Bring Greece to Epcot!

First, a disclaimer.  I am in no way connected to Walt Disney Imagineering or any part of the Walt Disney Company.

I read the disboards.com thread concerning what people might want to see in a Greece pavilion.  I'll outline my ideas here and fill in some of the details in later pieces.

A word about funding.  To paraphrase Marty Sklar, the former head of Walt Disney Imagineering, selling an idea is easy; funding an idea is difficult.  Lots of the discussion at disboards.com focused on the economic crisis in Greece and the fact that they would not be able to enter into a sponsorship of a Greece pavilion at the World Showcase.  That's an example of "No, because..."  At the the Blue Sky phase of a project, "No, because..." doesn't exist.  It's "Yes, if..." instead.  So, to fund a Greece pavilion, it's "Yes, if the old model of sponsorships for the represented nation is discarded."  Remember when United Technologies sponsored The Living Seas?  How about Kodak and Journey Into Imagination?  No longer.  So, there's already a precedent.

Where does one put a Greece pavilion?  There is a sizable piece of real estate where The Output is between China and Germany.  That is where the Equatorial Africa pavilion was to have been.  Try finding funding from the nation of Equatorial Africa.  This is an even earlier precedent for the non-requirement of sponsorship.

That area is so large, that one could put pavilions within pavilions in it.  Break it down into three sections:  The Greece that is, the Greece that was and the Greece that never was.  That covers modern, historical and mythical Greece.  It also parallels the original concept of Disney's Animal Kingdom with its living, extinct and legendary animals although I'm still waiting to see some dragons there.  I can envision the sections running from front to back in the order of modern, historical and mythical.  You start at today and as you walk back, you journey back in time until you go beyond time itself.

I also see no reason why one has to stop at the area away from the lagoon.  A Greek restaurant could be situated at the edge of the lagoon.  Naysayers are going to shout, "No because the lights will interfere with the shows!"  This is Blue Sky phase.  It's "Yes, if they can control the lighting."

So, there's the overall layout, but what's in each section of this huge pavilion?  That's where I'll pick it up next time- Jeff