Is This EPCOT Attraction Permanently Closed?

Will it ever be playtime at EPCOT?

For better or worse, EPCOT has transformed a lot over the years. Many of the park’s “classic” era attractions are long gone, mostly replaced by intellectual property-based attractions. However, there’s one classic area of EPCOT that has sat empty for years, and may stay that way for a long time.

The concept of a pavilion dedicated to physical fitness had been proposed for EPCOT since the theme park’s earliest planning stages. However, the park was working on a corporate sponsor model at the time, and none could be found for the concept. That changed in the late 1980s when MetLife stepped in to sponsor what would become the Wonders of Life pavilion in 1989.

The entire pavilion – – housed in a gigantic golden dome – – was dedicated to the human body and featured numerous exhibits dedicated to health, fitness, and reproduction. Its two headline attractions were Cranium Command (an animatronic show that comically showed the inner workings of an adolescent boy’s mind through the cast of characters that “pilot” him) and the game-changing Body Wars. That simulator attraction – – think classic Star Tours – – took riders on a miniaturized journey through the human body. The attraction was EPCOT’s first true E-Ticket thrill ride (sorry Maelstrom fans, but it’s true) and served as a portent of what would happen to the park over the next two decades.

The pavilion remained a core part of EPCOT throughout the 1990s. However, things began to change in the next decade. MetLife ended its sponsorship in 2001, which like many other classic EPCOT pavilions before it, proved to be the beginning of the end for Wonders of Life. Disney moved the pavilion to seasonal operation in 2004 and closed it for good on January 1st, 2007. For the next decade, the structure was used as the Festival Center for the EPCOT International Flower and Garden Festival and the EPCOT  International Food & Wine Festival, even as Cranium Command and Body Wars were deconstructed for parts.

In 2019, Disney announced that a brand-new pavilion was coming to the space as part of a massive reimagining of EPCOT in 2021. Dubbed the Play! Pavilion, the new pavilion would be themed to be an “interactive futuristic city where guests would be able to interact with a variety of Disney characters.” At the time, planned attractions for Play! Were announced to include an Animation Academy-like experience where Edna Mode teaches guests to draw, the Hotel Heist interactive game hosted by Zootopia’s Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, an Arcade, a Monorail Mark X, and a water balloon fight video game experience with various Disney characters.

The Play! Pavilion was heavily featured in previews of the “new” EPCOT, and even added to park maps. However, like many Disney projects, the 2020 COVID pandemic massively curtailed Disney’s plans. Even after the Disney World parks reopened, and work on other EPCOT projects resumed, work on the Play! Pavilion remained stalled.

Play! was removed from the aforementioned park map in 2023, and the confirmation that EPCOT’s reimagining was “complete” with the opening of CommuniCore Hall in 2024, it seems that Play! Pavilion has been put on hold indefinitely.

So, will the Play! Is the pavilion ever open? We would probably guess no, at least not in the incarnation that was originally announced in 2019. If nothing else, the intellectual properties and technologies involved would likely be updated. Beyond that, given everything else Disney has announced for Disney World, it seems likely that if/when work resumes on the former Wonders of Life pavilion, Disney will likely look to build something grander than an interactive arcade-like attraction.

Stay tuned to AllEars for further updates on the potential Play! Pavilion.

Extinct EPCOT: The Story Behind Body Wars

Do you wish Disney had opened the Play! Pavilion as planned.

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