Curtains have been placed around the former Vanellope meet and greet location at the Imagination! Pavilion in EPCOT as crews work to transform the area into what will likely be a Figment meet and greet point.
Curtains Around Former Vanellope Meet and Greet
Black curtains now surround the location in which Vanellope from the “Wreck-It Ralph” film franchise previously greeted guests. The character interaction closed permanently on August 19.
All signs indicate that Figment will be the character soon inhabiting the space. Disney announced that a Figment meet and greet would be arriving “this summer” back in March, and while the specific location was never confirmed, the Imagination! Pavilion makes sense, as the building houses the Journey into Imagination with Figment attraction.
Despite the curtains around the location, the My Disney Experience app still listed the Vanellope meet and greet as an available offering early Sunday morning. We confirmed with Cast Members that the meet and greet is no longer running and that there are no plans for additional Vanellope meet and greets as of right now.
The nearby Joy meet and greet in which guests can interact with the character from “Inside Out” is still being offered.
The likely Figment meet and greet is just one of two new character interactions set to come to the Imagination! Pavilion. Mickey and Minnie Mouse will, at least temporarily, meet guests in their platinum Disney100 attire inside the pavilion starting September 22 as work on a permanent meet and greet location at the new CommuniCore Hall continues.
Vanellope Meet and Greet
The Vanellope meet and greet initially opened at the Imagination! Pavilion in February 2019, just a few months after the release of “Ralph Breaks the Internet.” The character met guests alongside Ralph upon debut, but when character “sightings” debuted in place of traditional meet and greets at the Imagination! Pavilion in early 2022, the namesake of the film franchise was absent and never returned.
Figment’s Popularity
Figment, a beloved tiny purple dragon who made his debut with the opening of Journey into Imagination in 1983, acts as a pseudo-mascot for EPCOT. He’s one of the park’s most recognizable figures and appears on a litany of merchandise, most recently on a Loungefly backpack. Guests tend to flock to new Figment merchandise when it’s released, proof of this perhaps most prevalent in an early 2022 frenzy in which EPCOT International Festival of the Arts popcorn buckets depicting the character consistently sold out.
Guests will be able to interact with him directly for the first time in years when his meet and greet debuts later this summer. Figment appeared around the park alongside Dreamfinder around the time of EPCOT Center’s opening, and while a proper Figment meet and greet was offered some time ago, it’s long been gone.
Are you sad to see the Vanellope meet and greet go? Are you excited about the Figment character interaction that’s soon coming to EPCOT? Let us know in the comments.
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