The original Norway pavilion was designed with 58,000 sq. ft. of interior space. This area was then divided up into stores, an exhibition, a restaurant, and EPCOT Center’s first thrill ride- SeaVenture. The plans for SeaVenture called for an interior boat ride attraction, on which guests would encounter trolls an gnomes as they searched for a rainbow bridge to Valhalla (an earlier idea would have had guests traveling through a day in the life of a Viking). This storyline however was deemed too short, and the concept was expanded to include a history trip that took guests from the folklore of Norway, all the way to modern times. The thrill part of the attraction was planned to come from a new ride system where the boat’s direction could be reversed during the ride.
Construction began on the Norway pavilion on May 27, 1986. Over the next two years, the pavilion began to take shape around the original 1982 Denmark restroom building. When complete, the pavilion consisted of a Stave Church (which holds various exhibits), a counter service restaurant named Kringla Bakeri OG Kafe, the table service Restaurant Akershus, as well a series of interlinked stores including the Puffins Roost and Fjording. The pavilion’s attraction was renamed Maelstrom shortly before the pavilion opened, and it, along with the rest of the Norway pavilion opened to guests on May 6, 1988. On July 5, of that year, the pavilion was officially dedicated, with Crown Prince Harald on hand for the festivities
Since the pavilion opened, Norway has seen a few significant changes. The exhibits inside the Stave Church have been updated over the years, and the live band “Spelmanns Gledje” which once played in the pavilion no longer appears. Furthermore, in 2005 Restaurant Akershus began to offer character dining. The most recent change came in 2008, when the outdoor playground shaped like the famous Viking ship “Oseberg” was removed.