On Monday, Disney jumped the gun a bit and announced to Cast Members that the path between the entrance of EPCOT and The Seas Pavilion was now permanently closed. Despite this, the path remained open this week, well, at least up until today…

EPCOT Main Entrance and Spaceship Earth

The temporary construction bypass opened in 2019 during the early stages of EPCOT’s drastic reimagining. As the center of what was Future World was being torn up, bypass paths could be accessed on either side of Spaceship Earth to reach the East and West sides of the land. Obviously, these bypass paths were faster ways to get to these other pavilions, but they did cut through unsightly backstage areas guests were never meant to see. Funny enough, a cut-through was envisioned to get guests to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind faster, but it ultimately was not built.

As you can see above, rolling planters have been placed in the way of the former temporary path. We suspect construction walls will go here shortly, after which the wall will be restored and guests won’t even realize that anything had been here before. It’s unknown how long this project will take, but our reporters will keep you informed as the weeks roll on.

Rolling planters can also be found behind Spaceship Earth, next to the restrooms on the right side of the park. The walls adjacent to these planters have been up for years and will continue to stand as work in this area is finally completed over the next few weeks. While a majority of the park’s overhaul may be complete, even the opening of CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza in a few months may not bring an end to the construction walls in the park if this project should linger on.

The Seas Pavilion and Journey of Water Inspired by Moana

Over by The Seas with Nemo and Friends and Journey of Water inspired by Moana, actual construction walls were thrown up to block the path. Here we see the walls sandwiched between the Moana character meet and greet and the Coral Reef Restaurant which marks the right-most edge of The Seas Pavilion.

This has always been a “dead end” in the park, going back to even before The Living Seas pavilion opening in 1986. The Coral Reef Restaurant has often been hard for guests to find as it is tucked off to the side and behind planters. Inarguably, the restaurant had never had more visibility than it did during the existence of this bypass from 2019-2024. Perhaps the existence of a new attraction nearby and Moana’s meet and greet will draw enough guests this way to keep it from being the desolate space it had been in the former iterations of the park.

Rose Walk

This isn’t the only pathway work happening at EPCOT currently. The Rose Walk will be temporarily closed for “approximately” five weeks. This is the northeast path between World Celebration and the Rose Walk. The closure is to accommodate the continuing construction of CommuniCore Hall and CommuniCore Plaza.

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The post PHOTOS: Shortcut from EPCOT Main Entrance & Spaceship Earth to The Seas Pavilion Now Closed appeared first on WDW News Today.