When you think of Disney World park icons, there is generally a consensus amongst everyone. Mention Magic Kingdom, and thoughts of Cinderella Castle come to mind. Animal Kingdom’s icon is clearly the Tree of Life. There’s a little less of a consensus about Hollywood Studios, although most would probably cite the Hollywood Tower Hotel as the park’s icon. Over at EPCOT, Spaceship Earth is the quintessential park icon. However, it has been closed for refurbishment since August 25th. Things will change later this week.
Spaceship Earth, known to some as the giant golf ball, actually is home to a dark ride. The flagship attraction takes you on a trip where you witness innovative moments in history when technological advances were made. You will take a 16-minute ride back in time to see how communications delivered breaking news to the world. While on this Omni-mover ride, you will also see a variety of animatronics that help illustrate and tell the story. It is the very first thing you see as you enter EPCOT from the main entrance, so the attraction oftentimes takes on a long wait as people jump in line immediately after entering the park. As such, there has been a bit of a change in ride wait times during its closure.
We checked the hours of operation for Spaceship Earth on the Disney World website and see that, as of Saturday, October 25th, the ride will be open again. However, if you happen to be at EPCOT earlier in the week, we suggest dropping by to see if the ride is open. The MouseHouseNews.net team has seen in the past that, sometimes, Disney re-opens rides early in a soft-open fashion. When the ride re-opens, don’t expect to see anything different. A Disney Cast Member mentioned that the ride was down for “a little freshening up”. This sounds like routine maintenance to us, so maybe you’ll notice a smoother ride (or maybe you won’t notice a difference at all).
If you will be at Disney World this week, have fun out there! By this weekend, there will be one more ride available at EPCOT. Be sure to get your fill of the EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival while you’re there. The festival has just over one month left, as the final day for this year is November 22nd. Stay tuned to MouseHouseNews.net for more Disney Vacation News and Reviews for Disney Adults!
