Spaceship Earth Review

About two weeks ago I heard that "sneak previews" for Spaceship Earth for all guests, not just Cast Members, would start today, December 15th. Well the night before last I heard that they've already started sometime last week. So needless to say, I went to Epcot early in the morning yesterday. I got to TTC at around 8:00 or so, and while at the Epcot Monorail station, I could not believe how foggy it was. This was the foggiest I've seen it in a long while. I got on the Monorail and arrived at the gate at Epcot about 15 before they let anybody through the turnstiles. Once they started letting people in, I went directly over to Spaceship Earth. On the right side, by the Camera shop, bathrooms and lockers, I sat on a bench for a little less than an hour.

The sun started to peak out from behind the clouds, and SSE, and it was shining directly in my face so I got up and started walking around the SSE "breezeway". I walked over to the Project Tomorrow post show area, there was absolutely nobody there. This was about 10 minutes before the rope drop. I saw the big round screen was running Windows, lol. Then I walked back out to where I was before. I noticed a couple who looked like they were lingering around SSE for a sneak peek as well. I walked over and started to talk with them. They said that they were from Wyoming and they were spending a lot of money to just stand and wait there. I was talking with them for about 10 minutes before a few more people came over and joined us in waiting for it to open up, including a Canadian couple who said that if I had blond hair, I would look exactly like actor Cary Elwes of Saw and Princess Bride fame. Anyway, a great SSE Cast Member, John, was our "inside guy". He would occasionally be called in to SSE by his supervisor and come back out and update us on what was going on. He also talked to us about other things, not related to SSE. Like, next time you go to Test Track, as a Cast Member what happened to Car 17... Anyway, we finally got to ride sometime after noon. I thought it was very nice and cool for everyone to offer for me to be first in line since I had been waiting there for as long as I was.

I will try not to get in to too much spoiler detail for folks that haven't been on it yet, or who want to wait for it to open. The first thing I noticed was the ascent up no longer had the three large screens on the left showing you about the car turning, instead that was displayed above the cars just before you started going up. Also, the twinkling lights are blue instead of white, and there appears to be a lot more of them. Then you pass through a little section that takes your picture. I was thinking the picture would come in to play somehow with the screens, but no. You never see the picture they took, and it is never even mentioned for the rest of the ride. The narration starts off the same, "Like a grand, and miraculous spaceship..." this time, it's Judi Dench instead of Jeremy Irons. The lighting strikes against a purple-ish background is still there. But then the next big noticeable change is the neanderthal fighting the mammoth. No longer is it still images of one neanderthal and one mammoth. Now it is a digital animated clip of multiple neanderthals and mammoths in a fierce snow storm.

Next is the scene in the cave with the neanderthal group. The audio animatronics are extremely different in the way and how much they move. The movements are so much fuller and faster, and very lifelike than before. Also, there are paintings on the cave wall of a mammoth fighting with a couple of cavemen that move. It appears to be a projection, from behind, that makes the paintings change in a slide show type fashion. It is like the paintings are alive, telling the story. After that there really isn't too much else that is different other than the fact of the upgraded AAs, and a better paint job and lighting, and a couple new AAs added in. When you get to the scene with the artist sculpting the statue of a woman, they have covered up her exposed breast, which I kind of found odd seeing as how it is art, but then again kids in their early teens and younger probably don't see it for anymore than something they can point and giggle at. Then when you get to the scene with the big steam powered printing machine on the left, I noticed that the black AA has been aged, and that the newspaper's headline reads: "CIVIL WAR OVER". I'm not sure if the newspapers always said that, but I am sure that the AA didn't look as old before.

Something odd I noticed with the paper boy, who used to stand on the corner, facing the ride vehicles as they go by, is now sort of "tucked away" with his back facing the guests, even though you can still here him yelling "Extra! Extra! Read all about it!". Then on the right side, where the guy at the desk receiving the Morse code message is, you can hear the sound effect of the Morse code machine making the clicks, but the actual machine isn't moving at all like it used to. This may just be a little compressed air problem, and not anything they've changed. Back on the left side the telephone operators are unaltered as far as I can tell. The radio station seems to be the same as well. Although I noticed that the station, "WDI" is painted on the microphone, WDI being Walt Disney Imagineering. I don't know if that has always been on the microphone or not.

Back over to the right side, the lady in the ticket taking booth now has an actual "theater". Instead of multiple screens showing different video clips, there is one screen, with curtains on the side, and even cut-outs made to look like the silhouette of an audience. There is a big marquee overhead that says "Cinema" but I am pretty sure that was there before. On the floor by the audience there is a small sign telling what is being shown. Then another big change is with the family on the right watching TV Before, it used to pretty much be a couch, a TV, and a family of AAs. Now it is like they cut an whole Family Room out of a hose from the 60's, and on the TV is the Moon Landing. Behind the couch, you can see the board game Mouse Trap set up. Then there is a small cityscape mural on the wall with black light paint. I think I noticed a small Hidden Mickey in this mural, but I'm not sure as the circles appear to be the same size, but it looks out of place.

Then another huge change. A new scene! It is a computer room from the 60's when computers took up an entire room. This used to be where the little boy and girl were talking with a sort of video conference system. The new room feels so much bigger than what the scene used to be. Then right after that, we go through a garage in Silicon Valley, California where a Steve Wozniak type AA is working on the first modern computer. Following that you go through a tunnel of scrim with a very Matrix like projection of green digits that scroll over you, giving you an effect of going faster than you really are. After that you see Earth and the stars, just like you used to. As you start to turn, you pass by a speaker that announces you're turning. Before this voice was female. Now that the ride narration is a female voice, this announcement is a male voice.

And now for the not so grand finale of the ride. It fits that it is when your going back down, because it is a downer. Lame pun I know, but this change is pretty lame. You go into a matrix of blue dots, and the interactive screens are finally used. There is no show or set pieces, just blue fiber optic points of light. The screen is the only source of "entertainment" for the rest of the ride. It asks you a series of multiple choice questions, to "build your future". Like, "What is more important to you? Home, Work, Play... etc. or How would you like to travel in the future? Wind Energy, Solar Energy." After you answer all the questions, it then has a sort of "pop quiz" to see what you've learned from the ride. there is no interaction at this point. It just displays a question, then the answer. After that is says that your future is ready. Then it shows a little animation that totally rips off The Jetsons and is put together based off of your answers to the multiple choice questions. The screens are also really bright, so much so in fact that if you look away from the screen, you can see things you're not supposed to. Like speakers, or other structures for the ride that are painted black so you won't see it. Those screens really should be taken out.

The second time I rode I didn't answer anything to see what the "future" is for an empty car and its basically a default animation, but at the end there is a reference to Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress cause the last lines of that animation are "... Looks like there's a great big beautiful tomorrow!" Then you unload and go to the Project Tomorrow post show area. So with all the changes to Spaceship Earth, I like it overall. Even with the disappointing ending. It doesn't officially open until February 18th, and Soft Openings will probably start on Christmas Day, according to that Cast Member John. So I really hope WDI reads the reviews and changes the 2nd half of the ride because it really kills it. If they would have left it exactly the same, I would have been completely happy. But that whole "interactivity" with screens is just a bad show in my opinion. All in all, I give the new Spaceship Earth a 4.3 out of 5 stars. It is still a while before the official reopening so they may in fact have something else up their sleeve for the 2nd half, and I really really hope they do!