Epcot's Gateway Gifts closing for short refurbishment next week

Jan 08, 2020 in "Gateway Gifts"

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Gateway Gifts overview

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Posted: Wednesday January 8, 2020 2:44pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Epcot's Gateway Gifts will be closing for a brief refurbishment next week.

The gift shop located underneath Spaceship Earth on the eastern side will close from January 13 through to January 18, reopening to guests on January 19 2020.

Gateway Gifts overview

This will complete the remodel of the stores by Spaceship earth, with the Camera Center on the western side already back in operation after its refurbishment.

In other gift shop news, the Gift Stop store, located outside of the main entrance near to the bus stops will have its final day of operation on January 18 2020.

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Epcot82Guy2 days ago

My issue is they know how to make things look "pretty". But, they aren't compelling. The novelty wears off very quickly. Pandora still feels engaging. Galaxy's Edge is detailed but waning. Celebration Gardens is already starting to feel slightly stale and "been there". As with so much, it feels like the goal is to come up with a story in the designers' heads, build some lavish version on paper - and then whittle it back over time and with group committee think. So, in the end, there isn't really a story left to tell. These places feel decorated far more than compelling, believable spaces. That's one of the problems IMHO.

Bocabear2 days ago

This was a fairly simple project... a centerpiece garden area for Epcot's old Communicore area... the Hub for the land.... If this ended up being such a mixed bag of nothingness and a failure to provide an engaging central feature, I can't begin to imagine what is going to happen with the back half of the Magic Kingdom park with this same creative team.

Epcot82Guy2 days ago

How magical... I guess cheap fixes are indeed more timeless, more relevant and... CERTAINLY.... more (current) Disney...

UNCgolf2 days ago

That was my impression from the earlier photo -- that they were just covering them up.

tparris2 days ago

These new panels don’t seem see-through… and I lifted an old panel up near the new ones and they didn’t clean the mildew out of the lights or replace anything before installing the new panels… I think the ground lights aren’t coming back.

Bocabear2 days ago

They honestly should rip that whole circle out and start over.... A show fountain that follows the lighting and music for Spaceship Earth...... THe sound, the movement...the color would add so much to that now dry dead heart of Communicore....

Disstevefan13 days ago

This stupid planter (obviously an attempt as cost savings) and the embarrassing broken lighting is such an absolute failure that I would welcome another 5 years of walls if we could get a big beautiful state of the art fountain built there.

Bocabear3 days ago

there is no reason this should have failed in it's first week of operation and still waiting for repair half a year later...the trip hazards have been repaired but not the lighting issues... When the central planter ended up as lackluster as it is, it really needed something to make it special...unfortunately the something special was to be this lighting....which has failed... They need to re-think this whole central planter and area and make it the spectacle it should be....

MisterPenguin3 days ago

There's no reason for LED lights to not work when wet. Check out every outdoor string of LED lights at Christmas time. A few scattered lights are still working tho waterlogged. I'm guessing the water shorted out controllers which should have been hardened v. water.

Bocabear3 days ago

So.... time for the sparkly analog fiberoptic lighting in the channels...that operated for decades with no problems... Seems like the new lighting stopped working in sections within a few days.... This lighting was supposed to be the kinetic replacement for the fountain we didn't get....

Ayla3 days ago

God, that looks like ish.

tparris3 days ago

Work seems to have begun on the ground lighting in World Celebration… although these new cover panels don’t seem very translucent… (the last photo is the old panels for comparison)

tparris3 days ago

Currently only 3 out of the 8 light pillars in the center of World Celebration are functioning correctly (one of the “fully functioning ones” has a dead spot btw). All 4 on the east side are a constant bright white on the side panels but they are working normally on the front panels. One pillar on the west side is completely off on the sides but working on the front.

tparris7 days ago

Those are the ground lights outside of Communicore Hall, which were never even turned on to begin with. I wonder if they’re planning on finally fixing and activating them too