EPCOT Spaceship Earth refurbishment coming soon?

[JohnD]

There are generally only five cut or scope-reduced announced things that get blamed on COVID, including 1) Spaceship Earth, 2) Mary Poppins, 3) PLAY!, 4) Celebration Gardens + Festival Center, and 5) the 50th celebration. So mostly EPCOT. Anything else was merely a delay or resultant gap in development activity. This is an accurate characterization of what happened. Stop acting like it isn’t.

Also, scope cuts are normal, especially when things are announced early in development. No one will point to COVID if they happen to obviously cut things this time around, because even if the cuts are more severe than is typical, they will likely be more obviously attributable to either regime change or economic downturn instead.

Except the 50th celebration was only the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World itself with MK also being 50 years old. So saying "mostly Epcot" combined with what should have been a well-executed anniversary celebration across all of WDW doesn't cut it.

 

[James Alucobond]

Except the 50th celebration was only the 50th anniversary of Walt Disney World itself with MK also being 50 years old. So saying "mostly Epcot" combined with what should have been a well-executed anniversary celebration across all of WDW doesn't cut it.

As a regular visitor of the "normal" frequency variety (i.e. every 3-4 years), I suppose I personally could not care less about execution of temporary celebrations and would not consider their reduction in scope to be majorly disruptive. If a milestone happens to be occurring during a visit, great; if not, it really has no bearing on my enjoyment. Deferred improvements and cut corners, on the other hand, do have a tangible impact on my enjoyment.

 

[jah4955]

Just like Sept 11th was blamed for killing the expansion of the monorail system.. Which, well.. isn't untrue.

Huh?
Ik Euro eradicated much of the "Disney Decade" plans, Covid curtailed much of EPCOT, and 9/11 nixed many offerings into "seasonal," but ....a monorail expansion too?! I never heard of any expansion since they cancelled the "Village" expansion.

 

[Timothy_Q]

Hopefully we get SSE 5.0 still this decade

 

[dmc493]

Curious if we'll actually see the ride vehicle screen upgrade folks claimed

 

[monorail81]

Curious if we'll actually see the ride vehicle screen upgrade folks claimed

At this point, I’d be happy with a few new montages to pick from.

 

[jah4955]

At this point, I’d be happy with a few new montages to pick from.

At this point, I'd be happy with no screens so I'd get a few minutes shuteye before leaving

 

[EeyoreFan#24]

I think now they’re just throwing the black sheets over the ride vehicle at the top of the decent. Solved everything.

 

[HMF]

Hopefully we get SSE 5.0 still this decade

The fact that 4.0 lasted this long is depressing.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

Curious if we'll actually see the ride vehicle screen upgrade folks claimed

It was on one vehicle before the refurb, so at worst it’ll still be on one vehicle when it reopens lol

 

[tparris]

It was on one vehicle before the refurb, so at worst it’ll still be on one vehicle when it reopens lol

Vehicle 192 right? I could be making that number up though

 

[BasiltheBatLord]

Do we think they may be removing more of the left behind '94 set pieces as part of this refurb?

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

Vehicle 192 right? I could be making that number up though

That’s correct

Do we think they may be removing more of the left behind '94 set pieces as part of this refurb?

Doubtful, really no reason to go through the effort unless they’re going to do something to the space. EPCOT has a long history of leaving things sit until they’re just about to replace it with something.

 

[twilight mitsuk]

return of the fiberoptic city on the descent? I wish

 

[HMF]

return of the fiberoptic city on the descent? I wish

That was removed in 07.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

That was removed in 07.

And shifted over To Test Track 2.0

 

[HMF]

And shifted over To Test Track 2.0

Fair but it is obviously not the same model and this was more of a nod to the "Center core" finale of World Of Motion.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

Fair but it is obviously not the same model and this was more of a nod to the "Center core" finale of World Of Motion.

It was actually shared somewhere (the parks blog? D23?) shortly after TT 2.0 opened that the guy who designed this city set had never been on World of Motion or seen the old center core city, so it was a total coincidence

 

[HMF]

It was actually shared somewhere (the parks blog? D23?) shortly after TT 2.0 opened that the guy who designed this city set had never been on World of Motion or seen the old center core city, so it was a total coincidence

I have a hard time believing that Trevor Bryant, the Show Producer of TT 2.0 who also worked on the original EPCOT Center attractions and put multiple WoM tributes into TT 2.0. was oblivious to it. Maybe the person who physically designed it was but the Lead Imagineer for the attraction certainly had a say.

 

[DreamfinderGuy]

I have a hard time believing that Trevor Bryant, the Show Producer of TT 2.0 who also worked on the original EPCOT Center attractions and put multiple WoM tributes into TT 2.0. was oblivious to it. Maybe the person who physically designed it was but the Lead Imagineer for the attraction certainly had a say.

Yeah the article that Disney published said pretty much exactly that