Mouse Extra

As a follow up to our coverage of Spaceship Earth’s impending makeover, Mark Goldhaber of MousePlanet.com gives us an insight into the product’s schedule.

Some time over the summer (we don’t have a firm date yet), the main Spaceship Earth attraction will close and leave just Project Tomorrow open to entertain guests while the major work goes on inside the geosphere. It’s likely that the closure won’t happen until after the July 4 week, since Spaceship Earth will be needed to soak up the crowds during the peak times.

Renovations will be phased in though the year, and the work won’t be complete until early 2008. This leads to conjecture that the work inside the attraction will be done piece by piece, allowing the attraction to close and then reopen for the peak seasons, closing again for the next phase as the crowds disappear. This would likely mean that the lighting effects, costume changes, and perhaps set decoration would be done little by little, with the new show scenes added by blocked off, until the last batch of changes would allow the changeover to the new theming, including the new narration and theme music.

With the Haunted Mansion closed throughout the summer, it is somewhat hard to believe that Disney World officials would close another crowd eater during such a busy time.  I would imagine this would begin more towards August then Independence Day Weekend, but that is only a guess on my part.  It will also be interesting to see what kind of attention the post-show area gets without the ride being open.

Even though the maintenance schedule seems somewhat tailored to allow use of the attraction, and not the traditional prolonged shut down, I would still imagine we will see a significant down time.  Apparently work is being done on every scene, and on all the ride vehicles.  One would think that kind of refurbishment can’t be stopped in mid-stream.