To Say This EPCOT Pavilion Is ABANDONED Is an Understatement

EPCOT has a weird little talent for making some areas feel wildly alive while others feel like everyone involved stepped out for a snack in 2019 and simply never returned. You’ll turn one corner and find a festival booth line stretching into another ZIP code. You’ll turn another and find a quiet pocket of the park so empty you start wondering if you accidentally wandered into a Cast Member training maze.

And lately, one of the strangest examples of this EPCOT emptiness is hiding in plain sight: the Imagination Pavilion.

More specifically, we need to talk about the Imagination Playground/ImageWorks area at the exit of Journey into Imagination with Figment. Disney officially describes ImageWorks as a creative play space where little ones can explore their senses, and it sits right at the exit of the Figment ride in World Celebration.

And listen. We love Figment. We love the idea of Figment. We love that purple chaos dragon and his tiny wings and his absolute refusal to follow workplace procedure. But walking into this area can feel less like entering a thriving imagination lab and more like finding the last booth at a school science fair after everyone else has packed up the trifold boards.

The Purple Elephant in the Room

Journey into Imagination with Figment is still open. ImageWorks is still open. Figment even has his own meet-and-greet inside ImageWorks. So no, this is not literally an abandoned pavilion in the “dusty tarps and raccoons with squatter rights” sense. Disney still lists the ride, ImageWorks, and the Figment meet-and-greet as active EPCOT offerings.

But if you have walked through that exit space recently, you probably know the feeling we mean.

It is big. It is colorful. It has Figment. It has interactive elements. And yet somehow, it often feels strangely quiet. The energy does not match the fandom. The space does not match the size of the building. The vibe does not match the way Disney fans talk about Figment online, where one small purple popcorn bucket can apparently inspire the kind of devotion usually reserved for royal weddings and limited-edition sneakers. The 2022 Figment popcorn bucket drew multi-hour lines during EPCOT’s Festival of the Arts, which tells us the Figment fandom is very real, very intense, and apparently willing to lose half a park day to plastic dragon storage.

So why does the pavilion itself not feel like that?

Is It Figment Love, or Figment Nostalgia?

This is where things get interesting. Figment is beloved. That is not really up for debate. He is one of EPCOT’s most recognizable original characters, and his fans have been loud, loyal, and wonderfully weird for decades.

But the actual attraction? That conversation gets messier.

Journey into Imagination with Figment is not usually treated like a must-do EPCOT headliner. It is not the ride people rope drop. It is not the Lightning Lane everyone is frantically refreshing for while standing in line for coffee. And while the Figment meet-and-greet had massive demand when it returned in 2023, those opening-day crush levels were never going to last forever.

That raises the awkward little question sitting in the corner wearing a yellow sweater: do guests love Figment as he exists in EPCOT right now, or do they love what Figment represents? Because those are not the same thing.

Figment represents old EPCOT. Weird EPCOT. Clever EPCOT. “What if we made a dragon and let him teach people about imagination?” EPCOT. He is nostalgia with horns. He is a mascot for the EPCOT fans who still get misty-eyed over the words “Dreamfinder” and “Horizons.” But the current pavilion does not always feel like it is carrying that legacy with the full force it deserves.

It feels like Disney knows Figment matters, but has not quite decided what to do with that knowledge besides occasionally putting him on merchandise and letting everyone collectively lose their minds.

EPCOT Has an Empty Space Problem

The Imagination Pavilion is not the only area in EPCOT with this strange “surely something should be happening here” energy.

The Morocco Pavilion is still beautiful, but Restaurant Marrakesh has not returned to regular dining since the 2020 shutdown. In 2025, the Restaurant Marrakesh sign had been removed, marking another pretty glaring reminder that this once-busy dining space is still not functioning the way longtime EPCOT fans remember it.

Then there is World Showplace. It is not abandoned, exactly. Disney Meetings & Events has described World Showplace Pavilion as a large private event venue inside EPCOT that can accommodate up to 2,000 guests, and it does pop up for special uses from time to time.

But for the average park guest walking around World Showcase? It can feel like EPCOT has a giant blank space sitting right there, occasionally waking up for private events or festival needs before going back into hibernation.

And then there is the bigger World Showcase question. EPCOT opened with nine World Showcase pavilions in 1982, then added Morocco and Norway later in the 1980s. Since Norway opened in 1988, Disney has not added another full country pavilion to World Showcase, despite decades of rumors, concepts, and dreams that fans keep trying to manifest with suspiciously intense Pinterest boards.

That is a lot of cultural potential just sitting there, especially in a park that is supposed to celebrate imagination, innovation, and global connection.

