Spaceship Earth Reopens Early for Soft Opening at EPCOT Following Refurbishment

Oct 18, 2025 in "Spaceship Earth"

Posted: Saturday October 18, 2025 6:50pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Spaceship Earth unexpectedly soft opened to guests this evening, October 18, 2025, following its multi-month refurbishment at EPCOT.

Spaceship Earth overview

Guests who rode during the soft opening reported no significant guest-facing changes to the attraction. The ride experience, narration, and show scenes all appear to remain the same as before the August closure.

Despite the reopening, the official Walt Disney World website still lists Spaceship Earth as closed through October 24, 2025, with regular operating hours set to resume October 25. It remains unclear whether this evening's operation marks the start of an early soft reopening period or a temporary testing phase before the official return later this month.

The refurbishment began August 25 and was expected to focus primarily on ride system maintenance and behind-the-scenes work, with minor updates potentially to the in-vehicle display screens.

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EricsBiscuitNov 16, 2025

No. The renaissance scene is the best sequence in the whole ride.

dmc493Nov 16, 2025

New / upgraded / added more - not sure which but someone else mentioned these changes were part of the refurb. As for other attractions idk but they're definitely the same model. A flashing green dot every 10-11 seconds

Tha RealestNov 16, 2025

Are these new? Or just being noticed more frequently? Byproduct of oversight by CFTOD vs RCID?

Tha RealestNov 16, 2025

By many reliable accounts Lincoln had a high-pitched, reedy voice (Daniel Day Lewis’s masterful portrayal gets close) and not the deep baritone we hear in the DL attraction.

dmc493Nov 16, 2025

The blinking sensors are a nightmare and I've started to notice them on other attractions as well. The problem SSE has is you're facing forward at all times and always have clear views of the ceiling so you always see multiple sensors at any given time. Idk about turning off the flashing, but I do know they make that type sensor in black and Disney was too cheap to buy ones that would blend in a little better

HMFNov 15, 2025

It needs an overhaul. It doesn't need THAT overhaul.

Fido ChuckwagonNov 15, 2025

The yeti is the pinhole that keeps all of animal kingdom standing. If they attempt to fix the Yeti a sinkhole would develop that would envelope all of Asia, Africa, and a good chunk of Pandora.

Tom MorrowNov 15, 2025

I just want to say that... man, SSE really needs that complete overhaul it was supposed to get. Things are looking dire. I don't know if these things have been discussed, but post-refurb, three things stood out to me: Audio levels were way too low. Many rooms felt almost completely silent other than the ride motors. Lighting levels seem too high, revealing too much you're not supposed to see. There are now fire alarms all over the ceilings that blink in unison. It is distracting. They should find a way to have them not blink.

aladdin2007Nov 09, 2025

Just for fun fyi there is a great book on the entire process of the making of that one film, "Polishing the Dragons". Gives incredible insights into the building of Epcot beyond the China film as well.

Mr. SullivanNov 09, 2025

Technologically speaking it isn’t but a lot of the actual information and techniques they present are very out of date. In some cases the concepts are still in use but way more advanced, and in some cases the concepts have long since died out or been declared unviable or just straight up incorrect. The ride doesn’t really suffer because of it exactly, but it is part of the reason the science aspect of the pavilion isn’t as lively and active as it once was. The Seas is also outdated but for very different reasons that would kinda necessitate completely rebuilding it.

LittleBufordNov 08, 2025

I would place it between the scene of the Islamic world and of medieval Europe. It doesn’t quite work chronologically, but it’s through the Islamic world that paper made its way to the West, so that could be the narrative framing. I agree the Renaissance scene could be streamlined a bit!

HMFNov 08, 2025

I am not disagreeing at all. I like it, I am just curious how it could be incorporated structurally into the existing ride and not having a detrimental effect on the existing scenes. My best theory would be you shorten the Renaissance scene a bit and re-think the placement of certain vignettes which I would not necessarily be opposed to.

LittleBufordNov 08, 2025

As I said in my last post, I don’t think it would have been at all difficult narratively or spatially to incorporate a brief scene. But I realise we disagree, and that’s OK!

HMFNov 08, 2025

I don't disagree and if there is a way to incorporate it, I would advocate for it. At the same time , I realize that only so much history can be covered in a 20 minute ride that requires a descent that is supposed to hopefully be an optimistic message for the future. To be honest I am not sure how much "New Research" has gone into each subsequent SSE script in the sense that the show writers did new historical research to make the shows accuracy better or did they just reorganize the structure and framing of the previous scripts from the subsequent re-writes since the Bradbury original. either one is believable to me.