Hello everyone! I have a few tidbits from around the park, plus more observations after a couple more trips on Spaceship Earth.
General EPCOT:
-The Fountain of Nations was in its standard mode the entire evening, not dancing with the Christmas music and Lights of Winter like it usually is.
-As Merf speculated, the doors in Innoventions West have reopened in the Breezeway. That's the first time since the days of CommuniCore, I believe. There is no sign, at least not yet. Seemingly negating the old rumor that the Road would be going away, it has been extended to these doors, as the new Velcro exhibit doesn't extend all the way to IBM like the previous Too Small to See and Ultimate Home Theater Experience venues did.
-Speaking of which, the construction walls around half of the Velcro venue are down, reopening that section of Road, and revealing a Toontown-like exterior. Walls are still up around the section of the Velcro exhibit next to the doors that lead out into Future World West.
-The overhauled bathrooms in Future World West have finally reopened. They have been this way probably about month now, but I don't think I've seen anyone mention it here. They are very colorful!
Spaceship Earth:
-First off, both of the signs were on, but instead of them changing colors, they were just subtly changing shades of blue and shimmering.
-Not really a piece of news, but just a thought about the picture-taking. I think that they are going to have a tougher time than they thought with the image capture, as certain humans aren't just content with sitting there and smiling. For example, I saw one person flip off the camera, and another couple making out for their picture.
-At the end of the mammoth projection, the bleeding light below has been eliminated (once again, I think Merf had mentioned that).
-"Thank the Phoenicians" is back.
-In the Renaissance, the epic story of the controversial modification to the statue being chiseled (Venus de Milo, if I'm not mistaken) has had an interesting twist. A smaller model of the completed figure has appeared, anatomically correct chest and all. I could have somehow missed this before, but I could swear it wasn't there until now.
-On two of my trips, the ride system stopped. The first time was in the computer lab for about a minute or so. They played a couple different automatic spiels, and I'm pretty sure they're the same ones from the Jeremy Irons version. The second time it jerked to a stop between Greece and Rome for about ten minutes, more obviously some type of ride system malfunction. A Cast Member came on over the P.A. to spiel (heavily-accented, poor English, I might add), and only used one of the automatic spiels.
-Merf had also mentioned the telegraph operator sending a message about Amelia Earhart (which is one of the quiz questions on your touch screen towards the end), but I also heard the radio announcer talking about her.
-A couple of nice touches I saw in the living room were an in-progress game of Mouse Trap sitting behind the couch (thoroughly sunk into the carpet), more board games sitting on the shelf (Risk, Concentration, and one or two others I can't remember), and a decent collection of National Geographics.
-Once the touch screen is activated, it no longer asks you where you live.
-Something I noticed I hadn't before, if you don't answer any of the questions, a countdown clock will appear in the upper right corner of the screen and a tone to go with it.
-Parts of the descent are looking marginally better, but I noticed that the worst section is ironically right when your video is over and you would theoretically start looking outside of your Time Machine again.
-I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice little homage when one of the video variations ended with the phrase "...great, big, beautiful tomorrow!"
-And finally, the new Power City game in Project Tomorrow is very fun, I actually wanted to play it again. And, best of all, a certain silver geosphere and a wedge-shaped building with rainbow sides and solar panels on its roof make a nice appearance!
General EPCOT:
-The Fountain of Nations was in its standard mode the entire evening, not dancing with the Christmas music and Lights of Winter like it usually is.
-As Merf speculated, the doors in Innoventions West have reopened in the Breezeway. That's the first time since the days of CommuniCore, I believe. There is no sign, at least not yet. Seemingly negating the old rumor that the Road would be going away, it has been extended to these doors, as the new Velcro exhibit doesn't extend all the way to IBM like the previous Too Small to See and Ultimate Home Theater Experience venues did.
-Speaking of which, the construction walls around half of the Velcro venue are down, reopening that section of Road, and revealing a Toontown-like exterior. Walls are still up around the section of the Velcro exhibit next to the doors that lead out into Future World West.
-The overhauled bathrooms in Future World West have finally reopened. They have been this way probably about month now, but I don't think I've seen anyone mention it here. They are very colorful!
Spaceship Earth:
-First off, both of the signs were on, but instead of them changing colors, they were just subtly changing shades of blue and shimmering.
-Not really a piece of news, but just a thought about the picture-taking. I think that they are going to have a tougher time than they thought with the image capture, as certain humans aren't just content with sitting there and smiling. For example, I saw one person flip off the camera, and another couple making out for their picture.
-At the end of the mammoth projection, the bleeding light below has been eliminated (once again, I think Merf had mentioned that).
-"Thank the Phoenicians" is back.
-In the Renaissance, the epic story of the controversial modification to the statue being chiseled (Venus de Milo, if I'm not mistaken) has had an interesting twist. A smaller model of the completed figure has appeared, anatomically correct chest and all. I could have somehow missed this before, but I could swear it wasn't there until now.
-On two of my trips, the ride system stopped. The first time was in the computer lab for about a minute or so. They played a couple different automatic spiels, and I'm pretty sure they're the same ones from the Jeremy Irons version. The second time it jerked to a stop between Greece and Rome for about ten minutes, more obviously some type of ride system malfunction. A Cast Member came on over the P.A. to spiel (heavily-accented, poor English, I might add), and only used one of the automatic spiels.
-Merf had also mentioned the telegraph operator sending a message about Amelia Earhart (which is one of the quiz questions on your touch screen towards the end), but I also heard the radio announcer talking about her.
-A couple of nice touches I saw in the living room were an in-progress game of Mouse Trap sitting behind the couch (thoroughly sunk into the carpet), more board games sitting on the shelf (Risk, Concentration, and one or two others I can't remember), and a decent collection of National Geographics.
-Once the touch screen is activated, it no longer asks you where you live.
-Something I noticed I hadn't before, if you don't answer any of the questions, a countdown clock will appear in the upper right corner of the screen and a tone to go with it.
-Parts of the descent are looking marginally better, but I noticed that the worst section is ironically right when your video is over and you would theoretically start looking outside of your Time Machine again.
-I was pleasantly surprised to find a nice little homage when one of the video variations ended with the phrase "...great, big, beautiful tomorrow!"
-And finally, the new Power City game in Project Tomorrow is very fun, I actually wanted to play it again. And, best of all, a certain silver geosphere and a wedge-shaped building with rainbow sides and solar panels on its roof make a nice appearance!
