Epcot Construction Update: Tram and Security Area Nearly Complete
The construction at the Epcot front gate area, including the tram loading zone and security screening area, has now reopened. Some construction walls remain, but the process there is nearly complete.
Here you can see that parking lot trams can again load/unload directly adjacent to the park, rather than deep into the lot as had happened during the refurbishment.
The new security screening zone is a large structure, much like the new Hollywood Studios screening area. Much of the screening zone is now under the monorail station platform. The main Epcot screening zone serves guests arriving from the trams, as well as from the buses. Guests arriving at Epcot via the monorail are screened at the Transportation and Ticket Center or the hotel where they first boarded the monorail system.
More bag screening tables are now available, so entry should move more quickly than prior to the construction.
One small part of the old screening area remains. We believe that this may primarily serve guests coming from the handicapped or priority parking areas, but stay tuned for more information on that.
Also take a look at the progress on the Guardians of the Galaxy coaster building (where Ellen’s Energy Adventure used to be).
The fountain area inside the front gate is still in the middle of major work.
And additional things are happening on the Test Track side of Future World.
How do you feel about the updates?
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When is Spaceship Earth closing and for how long?
We don’t have any solid news on this, unfortunately. The refurbishment is said to be substantial, and all signs point to Disney wanting the new version to be ready before WDW’s 50th anniversary. Given, that info, educated guesses point to a closure in early 2020, probably just after the holidays, with downtime of about a year. But again, those are just guesses.
It’s notable that Test Track is closed for refurb Jan 13-Feb 26, which makes me think that SSE won’t close until March at the earliest. In a park with so few big-name attractions, it would be surprising to close both of those in January.
Also of note is that there are concierge guests who have 90-day fastpass booking windows, which means that if the ride was scheduled to close before Jan 26th, we should have heard about it by now (like how we first learned about the new DHS FP+ tiers thanks to the 90-day high rollers).
We visit WDW each February, and last time we were under the impression it might be our last ride for maybe two years. Would like another go at it in Feb 2020! Guess it’s all in flux.