The official groundbreaking for EPCOT Center was October 1, 1979. Exactly 3 years later in 1982, EPCOT Center opened to the public with a price tag of $1.4 billion (1982 currency). As Walt described in earlier interviews, EPCOT stands for the Experimental Prototype City Of Tomorrow. This was to be an actual functioning city. Though we don't have an exact functioning city today, we have a pretty good example of what Walt wanted for his Florida project. As with the last two parks that we explored, Epcot has its very own icon known as Spaceship Earth.
You may have noticed that I have called this park EPCOT Center, EPCOT '94, EPCOT '95, and ultimately Epcot. There have been quite a few name changes in the past for this park in hopes of revitalizing what some thought of as a classroom rather than a theme park. An interesting idea considering how Epcot coined the phrase "Edu-tainment"... But discussion of the park as a whole is neither here nor there. We want to talk about Spaceship Earth...
Spaceship Earth is a 13 minute dark ride that showcases the history and the future of human communication. When we reach the 21st century, we are encouraged to create out own future and look to see what our lives may be like in the coming years.
The structure of the building is awesome in every sense of the word. The "geodesic dome" consists of some 11,520 isosceles triangles with 3,840 points. Interestingly enough the sphere was designed so that when it rained, water was absorbed through these triangles and channeled into drainage pipes so that the rain water would not drip down onto the guests when they walked under the structure. The sphere proved to be a engineering marvel that took 26 months and some 40,000 hours to build.
Spaceship Earth has 20 show scenes with audio-animatronics in just about every one. Given that this attraction showcases communication both in the past, present, and future, the time-line of past refurbishments is impressive as well; which includes a narration change from the new home and office computers to fiber optics and holograms. Unfortunately with the refurbishments came new narrations. Judi Dench is the current narration replacing Jeremy Irons. Perhaps the most memorable narration was that of the 80's with Walter Cronkite. The musical score was also changed taking out one of the more powerful pieces of music that was played in any of the four theme parks.
Fun facts:
- The angle of descent (representing a return to Earth) is 39 degrees.
- The total volume for the sphere is 2,200,000 cubic feet.
- The sphere is raised 18 feet off the ground and sits on pylons sunk more than 120 feet into the ground.
- WED Enterprises designed and manufactured this attraction making it 100% Disney.
TODAY IN WDW HISTORY:
1986 - Ground is broken for a new resort, Disney's Grand Floridian Beach Resort.
1987 - Team Mickey's Athletic Club opens at the Walt Disney World Village.
1991 - The Sci-Fi Dine-In Theater Restaurant opens in Disney - MGM Studios.
1998 - (April 22) Disney's Animal Kingdom officially opens. The park cost an estimated $800 million and is 500 acres.
2000 - The announcement is made that Mission: SPACE will replace Horizons.
2002 - An area of Disney's Animal Kingdom opens. It features two new attractions: Triceratops Spin and Primeval Whirl.
2004 - Disney confirms "it's a small world" will close for almost a year for massive upgrades.
2009 - Space Mountain closes for the first extended refurbishment since it opened in 1975.
2009 - Marty Sklar, a celebrated Imagineer that started working at Disneyland 6 months before it opened, will retire as of July 17. He is still very much involved with the company.
DAYS UNTIL OUR VACATION: 9 Ladies and Gentlemen we have hit single digits. Prepare to dance.
Dance.
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