What is the EPCOT Ball? Guide to Inside the EPCOT Ball

Upon walking into EPCOT, you’ll immediately notice a huge silver ball, which almost appears to be a giant golf ball. The park’s icon is always something that fascinates visitors but often leaves them with more questions than answers.

Have you ever wondered what's inside the park's iconic structure? I'll reveal it this article!
  • Save
Have you ever wondered what’s inside the park’s iconic structure? I’ll reveal it in this article!

Everything You Need to Know About the Epcot Ball

Today, we’ll discover everything you need to know about the EPCOT ball and how this icon came to be. When discussing the EPCOT ball, we refer to the massive silver structure that houses the Spaceship Earth attraction. Spaceship Earth is raised 18 feet off the ground and is supported by pylons that go down 120 feet into the ground.

It’s a whopping 180 feet high and 164 feet in diameter. Even more impressive is that if you weighed the whole ball, it would be 15,520,000 pounds.

The EPCOT Golf Ball holds the Spaceship Earth ride.
  • Save
The EPCOT Golf Ball holds the Spaceship Earth ride.

This is the equivalent of 158 million golf balls, which is what people often think this structure best resembles. Spaceship Earth was built from 1,700 tons of steel, and it took fifty thousand hours of labor over 26 months to build it in time for the park’s opening day on October 1st, 1982.

Does This EPCOT Ball Have A Name? What Does the Ball in EPCOT Represent?

The EPCOT ball is typically called Spaceship Earth. The whole Spaceship Earth attraction is housed inside the ball, and you’ll journey through time in a slow-moving vehicle when you board the ride. The name Spaceship Earth was given to the structure and ride by world-famous architect Buckminster Fuller.

The EPCOT Ball is huge and breathtaking to see.
  • Save
The EPCOT Ball is huge and breathtaking to see.

The ball itself is the world’s largest free-standing geodesic sphere, with 11,324 tiles covering its exterior. While you may think that it looks like a perfect sphere from a distance, its shape is actually slightly oblong.

When my husband and I rope drop EPCOT, his must-do list includes the ride Spaceship Earth. This ride usually has no wait before 11 am, so don’t immediately jump on to if you enter the park from this entrance. You’ll lose valuable time.

Read Also: The Definitive Guide to Rides in EPCOT in 2023

Why Was The EPCOT Ball Built?

Each of the Walt Disney World theme parks has a structure that acts as a centerpiece for the park. The EPCOT ball is no exception to this, but it also houses the popular attraction of Spaceship Earth.

The Spaceship Earth attraction lasts 15 minutes, making it one of the longest rides you’ll find at the Disney World Resort. This makes it a great place to beat the heat, or take a break from an early entry day.

It tells the story of humankind and is filled with realistic audio-animatronics that bring this story to life. The ball was built with the intention to create a feeling of excitement as they enter the park, as well as learn more about the past and future of human life.

It was created to be a symbolic structure for the park and has been in place since it opened in 1982. For many guests, it’s somewhere they simply must have a photo with their family during every visit to the park.

Why Did Walt’s Original Plan for EPCOT Fail?

When discussing Spaceship Earth and the park’s icon, we have to head back in time to discover where the inspiration for the park originally came from. You may not know that this park was heavily inspired by Walt Disney’s original concept for his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.

Spaceship Earth's Warning Sign when entering.
  • Save
Spaceship Earth’s Warning Sign when entering.

When he considered plans for Walt Disney World, this planned community would aspire to be an area for urban living and American enterprise. Of course, EPCOT today is nothing quite like this and has distanced itself from a living space to become an immersive theme park.

While EPCOT today doesn’t look anything like the city Walt Disney designed, we do see some of his original ideas in Walt Disney World. The Walt Disney World Monorail system and the Utilidors under the Magic Kingdom park are great examples. The company also used the idea of EPCOT when they built Celebration, Florida.

This is a planned living community near Walt Disney World, offering individuals the chance to live in an area designed by the company. In EPCOT itself, we also see some of the design ideas that Walt Disney had come to life, paying tribute to the fantastic plans he had in place for Walt Disney World.

Also Read: A Look To The Town Disney Built, Celebration, Florida

The Inherent Flaw in Walt’s Original Vision for the City of EPCOT

Walt Disney’s ideas for EPCOT were abandoned following his death in 1966. The original ideas included residential areas, schools, mass transportation systems, and an urban city center. As you can imagine, this was an incredibly ambitious project, especially for a company that primarily focused on theme parks and movies.

