Fired up...

AAAARRRRGHH! Another favorite of mine on "The Apprentice" went to the chopping block tonight. Bye, bye John...Oh, how we'll miss you. :-/

So as to those DVDs I got from the Extinct Attractions Club. Wonderful! Thanks to them I was able to relive my memories of going to EPCOT as a child. Back when I was growing up in Florida, my family and I would go up to Disney World at least twice a year. One of my fondest memories was seeing EPCOT in its early years. Back then, there was less emphasis on thrill rides like "Mission: Space" or "Test Track." Instead, there were huge, expansive moving theater shows like "Universe of Energy," "Spaceship Earth," and "Horizons." And more often than not, these rides that sometimes clocked at over 20 minutes would be capped off by a "look the future's gonna be great!" theme song. "New Horizons" from the old "Horizons" pavilion stands as one of my all-time favorite attraction (let alone EPCOT) songs.

While watching the video, the one memory that was brought back to life was that of Communicore. I had forgotten how fun that area was with its cheesy (but cute) touch screen computer games like the roller coaster builder and the American flag assembly line game. And SMRT-1, the talking robot! I remember the first time I went up to the SMRT-1 exhibit at Communicore, I was so shy that I couldn't even talk into the phone to answer "yes" or "no" to SMRT-1. And the Stargate restaurant and fountain of information. Ahhh, how I miss thee...

The last time I was at EPCOT was Christmas time of 2003 and while "Mission: Space" was nice, there was a weird feel to the theme park especially Future World. It seemed to be lacking a unifying voice to the area. Back in the 80s-era, Future World's pavilions all centered around the hopes and dreams of the future with the occasional demonstration here and there of future technologies (as "The Land" and "World of Motion" did), but now, the area just seems like a mishmash of neat attractions that are loosely tied to the future. This will ring especially true when "Soarin'" hits "The Land." Don't get me wrong, the new additions have been nice, but it seems like a patchwork quilt...like "oh, let's try to fit this into EPCOT and see if it works." I'll be very curious to see what if any direction EPCOT takes in the next few years especially as its 25th anniversary looms closer and closer...Any other classic EPCOT fans out there?