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It all begins in Futureport, where guests board the unique, geometric suspended Omnimover vehicles that will soar through the future. (As silly as it might sound, perhaps you could compare these specialized, overhead Omnimovers to the ride system of Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey. With nothing below, you feel as though you're flying, turning to face scenes as your elevation changes - albeit, smoothly and gradually here. Like Forbidden Journey, you'll also transition from sets to screens effortlessly... but that's in just a few minutes...)

Image: Disney

Pulling back and away from Futureport, your vehicle appears to be flying. And it is. You're floating among glowing, undulating clouds. The father and mother from Carousel of Progress will be our guides and narrators here, but en route to the future, things have changed. Now a little older, the characters are grandparents, and we're going to visit their three children who've scattered around the world to three very different cities of the future.

The father speaks up first: “Wait till you see the new towns of tomorrow: desert farms, floating cities…. Even colonies in space! But you know, this isn’t the first time that anyone’s tried to make this trip. People have been dreaming about the future for centuries.”

Looking back at tomorrow

Leaving the glowing clouds behind and floating through the darkness, the sky would suddenly light up with the sketches of Leonardo Da Vinci’s contraptions. Then, the sky showed a glowing golden illustration of the Columbiad cannon launching a space ship toward the moon, taken from Jules Verne’s novel De la Terre à la Lune.

Nearby, an animatronic of Verne himself (and his chicken) float inside a lantern-lit capsule, bound for the moon. The father laughs, “Jules may not have had all the answers, but he had the right idea!” To which his wife replies, “He was just a little ahead of his time.” Around the corner, a projected George Méliès moon with a space capsule in its eye brings Verne’s grand fantasy to life. Back to Earth, a gorgeous pop-up-book style vignette of Paris shows people riding zephyrs and standing atop steampunk style towers, all with the Eiffel Tower beyond.

Image: Disney

Just past the Parisian landscape is more current (read: 1980s) vision of the future – a sleek apartment with a window overlooking a glimmering, metallic Avenue of Planets. A man looks out across the plaza as a robotic butler vacuums. Just beyond, grandpa is  getting a complete haircut and facial thanks to a robotic chair, while a robotic chef cleans up a mess in the kitchen.

Image: Disney

A new vision of the future is around the corner: tomorrow as seen from the 50s. Sky needle towers, neon lights, hula-hoops, dogs with jetpacks, martini glasses…

It’s a bit far out, don’t you think?” the mother laughs. And it is – a future that shaped The Jetsons. The father replies, “I guess so, but we always thought the future would be kind of fun!”

Image: Disney

Next, the Omnimover floats into an incredible Omnimax domed screen, surrounding riders in a continuous projected film images – DNA swirls around them, then fish and SCUBA gear; crystals crinkle across the screen; the sun and its limitless energy…All the while, the narrator discusses our increasing awareness and understanding of these micro- and macroscopic concepts, and how they're feeding the future.

What you’ve just seen are the building blocks for the future up ahead…. And while it may look fantastic, remember: it’s all possible. And we ought to know – we live there. Come on, take a look at 21st century living: on land, at sea, and even in space. But let’s start off at our place.”

Nova Cite

Image: Disney

It’s our first chance to see the father and mother as we enter their futuristic living in the urban habitat of Nova Cite. Outside of the massive paned windows, monorails and Peoplemovers zoom by angled skyscrapers. Out on the porch, plants are growing through genetically modified means, creating crops that are taller, heartier, and more nutritious than ever. Their daughter is visiting, musing over her job overseeing the variable solar control at the crop harvesting center.

“Isn’t it something?” the father laughs. “Send a city kid to college for seven years and what happens? She becomes a farmer!”

“Oh, I think agricultural engineer is more like it!”

“But hey, with today’s transportation, we’re just minutes away from our kids!”

Mesa Verde

Image: Disney

Floating on, the Omnimover has made its way to the home of the first daughter, overlooking Mesa Verde, where endless rows of abundant crops proceed on into the mists of distant mountains. The daughter stands at a control panel overlooks the fields proudly. “A few years ago, this was all barren desert. No crops; no irrigation. Quite a transformation!”

Image: Disney

Further on in the desert, we enter the daughter's home after a day overseeing the fields. Her husband and son are making dinner in the desert home’s kitchen where the smell of oranges fills the room. Meanwhile, while her daughter is in the living room, speaking via videophone to her boyfriend, who’s elsewhere working on repairing a submarine.

Image: Disney

The narrator – a protective grandfather, no doubt – speaks up. “Shouldn’t she be studying instead of talking to that beach boy?”

“He’s not a beach boy,” his wife corrects. “He’s studying marine biology there on the floating city!”

Sea Castle Research Base

Image: Disney

As the vehicle floats out of the living room, we’re suddenly on the other side of the conversation, watching the boyfriend repair the sub with the narrator’s granddaughter visible on a massive video screen nearby. The Omnimovers dive to reveal an entire set underneath the Repair Bay – it’s an undersea classroom of animatronic students meeting a seal for the first time, all dressed in wet suits.

