Disney News

Tag: name

  • New Documents Raise Questions About A Possible Name Change For Epcot

    New Documents Raise Questions About A Possible Name Change For Epcot

    With the massive changes and reimagining of Disney’s Epcot, could the park also be getting a new name? Recently some official documents have come to light that show a new name for the park.

    In the documents, the park is referred to as “Epcot World Center.”  This is just pure speculation at this point, but it’s based in some pretty sound reasoning. These are official documents and for legal reasons names are usually extremely accurate.

    Paperwork to alter Epcot’s parking lot was filed by Disney earlier this month.  The plans shift parking to the east making room on the west side for new buildings and an 84-acre lake. It is suspected that these new buildings are the rumored Epcot entrance resort and it looks like the company has settled on area behind Living Seas pavilion for the resort.

    epcot-world-center-permit
    Source: Blog Mickey

    There is no official word on the possible resort, but an equally interesting fact is the possible new name found on these documents first reported by Blog Mickey.  They saw the name after they zoomed in on the images and it certainly begs the question… Does Disney have some sort of name change in mind?

    On the documents, the name is located in Future World right over spaceship earth, so it would seem it refers to the entire park and not just the World Showcase. It’s really a small change and Epcot is still in the name, but it certainly wouldn’t be the first name change for the park.

    When the park first opened in 1982 it was known as “EPCOT Center”. Then in 1994 and 1995 the parks name was changed to “Epcot ’94” and “Epcot ’95” respectively. The annual name change didn’t last long and since that time the park has been known simply as “Epcot”.

    It’s not immediately clear how “Epcot World Center” as a name, would tie into Future World, but perhaps with the addition of The Guardians of the Galaxy Roller Coaster and the rest of the changes coming to the park, it will make more sense once the entire park has gone though its full reimagination.

    It’s kind of nice to see “Center” back in the name and it’s a far better name than some of the recent names that had been thrown around for a possible Hollywood Studios name change.  Disney has since put the rumor to bed stating that “Disney’s Hollywood Studios name will remain the same for the foreseeable future“.

    Though the name on the documents hardly seems an accident we will still have to wait and see if there is any official word from Disney about a name change.

  • BREAKING: Hollywood Studios Name Will NOT Change In The Foreseeable Future

    BREAKING: Hollywood Studios Name Will NOT Change In The Foreseeable Future

    With rumors swirling around about the future of Disney’s Hollywood Studios and a possible name change, Disney finally addressed the issue in a recent statement. Disney put the rumors to rest stating that the parks name will not be changing.

    “In response to questions we have been receiving, we also want to let fans know that the Disney’s Hollywood Studios name will remain the same for the foreseeable future since we are immersing our guests in a place where imagined worlds of Hollywood unfold around them from movies and music, to television and theater”, the company said in a statement.

    Rumors of a name change for Disney’s Hollywood studios have persisted since Disney CEO Bob Iger, not so subtly, hinted about it at a shareholder meeting back in 2015.

    “It’s not announced. We used to be MGM Studios, we changed to Hollywood Studios and we’re doing some significant work there right now that I guess will result in a name change,” Iger said at the meeting. “We’ll announce that we’re changing the name, but we won’t announce what we’re changing it to. How’s that?” he continued.

    So the “foreseeable future” still doesn’t mean they won’t be changing the name one day.  We still know that with the evolving nature of the park a name change may still be the park’s future.

    Toy Story Land is scheduled to open this summer at Hollywood Studios, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens in 2019 and neither of those projects had been announced when Iger made his off the cuff statement.

    We know that the idea has been seriously considered by Disney, because back in August several Disney fans had received a survey asking their opinions of several potential new names for the park. The internet blew up last week with speculation that “Cinemagine Park” had been settled on, from that list, as the parks new name. Perhaps Disney didn’t like the survey results or maybe it was the reaction to the possible name choice that was floating around. In either case it’s clear that Disney doesn’t want possible name change to be a distraction to all of the upcoming changes.

    If Disney really wanted to make it clear the name would remain the same indefinitely, they might have chosen different language for their statement. But for now everyone can rest easy that “Cinemagine Park” is not the new name of the Park. Perhaps Disney feels the Hollywood name does fit the future of the park, but only time will tell.