Fiber Optic Information Superhighway

There are a lot of changes coming to Epcot in the next few years, many of which are already underway. As a part of the revitalization project, Spaceship Earth will be getting a refresh of the attraction’s script, narrative through line that emphasizes storytelling through the inclusion of the Story Light, and a new post show experience. One could make the argument that of all the changes that occurred within Spaceship Earth since 1982, the post show area has seen some of the more dramatic changes throughout that time. From Earth Station, to the Global Neighborhood, then the New Global Neighborhood, and currently Project Tomorrow, this area has always highlighted the time’s modern communication and innovations with fun and fanciful twists. Even if some of these experiences were almost immediately dated and, at times, left as husks of their former selves.

While the interactive kiosks of WorldKey brought me hours of untold joy in my childhood, including one or two prank calls to the reservation video line (i.e. pressing the reservation button and then ducking below the camera’s lens), one of my fondest memories from Spaceship Earth’s post show area will always be Global Neighborhood’s Ride the AT&T Network experience that came in as a part of Epcot ’95. A quick aside for those questioning some of the naming choices coming with the current refurbishment and expansion of Epcot, the park has an almost heritage-like dedication to simple, weird, or bad name choices.

In the attraction you step onboard a platform inside a tube, or let’s just call it a cut cable, with a video screen in front of you. Placing your hand on the handprint on the handrail activated the experience, while removing it at any point during the ride would stop the attraction as it was assumed you would have lost your balance. Balance was a key to Ride the AT&T Network because you would literally be surfing through cables and bouncing off of satellites as you made your way from a school tour of AT&T’s network to literally jumping into the network and piggybacking off of conference calls, on demand videos, faxes and other communication forms to reach Hawaii.

Ride the AT&T Network follows a young girl named Cassie on a school trip who is bemoaning missing the world surfing championships for a boring class outing. She quickly darts into the AT&T network and with the help of a friendly bit of technology she is off to surf the fiber optic information superhighway and get to Hawaii, we’re along for the ride as the platform simulator we’re on curls from side to side as we encounter sharks, television signals, and cut cables. Cassie finally returns to her group, having only been away for a few moments, to excitedly tout the benefits of AT&T’s network.

It was a pretty on the nose marketing experience, but for those children more in search of thrills than edutainment, Ride the AT&T Network may have landed better with them than the Spaceship Earth attraction they had just experienced. From my memories, I loved both Spaceship Earth and Ride the AT&T Network. The attraction was short-lived, however, coming in during the fall of 1994 and making an exit in 1999 when the post show area was revamped to become the New Global Neighborhood in time for the park’s Millennium Celebration. Also, like most technology exhibits, the changing telecommunications landscape meant that some of the up and coming technology seen during the attraction had already become old news by the turn of the century.

Epcot has always been, and I suspect it always will be, a place that is in constant flux, and Spaceship Earth is no different. Whatever new stories, experiences, or technology spring to life with the next incarnation, there is sure to be something to put a smile on your face. Of course, it’s always fun looking back at the tomorrow’s of yesterday too!