The Imagination Pavilion Should Be the Easiest Win in EPCOT

Here is why the Imagination Pavilion feels especially frustrating: this should be easy. Not cheap, necessarily. We are not naïve. Disney does not renovate a major pavilion with couch cushion money and a coupon code. But creatively? This is one of the easiest pitches in the park.

You have Figment. You have a huge indoor space. You have a built-in family audience. You have shelter from the Florida sun, which automatically makes any EPCOT indoor space more valuable than gold bullion by 2PM in July. You have a concept that can support play, food, drinks, music, art, merchandise, animation, technology, and character interaction.

And yet, the exit area often feels like EPCOT is using about 18% of the possible Figment power. That is not a space problem. That is an imagination problem. Which is, frankly, rude in this specific pavilion.

Give Us a Figment Snack Lab

Let’s start with the obvious: food.

This pavilion is begging for a snack kiosk. Not a full restaurant. Not a giant table-service concept with $39 chicken and a backstory involving a fictional professor who discovered aioli. Just a small, highly themed Figment snack lab.

Give us colorful cream puffs. Give us purple dragon churros. Give us “One Little Spark” lemonade with edible glitter. Give us imagination popcorn flavors that rotate by festival. Give us a snack flight where each item is tied to one of the senses.

This does not need to be complicated. Disney has turned popcorn buckets into cultural incidents. Surely someone can sell a Figment cupcake without triggering a shareholder meeting.

Or a Tiny Figment Lounge, Because EPCOT

This is EPCOT, which means we must also discuss the adult beverage angle. It is the law of the lagoon. A small Figment-themed lounge could be a ridiculously fun use of the space, especially if Disney wanted to create something with a playful science-lab feel. Think colorful cocktails, mocktails, sensory flights, fizzy drinks, smoke bubbles, wild garnishes, and maybe a menu that changes during EPCOT festivals.

Nothing too massive. Nothing that turns the pavilion into a nightclub for adults wearing Figment ears and making questionable choices near a bubblegum wall. Just a small imaginative bar or lounge that gives adults a reason to linger while still keeping the pavilion family-friendly.

And before anyone panics, mocktails could absolutely be the star here. This is Figment. Half the fun is making something bright, silly, and unexpected.

Update the Play Space Before It Becomes a Time Capsule

The ImageWorks concept is solid. A hands-on creative play lab for kids makes perfect sense at the exit of a ride about imagination. It is a sensory play space, which is exactly the sort of thing that should feel fresh, kinetic, and a little chaotic in the best way. But it needs energy. New technology. Better interactivity. More movement. More surprise.

Imagine projection walls where kids can draw digital creatures and watch them bounce around the room. Imagine music stations where guests remix “One Little Spark.” Imagine interactive light floors, digital painting tables, animation pods, sound booths, or a Figment “create your own creature” station that links to the My Disney Experience app. The space should feel like a place kids beg not to leave.

Instead, too often, it feels like a place parents wander through while saying, “Do you need the bathroom?” with the energy of people trying to get to the next festival booth.

Bring in the Characters

You know what makes a quiet space feel alive very quickly? Characters.

 

Figment already meets in the pavilion, which is great. But Disney could build around that. A mini character dance party would be an easy win, especially during slower parts of the day. Add music, bubbles, rotating appearances, and some silly guided movement for kids, and suddenly the pavilion has a pulse again.

Dreamfinder returning would probably cause certain EPCOT fans to levitate, but even without going that deep into the nostalgia vault, Disney could make the space feel more interactive. Figment pop-ins. Festival-specific entertainment. Imagination “lab assistants” leading quick games. Little five-minute creative challenges.

The answer does not always have to be “build a billion-dollar ride.” Sometimes the answer is “please put a Cast Member with a microphone and a bubble machine in this room before it turns into a museum exhibit about missed opportunities.”

EPCOT Deserves Better Than Empty Corners

EPCOT has always been a strange park, and we mean that affectionately. It is a place where you can ride through a greenhouse, eat School Bread, argue about fireworks sightlines, and then cry because a purple dragon reminded you of your childhood. That is not normal theme park behavior, and we treasure it.

But EPCOT also has too many areas that feel underused. Morocco deserves more life. World Showplace deserves more purpose for regular guests. World Showcase deserves the kind of long-term cultural investment fans have been dreaming about for decades. And the Imagination Pavilion deserves to feel like a centerpiece, not a footnote with air-conditioning.

Figment is too important to EPCOT history to be treated like a merchandise mascot who happens to have a ride attached. If Disney wants guests to keep loving Figment, then the pavilion around him needs to give people something to love now, not just something to remember.

Yes, nostalgia is powerful. But imagination is supposed to move forward. And right now, this pavilion could use one very large spark. Keep following AllEars for more tips, vacation hacks, and opinions you never asked for but keep seeking out anyway!

What would you like to see added or changed about this space? Let us know in the comments below!

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