Today Is the Last Day to Ride Soarin' Around the World at EPCOT Before It Closes

May 13, 2026 in "Soarin'"

Gallery / 3 Photos
Soarin' Around the World

Posted: Wednesday May 13, 2026 6:51am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Today, Wednesday May 13, is the last day to ride Soarin' Around the World at EPCOT. The attraction closes tonight to make way for Soarin' Across America, which opens May 26 2026.

Soarin' Around the World

EPCOT runs Early Theme Park Entry from 8:30am today, with the park opening to all guests at 9:00am and closing at 9:00pm.

The current film lifts you above the Swiss Alps before taking you across the globe. Along the way you'll pass over polar bears in Greenland, sailboats on Sydney Harbour, and elephants marching toward Mount Kilimanjaro. The flight crosses the Great Wall of China, the Great Pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, Monument Valley, Fiji's Lau Island, and Iguazu Falls before finishing above a sparkling nighttime Paris with the Eiffel Tower lit up below.

Updated Soarin' Around the World Ending Scene

The whole experience plays out on an 80-foot, 180-degree IMAX digital projection dome, with scents pumped in to match each location and the ride's motion synced to the footage. The musical score — adapted by Bruce Broughton from Jerry Goldsmith's original Academy Award-winning composition — runs throughout.

Soarin' Around the World has been running at EPCOT since 2016, replacing the original Soarin' Over California film.

Soarin' Around the World

Soarin' Across America focuses entirely on U.S. locations including the Grand Canyon, with new aerial cinematography shot specifically for the updated experience. Annual Passholders get early access on May 19 and 20 before the attraction opens to all guests on May 26.

Grand Canyon filming

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Mr. Sullivan3 days ago

Unscripted is probably the best thing there is for people who’re just curious how things get done. There’s very little production to it and it is indeed mostly unscripted.

etc984 days ago

I’d definitely recommend the Disney Unscripted videos, they’re the best series they’re putting out these days imo. They just show people going about their jobs. And it definitely is (mostly) unscripted. They show some of the problems that they face too, which you don’t often see and is pretty fascinating. The Mandalorian Smuggler’s Run video where they’re running into bugs in the code and seeing the wrong things. The Cars Land holiday decoration video where they installed things in the wrong places and had to take it down and start over. The WDW christmas tree video where they had to modify set pieces on the fly to get them to fit. The flower and garden topiary video where they were dealing with the effects of the hard freeze that happened. It really humanizes the people involved with the project, and appreciate the scale of everything that goes into them

DisneyCane4 days ago

Is the girl who built the Soarin' model a member here? If so, that's awesome and glad you got the Imagineer's to autograph it!

Disney Analyst4 days ago

What a cool video. Seeing the programming that goes into just the wind... 🤯

monothingie5 days ago

Every piece of public facing Disney content is highly scripted and choreographed and cast, whether you as the viewer know it or not.

Joel5 days ago

Because except for the less than one minute narration serving as an intro to the video, it's entirely comprised of unscripted behind the scenes footage. There's no host/narrator/dreaded social media personality constantly interjecting throughout, as you might expect with this sort of thing. This is the first of this series of videos that I've watched (I generally disregard Disney's social media output as "not for me"), and it's honestly a pretty nice format.

monothingie5 days ago

Why do they call it Disney "Unscripted" when it is clearly very scripted?

DCBaker5 days ago

In the latest Disney Unscripted episode, Disney shares an inside look at how Soarin’ Across America was created:

coffeefan17 days ago

Besides the space shuttle intro, I've settled on preferring the world version. The Matterhorn intro worked for me, and the world version just felt more alive. And agree, the OG is still the GOAT.

ChrisFL17 days ago

The only issue I had with Soarin over California was the lack of transitions...I liked what they did with World in that respect.

Baloo12418 days ago

There needed to be some sort of theme within the transitions. Since it's an aerial experience and this is all about America, why not have a bald eagle soar past every time it transitions to the next scene? Have it start out as just the bald eagle swooping by during early transitions, but gradually get more and more patriotic each time.

Br0ckford18 days ago

Literally just rode for the first time. I agree with pretty much everything you said. I did like the beginning but felt we could have ridden with the rocket a little longer. I also enjoyed the end, the red white and blue gets me. Can't help it. I think Spaceship Earth with the red white and blue and fireworks behind it might be my next tattoo. 🤔