EPCOT’s in-ground lighting is not coming back. Crews have finished the first stretch of new pavement in World Celebration Gardens behind Spaceship Earth, filling the curved channels that once held the glowing light strips with pale paving. Work on the next section was already underway as of early October.
The lighting was meant to be one of the signature touches of EPCOT’s redone center. Light strips ran in sweeping, overlapping curves through the walkway and were designed to sync with the exterior lighting on Spaceship Earth after dark. In practice, they spent long stretches broken, and Disney started pulling the strips out in August before filling the empty channels with concrete.
What Replaced The Lights
The good news for anyone who liked the look is that the design survives. The new light-colored strips trace the same curves the lighting followed, so they read as pale lines against the darker pavers, each one outlined by a dark border of grout. BlogMickey’s photos of the finished section show how closely it follows the old pattern.
Disney also mixed reflective flecks into the new pavement, which look designed to catch the surrounding light once the sun goes down. They cannot glow on their own, so they will depend on the light pillars that still stand in the area. Expect a much quieter effect at night than the lighting was supposed to deliver when it worked.
What It Means If You Are Heading To EPCOT
The project is moving section by section, and the next piece is blocked off with rolling planters, the same movable hedge walls Disney started using around part of the central planter in August. As of early October, those hedges were cutting off the walkway toward World Nature behind Spaceship Earth, though there were easy routes around it.
In parts crews had not yet reached in early October, some of the original strips were still sitting in their channels. A few carry blue-headed screws left over from a stopgap repair in June 2025, a reminder of how long the lighting struggled before Disney gave up on it. At one seam the new pavement butts up against an old strip with what looks like a wood spacer in between, and near a stanchion base a few wire ends still poke out where a strip stops.
Disney has not announced a finish date for the repaving or said how many more sections are left. It is not the only fix around Spaceship Earth this year, either: water has also returned to the Spaceship Earth fountain.
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