Though an exact opening date for Connections Café and Eatery at EPCOT has not been announced, the restaurant does seem to be approaching completion as flooring, lights, and a mural are installed.
This morning, we could see benches through the restaurant windows from the Monorail.
Tables and non-bench chairs have not been moved in yet.
There is a black and red archway around this door, which is on the World Discovery side of the building, but not yet a marquee sign.
At night, we could see benches and partition walls lit up. We also got another good view of the mural on the right, which features trees and people.
In these photos, we can also see the square of flooring inspired by Walt Disney’s original “Florida Project” maps. The square is a lighter color than the rest of the floor with a darker grey outlining it.
Scissor lifts were parked inside and outside the restaurant for construction.
We took another look inside from the ground at night.
The ceiling and/or lights are still not quite finished. Loose wires hang from above.
We could also see red and black units hanging from some of the tube “skylights” in the ceiling.
According to Walt Disney Imagineer Zach Riddley, the mural’s subject is “the relationship of place, people, and food from across the world — celebrating the bountiful variety of ingredients and traditions that connect culture and food to the beautiful, diverse places that we call home.”
On the other side of the building, we could see more of the restaurant’s colorful lighting.
Walls with unique texture are illuminated in shades of red, blue, and green.
The ceilings have crosspieces of wood.
Guests now walk past a Connections Café entrance and sign, though half of the windows are blocked with black tarps.
We could still see these illuminated structures on either side of the entrance.
They seem to have glass tubes running down them.
One is red-orange while the other is blue-green.
A crew member was cleaning windows above the Connections Café sign in the breezeway.
Most of the windows here are also blocked by tarps, and the area immediately in front of the entrance is blocked by planters and construction walls.
Past the planters, we could see construction materials.
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I have to say, when they announce some plans I roll my eyes and then as soon as I see the ideas in person or pictures I realize that there are still people at WDW that care about the creativity that goes into these things.
Sometimes they don’t use the best materials (toy story land), sometimes we don’t get everything we were promised (Galaxy’s edge) but overall they’ve done great things recently. Riviera, Spaceship Earth, Poly front entrance, and skyliner have all turned out to be “plusses”.
Lightening lane, park reservations, and every nighttime show at AK still suck though.
So striking. I love when EPCOT feels like EPCOT again.