Summer has arrived in full force at Walt Disney World, with temperatures in the mid-90s this week along with triple-digit “feels like” readings. This covers news of a couple of recent moves made to seemingly offer guests escapes from the high heat, humidity, and blazing sun. Plus, our thoughts on summers in Central Florida and why more reprieves from the weather are need–potentially even an entirely indoor festival at EPCOT!
Let’s start with the main news to share, which is that Walt Disney World has revealed that the Odyssey Pianist will debut today (June 9, 2025) and perform through August 10, 2025. During this time, the Rose & Crown Pub musician will be performing at this large indoor venue, offering guests an air-conditioned environment and live piano performances throughout the day.
This gives guests a change to take a break from the summer heat and enjoy live music inside the Odyssey pavilion at EPCOT, which is located between Test Track and the Mexico pavilion. The Odyssey used to be a proper restaurant, but has since served as a festival center and more recently as crowd-pleasing food booths. Its run as the Citrus Blossom during Flower & Garden just ended, and it’ll be converted into the Brew-Wing Lab prior to the start of the 2025 EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival over Labor Day weekend (hence this ending August 10).
The Odyssey Pianist will perform seven sets daily:
- 11:30 am
- 12:30 pm
- 1:30 pm
- 2:30 pm
- 3:30 pm
- 4:30 pm
- 5:30 pm
While the Odyssey Pianist doesn’t represent a new entertainment offering at EPCOT, since the performer would normally perform at the Rose & Crown Pub in World Showcase, it’s nevertheless a savvy and welcome move. At least, from our perspective as parents–perhaps we would’ve felt differently about this news ~15 years ago.
This follows Walt Disney World opening the Hall of Presidents lobby—but not the attraction itself–presumably for a similar place for guests to gather and escape the heat. The intentions there aren’t really clear since nothing is being communicated to guests.
As for the EPCOT change, it makes much more sense and the purpose of the change is obvious. Rose & Crown is usually slammed. It’s uncomfortably crowded, very much reminiscent of a pub we used to frequent in college. So I guess that part is authentic (although our “culture” was Indiana as opposed to the United Kingdom). We wander into Rose & Crown probably about once per year at this point, and usually right back out. I guess we’ve just gotten old, but that’s no longer our scene.
Rose & Crown Pub is going to be busy with or without the pianist. And it’s a pretty small space, so it’s not as if a ton of people can enjoy the music in the first place. By contrast, I’d hazard a guess that the Odyssey has almost ten times the capacity, and will be much better as a calming reprieve from the crowds, chaos, heat and humidity.
In a perfect world, Walt Disney World would add a pianist rather than relocating one from Rose & Crown. The ‘Forces of Nature’ acrobatics show in World Celebration just held its final performance (after lasting way longer than I ever expected), and it’d be nice if some of that entertainment budget were reallocated to something inside.
While the news is the vehicle for this post, the main motivation is that we want to see Walt Disney World do more of this.
After a brutal summer trip last year for the opening of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, we ruled out the months of June through August for future family vacations. We should’ve followed our own advice, questioning whether it’s “worth it” to visit during the hottest months of the year in exchange for lower crowds.
Admittedly, we almost made the same mistake again. We had an opening day Epic Universe trip planned, but cancelled that. And after the Starlight Night Parade opening date was announced, I might’ve pushed for all three of us to make the trip out to Walt Disney World so we could see the new-nostalgia fuel for the first time as a family. Cooler heads (read: Sarah’s) prevailed, but I would’ve repeated the same mistake if left to my own devices.
Not that I yearn for the days of the phased reopening, but one of the things Walt Disney World did then that we appreciated was Relaxation Stations. These were introduced as a much-needed respite from masking in the Florida heat, and largely put unutilized spaces to use.
Some of those once again have permanent purposes, but others could serve once again as summer lounges. I’m not sure of the current status of either Tortuga Tavern or Tomorrowland Terrace, for example, but I do know I’ve seen both of these seating areas completely closed during recent visits. (I get that they need to clear Tomorrowland Terrace ahead of fireworks, but there’s no reason to chase people out at 1 pm.)
