Rumor Spaceship Earth Redo Shelved Indefinitely

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
Had Disney continuously looked for sponsors and replaced them.
You have proof Disney didn't try to find sponsors?

The fact that some sponsors pulled out would be a sign that the cost of sponsorship was perceived by corporations as being too costly compared to the free advertising they got.

And the Internet changed the advertising paradigm.
 

ppete1975

Well-Known Member
You have proof Disney didn't try to find sponsors?

The fact that some sponsors pulled out would be a sign that the cost of sponsorship was perceived by corporations as being too costly compared to the free advertising they got.

And the Internet changed the advertising paradigm.
"I dont work for Disney so I cant 100 percent tell you that they didnt try, but i know enough about the history of the company especially the last 3 decades."

I find it very hard to believe they tried that hard, or whomever was in charge had a limited amount of "suitable" companies.

Over that time frame I am 100 percent positive that SOME company would have sponsored something that we didnt see. Elon and jobs are perfect candidates for the showmen who want to get their stuff out to the world with fanfare. IF Epcot was presented as THE place it could have worked. But as we have seen in all the parks... they do something then stop. How many additions has magic kingdom received since the 80s?

They got lazy.

Most of the companies that pulled out, had industry level changes... Kodak? Replace them.

Its one of those things that now its impossible to fix, but if it had been done consistently over the years and they had always worked to publicize, innovate and develop the park.. it wouldnt have needed a total gutting and IP overlay. Had it been done seamlessly and money spent the park that we have now would be even better than when it was built. The sad part is most of the stuff we love wouldnt be there as well, as it would have been constantly improved, but hopefully with a good budget and creativity it wouldnt be like imagination.
 

aladdin2007

Well-Known Member
You have proof Disney didn't try to find sponsors?

The fact that some sponsors pulled out would be a sign that the cost of sponsorship was perceived by corporations as being too costly compared to the free advertising they got.

And the Internet changed the advertising paradigm.
this,,,,if you all knew what Disney wanted corps to pay you would understand why, astronomical amounts. Norway was well approached (as were corps) all the way up to parliament to be part of the frozen changes among other things, and they say said no way to what Disney wanted in yearly costs.
 

DoleWhipDrea

Well-Known Member
The sponsorship system can be risky. Disney wants a commitment of a lot of money and for a set period of time. I don't know what their average request is but it seems like they try to get 10-year contracts based off of other attraction sponsorships. Financially it has to make sense for the sponsor (will this attraction really make guests more eager to use our service?) and it has to make sense for Disney where they have enough creative control while also paying enough desired for R&D, building and maintenance.

Sometimes I think about what SeaVenture/Maelstrom could have been. While it's not easy to find much, WED wanted to create a journey less about the real-world and more about folklore, not just with trolls, but following the rainbow bridge to Valhalla, with a score composed by the Sherman Brothers (btw, if anyone has any extra info or clips of this music tucked away somewhere, please please share!) Maelstrom was wonderful, and of course Imagineers needed to make adjustments to make the sponsors happy, but honestly the original pitch sounds much more exciting to me. Would Disney have maintained this after sponsors choosing not to renew? I'm not sure, but I sometimes wonder if this could have been a next-generation of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Ultimately Disney needs to be prepared to maintain anything that they build, IMHO. Letting stuff fall apart in the parks is ultimately their decision, and these are things that they should at least keep in mind while designing and building. Sadly this seems to be manifesting in less original ideas, less AAs and more screens.
 

DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
This redo (or at least a refurb) needs to be taken back off the shelf. We rode Thursday and the ride is in terrible shape (although the two machines in the printing press area were both spinning for the first time in years). It seemed like at least 25% of the ride vehicles were out of service and it just seemed so run down and dirty. Quite embarrassing for the ride inside the park icon.
 

mikejs78

Premium Member
This redo (or at least a refurb) needs to be taken back off the shelf. We rode Thursday and the ride is in terrible shape (although the two machines in the printing press area were both spinning for the first time in years). It seemed like at least 25% of the ride vehicles were out of service and it just seemed so run down and dirty. Quite embarrassing for the ride inside the park icon.

That's a big change from about 3 weeks ago. Things actually seemed in mostly decent shape, although on one of our three times through the ride did stop for about 10 minutes.
 

TheEPCOTHistorian

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
There's a huge shift in the EPCOT maintenence team's focus right now, and it's weird. There are numerous effects in rides that haven't worked in YEARS that have been fixed over the past few months, while massive issues persist. One example is the steam in the tea kettle on Imagination being restored, while the last finale blast door is stuck down, showing the rainbow room in the dark. One thing I noticed was that SSE got it's fog machine "torches" fixed, and the pulsing glowing telephone wires.
 

DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
That's a big change from about 3 weeks ago. Things actually seemed in mostly decent shape, although on one of our three times through the ride did stop for about 10 minutes.
Maybe we just got unlucky but we ended up in the middle of a bunch of empty cars with red covers on the headrests. It was like we were riding alone there was so much distance to the next party in front and back.
 

mikejs78

Premium Member
Maybe we just got unlucky but we ended up in the middle of a bunch of empty cars with red covers on the headrests. It was like we were riding alone there was so much distance to the next party in front and back.
That's so odd. We went on SSE probably 4 times while at Disney and never saw anything like that.

I wonder if it's recent?
 

DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
That's so odd. We went on SSE probably 4 times while at Disney and never saw anything like that.

I wonder if it's recent?
Was the bright spotlight before the photo screen on when you were there? That looked terrible and the glow that reflected off the screen made the screen look like when a movie theatre forgets to turn the lights down and washes out the screen.
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
OK this might be a silly question probably, but does Disney NEED to have a sponsor to underwrite the construction or refurbishment or maintenance of an attraction? In the early years when they were stretching financially to build the parks I can understand how this would have helped...but today when the cost of visiting as a guest have skyrocketed from entry tickets and hotel, merch and food, can they not afford to invest in their parks without additional underwriting by Kimberly Clark or Pepsi?
 

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
I think they can. But, my guess is operationally it is a much easier sell if they can point to merchandise sales to offset the operational costs
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
Merch sales are fine, I am talking about corporate sponsorship of the pavilion...HP Sponsored the Space pavilion, but they didn't actually sell HP Computers and Printers in the gift shop....
 

NoChesterHester

Well-Known Member
OK this might be a silly question probably, but does Disney NEED to have a sponsor to underwrite the construction or refurbishment or maintenance of an attraction? In the early years when they were stretching financially to build the parks I can understand how this would have helped...but today when the cost of visiting as a guest have skyrocketed from entry tickets and hotel, merch and food, can they not afford to invest in their parks without additional underwriting by Kimberly Clark or Pepsi?

Absolutely unnecessary. It’s just lagniappe.
 

Mickeynerd17

Well-Known Member
Does anybody remember when the printing machines were last moving? It feels like forever since I last saw both working, or one for that matter. I know the red one worked more often than the green one.

I'm talking about these:

1658207097378.png
 

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