Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth is EPCOT’s iconic structure & the first ride that you see after entering the park. It is an 18-storey tall, Geodesic Sphere which contains a time-travel themed ride showing how advances in communication have helped to shape today & the future.

The structure is nicknamed the ‘golf ball’, due to its similarity in appearance, but geometrically is actually a Pentakis Dodecahedron (made up from 11,520 Isosceles triangles, if it were a true sphere with interruptions due to doors and supports). Being a Water Engineer, I thought it was really cool how the sphere is drained by 1-inch gaps in the cladding (that you cant really see) which direct rainwater to a drainage system discharging to the World Showcase Lagoon. This prevents rainwater from pouring off the structure (& it really rains in Florida, so capturing all the water is pretty impressive).

When you enter the ‘golf ball’ you step on to a revolving platform which moves in time with the ride cars so that you can easily step into the cars (this method of embarking/disembarking is used for most of the Disney ‘ride’ attractions). As you make your way up through the structure, there are a number of animatronics scenes depicting communication through the ages (e.g., Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel, the first printing press, & the first message using the Internet). I have been to Disneyworld twice previously, & every time I have been on this ride it has been slightly different. There were now touch screens in front of each passenger in the car which were used towards the end of the ride when you inputted your choice for how you would like your future to be. A video was then played with your choices & your face superimposed on the character in the video – cool. Even cooler was that when you got off the ride there was a massive video screen in the after-ride activity area showing the world & you were shown on the screen depending upon where you said that you were from during the ride.

There were some other pretty cool attractions after the ride. Beth & I both had a go at a racing game before playing a game where you had to move ‘power pills’ into areas that needed power. This might not sound that interesting, but the game was motion controlled. It was projected onto the floor where you used metal detector shaped sticks to push the power pills around into areas needing the energy. Cheryl & Beth then played a game where you had to transform a talking skeleton into a ‘human’. This was done using a joystick to select the appropriate body part & then to control a crane which you used to lift each part into the correct position. Nothing out of the ordinary there except that the game was a ‘virtual reality’ style simulation on screen in full colour 3-D!

EPCOT

EPCOT was the first Disney Park that we visited & was probably my favourite park (just) from previous visits (due to the more ‘Techy’ nature & rides like 'Test Track').

EPCOT stands for ‘Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow’, or more realistically ‘Every Person Comes Out Tired’!

EPCOT was Walt Disney’s vision for a model community, home to 20,000 residents, which would serve as a model for future urban planning. The community was to have been built in the shape of a circle, with businesses & commercial areas at the center, community buildings, schools, & recreational complexes around it, & residential neighborhoods along the perimeter. Vehicular traffic would be kept underground (to separate residents from the potential dangers & environmental impacts generated by cars, trucks, etc) with transport for residents by travelators & monorails. Unfortunately, Walt Disney was unable to obtain planning permission & funding for his new Floridian community until after he had agreed to build the Magic Kingdom. He died before the Magic Kingdom was complete & so EPCOT (the city) never got built.

When the EPCOT Disney Park originally opened in 1982, it was called EPCOT Center as it was constructed based upon the visions that were proposed for the City of EPCOT. The Magic Kingdom is a ‘traditional’ Disney fantasy park (all princes, princesses & Disney characters), but EPCOT didn’t have a particular purpose. Disney ‘Imagineers’ were undecided on what the park should be so it ended up being a multi-purpose venue, exhibiting future technology (Future World) & international cultures (World Showcase).

Future World contains pavilions which explore science & technology related aspects & associated rides, such as: Spaceship Earth, Test Track, Mission Space, Innoventions, Universe of Energy, The Land, Imagination!, & The Seas with Nemo & Friends.

World Showcase contains authentic pavilions which represent 11 countries from around the World (in alphabetical order): Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Morocco, Norway, UK, & USA.