Both of these shuttered restaurants could, at the very least, be put back on the map as lounges. Because even if these areas are currently accessible, guests have to know that in the first place–it needs to be conveyed via signage, in-app info, or something beckoning them inside. Stage an outdoor vending cart or whatever at their entrance, and welcome guests inside to enjoy shaded seating in a relaxing setting. This would be a win-win, capturing easy food & beverage sales while also offering a respite from the weather.
There are no shortage of underutilized or flat-out unused spaces like this all around Walt Disney World. Over at EPCOT, the Odyssey is just one example. There are also two huge indoor venues–World ShowPlace and the Wonders pavilion–that are sitting mostly unused. Wonders might be off the table since it was previously slated to become the Play Pavilion, a project that was paused indefinitely. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if it’s now an abandoned construction site. That’s not the case with World ShowPlace, though.
For those who are unfamiliar with the World ShowPlace, it was the Millennium Village, the primary home of Walt Disney World’s Millennium Celebration from 1999 to 2001. The venue housed over 50 countries that didn’t have a permanent presence in World Showcase. Among these nations were Brazil, Chile, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Kenya, Namibia, New Zealand, Scotland, South Africa, and Switzerland.
World ShowPlace offers over 40,000 square feet of flexible function space and has capacity for approximately 2,000 guests. That’s higher than the hourly throughput of most rides in EPCOT! Disney Meetings promotes World ShowPlace as “the world’s largest indoor group facility located within a theme park.” Suffice to say, it’s massive.
I mention World ShowPlace specifically because it was used during the ‘Taste of’ EPCOT events during the phased reopening as festival center, housing a handful of different food booths and entertainment. It was glorious.
And that was only at a fraction of its full potential. Given that this was previously the Millennium Village, it’s safe to say that this space could house an entire festival if properly staged. It could be home to a half-dozen or more food booths plus tables plus entertainment. There might be corporate in-fighting over this proposal, as Disney Meetings & Fairytale Weddings both use it, but those after hours events could coexist with a festival. And I cannot imagine there are many conventions using World ShowPlace between June and August, anyway.
I’m mentioning World ShowPlace because it could be the key to finally fulfilling my dream of a summer festival at EPCOT. It’s my understanding that one explanation for both the shorter festivals and the lack of a summer festival is high heat. That high numbers of guests and Cast Members pass out each summer, which is attributable to the festivals. In the case of the Cast Members, it’s because of the conditions inside the kiosks. (Years ago, this is the explanation we heard for the lack of a summer event–but we assumed it was wrong when Walt Disney World started extending Food & Wine into summer.)
Basically, the playbook already exists for what Walt Disney World should be doing with indoor relaxation areas. It comes from the Relaxation Stations, Taste of EPCOT events, and more. In addition to World ShowPlace, there’s also the potential to use attraction space as a flex option. I’m burying this here because it’s controversial with diehard fans, but turning the American Adventure rotunda or Canada Far & Wide into dynamic spaces would be a win–continue to play the films on loop, and allow open access with food & drinks.
There’s a reason why summer is no longer peak season at Walt Disney World, and hasn’t been for a while. This is a reality that’s finally being acknowledged, and reflected in aggressive discounting and more. But deals can only do so much if the guest experience is miserable due to high heat and humidity coupled with the perplexing design decision to have few indoor respites from the weather. Walt Disney World can reverse this trend by opening shuttered spaces and actively welcoming guests inside. The Odyssey Pianist is a small step in the right direction–hopefully we see much more like this in the summers to come!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of EPCOT adding the Odyssey Pianist? Is this a step in the right direction for giving guests an easy escape from the summer heat? Wish Walt Disney World would do more with ‘Relaxation Stations’ or other shaded seating areas? What about a fully-fledged indoor summer festival in World ShowPlace at EPCOT? Did you attend the ‘Taste of’ events that utilized this space? Agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!