Theme Park Thursdays feature photos from one of our theme park adventures in the past.
Reflective mirrors at Universe of Energy (2009)
Today's photo reminds me of everyone who attempts to take goofy photos of themselves while visiting "The Bean" down at Chicago's Millennium Park. But actually this is the exterior of the Universe of Energy pavilion in Epcot's Future World. Here you can see our extended family during a December 2009 trip. I'm in the top row (with my tongue sticking out). The second row features Amy, my Mom, my brother-in-law Brian, my sister Karen (who took this picture), and my Dad.
Original Universe of Energy Logo (1982)
The Universe of Energy opened with EPCOT Center in 1982 and had a pretty cool identity "icon" that tied together with other Future World pavilions. It was originally sponsored by Exxon, then by ExxonMobil, and currently has no sponsor at all. Originally celebrating all that was great about burning our fossil fuels and how Exxon was the best company in the world, it's hard to believe how much this topic has changed over time. Now the pavilion features a shell of an attraction that still runs an insane 45 minutes long, using a combination of dinosaur animatronics and film sequences. The current show, "Ellen's Energy Adventure," debuted in 1996 and features Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Nye 'The Science Guy,' and Alex Trebek.
Relevant it is not. This thing is aging badly, which is too bad, because if there ever was a time for revisiting the conversation around energy, now is it!
Whoa! that is rather bean-esque! At first I thought it would be fun to have this by the bean. But when you have more than one mirror attraction, it then becomes a carnvial hallway of mirrors!
That ride, I remember being reeeeeeally dull.