The Disney company did not feel they had the expertise to develop a city, so they moved towards the EPCOT theme park we know and love today. In the 1970s, this second theme park was developed by WED Enterprises to complement the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. The Magic Kingdom was already turning out to be a great success, and the company knew that they needed to continue building upon this to attract more visitors to the resort year after year.

EPCOT strives to showcase modern innovation through attractions and entertainment offerings. Visitors also travel around the world via World Showcase, where they can immerse themselves in the culture and heritage of other nations from around the world.

When the park opened in 1982, it was named EPCOT Center, but the center part was dropped in 1994. The park was originally split into two sections: Future World and World Showcase. However, it’s undergoing a huge transformation, and there will now be four parts to the park: World Celebration, World Nature, World Discovery, and World Showcase.

Read More: Guide to Rides in EPCOT

Why Does The EPCOT Ball Look Like A Golf Ball?

Many guests refer to the EPCOT ball as a golf ball, and it’s easy to see the close resemblance between these two items. The EPCOT ball can also be referred to as a geodesic sphere, and the design team worked with MIT engineers to find out how they could best execute their ideas for the structure.

The EPCOT Ball design was based on the Expo ’67 Dome in Montreal. Canada hosted the World’s Fair that year and the dome hosted the United States pavilion. I guess the Walt Disney Company saw the success of the dome and decided to bring it home with the mission to make it the icon of EPCOT.

The underside of the EPCOT dome with the lights coming on shows the support beams of the massive structure.
  • Save
The underside of the EPCOT dome with the lights coming on shows the support beams of the massive structure.

It looks like a golf ball suspended in the air from a distance, but there are other more practical reasons for the design. In total, the building has 11,324 triangles, which are divided into larger sections. Cleaning a structure like this would be almost impossible, but the triangular panels have a self-cleaning skin.

This aluminum and plastic alloy compound helps to keep Spaceship Earth looking its best throughout the year, offering you the perfect backdrop for your next family portrait. We all know how heavy the rain can get during hurricane season in Orlando, but you could stand under Spaceship Earth and not feel a drop of rain on your head.

The golf ball design was created so that water travels through one-inch gutters down the building and deposits rainwater into the World Showcase Lagoon. If a repair is needed on the building, a small car is on top of it, allowing a technician to lie down and move around to carry out the necessary work.

Is the EPCOT Ball a Ride?

The primary intention of the EPCOT ball is to house the Spaceship Earth attraction. However, when the Imagineers were designing the park, they also knew they would need a centerpiece for this new addition to Walt Disney World. Just like Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic Kingdom, guests want to see a landmark when they enter the park to welcome them.

The queue line for Spaceship Earth inside the EPCOT Ball.
  • Save
The queue line for Spaceship Earth inside the EPCOT Ball.

Spaceship Earth represents the ideas and vision behind EPCOT. Over the years, it has also been used for projections, and at the current time, there is a popular light show on the ball each night. Thanks to the vision of the Imagineers, Spaceship Earth has stood the test of time, and the EPCOT ball is certainly not going anywhere anytime soon.

To come up with the original story of Spaceship Earth, Disney worked with Ray Bradbury. He was responsible for the story, with a walk-through time. Since the first corporate sponsor of Spaceship Earth was Bell Systems (later known as AT&T), the ride’s focus was on communication through time.

What’s Next for EPCOT’s Ball? Is Spaceship Earth Getting Updated?

EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth still attracts large crowds to this day, primarily due to its central location and the themes of unity and inspiration shared in the ride. However, if you’ve been coming to the park for a while, you might wonder if the attraction will be refurbished anytime soon.

  • Save
The scene from the Rome era where they built the first World Wide Web.

Over the years, Spaceship Earth has been updated many times, both on the inside and outside. In fact, during the year 2000, you might remember that ball had a Mickey Mouse arm with a wand, which was added for this global celebration. This remained in place until 2007 when it was removed in order to return to the classic look for the park’s 25th anniversary.

Who Were the Narrators for Spaceship Earth?

Within the ball, you’ll find the narrator has changed over time. From 1986 to 1994, we heard icon news anchor Walter Cronkite as the narrator of the ride. From 1994 to 2007, legendary actor Jeremy Irons voiced the ride.

In 2008, Dame Judi Dench became the voice of the ride, and she narrates your journey through time. I can’t imagine anyone else narrating, but I’m sure I’ll love the next iteration when and if it happens in my lifetime.

Before the recent pandemic, it had been announced that the ride would be refurbished. However, with all of the challenges the company faced at this time, the company has opted to put this refurbishment on indefinite hold for now.

EPCOT Construction
  • Save
Construction walls are shown as much of EPCOT around the Ball

New World Celebration and the Epcot Ball

Spaceship Earth is part of the new World Celebration area of the park. The plans were to create a narrative about our human experience. Under the title of Spaceship Earth: Our Shared Story, the ride would guide guests through the attraction with an ethereal story light.

