EPCOT – Wonders of Life Pavilion

SECOND LOCATION

EPCOT – Wonders of Life Pavilion

What is this fancy place?

Who remembers Body Wars?!?!?! *raises hand* Ahem! Anyway….

EPCOT (Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) is the second Disney theme park. It opened in 1982 as a celebration of human innovation and progress. The Wonders of Life Pavilion debuted in 1989 in the “Future World” area of the theme park. The focus of the pavilion was human health. It originally hosted EPCOT’s first thrill ride: Body Wars (which was directed by Leonard Nimoy!). The pavilion closed in 2007, but since then the Disney higher-ups have been giving it a new, seasonal purpose. While the original pavilion will always hold a fancy place in my heart, I decided to check out what new fanciness awaits the pavilion…. 

Wonders of Life Pavilion

First Impression of the Fanciness

At first I feel kind of sneaky, sneaking up on the pavilion. It’s usually closed, and this is my first time at EPCOT’s Food and Wine Festival, so I actually had no idea it was regularly open for the festival.

So I tiptoe closer, taking pictures every ten steps because I’m so excited, and then I enter and…okay, I’m a sucker for anything EPCOT, so I just stand there trying not to ball my little eyes out because man, this place is FANCY. It feels like I’ve walked into some kind of superstar cooking show, or found a secret place only chefs shop. 

View from the entrance

There’s lots of Disney art, walls of expensive cooking supplies, racks upon racks of wine, and fancy rows of chairs set out for cooking demonstrations. The venues are all designed to look like little buildings, so it feels like I'm in a quaint, indoor village: a cooking village that revolves around good food and drink. The colors of the pavilion are now green and tan: soothing colors that help set a muted, friendly tone. So pretty darn fancy!

Demonstrations!

Art!

Fancy place to sit and eat!

Fancy Writing Spaces?

I never went to the pavilion looking for a nice place to write…I stumbled upon it by complete happy, fancy accident. There’s a cute café by the art shop, and by the café, hidden on a slightly upper level and blocked by trees and merchandise…is a place to sit and eat. 

There’s a huge long table with bar stools, and then there’s large round tables, wrought with nature designs like leaves. The best thing is: it’s mostly empty. So I sit down and get all comfortable and then I’m like: fancy writing space!!!!! So I take out my notebook, because I didn’t have my computer, and write. I'm pleasantly surprised by how quiet the pavilion is. Most of the chatter is a low mumble that turns into white noise. 

View from my spot

While I was next to a wall, I of course didn’t check to see if it had plugs. Guess I’ll have to go back and check then (awww such a hardship!). Of course, this place is only seasonal, so my fancy writing space will be gone this month. I think that makes it more fancy…because it’s limited edition!

Special Fancy Extras

Fancy an exploration of the human body? Everything from pre-show to the end of the ride: here’s a video of Body Wars! If you want to skip the pre-show, the ride itself starts at 4:11. Yes, this ride was like Star Tours!