Behind the Scenes at Epcot’s Spaceship Earth (PART 1)

• 1982-1986: Actor Vic Perrin
• 1986–1994: Newscaster Walter Cronkite
• 1994-2007: Actor Jeremy Irons
• 2008-present: Actress Dame Judi Dench

• New Musical Score: Ten time Emmy®-award winning composer Bruce Broughton conducted a 63-piece orchestra and 24-voice choir for a new musical score for Spaceship Earth. For the musical score, each scene was infused with musical styles and instruments appropriate to the time period.
• New Scenes- The following new show scenes were added:
  • Family in the late 1960s viewing the moon landing on television
  • Massive, two-story computer room of the late 1960s with reel-to-reel-computers
  • Garage of the late 1970s where the “personal computer” is born
  • “Tech Tunnel” in which guests become part of a digital data stream
• Additional Enhancements: Many scenes that guests have experienced since 1982 were updated and improved for the 2008 reopening. To make the Audio-Animatronics figures more realistic, they received a thorough makeover, to include their hair, costumes, and the reprogramming of their movements using the latest technologies.

• Time Tunnel: Lighting effects whirl and pulsate as the vehicles move through the space-time continuum into the past.
• Prehistoric Hunters: Guests emerge from the time vortex to arrive in prehistoric time. Hunters confront a woolly mammoth.
• Prehistoric Cave People: A prehistoric shaman recounts the story of a hunt to several attentive tribe members gathered around a fire. Other members of the group record the hunt on walls of the cave with crude etchings and paintings.
• Egyptian Temple: The vehicles move ahead thousands of years to the “new kingdom” of ancient Egypt. Here, the walls and columns of a temple are being decorated with hieroglyphs. Against the backdrop of the Nile, an Egyptian pounds papyrus reeds to make papyrus scrolls. Beyond, an Egyptian pharaoh dictates a letter to his scribe, who is recording the words on papyrus scrolls. Each civilization now has its own form of writing, which none of the others can understand.
• The Phoenicians:This is the beginning of a new era in written communication. In this scene, two Phoenician trader-merchants are exchanging scrolls from boat to boat. These practical people have developed the alphabet, making written communication accessible to common people. The Phoenicians were a dominant trading force of the Mediterranean and they spread the idea of the alphabet throughout their known world.
• Ancient Greece: The Greeks were great inventors of the future. First they create public schools, and then they introduce an intriguing new subject called mathematics. With mathematics comes mechanical technology, and the high-tech life we enjoy today.
• Ancient Rome: Inspired by the Greeks, the Romans built a great empire. To move armies around their empire, they created a system of roads which connected people, as well as ideas and information. A Roman senator hand a message to a centurion who will carry it to one of Rome’s far-a-way garrisons. In the distance we get a glimpse of the network of roads that spread throughout the known world.
• Burning Of The Library Of Alexandria: Just beyond the Ancient Rome, Guests see the burning of the great Library of Alexandria.
• Arab And Jewish Scholars: Unbeknownst to the West, there are copies of many of the books in Alexandria’s library in libraries of the Middle East, being watched over by Arab and Jewish scholars. A group of Islamic scholars from diverse Middle Eastern cultures discuss marvelous manuscripts of science, astronomy, medicine and art. Jewish wise men also study in a great library. Overhead, an astronomer probes the secrets of the heavens from an observatory tower.
• Medieval Monastery: Guests arrive in Western Europe during the the Middle Ages. Monks are reproducing classical and religious wisdom by hand. The monks work hard to keep up with demand, but there aren’t enough books for everyone who wants one.
• Gutenberg Press: Johannes Gutenberg invents the movable type printing press. By combining the elements of metal type with ink, paper and press, Gutenberg transformed the possibilities of the written word. We see pressmen sorting type and working the large press. Gutenberg himself is closely inspecting a page from the Bible.
• Renaissance Readers: Books make it easier to invent the future in every field—medicine, music, art. This great explosion of art and innovation is called “The Renaissance.” The Renaissance is fired by man’s quest for knowledge, from classical sources as well as contemporary. A rebirth of classical learning takes place in Italy. A mentor reads Virgil’s “Aeneid” to two students, while a musician plays a piece of music he has just written.
• Renaissance Artists: In a Renaissance workshop, painters and sculptors explore their crafts. An artist is carving a statue. His assistant is nearby, mixing paints.
• Sistine Chapel: As the vehicles pass through the Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo is putting the finishing touches on one of his greatest masterpieces.
• Steam Press: The vehicles arrive in the 1860s, in New York City, where we see the result of steam power harnessed to the printing press. In a printing shop, as a pressman works on the daily newspaper, there is a glimpse of the headline … something about the Civil War.
• Newsboy: Near the printing shop, a young newsboy on the street corner sells daily papers shouting out the headline–“Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Lee surrenders at Appomattox! Civil War over!”
• Telegraph: In the Western United States, a reporter has come into the local telegraph office to send the news back East of the driving of the Golden Spike in Promontory, Utah. For the first time the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean are connected.
• Telephone: Passing telephone operators at their switchboards in the early 1900s, Guests can hear snippets of telephone conversations. For the first time, people could talk with their loved ones, even when physically far apart.
• Cinema: Cinema in the 1930s–Guests can view a movie newsreel of Jesse Owens great victories in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.
• Radio: Across the way is a radio station, where an excited newscaster is sharing a great moment with radio listeners—Amelia Earhart has just become the first woman to fly across the Atlantic!
• Television: The vehicles now enter the 1960s, when television audiences around the world are sharing in an historic moment—Neal Armstrong has just become the first man to walk on the moon. A family is gathered around the television, watching him step down onto the lunar surface.
• Mainframe Computers: To send a man to the moon, we had to create a new language made up of ones and zeroes, spoken not by man, but by computers. At first very large and very expensive computers, owned by very few. Guests pass through a mainframe computer room where the rather large mechanism seems to spread out forever. Several technicians are attending to it.
• A Garage In California: In the 1960s, people saw the possibilities of the computer and many wanted one in their house. But young people in California solved that little problem. The time machine passes right through a garage in California in 1977, where an exhausted young man sleeps over the prototype computer he is creating. It is a “personal computer.”
• Data-Flow Tunnel (“Tech Tunnel”): Young entrepreneurs with a passion for shaping the future put the power of the computer in everyone’s hands. And once again, the world is poised on the brink of a new Renaissance. Guests travel through a tunnel of bright, flowing binary code.
• Outer Space (Spaceship Earth Planetarium): Ascending ever upward since the dawn of time, the Time Machine (ride vehicle) has finally reached the uppermost part of Spaceship Earth. Before beginning the descent, Guests can view the blue and white oasis of Earth against the dark and mysterious star-sprinkled galaxies.
• Inventing The Future: See yourself in the future. After 30,000 years of time travel, the world finally has no boundaries and is networked, online, a truly global community poised to shape the future of mankind. Using the touch-screens in the time machine vehicles, Guests answer a series of questions about what they would like to see in their future. What is important to us? Health? Leisure? Work? Home? After choosing between two answers in a series of questions about interests and preferences, Guests receive a personalized, humorous animation-style view of the future.
• Show Conclusion: Guests return to the present and the journey comes to an end.

