This past September 2019, marked the end of an Epcot Icon, actually the end of more than one Epcot Icon, but I’m referring specifically to the “Waterways of the World”, an opening day EPCOT Center attraction. An Icon that has been in the background of every Epcot celebration. It’s been called “The Fountain of World Friendship”, the “CommuniCore Fountain”, the “Innovention Fountain” and most recently “The Fountain of Nations”.
It was the site of a special “International Ceremony of the Waters” on Epcot Centers opening day, October 1, 1982. When representatives from 29 nations around the world each traveled with a container of water from their nation, pouring it into the fountain during the ceremony.
The fountain has been a part of just about every Walt Disney World special occasion, from the Epcot center grand opening, when Danny Kaye conducted a military choir with the fountain as the backdrop. A stage was built in front of the fountain for the Walt Disney World Millennium Celebration, it was used as the stage for the first lighting of the Epcot 2000 wand over Spaceship earth, the opening of the new millennium.
Take a look at your old home moves, the fountain has been in the backdrop of countless movies and pictures, it’s been featured in every Epcot and EPCOT Center souvenir program, VHS, DVD, and television special, it was even a stage for the 1993 Splashtacular! More on that in a future SamsDisneyDiary.
For Epcot’s 25th anniversary in 2007, the fountain was rededicated by Imagineering legend Marty Sklar, when he reminisced about opening day opening the then CommuniCore fountain with the Internation ceremony of Waters. Marty suggested that the event be recreated, and that’s exactly what Disney did, using the countries of world showcase as participants. The ceremony wasn’t exactly the same, did you hear the difference during the ceremony? The original ceremony featured 29 countries with water they connected and brought to Epcot, for the 25th Disney used representative countries from Epcot’s World Showcase with water that “symbolized” water from each country, not actually from the country. It’s the thought that counts.
Most interesting, the fountain was used as a stage for Elephants! Yes, elephants for the Walt Disney World Celebrity Circus, and the daily Daredevil Circus Spectacular a move that ultimately led to the Fountain’s only real Refurbishment in 1992, turns out it wasn’t built to support elephants. If you look closely at the video from the circus you’ll notice that the fountain is round, that was the original shape.
After the refurb, the fountain was upgraded and enlarged to an oval shape.
The fountain had always been one of the most overlooked attractions in all of Walt Disney World.
It was right in the middle of the park, but not listed on the map. The show schedule wasn’t in the times’ guide. The Fountain of Nations became known as the fountain in front of Starbucks for the last few years. Sort of waiting to be replaced.
The fountain was a technological marvel, in 1982 and again after the refurb in 1993. It presented one of 7 different fountain shows, choreographed music, and dancing fountains. The shows started every 15 minutes, starting at the top of the hour. The show selection varied and was essentially random in nature, with no schedule you just needed to know it started every 15 minutes, and it did. The show did change during the holidays, more on that here, but was typically one of 7 different sequences with music including;
“Day One”, by John Tesh,” Standing in Motion” by Yanni, The main title from Disney’s “Iron Will”, “Mickey’s Finale” from a proposed but never finished show called Around the World with Mickey Mouse, Music from “Rescuers Down Under”, Music from “Rocketeer”, an instrumental from the “Air Battle” sequence from Surprise in the Skies, a former daytime lagoon show at Epcot, and after the millennium celebration, “Celebrate the Future, Hand in Hand” was added to the mix and the only selection with lyrics. I have audio clips from all of the songs in the Video, and I am sure you can catch all of them in my ultimate tribute video!
The fountain used over 35 miles of wire with a computer-controlled system though not exactly ready on opening day the fountain required some manual assistance the first few months. I can remember Marty Sklar referring to the team that would manually turn the valves on and off in the control room while the computer system was being finished. Speaking of the maintenance room, under the fountain was a workshop that housed the pumps, computers, and lift platforms for performers’ The workshop was built first and used for early Epcot construction, its central location made it perfect for pre-opening activities. The fountain itself was then built over that workshop and unfortunately lacked enough clearance to update or install new equipment. So replacing a pump or improving the fountain wasn’t practical, until the “elephant summer” which resulted in a cracked base because, as it turns out elephants are heavy to have on a fountain, if you watch the video you’ll see they have 4 elephants on the stage at the same time. During the 1993 refurb, the fountain was expanded to an oval shape and updated with 324 nozzles and 12 Super Shooters that can propel water over 150 feet in the air.
With that shooter and over 150 thousand gallons of water, the new pumps push 30 thousand gallons of water a minute over the cascading sides, add 1,068 colored LEDs bringing light to the streams, you get the iconic Epcot fountain of nations.
- 212 Micro Shooters located in the upper pool (propelling 2 gallons of water up to 80 feet)
- 40 MiniShooters located in the lower pool (propelling 5 gallons of water up to 100 feet)
- 12 SuperShooters located in the upper pool (propelling 50 gallons of water up to 150 feet, with pressure from 30-120 PSI)
- 60 Spray nozzles
- 190,000 feet (35 miles) of electrical wire and 22,000 feet (4 miles) of conduit.
- With every shooter active at the same time, 2,000 gallons of water would be in the air.
The fountain saw its final performance on September 7, 2019 – 37 Years or 13,490 days after the park opened.
The meeting place of countless visitors is now a memory, and soon Future World along with it. A new beginning will rise from those remains World Celebration, World Nature, and World Discovery, all part of the Epcot Transformation, and the New Epcot. So what happened to the water from the Fountain of Nations? Fortunately, according to Disney, it has been saved and will be recycled and reintroduced into one of the new water features in the park. In part to commemorate the past and honor the future, it will be interesting to see where it goes, the new Entrance Fountain, or maybe “Moana Journey of Water” where you can play in the water from around the world.
So, Epcot Fountain of Nations being the Disney Nerds I am and knowing the Fountain of Nations would be replaced as part of the transformation project along with just about everything around it I spent my last few trips of 2019 collecting video of the fountain. Watching day turn to night, watching the lights turn on, watching Spaceship Earth turn into a globe after Illuminations, a time-lapse view of day turning tonight followed by the crowds leaving the park, walking past the fountain not even noticing it. The result of all of that video? This episode of Sam’s Disney Diary, over 3 hours of Epcot’s Fountain of nations!!!
the perfect video to have in the background to just remember the Fountain of Nations and all the times you, like me, just walked past… Thanks for the memories and here is a look at the future. Be sure to subscribe for more.
