Spaceship Earth. Epcot's "welcome" attraction.

[Robo]

Spaceship Earth has the distinction of being the ONLY major attraction at WDW with its entrance positioned where guests must pass it on their way from the front gate into the park.

(Sort of a "Welcoming Attraction.")

Many guests, as they approach, see other guests standing in the queue(s) and think that they MUST ride it NOW (as they come to it.)

At all other parks, there is no "first" attraction that guests MUST pass to go into the park, proper.
They may arbitrarily turn and go in a multitude of directions (towards various attractions) as they get into the park proper.

I'm not counting "Main Street U.S.A." or the "Oasis" at DAK as a "major attraction" which do not have formal "queues" for guests.
(And, guests must make a conscience decision to know to go up to board the MK's WDW Railroad.)

Interesting that Epcot is the only park with this kind of attraction "positioning."

They must not have thought it was such a good idea, as the two parks built since Epcot do not have this kind of design.




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[Otimon]

Kind of makes Epcot a "stand-out", don't you think?

 

[Kathy C]

You can also enter Epcot through the International Gateway. All the other parks have only one entrance.

 

[TikiGoddess]

I remember going to Epcot after it first opened and all the touring plans said to bypass Spaceship Earth because it was so packed in the mornings due to its proximity. I believe it advised to come back around 3:00, now I think it rarely has a line.

 

[Robo]

You can also enter Epcot through the International Gateway. All the other parks have only one entrance.

Good one.

Word is that Epcot was originally designed to be two separate parks.

I don't think the IG was going to be the "real" Entrance to WS, but it is an interesting "gate" at WDW.

I can guess (if the "two parks" idea had been used) that the monorail station would have been located at the end of the "inside loop" at the junction of FW and WS.

 

[ChrisAlli]

Was the International Gateway entrance always there? Or just put in when the resorts we built. Those are all newer than Epcot right?

 

[safetymom]

Since the refurbishment SE has had a line morning and evening.

 

[Robo]

Was the International Gateway entrance always there? Or just put in when the resorts we built. Those are all newer than Epcot right?

The Swan and Dolphin Resorts, and Yacht and Beach Club Resorts opened in 1990.

So they post-dated Epcot by several years.

I don't remember (and can't find) any info on the International Gateway's premiere, but since there would have been a need to bring in special GROUPS to World Showcase, since the very beginning, I'm thinking that this was where they BUSED IN those groups.

There is road-access and a bus-loading area just outside the International Gateway.
It MAY have been there from Epcot's beginning.

 

[ChrisAlli]

The Swan and Dolphin Resorts, and Yacht and Beach Club Resorts opened in 1990.

So they post-dated Epcot by several years.

I don't remember (and can't find) any info on the International Gateway's premiere, but since there would have been a need to bring in special GROUPS to World Showcase, since the very beginning, I'm thinking that this was where they BUSED IN those groups.

There is road-access and a bus-loading area just outside the International Gateway.
It MAY have been there from Epcot's beginning.

I thought the road was from when they had a tram car at the boardwalk, that's the turn around for it.???

I thought I read they use the tram at Castaway Cay now. Am I nuts?

 

[centurythree]

There is road-access and a bus-loading area just outside the International Gateway.
It MAY have been there from Epcot's beginning.

I don't think it was. I distinctly remember rounding the corner to France one day and seeing it for the first time. That was after the Swan and Dolphin had already been built.

 

[Boardwalker]

For us, it was always a must do first ride because it would empty you into where you could make lunch reservations at the WS restaurants.

 

[Brian_WDW74]

I don't remember (and can't find) any info on the International Gateway's premiere, but since there would have been a need to bring in special GROUPS to World Showcase, since the very beginning, I'm thinking that this was where they BUSED IN those groups.

The International Gateway premiered on January 11, 1990.

 

[Robo]

The International Gateway premiered on January 11, 1990.

Now I know.

 

[Robo]

I thought the road was from when they had a tram car at the boardwalk, that's the turn around for it.???

Yes, we rode the Swalphin and Y&B Club tram there... back before they built Boardwalk.

But right there is BUS loading, too.

It's how they can bus in the corporate or other private party groups into WS for events there when they need to (and they need to... ALOT.)


If you don't know where to look, you won't know it, but there is road access there.

 

[lostatdisney]

The newly refurbished Spaceship Earth is definitely worth a visit! We just returned, and I think I rode it four times. My teens loved it too. It is now personalized - they take your picture at the beginning, you answer questions at the end, and then you watch a short animated video about your future with your picture superimposed on a body. It's very cute! And the room that you exit into has lots of fun hands-on futuristic video-type games. The lines were long most of the day, but they moved quickly. And they were somewhat shorter in the evening.

 

[joepic]

I've never noticed this. Thanks, it made me think.

 

[deej696]

It is interesting to think about how different things would be if Epcot was actually two different parks as originally planned. I have always wondered why they have the monorail go through the park like that, and that would certainly make sense as to why. To go further, how different would it be if DHS was merely a new section added to WS as Eisner originally thought, as opposed to the seperate gate that we know today.....

 

[wilde_oscar]

The Swan and Dolphin Resorts, and Yacht and Beach Club Resorts opened in 1990.

So they post-dated Epcot by several years.

I don't remember (and can't find) any info on the International Gateway's premiere, but since there would have been a need to bring in special GROUPS to World Showcase, since the very beginning, I'm thinking that this was where they BUSED IN those groups.

There is road-access and a bus-loading area just outside the International Gateway.
It MAY have been there from Epcot's beginning.

oh boy, i know an answer that Robo does not... mark my calendar.

The international entrance was not original to the park, but was part of the original design. After the law suits of the 80's over the Tischman deal... Swan and Dolphin were set to be built, Disney accelerated the time table for building yacht and beach. Part of the law suit settlement was that the Tischman hotels had to be on Disney Transportation, and tischman assumed that ment they would be on the monorail... instead they expanded a drainage ditch and slapped in a boat so that swan and dolphin were "on" disney transportation. of course Eisner was in his empire building mode, and did not want a non-disney hotel to have such prime space, so they accelerated completion of yacht and beach, and later built the lake and Boardwalk. or did they build the lake and then build boardwalk? the original assumption was that the land for boardwalk, yacht and beach would be to swampy to put anything there, But Eisner though the power of thought control made the land dry and usable, or was it a big bull dozer?

 

[Robo]

For us, it was always a must do first ride because it would empty you into where you could make lunch reservations at the WS restaurants.

Communicore!

 

[Boardwalker]

Right! The family sized phone booth was so space aged!