New "Land of Oz" Playground Opens at Epcot


A new temporary themed playground recently opened at Epcot. It will continue to remain open throughout this year's International Flower & Garden Festival (which will start really soon, by the way!), but it may be removed after the end of the event. We were at the park just yesterday, so we have some photos to share with you. Before doing that, though, let's take a look around Future World to see what's new:


First of all, work continues to be done on the top of the American Adventure's showbuilding:


The Flower & Garden Festival has already brought some fantastic flowers in the park:


We would love to see these flower beds all year long:



The Butterfly House is taking shape:


Let's now take a look at this new temporary "Land of Oz" area:




This is basically a small area with some free carnival-style games (the area is not 100% complete yet):



The playground:



It is basically the typical children's playground with a little more theming:


In addition to that, the official Disney Parks Blog posted a video about this area:


One more thing - on the other side of the park, the tarp in front of MISSION:Space has been themed:






That's all. Thank you for viewing, and see you later with more news and updates regarding the parks!

VIDEO: ©Disney. All rights reserved.

21 comments:

  1. HOW CHEAP CAN DISNEY POSSIBLY GET. UNIVERSAL IS BUILDING LIKE CRAZY AND DISNEY PUTS IN A FREAKIN PLAYGROUND. WHAT A JOKE.

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  2. @Anonymous 1 yeah building CRAP like crazy! i mean despicable me is a cheap 3D movie ride and harry potter has a renamed Dueling Dragons to Dragon Challenge and a little kiddy Hippogriph coaster. Universal is spending money on little carnival rides and renamed ones. Disney is making Fantasyland, Avatarland, and maybe Carsland. And FYI Disney could buy out Universal in a snap so they could just take their parks and make them NEW, ORIGINAL, and GOOD!

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  3. Little carnival rides & renamed ones? Ha.
    It is simple fact that Disney spends more on less. A billion on Fastpass plus etc?! Universal builds innovative & technologically advanced ride systems like Forbidden Journey, Transformers, new Gringotts coaster. There is also a Jurassic Park expansion being worked on with new rides, new Seuss ride, potential lord of the rings too. In terms of what we see & ride on, Universal is slaughtering Disney. Transformers within a 12 month window, but a little mine train taking three years?! Has new Fantasyland been driving attendance? No! Beautiful? Yes.
    The red tape & beaurocracy gets in the way of doing anything at Disney, where Universal have a small team & get on with it.

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  4. This is a site for looking a photos and news not for your petty bickering.

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  5. You can't compare EPCOT to Universal's two parks. A temporary playground for the flower festival is not Transformers.

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  6. Fanastyland has one ride, Mermaid, which is not that great, one restaurant, and Disney s favorite thing meet and greets. Big Deal. Universal has Transformers the RIDE, a new Simpsons area with a new ride, and a Whole new Harry Potterland with multiple rides, shops and a themed restaurant. Disney could never touch Universal. The only reason people go to Disney is that they are brainwashed. There is no comparison on the product. Disney is a glorified kiddyland built on false reputation and midgets in Halloween costumes.

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    1. And Dueling Dumbos, Great Goofini, Enchanted Tales with Belle, and soon to be the AMAZING Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Not to mention all the new buildings are absolutely gorgeous unlike the Lost Empire, that I am pretty sure has a warning of "May cause blindness or other eye problems due to ugliness."

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  7. Great, all it took was a playground to turn into another Disney vs Universal debate.
    Both companies do great in their respective fields. Disney aims to please families of all ages and Universal seeks the tweens+ crowd. I myself prefer Universal, but that doesn't mean I have to look down at everything Disney does, nor do I have to worship everything Universal builds (namely the new Sesame Street ride in rehearsal at Singapore).

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  8. Snow whites mine train is just a knock off of the Dragon coaster at Legoland with a different style train. There will little or no animatronics, instead card board cut outs like in most there other dark rides. Compare it with the Gringots bank coaster at Universal. No Contest. Whatever the Imagineers create the bean counters cut down to bare bones. At least a WDW, DL and DCA is a different story.

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  9. I hate to break it to you but it is not even close to the size of Big Thunder Mountain. It is a Junior size coaster, that is all. So take off your Mickey Mouse Glasses and your Donald Duck underwear. The Coaster itself is alittle bigger than Goofy's Barnstormer, ooh I mean the Great Goofini another so called new ride.

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    1. Yeah so called new? Just like Dueling Dragons or I mean Dragon Challenge?

