Spaceship Earth - my opinions of the refurb - very very dissapointing

I just got back from the evening (8 December) previews. I rode twice and wanted to share my feelings.

Unfortunately, I have to say that overall I was extremely dissapointed with the reworked Spaceship Earth. With WDI's recent great track record (Soarin, Nemo, Everest, El Rio, Pirates, Mansion) I really had no concerns going into this - I was very VERY wrong.

I understand the ride is not finished yet. However, with WDI allowing guests to ride, they must be reasonably close to completion. In the past, we havnt really seen significant changes to attractions after previews, so I am guessing the same will be here. So just to restate - I am reviewing the preview version shown to park guests today.

The Good

- Most of the scenes up to the top have been improved. Animatronics are smoother, sets well lit, and restored to good order.

- A couple of new scenes have been installed, and they are good. I wouldn't say they are spectacular, but they are good.

- The audio is stable and does not cut out.

- Nice new landscaping outside the attraction.

- New costumes for Cast are nice.

- Good looking signs.


The Bad

- The return to Earth from the top is an absolute embarassment to WDI. It consists of being in an almost black tunnel (with a few tiny white lights/fibres on the ceiling), and watching a very uninteresting video clip that is created after you answer 5 totally pointless questions. The finale is basically now a typical web-type flash animation that you find all over the place online. I cant really put into words how much of a let down the finale is - you need to see it to believe it. The video system is not a way to spend your time on an omnimover. It is like they decided to put a good chunk of a very boring post-show on the actual ride vehicle.

- The narration content and delivery is not what is required for an attraction of Spaceship Earth's calibre. The narration now resembles the familiarity of a delivery by a teacher or a mom (not that there is anything wrong with either of those! it just doesnt work in Spaceship Earth!), rather than a grand, impressive narration. Judi Dench is totally wrong for this, and the script is not doing any favors. Somehow they are linking Rome with the World Wide Web, and Arabic scholars as being the first backup system. It is all very tenuos and insulting to our intelligence.

- The score is forgettable. It's OK, but doesnt stand out like the previous versions, and doesn't seem to flow through the attraction.

- The ride system is just as bumpy as ever, very little (if anything) was done to address the bumps.

- Nothing at all has been done to the load or unload area. They are just as beat up and worn out looking as they were before the refurb began.

- They have some colored lights on the trees outside that make the palm trees look like they have been spray painted. Its interesting to have some color, but it doesnt look right.


Summary

For me, this is by far the worst refurbishment in recent years. It really reminds me of the Imagination saga. It looks to me as though there has possibly been been corporate pressure from Siemens to include certain messages that WDI could only achive via the video return to Earth. The first half of the ride is a fine, but the second half, and unfortunately the memory you walk away with, is a total mess. I didnt see anyone leaving the ride in a usual "I've just been on an awesome new Disney ride" kinda buzz. A lot seemed to be somewhat shell shocked, but I didnt really get a chance to hear anyone elses comments.

Disney are still saying February for reopening, so they have time to do some fixing. I guess it all depends on what the average guest thinks. My views may or may not match those. I can say though, to me, Spaceship Earth was CONSIDERABLY better prior to the refurbishment, and I just hope someone at Disney stands up and makes it clear to whoever is orchestrating the changes that it isnt good enough for Epcot's signature attraction.

i can't wait to ride it!

I hope John Lasseter and Siemens Corp. take a look at these complaints and visit the attraction adn than fire the entire WDI staff. This is really the last straw...we keep getting let down time and time again by these half wit morons who think we want to look at projections and videos at a theme park. Lame, Mediocre, childish, stuff. Let's get a new WDI team that really loves Disney and wants to blow audiances away not disappoint people with lame "interactive" stuff that isnt revolutionary.

Sure Haunted Mansion refurb was good and the plans for Disney's California Adventure look promosing but everything else from these people have been met with disdain and disappointment. Keep Tony Baxter and Joe Rhode...but please please PLEASE fire Tom "Video projections rule" Fitzgerald and his cronnies like eric "I helped design the wand" jacobson.

This review pretty much sums up my feelings completely. I can't stress more with what a crappy feeling it leaves you with.

I have a temporary fix to the attraction while they destroy those awful video monitors: You quickly disembark your time machine vehicle at the top... and slide down the exterior of Spaceship Earth. Yes. Slide down.

I rode it twice today as well and had the exact same thoughts as you.

I am not at all thrilled with the end. You have this great build up and then an awesome climax with the 180 top but from then on its all down hill (figuratively and literally) into a big black mess. The only part of "the return to earth" that I enjoyed was the first lighting effect. It was very cool but it only lasted for a few seconds.

