Spaceship Earth is open

[HMF]

Reports from wdwmagic are saying that Spaceship Earth is now open for previews. More info as it comes.

[ah92us]

Really? Cool!

[HMF]

Here is the info I have heard so far.
The scene at the beginning with the caveman and the Mammoth has been replaced with a battle between the Man and Mammoth.
Cave scene is the same but with more fluid AA movements supposedly better than Captain Jack. Egypt scene is the same except the Pharoh is wearing a new (and more historicly accurate) Costume. Phonecian scene unchanged but interesting new dialoge from Judi Dench. If you remember learning your ABCs ,thank the Phonecians. The first major change is the removal of the Greek Theatre Scene. It has been replaced by a Greek Teacher teaching his students Math. Rome is relatively unchanged except the Chariot Projections are off.(Keep in mind they are still working on things.) Rome is still burning. Rennisance Scene relatively the same. With the exception of the sculptor working on the statue. Disney has jumped on the PC bandwagon again and covered the statues anatomical Correctness. The paper boy is now holding a newspaper saying Civil War Over. When the rumor of a Civil War scene was mentioned a few months ago I was a bit concerned that a Civil War Scene would make it Too Americacentric. However the Civil War is only mentioned to describe the innovation of the Newspaper. 20th Century scene mostly the same. Snow White is no longer one of the films playing in the Cinema Scene.
The Living Room scene isnow a family watching the Moon Landing. Where the Boy and Girl satelite chatting was is now a massive computer room. The next new scene is Steve Jobs working on a Home Computer in his garage. the Planetarium scene is the same after the Omnimovers turn backwards where the News from around the world scene was the Touchscreens turn on and ask you questions about what you want the future to be like and this continues through the end of the ride. All the final scenes have been ripped out and have been replaced with psychadelic lights so the second half of the attraction is mostly answering questions on your Touchscreen.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Sounds fun...now just make sure it's open Jan 4-12...

-- PMM

[tomserwin]

When exactly is it open for previews? I'm going to be at WDW in January and I wonder if it will be open when I go. Thanks.

[HMF]

Originally Posted by tomserwin

When exactly is it open for previews? I'm going to be at WDW in January and I wonder if it will be open when I go. Thanks.

Not much information is known. Most reports say it is not open today.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Full disclosure...this is a SOFT opening...

-- PMM

[echoscot]

^Don't know if anyone saw this video, but it is from the Orlando Sentinel, just a work in progress video, very short but interesting:

Spaceship Earth Update

[HMF]

Some clarifications from the ride description I posted Yesterday.
The historical part of the ride has been expanded and the Futuristic part is now exclusively on the touchscreens. The so-called Civil War scene has the African-American man reading the Newspaper with the headline Civil War Over and the Paper-Boy now shouts EXTRA! EXTRA! CIVIL WAR OVER.
As previously mentioned 60s Living room scene now is all about the moon landing with Walter Cronkite announcing. As you may know Walter Cronkite was the narrator of Spaceship Earth from 1986-1994. The Computer room shows a massive room wide computer before there wer home computers. The scientist in the scene looks remarkably similar to Science-Fiction writer Ray Bradbury who wrote the original narration for Spaceship Earth. The narration goes on to explain how programers worked to be able to bring the computer into our houses and shows Steve Jobs working on the home computer. the Communication Tunnel is replaced with a tunnel of Computer Language 0s and 1s and stuff.After you see the Earth projected on the dome the touchscreens turn onand ask you questions about yourself like How important is your health to you. This is the most dissapointing part. It then quizzes you on what you have learned from the ride than it shows you your future with a Jetsons meet the Robinsons-like animated cartoon which contrasts greatly with the seriousness of the main Atraction and does not give you the same feeling going off the ride than the Jeremy Irons version did. The last 5 minutes of the attraction is basicly looking at a computer screen watching a cartoon. Kinda looks like an E-Surance commercial. Than Judi Dench says the Future looks really exiting dosent it.Sigh then a Male voice says welcome back time travelers. Siemens hopes you have enjoyed Spaceship Earth. Now visit Project Tommorow etc. While it has its flaws I am very happy that Disney has refurbished and made major changes to Spaceship Earth without removing its spirit and its educational value like what happened with the Seas and El Rio. Last year i said Epcot was dying. This year I can say that Epcot is being reborn. A big thanks to Siemens, Jim Macphee and Bob Zalk and all the Imagineers for making this possible.

[tomserwin]

Oh man... I hate Judi Dench. She's really creepy.

[Mr. EPCOT]

Hello all! Just to clarify, Spaceship Earth has only been opening for intermittent previews, it is not even into the official soft opening phase. The construction walls aren't even down yet.

The general feeling out here for those of us who have ridden it is that the first half of the ride is absolutely spectacular, and the second half is extremely disappointing. All of the classic scenes (the ascent) have wonderful upgrades, very fluid AAs, beautiful costumes, lots of nice little added touches (i.e. animated cave paintings), and a couple of brand new sets that are simply awesome.

Once you exit the garage where the personal computer is being invented, it all starts to fall apart. You go through a short semi-transparent tunnel that has what looks like code from The Matrix projected in it. The tunnel only wraps halfway around above you. There are some visibility issues as you from the end of the tunnel as you fully emerge into the top of the geosphere. Before the refurbishment, you would hear Jeremy Irons narrate "...on this, our Spaceship Earth," and then your Time Machine would rotate into a reveal of the beautiful view of Earth from space. Now the narrator (Judi Dench) doesn't stop talking until well into the area.

As was stated before, the finale with the touch screen is a mess. There is great potential for the interactivity, but as of now it is not even approaching that potential. And as uninteresting and cartoony as the video is, you can't really look around you because there really isn't anything to see. And it's not just that there is nothing there, it's just a bunch of crap. What look like to be lighting fixtures and stuff left over from the old version of the finale. Now, I could be wrong about that, and it is actually new stuff that they just haven't turned on yet, but it sure looks like a lot of the same stuff from before.

Another thing to note is that the consensus is also that the music is very underwhelming. Very unnoticeable throughout most of the ride, and very out of place where it is. In my opinion, the only place where it really works at all is the view of Earth and finale, but to paraphrase my old film music professor, "Good music can't make a bad ride good, but bad music can make a good ride bad." Unfortunately, this ride has the distinction of being plagued by both, as I would say that the music is the only thing that brings the first half of the ride down, but the music that is okay throughout the finale doesn't matter anyways, because that part of the ride itself is lame.

Once again, though, I will point out that this all just during the very earliest previews. There is still plenty of time for WDI to work on it until it officially reopens in February.

[HMF]

Spaceship Earth had its OFFICIAL soft-opening today. the touchscreens now show your picture existing in a Future World as opposed to the cartoony Jetsons-like ending during the previews. However the descent needs a lot more work before it can compare with the old one.

[echoscot]

Originally Posted by HMF

Spaceship Earth had its OFFICIAL soft-opening today. the touchscreens now show your picture existing in a Future World as opposed to the cartoony Jetsons-like ending during the previews. However the descent needs a lot more work before it can compare with the old one.

I have never found the descent interesting in any form of the attraction, so I may actually like this verson.

[Chris]

Topic closed. It's open, its been discussed and argued.