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  10. Universal has NO themeing and heir rides are just 3D movie rides: Simpsons, Dispicable Me, Shrek, Jimmy Neutron, Forbidden Journey, etc! If I want those I can just go to a movie theater for a couple bucks! Disney puts guests into the stories. Harry Potter is nothing! A basic moving movie ride, a couple little shops, a carnival rollercoaster, and a renamed Dueling Dragons! Come on! And like Anonymous 2 said, Disney has wayyyyyyy more money than Universal could dream of. I wish Disney would just buy out Universal and fix up their terrible eye-sore parks with over rated rides. Look up theme park attendance to see what the public decides because no Universal parks are on the top ten list. But what parks are on the list? Magic Kingdom, Magic Kingdom California, Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios! The stats do not lie! Universal fans = silenced

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  11. I personally feel both companies have great new additions. I admit the playground is a somewhat cheap addition considering Disney is meant to involve the entire family in everything it introduces, and yet the adults and older kids can't play on a playground designed for the younger kids. At the same time, if it were permanent, I would say shame on Disney, but since its temporary for the Flower & Garden festival, I'd say its ok. As with Universal vs. Disney....look at Universal first, Sure they did great with Harry Potter & the Forbidden Journey, but Hippogriff and Dragon Challenge were previously existing attractions simply re-themed. So is The Simpsons, so is Dispicable Me and so is Transformers(more a duplicate of Spider-Man). Disney does similar moves, by adding the Little Mermaid which is simply another attraction like Peter Pan's Flight and Winnie The Pooh, but families love those kind of attractions which is what keeps bringing them back so in the end Disney will always win, not because they're brainwashed, but because practically everything at Disney, families can ride, enjoy, experience together, hence each generation will bring the following generation. Universal may or may not get that idea, but the money/attendance records don't lie and Disney will always win this battle.

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  12. To add to what I just stated, before you say anything about Universal having a lot for families to do together as well......Universal has a lot more attractions requiring a specific height requirement than Disney. To prove my point, look at the attractions at Disney's Hollywood Studios with height limits. Tower of Terror, Rock N' Roller Coaster and Star Tours. Now look at Islands of Adventure's list. Hulk, Dr. Doom, Storm Force, Spider-Man, Dudley Do-Right, Popeye, Jurassic Park River Adventure, Pteronadon Flyers, Harry Potter FJ, Hippogriff, Dragon Challenge, and Seuss Trolley. So with Islands of Adventure, there's not a whole lot for entire families to enjoy together versus Hollywood Studios.

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  13. Disney has put up temporary play areas during the Flower Festival for at least a few years... It's a welcome edition to a very adult skewed park and event. What's going on a few miles away is completely irrelevant when you have a bored and hyper 3 year old who doesn't want to look at topiaries.

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  14. @ Outspoken Anonymous
    "Transformers within a 12 month window, but a little mine train taking three years"

    You do realize Transformers is a third copy of an existing ride, right? No design input was needed.

    The Snow White coaster is completely original. Originality and creativity take time. They can't be just shipped in from other parks and built in 12 months like a Lego set. Not to mention that when New Fantasyland was first announced, the Snow White coaster wasn't even on the drawing board. There was going to be a Pixie Hollow sub-land to built, but instead of that, Disney dumped it and came up with an original (and better) attraction.

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    1. I'm not evening talking about the design aspect... I'm talking about when the mine train building was initiated to when it will be finished. Their timescales are crazy. I love disney parks but they take an insane amount of time to get things done. That's not a criticism of imagineers or creativity, it's the beaurocracy and red tape that get in the way rather than a small team like Universal that just DO.

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  15. [COMMENT MODERATED BY STAFF]

    @Anonymous [who posted on Sunday, February 17, 2013 at 3:10:00 PM EST]
    Legoland's Dragon coaster? Really?Univeral's Flight of the Hippogriff, Woody Woodpecker coaster and Disney's Barnstormer are more like that. The Snow White Coaster is in the same league as Big Thunder Mountain and Hong Kong Disneyland's Grizzly Gulch coaster.

    You obviously haven't seen the scope of this project. Maybe you should [PART DELETED] enjoy the photos this site provides and see for yourself how large the project is, as opposed to insinuating petty fights with composed people who don't even pick sides. You're the only one doing that here.

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  16. [COMMENT MODERATED BY STAFF]

    This is so like Alton Towers Vs Thorpe Park in the uk. I been following this site for years. Disney aim is for families with small children and Universal aim for families with Teenagers. It's taken Universal a long time to get it's ass going on sorting out the aging Universal Studios. 3D movies are ok if they were updated every 3 years. Drayton Manor in the uk has just got a basic 4D cinema but they change the movies every season.

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  17. While we are happy to see that our Readers like to discuss on this subject, we have to ask you to be much more careful on the words you use on this site. We had to moderate a few comments due to the presence of some words that should never be used on this site. Once again, thank you for your input, but remember to keep it always clean.

    -OTPN Staff.

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  18. All arguments aside, I just want to say that my nineteen-month old son LOVED the new playground. I appreciated having a place to take him mid-day where he could get a break from the stroller to run around and have fun in a safe and attractive environment. I also appreciated the shady seating areas and the soft surfaces. My children are spread out in age, so while there are always things for my teens to see and do at these parks, I am grateful for places like this to give my little guy an age-appropriate, fun experience too.

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