New Spaceship Earth - a disgrace

[CLC]

We were able to experience spaceship earth last week. Wish the old one was back. To me, the narration lacked emotion, warmth, and resonance. Some of the new costumes were nice. But why is the old paperboy so far back and facing away?

The whole end of the ride is based on the computer screen. After seeing the back of Steve Jobs' head and hearing "What if everyone had a personal computer...?" not much happened. Wow. We thought with that lead in great creativity was ahead.
Not to be. All the old scenes about communications are gone but only the computer screens take their place.

Opportunity lost to update the old communication scenes with new technology. Instead, the computer asks some questions and shows your 'future'-not something that was interesting the first time, much less seeing it again. We can see much more interesting and innovative content on computer screens at home.

Spaceship Earth there could have created that 'wow' factor demonstrating the technology of today and tomorrow. Instead to us it was 'wow' how disappointing. And there was nobody taking surveys at the end.

We are at Disney every couple of months and always rode Spaceship Earth. The new one is just not the same to us, and won't be on our ongoing 'to do' list.

 

[ADP]

Let's hope there is more work to do. Spaceship Earth represents what Disney World is all about; innovation, ride technology and imagination. Spaceship Earth was one of the first attractions I ever experienced at Disney World. I remember getting off the attraction in 1992 and saying to myself "How in the world are they (Disney) able to do this?"

Spaceship Earth holds a sentimental spot for me since I have a masters degree in communication technology and work in that industry. I hope the attraction never loses the communication theme and gets more attention during the refurbishment.

 

[Rustysmom]

Let's hope there is more work to do. Spaceship Earth represents what Disney World is all about; innovation, ride technology and imagination. Spaceship Earth was one of the first attractions I ever experienced at Disney World. I remember getting off the attraction in 1992 and saying to myself "How in the world are they (Disney) able to do this?"

SE was the first Disney ride I ever went on too (and in 1992) and I walked off it in awe of those audioanimatronic figures and the big Earth scene at the top. I don't like what I've been hearing and I hope Disney actually reads these boards and they will try to fix the parts that are lacking, especially the ending.

 

[Metro West]

All of these reviews are not encouraging. I hope Disney isn't finished with the refurb yet and will do what's right to maintain the ride.

 

[WEDWDW]

We were able to experience spaceship earth last week. Wish the old one was back. To me, the narration lacked emotion, warmth, and resonance. Some of the new costumes were nice. But why is the old paperboy so far back and facing away?

The whole end of the ride is based on the computer screen. After seeing the back of Steve Jobs' head and hearing "What if everyone had a personal computer...?" not much happened. Wow. We thought with that lead in great creativity was ahead.
Not to be. All the old scenes about communications are gone but only the computer screens take their place.

Opportunity lost to update the old communication scenes with new technology. Instead, the computer asks some questions and shows your 'future'-not something that was interesting the first time, much less seeing it again. We can see much more interesting and innovative content on computer screens at home.

Spaceship Earth there could have created that 'wow' factor demonstrating the technology of today and tomorrow. Instead to us it was 'wow' how disappointing. And there was nobody taking surveys at the end.

We are at Disney every couple of months and always rode Spaceship Earth. The new one is just not the same to us, and won't be on our ongoing 'to do' list.

They were taking surveys when I exited the attraction.I was asked to name negative things about the attraction.One of the things I mentioned was that I thought that the interactive "cartoon" shown on the computer screen in the vehicles at the end of the ride was not in keeping with the serious,educational nature of the attraction.After talking further with the surveyor I learned she was an Imagineer who had been working on the refurbishment.Guess what part she had been working on-THE COMPUTER SCREENS!She was so nice and had been working so hard.I felt bad the rest of the day.

 

[jenseib]

I jsut got my mousesavers newsletter the other day and it says the Spaceship Earth is closed Now through 2/18/08 for refurbishment. So I assume they are NOT done. Lets hope.

 

[UrsulasShadow]

I really liked the updates to the first part of the ride, but I agree the interactive computer screens on the way down are rather lame. I do like the music, and the narration.

 

[mlayton14]

No serious complaints about the way up other than the anti-dramatic music .. but moving from the present to the future can be described one way - CHEAP.

Where are the show scenes .. where is the drama?

I have no problem with the narration changes .. but the music? What the heck happened? The vision of the future is a cartoon on a 12inch video screen?

This is a total disgrace .. very disappointed. For the icon on the park, they cheaped out to give us a boring, no frills experience. VERY DISAPPOINTED ...

 

[Tinks1984]

Oh this sounds awful for SSE. It's been a long time since I last rode this ride, but I do remember I have fond memories of it, I just hope that with the surveys that have been done, Disney make further improvements for the official opening in February.

I get to ride again in April, so fingers crossed the reviews in February are better and I can look forward again to riding a 'Disney Classic'

 

[CanadianGuy]

I've merged these two threads with the same topic.

Knox

 

[kylara]

I am sorry to read such disappointing reviews of the updated SSE. I really hope they make some changes before it officially re-opens in Feb given that this is one of my favorites. But given what they did with Imagination, I don't hold out much hope. I loved the original Imagination and now rarely ride it because I feel so let down.

