Imageworks

No… No…NO. Just no. Those of us who used to frequent Epcot in the 80’s know what the *real* Imageworks used to be like, up on the now roped off second floor. I can’t believe they still have «Design a Figment» kiosks where my wife was touching the screen to design her creepy Figment, only to find out that she had to peck away at a terrible metal keyboard with a bizarre track ball/​button. The ride is a shell of its former self and Imageworks is even worse. Sigh.

Appalling. This was so terrible that it actually made me angry. I remember back in the day when ImageWorks was located on the (now abandoned) second floor of this pavilion. You would start out upstairs under the beautiful glass pyramids the building is famous for. You could see out through them and get some great views of Epcot. There were lots of fun activities and a wonderful rainbow corridor made of neon lights that you could walk through. This new incarnation of ImageWorks is found in an windowless, medium-​sized room at the exit of the Journey Into Imagination With Figment ride. The first thing I noticed were several stations with a big screen that allows kids to do something. What I have no idea because (and I am not making this up) each station’s screen had a Windows 98 (?) popup error dialog message. There are several stations with what looks to be computers from at least ten years ago. They have full keyboards and a strange trackball interface. It just looks so clunky and outdated. The one thing that I liked is that they duplicated the section from upstairs where shapes on the floor would be lit up and make sounds if you stepped into them. ImageWorks is so small that you could walk through it in 30 seconds. Before you leave the building you’ll be funnelled through a gift shop where 90% of the items don’t relate to the «star» of the ride, Figment. Inside the gift shop I spotted the stairs that lead upstairs to the old ImageWorks area. I wish that I could have gone upstairs and experienced the old ImageWorks, but that’s now just a figment of my imagination.