Epcot Undiscovered Future World Tour Review

7/22/2020

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If you've read any of our other Disney tour posts, you know how much we love tours. We enjoy learning more about what makes the parks tick, how they operate, things they used to do, but don't do now, why things were built a certain way, everything. We LOVE the magic that happens in the places the average visitor doesn't get to see, and believe us, there's a lot of it! (read more)

UNDISCOVERED FUTURE WORLD TOUR AT EPCOT

In January of 2020, before COVID came to town, my friend Jenny and I planned a quick three day trip to Disney World. She hadn't been in awhile, and I had an annual pass that was burning a hole in my pocket, so we made the trip with intent on riding all the rides, doing all the tours (or at least all the ones we could fit in) and having the most exhausting three days in the history of ever.

Mission accomplished.

The Disney Undiscovered Future World tour was just the last in a long line of tours in that three day period. From Ultimate Day of Thrills, to Ultimate Nights of Adventure, Disney After Hours, and our last stop here at Epcot, we spent many a wonderful moment with people who love everything from rides, to empty parks, to all the geeky knowledge about our favorite Spaceship Earth.

We hope you go and read about those other tours, especially if you plan on taking them, but for now we're ready to tell you all about the Undiscovered Future World Tour at Epcot!

Let's get started.

As you can see, when you enter the park, you'll be pretty much alone. You go in before rope drop by going through security and following the signs that lead you to the Tours entrance. There will be a Cast Member standing by, ready to take your name and check you off the list. Once this is done you'll get a nifty little arm band that shows you're a VIP, and you'll be sent on your way into the park, where you can take photos like this one.

Oooh, ahhh, no crowds!

DISNEY UNDISCOVERED FUTURE WORLD TOUR
CHECKING IN

Once you're through the main gate and into the park, you're going to be directed to a check in place. For us this was the pin trader area over by the Umbrella restaurant. If you don't pin trade, it's a kiosk looking thing all on it's own. It's also the place my kids like to stop to get pennies pressed into little souvenirs they'll lose thirty seconds after we've gotten home.

The Cast Members at the kiosk will take your name again and hand you a button with your name on it (that you get to keep) and a device to hang around your neck that connects to an earphone. This way you can listen to your tour guide without them having to raise their voices. It also means people can't follow you around and get the tour for free. :)

Once that's done, you'll be directed to a seating area nearby where you can wait for your tour to start. It is important that you know your tour's start time, as there may be more than one that morning, and you don't want to head off with the wrong group.

Here's where we sat while we waited for the tour to begin.

And here's our tour guide getting ready to whisk us away for some backstage Epcot knowledge.

UNDISCOVERED FUTURE WORLD TOUR REVIEW

Once we were all together as a group, and our guide had ensured we were all able to hear her properly through our listening devices, we were off! Since we started so close to Spaceship Earth, it was (naturally) the first thing we were going to talk about.

Our guide showed us some awesome pictures of when Spaceship Earth was under construction, and she also had an actual piece of the material used to craft the exterior of Spaceship Earth, which she passed around and let us feel.

Not even kidding, I geeked out a little.

Here is Spaceship Earth under construction.

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Here are pieces of Spaceship Earth's exterior being assembled before being attached to the giant globe we all know and love.

This is a sample of the material used on the outside of Spaceship Earth. It's very light, as you can imagine, and feels like it would be right at home on a spaceship.

UNDISCOVERED FUTURE WORLD TOUR
SPACESHIP EARTH LITTLE KNOWN FACTS

I don't want to spoil things for you, but I do love sharing information, so I'll tell you a few things about Spaceship Earth that you might not have known.

1. It's a great place to be when it's raining, even if you're just standing underneath. Spaceship Earth has its own built in drainage system, so when it rains (which is does a lot in Florida), the water drains off the big ball and into the ground, keeping the underside nice and dry.

