Following the addition of several physical gates to the theme park entrance of EPCOT at Walt Disney World just over one week ago, the gates have now been removed.
Theme Park Entrance Gates
We first reported on the addition of physical gates to the entrance of EPCOT on August 12. The new gates were added next to the tapstiles, where guests tap their ticket or MagicBand+ to enter the theme park. On August 12, only three of the gates were installed and none of them were in use, though more were added over the next few days. The gates were silver with triangular designs reminiscent of Spaceship Earth.
Entrance Gates Removed
However, less than two weeks after the physical gates were added, they have now all been removed from the EPCOT tapstiles.
By the beginning of this week, two gates had been added on the eastern side, which is closer to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. There were also three gates added on the west side of the entrance, closer to The Seas with Nemo & Friends pavilion. All five of these gates are now missing.
At the time the gates were added, we hypothesized they were likely being used to block inactive tapstiles. Prior to the addition of the gates, tapstiles that were not in use were blocked using a basic white rope. EPCOT has more tapstiles than it requires on slower days when staffing is reduced, so this serves to prevent guests from entering the park through a closed lane.
However, with the gates removed, the white ropes blocking the tapstiles on the far sides are being used as they were previously, with flags pointing guests toward the open sections.
The metal poles that were added to support the gates are still present, however. They are standing on the outside of the entrance gate, closer to where guests would normally enter. The concrete around the poles still has a notable outline.
The poles have attachment points where the gates used to sit. The gates would swing open and closed from this point, depending on whether or not they were being used.
There has been no official news from Disney on what happened to the new gates, or whether they will soon be returning.
Elsewhere at EPCOT, the construction walls that used to be standing in the Japan Pavilion have finally been removed, revealing a new gashapon kiosk offering toys related to Sanrio, Dragon Ball Daima, Chainsaw Man, and more.
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