The Great Piggy Bank Adventure at Disney Epcot Center

Innovations at Epcot Center Opens The Great Piggy Bank Adventure

Last week, the newest addition to Disney World's Epcot Center Innovations opened, the Great Piggy Bank Adventure. The experience features a series of games which bring to life and teach financial themes of setting goals, saving and spending smartly, staying ahead of inflation and diversifying assets. The attraction is presented by T. Rowe Price and promotes family members working and learning together.

The game begins by choosing a dream goal using a touch screen. During the queue, we are introduced to P.I.G. (Personal Investment Guide) and see him enjoying the Ultimate Vacation, Retirement, a College Education and an Extreme Bedroom Makeover. These are one of the goals we pick.

You are then requested to open a drawer and reveal your own PIG who accompanies your during the game. The PIG is a little piggy bank, of course.

You arrive at the next station and the PIG is placed on a conveyor and drawn into the machine you are standing in front of. The PIG becomes an animated character on the screen in front of you. A game begins where coins start to fall from the top of the screen and various buckets are at the bottom including Savings, Candy, Toys, MP3s and Outfits. The goal is to use levers to direct the money into the Savings bucket. A pesky wolf keeps changing them so you are constantly fighting to make sure enough is going into savings. Just like in life, you need to make sure you don’t forget to save and be aware of where your money is going.

You then get your PIG back and move on to the next kiosk, the Inflation Race. Here, our PIG is put in a tube and sent to help us learn about inflation. On the screen, the PIG floats from balloons and you need to maneuver him around to collect money and avoid inflation. After the game, the PIG is returned and you move on to the last station.

The Diversify station requires us to use a magic wand to move money into pots with different growth factors. The wolf comes along every so often and takes money from different pots so putting it all in the pot with the highest growth factor can backfire on you. The lesson of course is to diversify and spread your money around.

Finally, you return your PIG to find out if you achieved your goal. Your cartoon pig will either sprout wings and happily fly to its destination or land in the mud.

This is a great way for a parent and child to have some fun while learning about the choices and strategies they need to be aware of. This is especially important given the environment we are in right now and this attraction couldn’t have come at a better time.

I really like the fact that the folks at Epcot are not ignoring Innoventions and are paying some attention into making it better and putting some new life into an area that has become stale. Between Stormstruck, the Great Piggy Bank Adventure and "Sum of All Thrills" ride that is upcoming in 2009, Innoventions will hopefully become a place people make a point of going to instead of rushing through to get somewhere else.

Haven't been to Disney Epcot Center or are you planning to go? Check out our website at www.orlandodiscountticketsusa.com for all you Orlando Vacation Packages to Disney World.

The Great Piggy Bank at Disney's Epcot Center

Disney's Epcot Center Announces The Great Piggy Bank

T. Rowe Price, the global investment management organization, today announced that it has signed a sponsorship agreement to create an innovative financial education and entertainment experience at Epcot Center(R).

Designed in collaboration with Walt Disney Imagineering, The Great Piggy Bank Adventure(SM) is scheduled to open this spring at INNOVENTIONS at Epcot Center(R) at the Walt Disney World in Orlando Florida. This interactive exhibit will bring basic saving and investing concepts to life in a fun and captivating way. The experience will entertain and empower families, while encouraging them to engage in regular dialogue about the importance of saving and how to manage money responsibly.

The first-of-its-kind exhibit, in conjunction with a companion online game and associated web site, broadens T. Rowe Price's longstanding investor education initiatives. The Great Piggy Bank Adventure(SM) will offer lessons on four key financial themes: setting goals, saving and spending smartly, staying ahead of inflation, and diversifying your investments. Discussions began over three years ago with

Epcot Center(R) Business Development and Walt Disney Imagineering to bring this experience to guests visiting Epcot Center INNOVENTIONS.

"Empowering parents to initiate discussion of the topics of saving and investing with their children is more important than ever before," said Edward C. Bernard, vice chairman of T. Rowe Price Group. "Financial awareness and decision-making is heavily influenced by one's early experiences, making vibrant family discussion a powerful and lifelong educational influence that can help children develop sound financial values and habits. In watching families during play-testing of the exhibit, it has been rewarding to see how The Great Piggy Bank Adventure(SM) engages families in a unique way and really does get the conversation started.

"T. Rowe Price has a long history of educating investors and helping people reach their financial goals," Mr. Bernard added. "We can't think of a better way to expand those efforts than by collaborating with an organization that is a true innovator in turning the ordinary into the extraordinary and whose name is synonymous with world-class family education, entertainment, and service excellence."

Dan Cockerell, Vice President of Disney's Epcot Center(R), shared his excitement about working with T. Rowe Price to create this unique experience. "At INNOVENTIONS, our focus is on encouraging guests to imagine, invent, inquire and inspire while exploring amazing innovations that make our lives better. The Great Piggy Bank Adventure(SM) will give our visitors a better insight into what it means to save and invest in an innovative and engaging manner."

Founded in 1937, Baltimore-based T. Rowe Price (Nasdaq: TROW) is a global investment management organization with $276.3 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2008. The organization provides a broad array of mutual funds, subadvisory services, and separate account management for individual and institutional investors, retirement plans, and financial intermediaries. The company also offers a variety of sophisticated investment planning and guidance tools. T. Rowe Price's disciplined, risk-aware investment approach focuses on diversification, style consistency, and fundamental research.

INNOVENTIONS is located in the heart of Epcot Center(R) at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Creativity and imagination abound as guests celebrate inspiration and the innovations that improve their lives and expand their horizons. Hands-on, interactive exhibits allow children and adults to be immersed into ideas that inform, entertain and inspire -- conquer the most dangerous house in America, find solutions to "sticky" problems, experience the most cutting edge products at the "House of the Future," protect the environment from the daily waste we create and push the limits of everyday products as we make the world a safer place. For more information on INNOVENTIONS, visit www.innoventions.disney.com.