2. It's HUGE, but you can fit the ENTIRE THING into the main tank of the Seas exhibit. (More about that later)

3. The ride inside reuses animatronics found elsewhere. Check out the guy playing the lute, does he look familiar? He ought to, especially if you've ever ridden the Carousel of Progress.

4. It's built to last. While it looks like a giant ball that might roll away in a Florida hurricane, it's actually quite safe. The pylons that stabilize it are hammered an impressive 150 feet into the Florida earth!

As we continued on the tour, we were lead into a back entrance of Spaceship Earth, and this is where we learned that many of the rides in Epcot were/are sponsored by different companies. This is mostly a throwback to the 80's, but it allowed the sponsoring company employees to come in, flash a badge (or their face) at a camera, which would be seen by a receptionist in the employee sponsored lounge, and that employee would be buzzed up.

Not only did they have a cool lounge to hang out in, but they also had a back entrance to the ride. It's the ultimate Fast Pass.

Most of these lounges are no longer in use, at least not for their original purposes, but we were able to go into the Spaceship Earth lounge, and I also got a picture of us boarding the ride in the area where people exit. So we boarded, rode it around to where everyone else was boarding, then got to ride Spaceship Earth.

It was all very cool.

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THE UNDISCOVERED FUTURE WORLD REVIEW

The next lounge we visited was over at The Seas. I believe we would have also visited Test Track, but it was down for refurbishment when we went, sadly. I have heard that the tours normally visit the Test Track lounge and ride Test Track as part of the tour, so if it's up when you go, you might be able to do this tour and save that Fast Pass for Soarin.

Here is a picture from the day The Living Seas opened at Epcot. Fun fact, it was originally intended only as an educational aquarium, but it didn't see a lot of foot traffic, being off the beaten path and not having a lot to offer other than fish. So when Finding Nemo came out and was such a big hit, Disney re-themed the area, adding the Nemo ride, Turtle Talk, and the Coral Reef restaurant.

It's a popular place now, for sure!

I took pictures of everything they let me, so here's a photo of The Seas being constructed. As I said, you can fit the entirety of Spaceship Earth inside the main tank of The Seas.

We were able to go up and visit the lounge of The Seas. It was really neat to see the old school camera downstairs that you'd have had to stand in front of to gain entrance. They also let us take pictures of the lounge, which was really neat. I'll post them all below.

There was a piano that we were asked not to touch, it was made of acrylic, and it was very cool!

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There were windows all throughout the lounge that let you see into The Seas main tank. We saw people feeding the fish, we saw people scuba diving on a tour, and some even came up to the windows and waved.

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A not so hidden Mickey!

The lounge itself has a large sitting area which is still in use today for wedding receptions.

As we moved on for the rest of the tour, we took the elevator down. It reminded me of something you'd see in The Haunted Mansion. Going down? (I said that in my best spooky voice)

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DISNEY UNDISCOVERED FUTURE WORLD TOUR PIN

The rest of the tour was mainly back stage, and, since you are asked not to take pictures backstage, you won't get to see any of it (until you go on your own tour), but I will tell you that we got to visit the costuming room where Cast Members were hard at work creating and repairing costumes.

We also got to visit the massive room that houses every single piece of Cast Member clothing. It was something to see and very state of the art.

Each Cast Member has an outfit based on their area, and each outfit can be changed depending on the Cast Member's comfort level (shorts vs pants, long sleeves vs short sleeves, etc.). Each outfit has a picture that shows exactly what the Cast Member should have with them before they go, and when they're ready to leave with their clothing, they walk through a thing that basically looks like an airport scanner, and it tags each piece of clothing to their account.

It really is amazing.

And of course no Disney tour is complete without a pin to commemorate your time. We love our pins, we have one for every tour we've been on, and we add them proudly to our lanyards, even if we don't wear the lanyards in the parks.

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I can't recommend this tour enough, you can read more about it here, but at just $69 and four hours long, it's time, and money, well spent.

We hope you love it as much as we did!

Ty

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