ALL PHOTOS VIA WALT DISNEY WORLD COMMUNICATIONS
Rosa Bates, an Associate Project Manager with Facility Asset Management (FAM) at Walt Disney World, is leading the refresh work underway at EPCOT’s Norway Pavilion. Bates, who served 24 years in the United States Air Force, joined Disney through the company’s “Heroes Work Here” veteran hiring initiative and now oversees specialized teams working on the beautification projects.
“In the military, everything you do trains you to lead and care for your team,” Bates said. “FAM’s core values of ownership, value, and trust echo the military’s core values of service, excellence, and integrity. It was a perfect fit.”
The Norway refresh work includes more than 200 colors and stains used to create a more rustic, lived-in look throughout the pavilion, which is designed to look like an authentic Norwegian village, complete with a Stave Church at the center.
A new beverage kiosk designed by Imagineering was modeled after traditional Norwegian stabbur cabins. The pavilion’s architecture shifts across its footprint to represent different regions of Norway, moving from urban Oslo through Bergen and Haakon’s Hall, up to Setesdal mountain hamlets near the Stave Church, and ending in the countryside with log buildings and sod roofs.
The refresh also includes newly enhanced Audio-Animatronics figures on the Frozen Ever After attraction. The updates included replacing the original projection faces on Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff, wth new Audio-Animatronics that have better articulation and feature silicone skin.
