Walt Disney World's Biggest Eyesore Is Back And It Looks...Amazing?

Walt Disney World is an incredibly creative place where some truly amazing concepts have come to life. However, not every idea is a real winner. The concept of Leave A Legacy wasn't bad. As part of the Disney World millennium celebration, guests had the ability to commemorate their visit by leaving a small image of themselves at Epcot that would be there for years to come. Unfortunately, the displaying of all those tiny monochrome pictures left something to be desired. The entrance to Epcot became a series of granite monoliths covered in grey and black lines . It was less than exciting to be the first thing you saw after walking through the gates.

As part of the massive redesign of Epcot that is currently underway, the Leave A Legacy blocks were removed. But because guests were promised their images would remain on display for 20 years, we knew they were being relocated to a new space outside of the park itself. Now that relocation has commenced, and it turns out Walt Disney World isn't simply moving the same granite blocks to another location. Leave A Legacy has been completely redesigned. It's now full of colors, and it looks gorgeous. Check it out.

Leave A Legacy wall

If this had been what Leave A Legacy had looked like inside the park, it might have been something else. The new walls are much taller than the old, and the original version could not have done that as it would have obscured too much, but the color is just what this display required. It just looks so much more inviting now. It was just so grey before and the images were so small that it was a wall of bland and you didn't even know what you were looking at until you got very close. This is actually something you might want to look at even if you don't have a picture on display. If you walk up to Epcot now and see this you'll want to give it a closer look.

Guests who participated in the Leave A Legacy program, which ran from 1999 to 2007, can scan a QR code with their smart device in order to find the new location of their image.

Leave A Legacy

This is the best of all possible solutions as now Leave A Legacy has found a new home, and looks great, and the Epcot entrance is coming along and is also much warmer. A new fountain was recently unveiled for guests, and a statue of Walt Disney himself is still planned to be added as well.

While some of the updates to Epcot as a whole have been delayed, many are still moving forward, and it will be quite exciting to see what Walt Disney World's second gate will look like once it's all completed. Most of the changes are expected to be complete by next year, in time for Epcot's 40th anniversary.

Dirk Libbey
Content Producer/Theme Park Beat

CinemaBlend’s resident theme park junkie and amateur Disney historian, Dirk began writing for CinemaBlend as a freelancer in 2015 before joining the site full-time in 2018. He has previously held positions as a Staff Writer and Games Editor, but has more recently transformed his true passion into his job as the head of the site's Theme Park section. He has previously done freelance work for various gaming and technology sites. Prior to starting his second career as a writer he worked for 12 years in sales for various companies within the consumer electronics industry. He has a degree in political science from the University of California, Davis.  Is an armchair Imagineer, Epcot Stan, Future Club 33 Member.