The Living Seas name may have gone away 10 years ago, but it lives on in a secluded space inside of the Seas with Nemo and Friends pavilion at Epcot. Through a set of nondescript doors near the entrance to the Coral Reef Restaurant, lies the passageway to an exclusive lounge, now only open to private events.
The lounge, like many others, was incorporated into the design of the original pavilion to host the sponsor company of the pavilion, which is 1986 was United Technologies.
The lounge offers grand views into the main aquarium, possibly my favorite views of the tank I have ever experienced, but the views of the old ride tunnels and the large observation area ccross the way might have something to do with that.
The interior of the lounge itself doesn’t scream “The Living Seas” to me, but it is a pleasant atmosphere regardless thanks to the big open windows into the tank.
You can see the original windows from the old ride clearly from here. These were of course covered when the ride was converted into the Seas with Nemo and Friends in 2006.
The clear piano is likely the most memorable piece inside of the lounge, often the subject matter of most guest pictures from inside of the space. The other options are strange metal fish, so this wasn’t much of a competition.
We also have a quick video tour of the space:
I don’t know about you, but this is one of my favorite private event spaces in all of Walt Disney World. If you get the chance to rent this space or attend an event here, do it. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go listen to the old Seabase Alpha music loop on repeat…
The many times that I have been to Epcot, I never even had a clue that their was even a secret lounge for people to go in! ?
I dove that tank twice back in the day. Fond memories
We were here for a Disney Wedding reception. It was amazing!
This past May I got to visit this lounge as part of the Undiscovered Future World Tour. Not sure if they regularly take guests of this tour into the lounge, but I didn’t realize it existed until then. It was very cool to see. Love that piano as well, which had a sign on it saying not to touch it. I can see why they don’t want people touching it. Looks very expensive. Very peaceful space.
I SCUBA dove in the aquarium twice, and once there was a wedding in the lounge, it was all the divers were talking about in our post dive meeting. I don’t know how many photos I ended up in, but I know a lot were taken of me from that party.
I haven’t been to that lounge in almost 30 years since my first trip to Disney when I was lucky enough to have my dad working for United Technologies. I only have a couple of snapshot memories but I’m pretty sure it’s the same now as it was then. Definitely the same ambiance that’s for certain. Thanks for sharing this!
As a Cast Member in the early to mid-1990s, I had the amazing opportunity to work as a facilitator with the Y.E.S. (Youth Education Series) Program at EPCOT.
For several weeks in 1994 or 1995, a group of facilitators, including myself, were tasked with creating new programs and tweaking the existing offerings. Our venue? The Living Seas corporate lounge. United Technologies no longer used it, but the lounge was still outfitted with blue plush furniture. A serene and calm place to work. To this day, it’s one of the best memories of working for WDW.
Such an amazing experience in a wonderful space. Thanks for taking me back.
Love this. Don’t all the Future World pavilions have lounges? I remember being in Kodak’s (Journey Into Imagination), and my wife said she was in GE’s (Horizons). I just presumed they all had these kinds of spaces. Thanks so much, Tom!
For the right price, you can rent out an entire theme park! There’s lots of lounges, areas for rent, and areas get blocked off without guests knowing about it. Two of my favorites are some of the sets in Movie Ride DHS, and Africa in AK.
my buddy yeha bob Jackson has performed here. MR CORLESS come back soon