Just in case you were wondering, there's a picture from this morning snapped by Doobie over on LaughingPlace.com of a crane erected next to The Wand ready to begin the dismantling process. Add to that the growing rumble from new park Vice President Jim McPhee that guests can expect to see something for Epcot's 25th Anniversary and it looks like the new boss is making his presence known.
No word yet on what will be involved for the 25th Anniversary celebration. As I've said before, it doesn't have to be much, in fact there's very little chance that it will be a big production. Disney's time to 'guest ready' is typically about 3 years for merchandise and 18-24 months for entertainment/attractions. Those can be sped up, but it would be very difficult to do something on the grand scale that Epcot's 25th Anniversary deserves.
So what should we expect? I'd really like to see some basic merchandise (Pins, Mugs, T-Shirts, Postcards (perhaps a retrospective set), and antenna ball. Anything more complicated than that will likely miss the October 1st kick off. At some point, however, they should release a retrospective book looking back on the first 25 years of EPCOT, a lot of that can be recycled from the opening books, but there have been many changes, a lot of great festivals, guest performers, and new sponsors over the years. End the book with a few pages of bluesky concept art on what kinds of things we might expect in the future for Epcot. Make sure we know it's bluesky, but wow us.
Park signage is an important part of the anniversary. At a minimum, we should see entrance banners, banners in FutureWorld (since that is usually unfestooned by the Spring and Fall festivals), and some sort of creative signage for the original pavilions (FW and WS).
As for entertainment, an old fashioned song and dance show, Disney style, would be nice. It should be choreographed to work at the American Adventure stage when it's not booked and at the Future World stage whjen AAS is busy. Four singers and 8 dancers is probably enough. Keep the characters out of it for the most part (although Mickey and Minnie in their early Epcot rainbow suits would be okay). If you have to pull Steven Davison from Rivers Of Light over at DAK to accelerate this, I think Joe Rhode will understand as long as he has Steven back in time for DAKs 10th anniversary celebration.
The second entertainment option should be a special roll-in for Illuminations along with a new finale tribute to the original pavilions plus Future World.
Finally, a retrospective exhibit in one of the many convention spaces is a must. Something air conditioned, and a quick movie looking at Walt's original plan through construction (I know you have something like this already) could alternate with something more current and forward looking (perhaps interviews with countries involved right now).
If they get really ambitious it would be fun to put up a website with trivia and interviews (podcasts). Some sort of SMS trivia hunt could be done. The Year of A Million Dreams is ongoing, but I hear the 'Disney Dreams Come True" promotion has been canceled. So the now those months could work in some Epcot specific dreams (special tours, character meets, entertainment experiences, etc). Heck, bring back the 'Man of the Century' poll.
To make this really work the PR machine had better get rolling. People are booking their vacations, restaurants, and more now. Get some plans on paper and then hit the pavement to stir up some excitement.
