Update for December 10 – December 16, 2007
Go directly to: News & Views | Coming
Soon
| Trivia of the Week | Refurbishment/Attraction
Closures
| Discounts/Promotions | Park
Hours/Park Events/Entertainment Schedule
News and Views
Spaceship Earth begins sneak previews | DVC
gives interest-free offer
| Woman tries to bring gun
into park
| Quick
Takes …
[Ed. note: I did warn you that this Update might be abbreviated or a day
late (it’s both), but that I’d get something out for you this week. If there
wasn’t a cool lead story, I probably would have just skipped this week, though,
because I’m still exhausted from MouseFest. More on that topic in a feature
article to come, but thanks to all who attended MouseFest and helped to make
it the huge success that it was!]
Spaceship Earth begins sneak previews; soft opening
targeted for Christmas Day
Spaceship Earth began sneak previews last week, opening the construction
wall for varying periods of time to let guests ride the attraction while Imagineers
gauged the response. We’ve been hearing, unofficially, that the attraction
will soft-open on Christmas Day.
For those uncertain about the terminology, a sneak preview is when an attraction
is opened for short periods of time with no advance notice, and then the attraction
is closed again and the response to the opening is noted and analyzed and
further changes may be made. A soft opening is when the attraction is opened
to run all day as if it were officially open, except that it might close at
any time without notice if something isn’t right. This way, guests can ride
what is intended to be the final version of the attraction, but the attraction
can be closed without disappointing people expecting it to be open if trouble
spots appear.
A wildly gesticulating caveman is the first of many advanced-function Animatronics
in the revised Spaceship Earth. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
An updated Animatronic teaches his students in Ancient Greece. Photo by Mark
Goldhaber.
The Gutenberg press is still represented in the attraction.. Photo by Mark
Goldhaber.
The telegraph scene is largely unchanged from the prior version.. Photo by
Mark Goldhaber.
In any case, the attraction’s new narration, by Dame Judy Dench, has come
in for mixed responses. While my hearing is slightly impaired when picking
voices out of background sounds, the narration seemed very quiet to me. That
may also have been a function of the particular car that I was in or the location
of my head. However, others have made some interesting comments. For example,
“Do you remember when you first learned your ABCs?” came in for
ridicule as being severely dumbed down. One reader email that I received noted
that the attraction now notes that Jewish and Islamic cultures provided a
“back up” for western civilization, where previously it noted that Jewish
and Islamic scholars kept the light of learning alive while Europe was plunged
into the Dark Ages; the change appears to portray the religions in a lesser
light.
A period computer room is one of the new scenes that has been added. Photo
by Mark Goldhaber.
An Animatronic representing Steve Wozniak was added.to a garage scene, working
on the design of the Apple Lisa. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
Other changes are quite impressive. The opening visuals once you complete
the first climb are impressive, and they lead to the first of the upgraded
animatronics, with an advanced-function animatronic caveman gesticulating
wildly as you turn the corner. There are a number of new, advanced animatronics
within the attraction. Other animatronics have been moved to different scenes
or replaced entirely. Following a scene where a family is watching the Apollo
11 moon landing on TV, one new scene shows a huge computer room of the period.
This is followed by a scene within a garage in California showing Steve Wozniak
working on designing the Apple Lisa computer. (With Steve Jobs as Disney’s
largest shareholder, one would almost expect a Jobs animatronic hovering over
Woz in that scene.)
The descent features numerous questions. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
The on-vehicle computer screens ask you many questions, including your personality.
Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
You can also select your favorite type of alternate energy source. Photo by
Mark Goldhaber.
For your efforts, you are rewarded with an animated video showing you what
your future vacations will be like. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
Your representative tourists and everything that they interact with have somewhat
of a retro feel. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
In an echo of the former Horizons attraction, you can choose a future either
in space or underwater. (There’s no third choice of desert, as there was in
Horizons, though.). Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
The descent is somewhat different, with guests being asked to answer a series
of questions that lead to a simple animation of how inventions would improve
their life and their vacations based on their selections. It seems to be a
simple “select one from each category, and each selection adds a different
piece of video to your show” kind of thing. It’s cute, but at least to
me, it seems that it limits re-rideability because of the similarity between
the scenarios. Perhaps when all of the bells and whistles are installed, it
will be more interesting.
The new Spaceship Earth costumes feature an attraction logo graphic on the
right chest. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
Ride vehicles have touch screens for each seat. Photo by Mark Goldhaber.
A final note on the attraction itself is that, while the upgraded Spaceship
Earth is very true to the original spirit of EPCOT Center, there’s one piece
missing. When you walked out of all of the original attractions, you walked
out humming or singing the attraction’s theme song. While Bruce Broughton’s
new score does do a nice job of tying the scenes together, there’s no “Tomorrow’s
Child”-like song to catch your attention as you walk out.
By setting the soft-opening of the attraction for Christmas Day, Disney will
be solving the biggest problem of the refurbishment: how to soak up the crowds
without the people-eating centerpiece of Future World, especially in light
of the small crowds that actually visited the Wonders of Life pavilion while
it was open last year.
DVC gies Old Key West owners no-interest financing for
lease extension
Last week, during the special informational meeting regarding the lease extension
at Disney’s Old Key West Resort, it was announced that interest-free financing
would be available through March, 2009. The offer, which requires 10 percent
down, alleviates one of the biggest complaints about the lease extension offer,
that it asked people to put together the money for the lease extension while
only giving them a few months, over the holiday period, to pay it all off
without needing to pay interest.
DVC President Jim Lewis answers a question at the general session. Photo by
Mark Goldhaber.
Other news coming out of the DVC meeting includes:
