Orlando Live 2017 Day 8 EPCOT Future World & Port Orleans Riverside

Today we visited Future World in EPCOT.

First I will discuss a little about Riverside our home Resort.

Riverside consists of 2,048 rooms in three-story southern-style mansions and two-story rustic bayou dwellings.

The resort originally opened February 2, 1992 as Disney’s Dixie Landings Resort. It was renamed in 2001.

Dining includes Riverside Mill food court and Boatwright’s Dining Hall.

Transportation is via motor coach to other Walt Disney World attractions. There is a riverboat to Disney Springs.

Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort is currently undergoing massive renovations which makes Riverside now the largest Disney resort.

Riverside is a very beautiful Disney resort with exceptional grounds and an impressive lobby. Public Rooms are comfortable but not as stunning as in other Resorts. Bedrooms are comfortable but not that well equipped with wardrobes and drawers.

Although we are enjoying our stay at Riverside it is highly unlikely we would stay here again. The issue is the resort size and that Disney appears to be struggling to manage this. There are 3 main issues we have identified.

• The main resort pool is too small for the number of guests. The are a number of smaller pool across the resort.
• The Riverside Mill Food Court struggles to deal with the number of guests. Queues are long and they regularly run out of drinks especially coffee. In our recent Resort Hop we identified no other Resorts where the quick service was as crowded as Riverside.
• Buses are a big issue. They are regularly at full capacity and it is very rare to get a seat. Riverside always has the largest queues at parks. Often you have to wait for several buses to board. This does not appear to be an issue for other Resorts.

Back to EPCOT in what was a rare totally dry day.

Future World has always been one of my favourite parts of WDW. I love Test Track and Soarin. However; in recent years it has suffered from a lack of new attractions and several closures.

During our visit it was announced at D23 that EPCOT would be next in line for a Theme Park refresh. Universe of Energy will finally close in August and a new Ratatouille Ride will open in France. Universe of Energy will be replaced with the heavily predicted Guardians of the Galaxy attraction.

It is highly likely further updates to EPCOT will be announced over the next year.

Our day in EPCOT was fairly successful although a Test Track failure and early evening closure of Universe of Energy meant we did not complete quite everything.

Dinner was at Coral Reef which was yet another excellent meal.

We finished the day watching Illuminations with some friends we bumped into.

Hollywood Studios is next tomorrow.