I think it's great that Disney is trying to make the theme park experience more personal and interactive I just feel that the "create your world of tomorrow" is so much of a cop out. Disney you could have taken this to the next level by creating scenes that have video screens built into the sets like in the Nemo attraction at the Seas. As you ride back to earth the choices you make about the future could appear in the show. Instead I get a boring second rate video that I quickly grew tired of. Also if I were to change my mind about a choice I had no way to go back and fix it. I also know that there are some individuals out there who may not want to select any choices and ignore the screen prompts altogether. For them they have nothing to look at for the last five minutes of their ride. Also in the "create your own future" it asks you where you are from but does not relate this to you at all in your video.

I think Judi Dench did a wonderful job on the narration but she is cozy and quaint for an attraction that requires a grand and impressive narration. I think it's great to have a female narrator but I miss the commanding presence of Jeremy Irons. I also feel the script itself as mentioned before insults the intelligence of the audience, although it didn't bother me as much the second time I rode it. Still I would like to see some tweaking of the script.

I think all the scenes looked amazing with the small touches they made to each one. My favorite little change would have to be the cave drawings moving. I also thought the two news scenes (although the first one more than the second) looked great. My only complaints with the scenes are I miss the video of Walt in the living room (which looks SO much better than the abstract living room it once was!), the fact that you have this big black ball of nothing after the "matrix" tunnel before the 180 top, and I was extremely, extremely upset they removed the Greek Theater scene. Theatre has played such a role in our history I find it upsetting that there is reference to all the arts but no reference to theatre.

While I knew I would miss the old score I'm still on the fence about the new one. It goes back to my problem with Judi being quaint and cozy. The new score just feels to trapped to me. When I think of Epcot's music I always think of Grand and Powerful and Majestic and Inspired. This music was just, nice. It lacks the showmanship of Epcot.

Another thought I had while riding the ride is that now with the touch screens it is clear that there is an on-board computer with the ability to play two different audio tracks in a car for the passengers in the front row and the back row. Now a days with so much focus on Diversity (especially in Epcot with World Showcase) and the fact that WDW brings in so many foreign guest why isn't there the option to pick what language the narration is in? It just seems like a no brainer to me.


Now I realize that the ride is not finished but at the start of the ride they took my picture. I was told this would be important for later but at no time did it ever come up again. Is this for the post show?

Despite my disappointment with the end I feel the Imagineers did a wonderful job with this refurbishment and re-imagining of Space Ship Earth. I can not wait to see the final product on February 18th.

Wow, seems like a lot of negativity here and on another thread on SSE. We will be going next week. Hopefully we can get on and see what the problem is.:shrug:

Pseybert said:

This review pretty much sums up my feelings completely. If only you had mentioned the horrible feeling the ride leaves you with.

I have a temporary fix to the attraction while they destroy those awful video monitors: You quickly disembark your time machine vehicle at the top... and slide down the exterior of Spaceship Earth. Yes. Slide down.

Click to expand...

Yep it does leave you with a bad feeling. The video section of the ride completely negates the positive elements of the first half of the ride, and just leaves you in total shock about how the ride turned out. I saw the WDI survey takers at teh end of the ride, and usually I would love to give my comments baout how much I enjoyed a ride they have just let us preview. But in this case, I was actually hoping not to be asked, as I really would not like to say what I would have had to have said. I love 99.9% of what Disney produce, but the new Spaceship Earth is just so very dissapointing to me.

ptaylor said:

I just got back from the evening (9 December) .

Click to expand...

Are you visiting us from the future? :lol:

But in all seriousness, all these reviews people are coming up with sound like the ride isn't fully up and running.

I'm going to have to see it for myself when I go.

Enigma said:

I hope John Lasseter and Siemens Corp. take a look at these complaints and visit the attraction adn than fire the entire WDI staff. This is really the last straw...we keep getting let down time and time again by these half wit morons who think we want to look at projections and videos at a theme park. Lame, Mediocre, childish, stuff. Let's get a new WDI team that really loves Disney and wants to blow audiances away not disappoint people with lame "interactive" stuff that isnt revolutionary.

Sure Haunted Mansion refurb was good and the plans for Disney's California Adventure look promosing but everything else from these people have been met with disdain and disappointment. Keep Tony Baxter and Joe Rhode...but please please PLEASE fire Tom "Video projections rule" Fitzgerald and his cronnies like eric "I helped design the wand" jacobson.

Click to expand...

While I wasn't thrilled with the refurb, I don't know if its fair to blame WDI for the video screens. Couldn't they have been used due to pressure/insistance from Seimens?

My husband and I have a theory (some may call it wishful thinking and not at all based on reality :lol: We think that Seimens pretty much dictated the way the decent of the attraction would be. WDI didn't argue and did it Seimens way because they were shelling out the big bucks. WDI knew it wasn't any good. They are now doing the previews and exit surveys hoping that guests will say what WDI knew all along- video screens are boring. WDI can then show that info to Seimens and reimagineer Spaceship Earth to what it should be.

