EPCOT Spaceship Earth Refurb - 2 Year Closure

bpiper

bpiper

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
I found a picture of it over at the site that cannot be named. Strange piece of scaffolding, very tall and thin and wrapped with scrim.
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That looks like a scaffolding bridge so that workers can get to the center of the fountain without climbing on the new pieces that they installed that break up the water as it flows down. Maybe they are too delicate or the glue or whatever, hasn't completely cured yet. The scrim is to pretty it up.
 
trainplane3

trainplane3

Well-Known Member
ABQ said:
There is this strange scaffold thing being built up between the new acrylic monoliths and the lower front of the sphere (northside). No idea what it could be for, but not implying it's related to the permit, but just throwing it out there.
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It's been there for a few weeks. Electronics and various lighting controls are housed in the middle of the fountain.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
bpiper said:
That looks like a scaffolding bridge so that workers can get to the center of the fountain without climbing on the new pieces that they installed that break up the water as it flows down. Maybe they are too delicate or the glue or whatever, hasn't completely cured yet. The scrim is to pretty it up.
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That makes sense. It looks like it's at the same level as the platform the prisms sit on.
 
WDWYankee15

WDWYankee15

Well-Known Member
RSoxNo1 said:
blogmickey.com

Walt Disney Imagineering Files Permit for Spaceship Earth Work

Walt Disney World news, photos, and reviews! We provide you with daily news from the Walt Disney World theme parks and beyond
blogmickey.com blogmickey.com
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This was posted on this very forum last week (Wednesday).
danlb_2000 said:
Permit filed today for the address of Spaceship Earth. Same contractor, Whiting Turner Contracting Company, that filed the initial permit back when it looked like this project was actually going to happen. It has the default 1 year expiration.

2060 AVENUE OF THE STARS(SPACESHIP EARTH) - Installation of source power and control equipment
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danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
DoleWhipDrea

DoleWhipDrea

Well-Known Member
SSE will eventually get at least a proper refurbishment, but I’m skeptical that we’ll see anything remotely close to the concept art that Disney originally released. It’s an expenditure that current management doesn’t feel they can actually make real money off of.

Replace the track and ride vehicles (no more screens), improve a few effects, and fix from 180 top to the end of the ride...that’s what I see them doing now, if even.

With the amount of things closed in EPCOT, Disney really can’t afford to have the ride closed for several years right now. They need it operational.
 
Mickeynerd17

Mickeynerd17

Well-Known Member
DoleWhipDrea said:
SSE will eventually get at least a proper refurbishment, but I’m skeptical that we’ll see anything remotely close to the concept art that Disney originally released. It’s an expenditure that current management doesn’t feel they can actually make real money off of.

Replace the track and ride vehicles (no more screens), improve a few effects, and fix from 180 top to the end of the ride...that’s what I see them doing now, if even.

With the amount of things closed in EPCOT, Disney really can’t afford to have the ride closed for several years right now. They need it operational.
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This is sort-of a good and bad thing.

Sure, we get to keep riding SSE for a while longer, but the longer it goes without a refurb, the more extensive the damage, and that track is literally dying to be replaced.

It's almost becoming a Horizons situation where the ride was literally left with little matinence and no updates just rotting on its plot for five years before the building literally started collapsing on itself, thus leading to it's closure and eventual demolition.

I don't think they'll let SSE become in that bad a shape, but that's definitely the trajectory.

(As long as it stays open until April for my trip, I'm happy though 🤣)
 
DreamfinderGuy

DreamfinderGuy

Well-Known Member
Mickeynerd17 said:
It's almost becoming a Horizons situation where the ride was literally left with little matinence and no updates just rotting on its plot for five years before the building literally started collapsing on itself, thus leading to it's closure and eventual demolition.
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If SSE's ride system were causing that much structural stress it would no longer be open, but if it ever does close unexpectedly or without warning I'm gonna start saying there was a sinkhole under it 🤪
 
Mickeynerd17

Mickeynerd17

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Incorrect.
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Well, I didn't say that was what was happening, but with the water leakage, track problems, and other issues, it seems to be getting in that direction.

Unless your talking about Horizons, in which that's what I've heard over the years from many sources, but everybody says something different. IDK what actually happened, I wasn't born yet. 🤣
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
Mickeynerd17 said:
Well, I didn't say that was what was happening, but with the water leakage, track problems, and other issues, it seems to be getting in that direction.

Unless your talking about Horizons, in which that's what I've heard over the years from many sources, but everybody says something different. IDK what actually happened, I wasn't born yet. 🤣
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Horizons.

Many sources are wrong. Remember it stayed open until January 1999. Not something that would have happened if the structure was in doubt. Not to mention I was friends with one of the designers before he sadly passed.
 

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