The attraction’s exit is now Dreamers Point, which features a beautiful statue of Walt Disney, a wishing tree, and an interactive fountain. World Celebration Gardens features a large EPCOT logo in the center. The entire area has beautiful light features that twinkle and dance at night. These go along with the new light show that plays nightly on the exterior of Spaceship Earth.

Is EPCOT outdated?

While this theme park is a firm favorite with many Walt Disney World visitors and locals, some elements of the park and its attractions are starting to look outdated.

For many people, Spaceship Earth is an example of this, which is why many of us were saddened to learn that they weren’t going ahead with the scheduled refurbishment.

Inside the EPCOT ball, Spaceship Earth - A scene where taxes are invented by the Egyptians.
  • Save
Inside the EPCOT ball, Spaceship Earth – A scene where taxes are invented by the Egyptians.

What’s Next for Epcot?

Instead of the two sections the park has always had, it’s now been split into four areas:

  • World Celebration
  • World Nature
  • World Discovery
  • World Showcase

World Celebration still has walls around it. If you look over them, you can see that they are working on construction of the Communicare Plaza which will host festival seminars, concerts and shows

Spaceship Earth geodesic sphere seen in the background here from Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind entrance
  • Save
Spaceship Earth’s geodesic sphere is seen in the background here from the Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind entrance

World Discovery released the opening of the much-anticipated Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has shown a revival of high-speed adrenaline-pumping rides inside of EPCOT. This roller coaster is located on the previous site of Ellen’s Energy Adventure and opened on May 27, 2022. It has drawn huge crowds to the park, and it’s become my favorite Disney World coaster.

World Nature houses the brand new Journey of Water that debuted on October 16, 2023. This is a Moana-inspired attraction that is fun for the whole family. It depicts the Earth’s water cycle and offer visitors another way to understand more about the balance of the natural world. Make sure to visit it during the day, and at night when you can see it with the beautiful Epcot Ball light show in the background

World Showcase has a brand new Beauty and the Beast Sing-a-long show as well as the new Ratatouille ride and French Pavilion.

The new Connections Cafe in EPCOT, features Starbucks on one side, and quick service serving burgers, pizza, and salads on the other side.
  • Save
The new Connections Cafe in EPCOT features Starbucks on one side, and quick service serving burgers, pizza, and salads on the other side.

Connections Café and Eatery is also a new dining option to the park as part of this ongoing transformation. It houses Starbucks on one side, and a food cafe on the other. It is also a great cut through to get to the Guardians of the Galaxy ride.

Does EPCOT’s Spaceship Earth Have a Height Requirement?

Spaceship Earth is a slow continuous dark ride inside of EPCOT. There is no height requirement to ride this attraction. Those who wish to avoid claustrophobic feelings or get motion sickness might wish to avoid Spaceship Earth.

Watch EPCOT be built with this official Disney Parks video.

Is Spaceship Earth Good for Kids?

If you take your kids onto Spaceship Earth thinking they are going to be fascinated with the story of us, I have bad news. It’s a bit of a boring ride, but stick with me and follow my logic.

The strong points of Spaceship Earth for kids are as follows:

  • It’s a 15-minute ride.
  • It’s usually chilly but useful when avoiding that Florida heat.
  • It’s relatively quiet, with no sudden loud explosions.
  • Project Tomorrow, after the ride, go play some interactive games perfect for kids.
  • It’s near a bathroom.

My husband loves this ride; he’s a history fan. He loves the immersive smells and nods to historic events. He’s a geek, but he’s my geek, and I love him for it. It doesn’t mean I’m over the moon to ride this, but marriage is all about compromises. He usually rides Soarin with me, even so much so that he ensures we get the best seat.

So should kids ride Spaceship Earth? Absolutely. Then check out Project Tomorrow: Inventing the Wonders of the Future. The games are geared towards younger kids and give the interaction of playing a video game.

What's inside the EPCOT ball?
  • Save

The Future of Epcot

The future for EPCOT is looking just as promising as the past decades have been for the park. One of the things we love about EPCOT is that it’s always undergoing some form of update.

The Imagineers strived to keep making progress with the park, just as Walt Disney would have wanted. While his plans never came to be in the way he intended, EPCOT is heavily inspired by his work and continues to connect the human population through the shared experiences on offer here.

Read also: Fun Facts About Spaceship Earth

  • Save
Subscribe to Magical Guides!
Get updates on the latest posts and more from Magical Guides straight to your inbox.
Share via
Copy link