel is replicated in the Hotel du Canada which houses a gift boutique. A waterfront area is designed to reflect the look of the Eastern Seaboard, while Victoria’s Butchart Gardens were the pattern for a West Coast look.

Near the Hotel du Canada is a rugged stone building, modeled after a famous landmark near Niagara Falls, which reflects the British influence in Canada. A Native-Canadian village with totem poles signifies the culture of the Northwest, while the wilderness of Canada is presented in a setting complete with steep mountains, waterfalls and a tall northern forest.

UNITED KINGDOM 

Time, materials and styles were compressed into a single combination of city, town and rural atmosphere for the United Kingdom. Included is a pub in a building reflecting a cluster of periods and different facades. Viewers traveling an informal street will find a 1500s-style thatched-roof cottage, a four-story timber and plaster building, a formal square with a Hyde Park bandstand, a pre-Georgian plaster building and a formal Palladian exterior of dressed stone. A city square with classic formal facades copies a look found in London and Edinburgh. On other streets are found a regency multi-porched row building, a town gate and clock tower representative of York, a 1400s brick-style house, and a plaster and stone great hall. A promenade shows an exterior facade similar to Hampton Court.

FRANCE 

The showcase reflects the ambiance of France between 1870 and 1910, a period known as La Belle Epoque, or “the beautiful time.” This was an energetic period of art and literature, grand exhibitions, inventions and science, and a time when a spectrum of styles formed the character of Paris boulevards and architecture. Within the showcase are: a book shop, reflective of art nouveau; a perfume and designer accessories shop styled after the chateau look of an older Paris, a theater pre-show facade copied from a classical portico; and a post-show interior modeled after Les Halles, the busy garden market of Paris.

Elsewhere are a sidewalk cafe and a restaurant, which is a scaled-down version of a 19th-century building with rolling mansard roofs and elegant ironwork. Also a provincial street reflects the village atmosphere of France, complementing the formal tree-lined streets of Paris. The one-tenth replica of the Eiffel Tower was constructed using Gustave Eiffel’s original blueprints.

MOROCCO 

Across a wide promenade, the Koutoubia Minaret (a detailed replica of a famous prayer tower in Marrakesh) stands guard over the entrance to this showcase. In the center of the rectangular courtyard is an ornate fountain lined with thousands of multi-colored tiles. Like most Moroccan cities, the showcase is divided into two sections, the Ville Nouvelle (new city) and the Medina (old city). The entrance to the Medina, the thriving marketplace of Moroccan cities, is usually through an arched gate. Guests pass beneath pointed arches and the swirling blue patches of Bab Boujouloud Gate, a replica of a gateway in the city of Fez. Just inside the gateway is the Fez House, a replica of a traditional Moroccan home.

In the Medina, a reproduction of the Chella Minaret in the capital city of Rabat rises above the shops and shoppers. There also stands a reproduction of the Nejjarine Fountain in Fez, representing the traditional village fountain.

JAPAN

Architecture and landscaping meld exquisitely in this showcase. Rocks, which in Japan symbolize the long life of the earth, combine with water, symbolizing the sea, which the Japanese consider a source of life. These, with a variety of trees and other plantings, blend with the Japanese architecture to produce an authentic Asian experience.

A pagoda which stands prominently in the showcase was modeled after an 8th-century structure in Japan. The torii gate near World Showcase Lagoon is similar to the one in Hiroshima Bay. The structure which houses the Mitsukoshi Department Store on the first floor and a formal Japanese restaurant on the second was inspired by a portion of the Gosho Imperial Palace in Kyoto.

ITALY 

Architectural elements of Venice stand at the showcase entrance, including the Doge’s Palace with elegant decoration, and a scaled-down version of the Campanile (bell tower) of St. Mark’s Square. Complementing these buildings are Venetian bridges, gondolas, colorful barber poles and a sculpture of the Lion of St. Mark atop a column. The promenade paving is patterned after St. Mark’s. Other buildings are composites of architecture found throughout Italy. L’Originale Alfredo di Roma Ristorante is reminiscent of the Florentine style; the stairway and portico adjoining the Doge’s Palace are typical of Verona; and the town hall overlooking the promenade is reflective of Northern Italy. The garden wall enclosing the piazza is typical of Rome and Florence. Sculptures include a heroic version of Bernini’s Neptune Fountain, based on the original in Florence and the Fountain of Trevi in Rome.

GERMANY 

Building styles represent different periods and locales, but rely heavily on the romantic, fairy-tale architecture of Germany. The atmosphere of a biergarten is derived from the 16th-century town of Rothenberg. The Platz (plaza) includes a dynamic sculpture of St. George and the Dragon. The facade of an art and book shop was inspired by the Kaufhaus, a 16th-century merchants’ hall in Freiburg in the Black Forest. Statues on the building recall the rule of the Hapsburg Emperors. An exterior facade was copied from a 400-year-old town hall in Romsburg Square in Frankfurt. The high wall serving as a backdrop for the showcase was inspired by the Eltz Castle on the Mosel River and Stahleck Castle on the Rhine.

CHINA

The gateway of the showcase is based on the beautifully styled main gate at the summer palace in Beijing, which also provided the inspiration for the half-size Temple of Heaven, the most visually prominent feature. The Temple of Heaven, through which Guests pass into a Circle-Vision 360 theater, symbolizes the Chinese universe. A public marketplace, designed to encourage socializing, includes facades borrowed from an elegant home, a school house, a city gate and shop fronts reflecting European overtones. The art gallery features a “Lotus Blossum” gate and a formal saddle-ridge roof line. Gardens and reflecting ponds within the showcase simulate those found in Suzhou and symbolize the order and discipline of nature.

NORWAY

Your first glimpse of the Norway showcase is that of a striking wooden structure. This stavkirke, or Stave Church, is styled after Gol Church of Hallingdal, built around 1250 A.D. It houses an exhibit of Norse artifacts. Forming a backdrop for the showcase and a romantic exterior for the restaurant is a Norwegian castle which was styled after Akershus, a 14th-century fortress that stands in the heart of Oslo’s harbor. Gift shops and a tourism information center are located in quaint houses with reddish-brown roofing tiles typical of homes found in Bergen and other coastal areas.

MEXICO

Fronting the World Showcase Lagoon is a quaint, colonial-style building, reflective of architecture in Central and Southern Mexico. A Mayan pyramid dominating the entranceway expresses the proud pre-Columbian heritage of the country. Inside the showcase is a gallery displaying artifacts from various periods in the history of Mexico. Beyond the gallery, visitors enter a formal portico, modeled after a mayor’s mansion, and then a typical colonial plaza where an evening at the market and a festival atmosphere prevail. Beyond the plaza, visitors begin a boat journey past a smoking volcano for a close-up look at the colorful heritage and attractions of Mexico.