Image: Disney

Now underwater, the Omnimover floats alongside the outside of Sea Castle where a little girl is leaned against a bubbled window looking out into the deep. Elsewhere, people relax and have dinner in an underwater resort. Octopi, sea horses, and other creatures hide among the sea grasses under the floating Base.

Pressing through the tall grasses, the Omnimover enters yet another film sequence, this time as the class from the classroom sets off in the water, diving through the kelp farms with the submerged towers of Sea Castle in the distance. In the dark depths, a machine harvests seaweed and kelp from the floor of the ocean as the narrator mentions, “Seawater has become an excellent source of energy as well as being valuable for desert irrigation. Kelp is a tremendous source of low cost fuel! We’ve found lots of good things under our oceans.”

“And don’t forget space!” his wife reminds him. “We’ve found lots of good things out there, too."

Brava Centauri

Image: Disney

At once, the darkness of the ocean becomes spotted with distant pinpoints of light as we find ourselves in space. Then, ahead, scientists are suspended upside down in the darkness repairing a telescope, with a massive space station – Brava Centauri – floating silently in the distance.

Image: Disney

Entering the colony through a gravity-free spaceship dock, the Omnimovers enter into a zero-G chamber where a family plays in the weightlessness. In the next room, a laboratory is experimenting with floating crystals. The father and mother announce their departure (it’s their grandson’s birthday) and that they’ll catch up with us later.

And indeed, in the next room, three video screens broadcast all the members of the family that we’ve met in Nova Cite, Mesa Verde, and Sea Castle.

Choose your future

Next comes the part of Horizons you want to write home about. A kind female voice speaks. “Attention Horizons passengers. You are now invited to choose your own path back to the Futureport. Please look down at the lighted panels in front of you. Press one of the three ride choices: Space, Desert, or Undersea. Everyone can choose, majority rules. All passengers make your selections now.”

Image: Disney

In front of each seat, three buttons illuminate: for Omega Centauri, Sea Castle Resort, and Mesa Verde. The ride’s finale will take guests into the distant future of one of the three biomes explored today through a 31 second simulator video – a different film for each Omnimover based on the selections of riders. The videos were a simulated flyover of the futuristic terrain, all achieved through cameras flying over scaled models. Those models – produced in 1983 by 30 model makers – were built and filmed in a hangar at the Burbank airport, with the desert model alone measuring 32 feet wide by 75 feet long.

Father: “Well, we’re almost back from the future.”

Mother: “Oh, it went by so quickly!”

Father: “Yes, but one of the nice things about traveling into the future is that the journey’s just beginning. And I’ll tell you something: if we can dream it, we really can do it. And that’s the most exciting part.” As always, we like to end with a point-of-view video that might give you a better idea of what the scenes and sights above really felt like:

Due to its retirement in 1999, Horizons closed just at the start of digitial photography, so videos and images are not easy to come by. The point-of-view video linked to above is simply one of the best we've found. As well, the attraction's cult following has inspired many digital remakes, fan sites, and remastered attraction documentaries on video sharing services that we invite you to find if you'd like to learn even more.

 
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Comments

I really enjoyed the article about Horizons at EPCOT. My children and our best friends kids first rode this probably in 1983. The youngest about 5 and the oldest 7years. We rode and rode and rode that ride. they loved picking the final ride choice. Like mentioned above, the 5 kids got into one car and adults in another. they also loved the Imagination attraction with Figment. Unlike some folks who don't like EPCOT it was always one of our favorite parks to visit and we were a family that centered our vacations around amusement/theme parks. EPCOT made you think a bit. By the way, the characters were always there roaming EPCOT, i have pictures of Donald with my kids from 1983...he was dressed in space garb.

Unfortunately, I never got to ride Horizons. It seems like it has a similar idea to Spaceship Earth and I love that ride. It's a shame that Disney does just remove some classics to put in new rides. However, I do have to say that I am a pretty big fan of Mission: Space. I find it super thrilling and the fact that I feel weightless on that attraction is pretty neat! I absolutely love these in depth retrospectives! Theme Park Tourist is becoming my new favorite page I "like" on Facebook because all of the articles are super interesting! Keep em coming!

I just want to thank you so much for these articles! I've never been to Disney World, but I grew up at Disneyland my entire life. I used to play this PC game - Walt Disney World Explorer - that came out in the 90s and I would play it constantly, imagining the day I would FINALLY go to Disney World. Almost 20 years later, that's finally happening, but so much of what I wanted to see has been removed (Alien Encounter especially was something I desperately wanted to experience - but since I was in kindergarten at the time, perhaps it's just as well that I didn't see it). These articles simultaneously bring me back and make me sorry for what I missed.

I LOVED the Walt Disney World explorer. I can still remember the "It's A Small World" music that played when you looked at the full resort map screen. Gah! Now you're sending me off to try to find it to see if it'll play on someone's computer.

I rode this ride back in the 80's every time I had the chance. I loved it even more than Spaceship Earth! I missed out on Disney for a couple years and went back when it had already been demolished. I spent the entire day looking for the pavilion until I realized it was gone! I was stunned! I was, still am and always will be heartbroken! My favorite ride has always been the Carousel of Progress. Horizons was next! I cringe every time I walk PAST Mission Space!

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