There have been several new sources that have reported a Spaceship Earth ride closing for potential refurbishment. Spaceship Earth has become the icon of Epcot in the geocentric dome as you walk into the park. For those that don’t know, Spaceship Earth is a historical ride at Epcot. The ride itself takes you through the history of mankind and how communication and technology has evolved in that time. There have been several updates over the years and are reaching that point again.
Update for 2020:
We have confirmation that the prediction from last year of Spaceship Earth closing for refurbishment is supposed to start early 2020. Disney has announced that that Spaceship Earth will be closing temporarily start on May 26th. It is unclear how long that the ride will be down for whether for a few months which seems unlikely or up to 16+ months. Based on the changes announced at D23 2019, it should be expected to be down for at least a year or more. There are a lot of factors and nothing has been reported specifically but could be quite a process. There are several updates coming the classic ride which may change the guest experience. No matter the length, the update should be worth the wait!
The rumor of Spaceship Earth ride closing reports that it will be closing down for refurbishment starting early 2020 and will take about two years to complete. The goal appears to be to complete renovations when Epcot’s 40th anniversary rolls around in 2022. For a lot of rides, refurbishment is a quick process to touch up paint and fix things that may not be working properly. But in this case, the refurbishment who looks to be a pretty sized overhaul of the entire ride. Rumor has it that the track will be extended and a lot of the segments will be updated. Walt Disney himself stated that Disneyland would never be completed and will continue to evolve, Disney World is no exception.
What does this mean?
Not only does the area have spaceship earth but there is also future world, which looks at advances in technology in the way the world could be in the future. It is unsure if this will be updated as well. The ride could be showing a further technological advances through history. It is also unclear whether the narration will change. Through the course of the ride there have been three narrators. First of which was Walter Cronkite from 1982 to 1994 followed by Jeremy Irons from 1994 to 2007. The last of which has been Judy Dench from 2007 to current. If they are updating the scenes or are adding segments, it seems very plausible that they will have a new narrator.
With this, only time will tell. With the ride closing for that long, it’s only a matter of time before Disney makes further announcements. This comes after the departure of Siemens as the sponsor of Illuminations and Spaceship Earth. This also corresponds with the expansion/updating of Epcot, including Guardians of the Galaxy and Ratatouille ride as well as the closing of illuminations. There has been a lot of construction in Epcot over the past months. They appear to be overhauling some of the older rides to keep up with the other parks. The Spaceship Earth ride closing rumor seems to be very likely. Even though this will take some time, if the rumors are true, it will be worth the wait.