Hello everyone, and welcome to the first stop in our journey around the Future World of Epcot! This is Spaceship Earth, which I didn’t know until I started this project was actually considered a pavilion of it’s own! Did you know that? Spaceship Earth is one of our favorite attractions at Epcot, and my daughter Sophie and I love to ride in it and learn about our past in ways that only Disney can teach us. Where else do you get a front row seat of Pharaoh, the Phoenicians, or the Roman Empire and it’s “World Wide Web”?
Spaceship Earth is a geodesic dome, which has a diameter of 165 feet, a circumference of 518.1 feet, and a volume of 2.35 million cubic feet! In addition, there are 11,324 tiles on the outside of the dome, and it has a weight of 15,520,000 pounds (7,760 tons!).
The ride itself is classified as a dark ride, which doesn’t necessarily mean it’s scary — just that it takes place in a darkened environment. You load on an Omnimover, which travels at a constant slow rate of speed to guide you through the attraction. The music you hear is offset by narration, currently the narrator for the ride is Dame Judi Dench. Previously to her being the narrator you had Jeremy Irons (Scar from The Lion King, you know), Walter Cronchite, and the original narrator, Lawrence Dobkin.
Your trip through the history of communication lasts 15 minutes, and is a great attraction to enjoy when the blazing Florida summer heat is at it’s worse. Traditionally, Spaceship Earth has longer lines at park opening than it does in the afternoon because everyone seems to congregate there first because it’s the first thing people generally see at Epcot — unless they come in from the International Gateway between France and the United Kingdom.
Part of the enjoyment of Spaceship Earth is that you are able to plugin demographics information about where you live, your picture is taken as you ascend into the dome, and at the end, you answer questions on your car about what you want your future to look like. After that, you get off the ride, and enter Project Tomorrow, which has a lot of different activities you can enjoy, as well as seeing your pictures appear on the globe where you touched in your car. You can also send an email of your video to your friends so they can see what you have been up to!
Like many things that Disney does, Spaceship Earth is a great, unique attraction and pavilion that does an incredibly good job at teaching you about communication, history, and our past, but does it in a way that you are able to have fun and not really focus on the fact that you are learning things. It is this unique balance of education and entertainment that has made Epcot one of the most popular parks at Walt Disney World, and is a signature statement for how Disney handles things. Thanks for stopping by and reading about Spaceship Earth!
One of my fav. attractions; my daughter and I love to ride this as well! (Two Moms and a Mouse)
Thanks for commenting! Have a great day today!
One of our favs too!