Changes

After the Grand Opening in October of 1982, EPCOT Center continued to expand rapidly. The expansion, known as Phase II began on October 1, 1983 with the addition the Horizons pavilion. Horizons was sponsored by General Electric and which took guests into the 21st century to see what the future might be like. The attraction would be would be one of EPOCT Center's most popular rides in the 1980s. Exactly one year after the addition of Horizons, the Morocco pavilion opened in World Showcase. Future World saw even more expansion in 1986 when on January 15, The Living Seas opened. The Living Sea's focused on oceanic study and was sponsored by United Technologies. In the Living Seas, guests would board ride vehicles and witness large aquariums with all kinds of fish and sea creatures. World Showcase was the next to expand when in 1988 Norway was added followed by the popular attraction the Malestorm a year later. The Malestorm was a boat ride which transported guests to the Norway of myth. In 1989 the final pavilion was added to Epcot, The Wonders of Life. The pavilion was sponsored by Met Life and it's construction featured the popular motion simulator Body Wars. The pavilions completion signaled the end of Epcot getting major additions.

The mid 1990s brought a lot of change to EPCOT Center. For starters, in 1994 the name of the park was changed to Epcot Center 94'. This change helped add the World Fair atmosphere that now defined EPCOT Center. Also in 1994 CommuniCore closed its doors. The pavilion was becoming somewhat dated, so it was under a long renovation. The pavilion reopened July 1, 1994 as Innoventions. Innoventions was themed similar to CommuniCore in that it featured hands on technology. The new exhibits however were much flashier and appealed to a younger audience. Besides changing exhibits the pavilion also changed color, becoming much darker and metallic looking. Horizons also went through changes in 1994 when General Electric canceled it's sponsorship. The attraction closed, but was reopened in 1995 due to all the other closures in Future World. Also In 1995 the name EPCOT 94' was updated to EPCOT 95, before finally settling on Epcot in 1996. The new name was not capitalized as it had been in the past, witch meant that it was no longer an anagram. More closures hit Epcot in 1996 when the World of Motion closed. The pavillion would re-open in 1999 as Test Track, still sponsored by General Motors. Test Track took guests through the rigors of the testing procedures cars go through. Test Track is the fastest ride in Walt Disney World, reaching up to 65 mph.

Controversy struck Epcot in 1999 when the popular attraction Horizons was closed permanently. No official reason was given for the closure although lack of sponsorship certainly played a role. Another rumor stated that the pavilion was sitting on a sink hole, which was leading to severe structural damage. More controversy was created when a Mickey arm and wand with the dedication 2000 was added to the top of Spaceship Earth.. Many guests complained that the hand took away from the original intention of Epcot without adding anything. The "2000" dedication was changed to "Epcot " starting in 2001 and was finally removed in 2007.

Epcot stayed relativity calm until 2003 when Mission Space took over area where Horizons was formally held. The new attraction was a motion simulator “thrill ride” which gave guests the feeling they were flying to the moonMars. Another simulator was added to the Land with in the form of the new attraction Soarin'. This motion simulator gave guests the felling they were hang gliding over California. In 2006 The Living Seas was re-themed and named The Living Seas With Nemo and Friends. The attraction took inspiration from the Disney Pixar movie Finding Nemo. Nemo and his friends were now projected onto the large tanks adding a Finding Nemo story to the attraction. Although the live sea creatures still existed within the tanks, some guests complained that too many characters were being added to Epcot. The final major change came to Epcot in 2007 when the Wonders of Life Pavilion closed. The pavilion had not been sponsored sine 2001 when MetLife dropped it's sponsorship, which certainly played a factor in it's closure.