My Disney Top 5 - Things to Love About Epcot's Spaceship Earth by Chris Barry
Chris takes a more in-depth look at one of the most iconic Disney attractions there is.
Read it here!
My Disney Top 5 - Things to Love About Epcot's Spaceship Earth by Chris Barry
Chris takes a more in-depth look at one of the most iconic Disney attractions there is.
Read it here!
Yes! I agree with all of your comments about this wonderful structure and the attraction inside. And I guess my only addition would be 1a. One of the things I love most about this ride is that over the years it has been fairly easy to get on. We have had pretty good luck with being able to get on without much of a wait. Most of the time. Disney knows how to move the people. Hope you get to WDW soon!
Thank you for your interesting and informative articles. Being from California, I’ve only been to WDW a few times, and I’m always in a rush to try and see everything. You’ve made me wish that I can take the time to just LOOK. And enjoy the world behind the world. Maybe when we retire...
-I'm not bad, I'm just drawn that way-
Next to Expedition: Everest, Spaceship Earth has always been one of my favorites, all the way back to my first visit a week after E.P.C.O.T. opened. I really enjoyed hearing a couple a few years ago. After riding the ride the guy said to his girl "I really liked seeing Bill Gates inventing the first computer!"
Oh, and the guy in question is definitely Woz, no matter what Apple says . . . . .
The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time.
- James Taylor
Another nice Top 5 article! As you mentioned, this structure and attraction is quite a complex engineering effort!
Prompted me to go looking into design info again about the whole thing, and even though I've probably done so before, I learned a few new things in the last hour doing so! Specifically, I had not previously read the info that the support is effectively a hexagonal "table" created by interconnecting the six huge legs, and that the top 3/4 of the sphere sits on this table and the lower 1/4 hangs suspended from it. It was just other fan sites I was reading, but if anyone would like the link, let me know.
I have to admit your quote referring to "Class 2 geodesic polyhedron with frequency of division equal to 8." will probably make the math geek in me go read up on that some day too! While I can certainly envision probably even a standard home computer of today having enough processing power to do a decent job of modelling such a structure in CAD, I'm sure if it was computer based in a significant way in the late 70's, it was a huge deal at that time!
So you can guess my Top #1 is probably the sphere/structure itself. The rain management part too, to me is very impressive. Designing so as to allow people to freely walk underneath and across the perimeter that would have been a huge round waterfall without the gutter system is really cool. So much better than having some sort of obtrusive roof line closer to the ground to divert the water so it would not drench every visitor to the park on rainy days.
As to scenes, fully agree on the Apex. I would hope that element always remains part of this attraction, even if slightly modified over time. I always thought they meant the garage scene to be Steve Jobs. I'll need to look again whenever I next make it down, but I thought there were elements in the garage display that seemed like early Apple history. Could be Woz also, I suppose. Guessing Woz was maybe a little more , uh .. "streamlined" in his younger days ? (weren't' we all! )
Slightly off topic, but since it was in your intro, I think you can also see the Seven Dwarfs as one group during MVMCP. Still an after hours ticket, but I believe I got a photo with them in 2018. I'm sure it was not a walk on, but I think they were a much shorter wait than Scrooge McDuck who was the nearby other meet and greet in Storybook Circus during that event.
-Dave
Nice top 5. Apex would’ve been in my Top 5 but on our Fall 2019 trip, the ride broke down and we were stuck at the apex for a long time. Then, we witnessed negligence of the attraction when Disney turned the lights on and we had to walk downstairs parallel to the ride track.
Here is my 5 in no particular order
1. The Ingenious Ride System
2. The Sphere Itself
3. The Sistine Chapel
1 thru 3 I agree with everything you said
4. Physical sets- I love the audio-animatronics, detailed set pieces, and wonderful ride soundtrack.
5. Feelings of nostalgia – I have fond memories of riding the Tomorrow's Child version and the Irons version. Spaceship Earth reminds of beloved classic EPCOT Center omnimovers like original Journey into Imagination, Horizons, and World of Motion.
Honorable mention – smell of Rome burning,
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