Epcot

[Fastpassfamily]

Last month I visited Epcot and felt very sad after my visit. The world showcase had lost all its appeal. The shops in UK were all closed, the pub had one English staff. The bars in Japan were closed. The staff in the werthers shop were from South America. The international workers for me made Epcot very special. I really hope Disney don’t get any ideas of cost cutting. If they do I fear for Epcot. Please let this all end soon

[malt1977]

I was under the impression that the cultural exchange program (maybe not called that) was starting up again, it'll take a while, but it'll get back to similar level (pre covid) in time.

[Shinealight]

Global pandemic, hardly surprising you 'd find staff of various nationalities staffing places not necessarily native of the Country the area is representing.

[Fastpassfamily]

Oh yeah forgot the pandemic 😂 just saying how sad it was and hope Disney don’t get any funny ideas of keeping it that way in the future

[Moorlandman]

Epcot - construction chaos in the day and drunks at night😀

[sakiki]

Hopefully Epcot will be back to something approaching normal for its 40th on 1 October 2022…

[Rawhide]

Originally Posted by Fastpassfamily

Last month I visited Epcot and felt very sad after my visit. The world showcase had lost all its appeal. The shops in UK were all closed, the pub had one English staff. The bars in Japan were closed. The staff in the werthers shop were from South America. The international workers for me made Epcot very special. I really hope Disney don’t get any ideas of cost cutting. If they do I fear for Epcot. Please let this all end soon

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There’s still a global pandemic with travel restrictions still severely limited, and a worldwide desire to be close to family.

Additionally, WDW visits are down and Disney need fewer cast members.

Is it really any surprise that international cast members are light in the ground?

[Nimbus]

These are shops we're talking about. Where they sell overpriced merchandise and food/drink. And thus where Disney takes more money from gullible guests. They aren't going to leave them closed; they would be missing out on more money if they did.

As the others have said, there's currently a global pandemic and that's the reason these places are closed. Once things improve and international cast members start coming back, I'm sure greedy ol' Disney will be eager to reopen them.