• Body Builder: 3-D interactive game that enables users to assemble a digital human body, simulating the Siemens technology developed to perform remote surgeries.
• Innervision: A game that enables a view into the future of medical diagnostics in the home, including the testing of different lobes of the brain, such as memory, decision-making, eye-hand coordination and more.
• Super Driver: Driving simulation video game that showcases motor vehicle accident avoidance systems developed by Siemens.
• Power City: A game that demonstrates how to manage power and energy in a growing city.

• 250 tons: Weight of steel frame supporting the icon
• 100, 000 pounds: Weight of Mickey’s gloved hand, the wand, and the “Epcot” lettering
• Mickey’s hand, wrist, and sleeve height – 93 feet, 2 inches high (about 5 stories)
• Mickey’s hand held a wand measuring 93 feet, 8 inches long
• 250, 000: Number of shimmering metallic eye-catchers used to spell “Epcot”
• 36 feet: Height of the tallest letters in “Epcot”
• The starburst consisted of 12, 000 pounds of aluminum and fiberglass.

It is now time to check out Spaceship Earth. Are you ready? Then, let’s go back in time together…

The loading area, where our adventure begins:

The retro warning video:

Say “cheese!”:

The ascent:

Entering a primeval, hostile world:

Notice the rock formation:

Passing by a mammoth (the screen was off):

Here we are, in ancient Egypt:

Part of this facade looks very realistic:

The back of these facades reveals that they were actually made by a certain Egyptian known as Wed Calif:

This unknown Egyptian is inventing Papyrus, a sort of paper:

The Pharaoh in his court:

“Taxes, taxes, and more taxes”:

“Progress. Umpf!”:

Time to visit the Phoenicians:

A closeup of the items being sold:

On the opposite side, you can see this very simplistic reproduction of a village:

This arch leads us to ancient Greece:

A teacher is doing what he does best – teaching:

Not everyone is listening, though. One of the pupils constantly falls asleep, only to be awaken by another student (the guy sitting next to him, the one with the beard):

Please remember to contact Destinations With Character Travel for ALL of your Disney, Universal, Seaworld, and Orlando Area Vacations, Adventures by Disney, and Cruising Needs.

With Destinations With Character Travel, you will have a DEDICATED agent, available to you 24/7 from the very first minute of planning, right up until the day you return home, to answer all of your questions and handle any of your vacation needs. 

As always, When you book with us, All of our Disney Services, including FastPass and Dining reservation services are completely FREE when booking through us!

Email: destwithchar@comcast.net

Phone: 630-308-2350

Please remember to “Like” Destinations With Character Travel on Facebook ,

and Check Out Disney Destinations Characters, our Facebook Disney Fan Group!