It used to be very nice. It’s the last park designed mostly by Walt’s personally hired staff who remained with the company after he died. Sure, it’s pro corporate but that was always one of Walt’s minor character flaws. Then again, in his day American companies actually produced useful things and weren’t necessarily run by sociopaths.
There were all kinds of interactive science exhibits, previews of new technologies, museum quality cultural displays, and it was bright, open, and you could hang out there all day and find stuff to see and do in every corner. It was a place to go to be very optimistic about the future.
Naturally something like that couldn’t exist for long, so the people who mismanage the company these days took out most of the science stuff, most anything designed to make you think, remodeled educational things into character-laden sound byte style ‘attractions’ with no real meaning to them, closed or severely closed off parts of whole buildings and removed lots of the little things to do. Gotta appeal to the churro eating, Starbucks swilling masses who never want to use their brains ever.
Most of the sweeping vistas are cluttered with outdoor vending and kiosks trying to sell you garbage, and of course the optimism is gone just like the rest of the country. With metal detectors, bag searches, and the requisite fences involved in our national obsession with security theater the beautiful expansive plaza at the front entrance looks like a prison now.
I’d sarcastically say Epcot has been remade into a perfect representation of the US actually, but I do miss it from when it was really quite great.
