Disney Reveals Soarin' Across America Flight Path and New EPCOT Queue Experience

May 14, 2026 in "Soarin'"

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Soarin' Across America

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Posted: Thursday May 14, 2026 9:07am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has shared new details about Soarin' Across America ahead of its May 26 opening at EPCOT, including a first look at locations featured in the new film and a brand new queue experience created in partnership with National Geographic.

Soarin' Across America

The new film takes you across the United States through what Disney describes as a "seasons and regions" approach. Confirmed locations include:

The rugged New England coastline
New York Harbor
Grand Canyon West
The autumn colors of the heartland
The bayous
The great plains of the west
The northern wilderness
Sunlit island shores

"Each scene helps to create a portrait of what we believe makes America so special," said Tom Fitzgerald, creative director and chief storytelling executive at Walt Disney Imagineering.

Hawaii

Mount Rushmore

New England Soarin' Across America

Bruce Broughton returns to arrange a new version of Jerry Goldsmith's original Soarin' score for the updated film. Ride programming, wind effects, and scents round out the experience — the same sensory package that has always been central to the attraction.

New Queue Experience

Guests waiting to board at EPCOT will have something new to keep them occupied. The Soarin' Challenge Across America is an interactive trivia experience built in collaboration with National Geographic, drawing on content from titles including 50 States, 5,000 Ideas and photography from the National Geographic archives.

The trivia challenge puts American geography and culture to the test, with categories including which state is "Most Likely to Reach for the Stars," "Most Likely to Lend an Ear," and "Most Likely to Strike Gold." It's a notable addition — and one that may help explain the recently filed permit for set elements inside the attraction.

Dates

Soarin' Across America opens at EPCOT on May 26, 2026, with Annual Passholder previews on May 19 and 20. The attraction then opens at Disneyland Resort on July 2, 2026.

The new film is part of Disney's company-wide "Disney Celebrates America" initiative marking the U.S. 250th anniversary.

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Mr. Sullivan1 day 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.

etc982 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

DisneyCane2 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 Analyst2 days ago

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

monothingie3 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.

Joel3 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.

monothingie3 days ago

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

DCBaker3 days ago

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

coffeefan15 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.

ChrisFL15 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.

Baloo12416 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.

Br0ckford16 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. 🤔