 

[graygables]

Oh my heavens, we rode last Monday and the narration was DREADFUL. Turned our once favorite into a probably never again if they keep it that way. The scenes were fine, the touch screen/descent just silly (and who really needs a photo of themselves on SE???), but the narration was beyond bad. Ancient Rome had the first world wide web? The scholars of the East were the first backup system??? The former narrations were storytelling and emotive, this was like Dame Judi Dench as tacky tour guide saying 3rd grade sound bites and waving the yellow flag to follow.

They do have a lot of time before the official re-opening date to tweak it (and from what I heard, the descent is still under construction, I certainly hope the e-surance.com-esque cartoons doing stupid things isn't it), but the narration needs a full rewrite.

 

[carlyle688]

This used to be my husband's favorite ride. I told him how everyone said the ride has been ruined and he flat out refused to go on it last Sunday when we were out there. He said he wants to remember it the way it was.

 

[Karnak]

I rode Spaceship Earth twice on Wed., Dec. 12, and really enjoyed it. The displays are so much more sharp, colorful, and well done. However, I agree with the posters on this thread who found the ending of the ride, with the little screen showing poorly animated cartoon figures to be very lame. I think the decent would have been much better with a moving light display and music, and let it go at that.

I did miss the paper boy hawking the latest news on the street corner. (That's probably because I used to sell papers on the streets of Ironton, Ohio, in 1937 and '38. As I remember it, I got to keep two cents for each paper I sold.)

But Spaceship Earth remains as one of my favorite WDW attractions.

Karnak

 

[kevin75]

my wife and i just rode it a little while ago and while it's been about 16 years since i rode SSE, i don't think my reaction this time was as positive as it was last time. i seem to remember that when i rode it back in high school, i loved it. now, i am not so sure. our ride stopped near the beginning, during the mammoth scene projected on the wall, which i didn't think was normal.

i have a couple of questions though.....

1. at the top, when you get to the earth shot with the starshot, was there originally something else there? it seemed that in the shadows, that there was supposed to be something else there.

2. what are the big changes that have occurred (i.e. different narrators)? what were they originally and what are they now?

 

[Dznefreek]

I rode it today and all I can say is I hope this will not be close to the final product.
This makes 3 strikes for WDW IMHO. . . .

JIYI (the original was the best)
Grand Fiesta Tour (was River of Time) in Mexico (a waste of my time and space)
Spaceship Earth as of today. Someone is making a killing on black fabric covered with lights as that was the entire descent. . . ..

 

[goofy4tink]

I got to ride it last Monday. I didn't find that I disliked the narration at all. Yes, the previous narration was a bit more dramatic sounding, but that is due to voice type. I liked the rehabbed scenes as well as most of the new ones. Loved, loved, loved the new music in the Michalango scene. I was greatly disappointed in the ending though. If they had left the 'lightshow' as it was, rather than tinker with it and add that lame computer thingie, I would have been happy. The ending just seems to be anticlimactic to me. They have another two months before it 'officially' opens. Let's hope they are still hard at work on that ending. Man, it was lame.

 

[graygables]

my wife and i just rode it a little while ago and while it's been about 16 years since i rode SSE, i don't think my reaction this time was as positive as it was last time. i seem to remember that when i rode it back in high school, i loved it. now, i am not so sure. our ride stopped near the beginning, during the mammoth scene projected on the wall, which i didn't think was normal.

i have a couple of questions though.....

1. at the top, when you get to the earth shot with the starshot, was there originally something else there? it seemed that in the shadows, that there was supposed to be something else there.

2. what are the big changes that have occurred (i.e. different narrators)? what were they originally and what are they now?

The ride does sometimes stop to allow disabled travelers to board. On our last ride, we were stopped for 20 minutes, however, in the new garage scene.

At the top, there was always the image of the earth and stars. I don't ever recall anything more at that point, just the backward descent had various scenes and narration.

The original narrator was Walter Cronkite, followed by Jeremy Irons. They both had very dramatic voices that did an excellent job of reading the narration that was more story-like in nature. Dame Judi Dench is the current narrator, and while her voice is fine, the script is horrible and very dumbed down. Her tone also sounds as if she can't believe she's having to say such stupid stuff, so that makes it even worse.

The backward descent is currently the fiberoptic lights above and the touch screen cartoon (which is REALLY bad). I can't imagine a company the caliber of Siemens is going to let that be the end, and the opening isn't until Feb, so they do have time to rebuild some scenes there (plus we could see tools, ladders, etc still lying around by the black curtains). The script needs to be re-written and re-recorded, get rid of the photo at the beginning (there's been noise about using YOUR face on the cartoons...LORD have mercy ), and use the touch screen for more informative/interesting purposes that build to the exit area of the attraction (perhaps a preview of what's there). They also need to build in some kind of video loop that can remind people to stay seated if the ride stops and perhaps offer some further background about the scenes to keep people amused while they wait (and less likely to stand up) Part of our delay was the CMs having to come on and remind people to SIT DOWN.

 

[DebbieT11]

The narration was weak.... the part about ancient Rome being the first world wide web had me doing a double take.... "Huh??"

 

[suzimar57]

another disappointing review of SE....

i had such high hopes for this rehab.