The Spaceship Earth attraction at EPCOT has had a rough few days, experiencing extended downtime and increased unreliability. The attraction hasn’t operated at all today, January 24th, and it was down for most of the day yesterday as well. According to wait time info from thrill-data, Spaceship Earth didn’t open until 2:30pm on Tuesday, January 21st, and had more than two hours of downtime on January 22nd as well. Overall, the 42-year-old attraction has had a rough week, but perhaps that’s due to cold temperatures and not necessarily part of a bigger problem – we’ll have to wait and see.
Spaceship Earth Cancelled Reimagining
Spaceship Earth was just a couple months away from closing for a lengthy refurbishment back in Spring 2020. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic put a pause on many projects, and caused other projects to be shelved indefinitely (cancelled). The Spaceship Earth reimagining is one of the projects that was shelved indefinitely.
Here’s a look at the original announcement from former Disney CEO Bob Chapek (then Parks Chairman):
As always, Spaceship Earth will remain the park’s brand icon. Since the very beginning Spaceship Earth stood for the ideas and values that represent EPCOT, and told the story of humanity through great moments of courage, creativity, and discovery. There’s simply nothing else like it, and so we couldn’t even think about an EPCOT of the future without putting a little bit of the new magic into this Epcot original.The new Spaceship Earth will still feature great moments of human history, but instead of inventions and technology, we’ll focus on something that binds all of humanity together: storytelling. Many of the scenes you know and love will remain, but we’ll bring them to life in amazing new ways. We’re also adding new scenes to reflect the universal nature of the human experience. In addition to fresh narration, you’ll have a new guide. In each moment of your journey, you’ll follow a magical light that we call our Story Light which will play a central in the experience. The story light will come to life in dynamic ways, giving each scene energy and stunning beauty while creating a narrative that ties your journey together.
Spaceship earth has stood for 37 years as an icon of EPCOT, Walt Disney World, and the Walt Disney Company. We are excited to evolve this unique attraction in a way that will resonate with the wide array of guests who visit Walt Disney World.
The reimagining likely would’ve seen some updates to the attraction that we’d imagine are due. Anecdotally, we’ve seen more maintenance Cast Members during normal operating hours at Spaceship Earth than any other attraction over the past couple of years. Perhaps that’s due to the nature of the attraction being surrounded on all sides by guest areas, but it’s certainly not getting any younger.
As Disney looks to the future, they have announced $17 billion worth of investments into the Walt Disney World Resort theme parks. Of the four park icons, two have had or will have updates with the debut of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and the upcoming Zootopia attraction set to debut in the Tree of Life later this year. Perhaps there is some money left over for an update to Spaceship Earth after Test Track reopens later this Summer.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
