Framing Spaceship Earth

One of my favorite things to do at Epcot, as my wife will attest, is to take pictures of Spaceship Earth. It truly is a guilty pleasure of mine. I love to try and frame the great icon with trees when possible as I just love the contrast of nature with the futuristic structure. This particular shot is taken on the walkway in World Showcase between Mexico and the bridge to Future World. I also enjoy trying to capture the monorail passing in front of Spaceship Earth, but this particular shot, as you can see, is missing the monorail.

Shady Foliage

One of the many things I love about Spaceship Earth is the entrance to the attraction. Even on hot sunny days, it's cool and breezy underneath the geodesic sphere. It's a wonderful place to relax and just take in the sights and the people watching. I love the landscaping around the entrance as it truly is amazing that such large amounts of greenery thrive in the shady, breezy area. The plant life is unique to the area and a joy to photograph and just admire.

Summertime Spaceship Earth

Here's just a great summertime Spaceship Earth photo for a cold dreary Midwestern day. It's days like this I wish I could be in a warm sunny Epcot. This photo was taken near the Seas pavilion and is one of my favorite spots for capturing photos of Spaceship Earth.

Camera Center

I recently posted about Gateway Gifts located at Spaceship Earth in Future World. I mentioned how cool I thought the location of that shop was in relation to the actual attraction Spaceship Earth. Here is a photo of the Camera Center which is located in the other front "leg" of Spaceship Earth. Not much has changed as far as the exterior of these locations since my first visit in 1989. I think the 1980's vision of the future for these locations is still cool today and love taking a quick browse through both locations.

Gateway Gifts

I have fond memories of leaving EPCOT Center as a kid and always having to stop in Gateway Gifts before reaching the exit to make any last minute souvenir purchases. I was always fascinated with where this shop was located as it is actually in one of the supports for the massive Spaceship Earth. Of the three supports, this shop is located in one, the Camera Center is located in another, and in the back of Spaceship Earth the ride vehicles descend and Earth Station (now Project Tomorrow) as well as the VIP area are located. Much EPCOT Center branded memorabilia used to be sold here, but now it is the typical WDW fare. I just remember being so sad that we were leaving that I would try and stick around in this shop as long as possible before facing the inevitable exit.

Terry-san

This picture is a part of Spaceship Earth that no longer exists. In its place is the new garage scene depicting the invention of the personal computer. I loved this scene as I could really relate to the idea it was expressing. The main point of this scene was to show the advent of the internet and how it can span language borders as well as physical borders. This girl was supposed to be in Japan while the boy she was communicating with, Terry, was in the United States. Terry was sharing his karate skills and this girl was sharing her baseball game highlights. I have grown up with the internet and the fact that this type of communication could take place made for a perfect ending to the ascension portion of Spaceship Earth. Another interesting tidbit is the fact that the two characters are represented both by sculpted figures in the scene and as real life people on the computer screens. This was an interesting concept that also occurred in a scene from Horizons as well.

Spaceship Earth Foliage

In an eariler post about Spaceship Earth and our trip in early October I had mentioned the change in trees near the icon. I took this picture to show just what that change entailed. As you can see on the left there are some new palm trees that still have bracing around them. In the past there were tall skinny palms in this spot that I thought complemented SSE beautifully. I'm not sure if these are even the same species of tree or not. If anyone has any information regarding this subject I'd greatly appreciate it. As my favorite area and attraction in all of WDW, even landscaping is a huge deal for me.

Glorious Spaceship Earth

I just returned from my first trip to WDW in over a year and got to see this wonderful sight. Of course, it's Spaceship Earth without the wand! Looking at it in person after having been years since seeing it last like this, one wonders why the decision to alter perfection such as this was ever made. Also, of note, I noticed that some of the tall palm trees around SSE had been removed and new smaller palms were there as well. My wife also noticed that some of the sqaure cut trees were missing. Now, if only we could get them to open up the entrance plaza by removing the sculptures and adding more water and greenery.

Leaving a Legacy

Just a quick comment about the Leaving a Legacy monoliths in Future World. I sorely miss the old fountain and open areas in the plaza in front of Spaceship Earth. I think the Leaving a Legacy plans were a good idea in thought but the look was very wrong for Epcot. Looking at the rest of Future World, water and green spaces are prominent. The one place this isn't true is the Leaving a Legacy area now. Hopefully one day this area will be restored.

Project Tomorrow

It's just about 42 days until my next trip to WDW and one of the things I'm most excited about is getting to ride Spaceship Earth for the first time since the refurb. Not only am I excited about the ride, but also the new post-show. Project Tomorrow is the new pre-show and it is sponsored by Siemens just as the attraction is. I did get a chance to see the globe that was installed however it was not in operation when we last visited. The only thing that was up at that time was the medical game which I thought was very cool.

I have heard good things from people who have already seen the post-show and this has fuelled my excitement. I hope that this is a return to the excitement of the original Earth Station, which was truly a great post-show. I plan on taking photos and coming back with not only my review of the attraction, but also the post-show.