210. Updating Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth deserves an update worthy of its status as EPCOT's iconic attraction.

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Disney has invested quite a bit in transforming EPCOT into a modern park, but they haven’t focused on updating the classic pavilions. A perfect example is Spaceship Earth, which looks great on the outside and has an awesome lighting package. The entrance is cool and includes a fountain that recalls the early days. Disney should update the attraction inside the geodesic sphere, though only if they do it right. Concepts based on storytelling that arose before the pandemic seemed to indicate a push to add IP to the iconic attraction. That is not good.

Let’s do a fun exercise and come up with our ideas for updating Spaceship Earth! This episode of the Tomorrow Society Podcast includes plenty of interesting concepts for ways to freshen up this cool attraction. Along with my own ideas, I’ve recruited listeners and podcast guests to give their thoughts. My feelings are okay, but what I’m excited about is responding to all those exciting plans. Some are realistic and retain the Spaceship Earth’s core theme, while others are very different.

Spaceship Earth deserves to be treated like classic Disney attractions like Pirates of the Caribbean and The Haunted Mansion. There’s no need for a corporate sponsor to support keeping this pavilion looking sharp! I’m not seeking a massive overhaul either; even just fixing some of the maintenance issues would be a great start. A good portion of the ideas focus on the descent, which has become pretty dated in the past 15 years. I really enjoyed diving into all the inventive concepts for Spaceship Earth on this show.