For the past few days, Spaceship Earth has had a soft opening at EPCOT, welcoming guests ahead of the official reopening on October 25th. We stopped by EPCOT to ride a couple of times and check out what’s new. In this article, we’ll share a full ride POV from this morning, as well as photos to showcase what changed during the 2-month refurbishment.
Spaceship Earth Changes (Oct. 2025)
Overall, Spaceship Earth has remained the same following the 2-month refurbishment. There are no new scenes, and the Dame Judi Dench narration is unchanged. Spaceship Earth is a 16-minute dark ride attraction that uses a constantly-moving Omnimover ride vehicle to move guests through scenes. The attraction is mostly housed within the Spaceship Earth geodesic sphere that stands as the icon of the theme park.
While there are no new scenes or major changes, the ride isn’t unchanged. We’ll have a scene-by-scene breakdown following our full ride video below, but it appears that Disney did make adjustments to a number of scenes during the downtime. Many Audio-Animatronics appear to have more fluid motion, and in some cases, a greater range of motion than prior to the refurbishment.
It may be obvious given the short refurbishment timeframe, but Spaceship Earth certainly did not receive the “Story Light” update previously announced for the attraction. Of all of the theme park projects affected by COVID-19, EPCOT was hit the hardest. From a massive downgrade of the ambitious Festival Center into the embarrassing CommuniCore Hall, to projects cut entirely, COVID hit EPCOT hard.
As you may remember, we were just two months away from Spaceship Earth closing for a multi-year reimagining when the theme parks shut down. Disney had already announced a May 26th closing date and everything. Unfortunately, COVID shut down the parks, and the ambitious Spaceship Earth upgrade was cut. It’s possible that it returns at some point, but there are currently no announced plans.
Spaceship Earth Full Ride POV (Oct. 2025)
We’ll start with a full ride through of Spaceship Earth, with some cuts here and there for time given that the attraction did stop during our ride. We’ll then go scene-by-scene, highlighting what changed during the refurbishment as best we can. Of course, Walt Disney World typically doesn’t highlight work done during refurbishment, but we’ll try our best to remember what the attraction was like before the refurb, and what our experience was riding this morning. First, here’s our full ride POV!
Spaceship Earth: Scene-by-Scene Photos & Updates
We’ll start on the exterior of the attraction. There have been some updates to the exterior of the building that we have previously documented, such as a more glossy look for the panels surrounding the lower portion of the structure (not the globe), and there appears to have been a fresh coat of paint applied to the entrance area.
While tough to see during the day, one of the signs has had a lighting effect restored, while the other sign is awaiting the same update. There has been no noticeable change to the mural and load area.
Likewise, the ascent hasn’t seen any noticeable updates or upgrades. To set expectations early, Walt Disney World called this refurbishment “a routine refurbishment”. What that typically means to us is that there will be maintenance capital thrown at the attraction, but no new development capital. That is, we can expect the attraction to operate smoothly, and the scenes to look refreshed, but not much else. Attractions that have Audio-Animatronics may also see those figures refreshed either in the way of restored range of motion, or refreshed dressing.
With that in mind, let’s continue through the ride. In general, it looks like there may have been some lighting updates or adjustments to some scenes. Overall, the attraction is still very much a dark ride, and I wouldn’t say that any single scene stood out as noticeably better.
When we rode this morning, a lightning effect before the woolly mammoth scene was not working. That’s a bit of a shame, given the tie-in with lighting at the end of the attraction. Hopefully, that was just something that will be addressed before the attraction officially reopens.
It appears that some of the projectors may have received some much-needed maintenance in the first scene with the cavemen attacking the woolly mammoth. The projection appeared to be a bit brighter, if not a bit sharper as well. Without a checklist of what was done during the refurbishment, what we notice is going to be more subjective than we’d like an article like this to be.
Regrettably, the woolly mammoth is not voiced by Ray Romano. Perhaps next refurbishment.
Speaking of voice-over work, there has been no change to the narrator or narration following the refurbishment. That said, we would’ve liked to have the on-board narration turned up a bit. It’s tough to hear at times in person, and certainly impossible to hear on the video that we posted.
Next up is the physical caveman scene, where it looks like our main protagonist in this scene has some restored range of motion. He appears to be far more emotive, able to lift his arms higher than we remember him doing in the recent past.
Going into the Egypt scene next, we see a significant update to the fluidity of the pharaoh and other Audio-Animatronics in this scene. They look great, and were probably the figures that stood out to me the most during my two rides on the attraction this morning. Head back up to the top of the article to watch the ride-through video for a look at how great they are moving now.
Before we can thank the Phoenicians, we have to thank the refurbishment crew for restoring a lot of rocking to their boat! Again, you’ll have to head back to the video for a look at how much it’s moving, but it is very dynamic again.
Moving through ancient Greece and Rome, there isn’t much going on in terms of significant changes. While I’d like to say that every Audio-Animatronic figure was refreshed, I’m not convinced that is the case. There are a lot of figures, after all. In fact, I would say that the figures in these two scenes didn’t really need much work, so it’s possible that they weren’t the focus of attention like the previous two scenes.
Moving past the burning Rome, we might find that the Audio-Animatronics are, once again, clacking less than before. Whereas you may have noticed some quick, sharp movements in the past, we thought that the movements were more fluid and less robotic following the refurbishment.
Not all of the Audio-Animatronics were perfect, however, with some stuck and not moving at all. We’re inclined to give Disney some grace here, given that the ride is technically in soft openings until the official October 25th reopening date.
I thought that there were some lighting improvements made during the refurbishment as well. Some figures appeared to be more properly lit, such as the sleeping monk seen below.
Moving through the Renaissance, I thought that everything mostly looked the way that it did pre-refurbishment.
Improvements in the next few scenes are tough to spot, although it does look like Disney fixed an awkward arm angle for one of the two figures in the telegraph scene. Another awkward arm angle and some impressive range of motion were addressed for the Audio-Animatronics in the radio scene.
Beyond that, the rest of the scenes appeared to be unchanged or not significantly changed. One of the pre-refurbishment rumors was that the vehicles would all receive updates to the touchscreens. That doesn’t appear to be the case. There was no update to the descent video/animation, either.
My hope is that this refurbishment was a much-needed quality-of-life refurbishment. That is, the ride systems and infrastructure received the maintenance that they clearly needed. In speaking with Cast Members, they indicated that there appeared to be a wide variety of disciplines in the building during the refurbishment, perhaps speaking to the breadth of maintenance.
Overall, it’s nice to have Spaceship Earth back open, but we’re not-so-patiently waiting for a reimagining of the ride.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!
