EPCOT Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth is more than just an iconic structure - it houses one of Disney World most popular and beloved rides. This 13 minute ride takes Disney guests on a journey through time from the prehistoric age to the present day. It explores how human communication has helped to make advancements throughout the ages. Sound a bit like a history lesson? Well I wish my history lessons had been this interesting! Disney uses animatronics, music and a new commentary by Dame Judy Dench to tell the story in a way which will appeal to all ages.

Each guest boards their own time machine for their journey through the ages. It can get dark in parts so beware if you have very small children who are likely to be sensitive to this.

EPCOT opened in 1982 but the idea for Spaceship Earth dates back a lot further than that. Geodesic domes were created by the architect Buckminster Fuller in his search for a lightweight efficient structure. He designed many geodesic domes the most prominent of which was for the American Pavillion at Montreal's Expo 67.

Fuller was the one who first had the idea of a 'Spaceship Earth' - the idea of humans being the crew on the vehicle of Earth traveling through time towards a common sustainable future. These are the underpinning ideas of EPCOT as it was when first envisaged by Walt Disney himself. These ideas rang true with Disney Imagineer John Hench and were developed into the structure that we now know as Spaceship Earth.

Spaceship Earth was the first true complete geodesic sphere structure. It was no easy design task. Engineers first reported that the task was not possible but were saved by the innovation of Imagineer John Hench.

The problem was a fundamental one that engineers said that the geodesic dome could just never support itself. Hench solved the problem by suggesting that the structure should be treated in 2 parts. The upper three fourths and the lower fourth should be seen as separate pieces. The interior structure consists of a huge table which supports the six legs seen outside the dome, and the upper portion hangs from the bottom of that table.

Spaceship Earth is truly an amazing structure. Construction took 26 months and 40,800 labor hours to build.

Disney's Spaceship Earth is a very popular ride. It is located at the entrance to the park and it is the first ride that EPCOT guests will see when they arrive. Most likely in the morning they will also see a very long line!

Human nature tends to make people follow a crowd. But you don't have to be one of those people. Usually the morning is the worst time to ride on Spaceship Earth - I have seen waits at times of over 90 minutes. this attraction does not offer a Fast Pass. Guests tend to arrive and head straight for the Spaceship Earth attraction. If you arrive in the morning and the line is long you may just want to walk on by for a while and visit some of the other EPCOT attractions.

But there is a simple way to avoid the lines at all but the most busy times in the park. Ride in late afternoon and early evening when the line may be so short that you can simply get onto the ride with no wait at all.

Photos used under Creative Commons from armadillo444

The story of this dark Disney ride is the how advances in communication has shaped our history and ultimately our destiny. So we start in prehistoric times and journey to the top of the dome to the scenes of the present day. On the way we visit ancient Rome and Greece,The Dark Ages, Renaissance Italy, The Industrial Revolution to name just a few.

Photos used under Creative Commons from armadillo444

Some scenes were changed following the 2007 renovation. One of my favorites is the new scenes which show the history of computer technology.

Photos used under Creative Commons from armadillo444

Technology moves quickly and for many years Spaceship Earth was badly in need on an update. Well that happened in 2007 when Spaceship Earth reopened after extensive refurbishment.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with the changes. Whilst I was happy that they have kept most of the original scenes and added some more I did think that they could have gone a little further and that the new interactive part of the ride was disappointing.

Photos used under Creative Commons from armadillo444

EPCOT is the only park which has the monorail running directly through it. The monorail stop from the Transport and Ticket Center is right outside the entrance to the park.