I, too, got to ride during the previews today. I tried holding all judgment that I had read on here, but looking back, I go with the majority on this one.

My rating for this was one step forward, two steps back. The AA's on the ascent were excellent, very fluid and lifelike. In contrast, though, I was not a fan whatsoever of the script or the descent. Seemed like a rushjob and I am not happy with whoever "imagineered" this trainwreck of the second half.

I give it a 6/10, and that's being very generous.

RIP SSE 3.0

ptaylor said:

Yep it does leave you with a bad feeling. The video section of the ride completely negates the positive elements of the first half of the ride, and just leaves you in total shock about how the ride turned out. I saw the WDI survey takers at teh end of the ride, and usually I would love to give my comments baout how much I enjoyed a ride they have just let us preview. But in this case, I was actually hoping not to be asked, as I really would not like to say what I would have had to have said. I love 99.9% of what Disney produce, but the new Spaceship Earth is just so very dissapointing to me.

Click to expand...

For the sake of the future of Spaceship Earth, everyone NEEDS to tell the imagineers everything, not just the positive things. I ranted for a good 5 minutes on what was wrong with it.

darthjohnny said:

But in all seriousness, all these reviews people are coming up with sound like the ride isn't fully up and running.

Click to expand...

Let's certainly hope so.

darthjohnny said:

Are you visiting us from the future? :lol:

But in all seriousness, all these reviews people are coming up with sound like the ride isn't fully up and running.

I'm going to have to see it for myself when I go.

Click to expand...

LOL thanks. Sorry about the date issue.

Yeah we can all hope it isn't fully up and running. However, historically, Disney have never really let guests onto something that isnt practically finished. They must consider it show ready otherwise we wouldnt be riding it. Unfortunately I really think the version we say today is pretty much it, UNLESS there are such poor guest reviews or someone from within Disney steps up and declares it needs to be reworked.

Pseybert said:

For the sake of the future of Spaceship Earth, everyone NEEDS to tell the imagineers everything, not just the positive things. I ranted for a good 5 minutes on what was wrong with it.

Click to expand...

Yep I would have told them if asked (I just wouldnt have enjoyed it). How did they take your comments? Was there any indication that they knew it was bad, or were they surprised by your comments?

ptaylor said:

Yep I would have told them if asked (I just wouldnt have enjoyed it). How did they take your comments? Was there any indication that they knew it was bad, or were they surprised by your comments?

Click to expand...

I first told him I was a major fan of the last version, to which he replied that they were glad to hear from old fans. He then proceeded to mindlessly jot everything I told him down. He didn't comment on anything, instead, he started asking me how the touch screen worked. Did I have enough time to make my selections? Was my video what I expected?

I felt like telling him that I was going to punch a hole in every screen.

Maybe this was the plan. By this I mean to let all of those who are knowlegible about what a Disney attraction should offer, ride this attraction, comment on what is lacking or what is needed and then close it again for January, Febuary to do what needs to be done. But I could be wrong....:shrug:

...

Pseybert said:

I first told him I was a major fan of the last version, to which he replied that they were glad to hear from old fans. He then proceeded to mindlessly jot everything I told him down. He didn't comment on anything, instead, he started asking me how the touch screen worked. Did I have enough time to make my selections? Was my video what I expected?

I felt like telling him that I was going to punch a hole in every screen.

Click to expand...

Yikes so they were really just assessing whether the software was working as expected? That is the least of the problems!!

I did see Bob Zalk at the entry area. He didnt look very happy at all. Not sure if he always looks like that, or if he was as unhappy as us with how things have turned out.

ptaylor said:

LOL thanks. Sorry about the date issue.

Yeah we can all hope it isn't fully up and running. However, historically, Disney have never really let guests onto something that isnt practically finished. They must consider it show ready otherwise we wouldnt be riding it. Unfortunately I really think the version we say today is pretty much it, UNLESS there are such poor guest reviews or someone from within Disney steps up and declares it needs to be reworked.

Click to expand...

That's okay.

I think because the ride is interactive rather than just having guests sit in the car where everything happens around them, they need to test things early so they can have time to either fix problems or come up with new things. In fact, wasn't it rumored that they were having problems with the interactive portions so they had to delay the opening? I think they need time to test things out. I think historically, a lot of attractions can open up early because they don't run into these types of problems. Take Expedition Everest. I think if they thought the ride was ready when they opened it to passholders months before the official opening, but had drastic problems with the mechanics of the ride, you wouldn't have seen it open for so long before it's official date.

darthjohnny said:

Take Expedition Everest. I think if they thought the ride was ready when they opened it to passholders months before the official opening, but had drastic problems with the mechanics of the ride, you wouldn't have seen it open for so long before it's official date.

Click to expand...

And you see how well they've done keeping the Yeti in A-show. Everest was better during previews than it is now.