Review: Disney Vacation Club Soarin’ Around the World Tour

Yesterday, Disney Vacation Club began a new, complimentary member tour of Soarin’ Around the World in Epcot.  I was invited to experience the tour and thought you might like to have all the details.

Before we begin with the review section, here’s a few details Disney Vacation Club presented about the tour online:

Disney Vacation Club Members and their guests (up to  4 people total per member) are invited to embark on a high-flying journey during a complimentary* behind-the-scenes tour of Soarin’ Around the World.

Located in Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort, this newly re-imagined attraction features all-new digital screens and projection systems—for a truly immersive experience.

Tour Highlights

We were guided to the Land pavilion and Laura discussed the overall design of Epcot.  She said the East side was seen with more stark, straight lines and the West side was more flowing, curved and green.  Did you know the Land pavilion is actually designed as a volcano?

She discussed the importance of team within the Imagineer community as Walt desired.  She said most works aren’t signed by the artist in the Disney Parks because it was a cooperative effort, so they find ways to sneak in little hints at their work like this one, single green tile.

As we entered the building, she pointed out that the interior of the building was designed to reflect the four seasons that many parts of the earth experience.  Not so much in Florida though :)  She mentioned the yellow and orange banners flowing downward represent the rays of the sun and the green poles are representative of growing grass.  She mentioned that the 4 lower hot air balloon designs represent the 4 seasons.

When you look down into the dining area of “Sunshine Seasons” you’ll notice that each one also represents a different season.

The light fixtures are designed to remind you of trees.  Sunshine Seasons also has 4 serving areas in keeping with the theme.

We were then led toward Soarin’ Over the World.  She led us out the side door beyond the restroom area.  We were asked not to take photos back stage.  She talked to us about the design of the buildings into the overall park.  One building was painted green to blend into the trees while the taller buildings are painted baby blue to blend into the sky.  She said you can see the Soarin’ show building from a few locations in the park, so it was painted to make it blend in better.  In a similar way the backside of Tower of Terror is painted to match the Morocco pavilion.

She talked a bit about the ride and how difficult it was to design.  She said they wanted to build the ride many years before, but couldn’t find a way to do it until one Imagineer used his childhood Erector set to design the mechanism that would become Soarin’  It would take 5 years to design and build the massive armature for the ride.  The ride debuted in California Adventure in 2001 and didn’t come to Walt Disney World until 2005.

She showed us one of the scent canisters that are used to inject the smells that make the ride really seal into your memory.  The one she displayed had the smell of pine that was used on the former version.  She said many malls and stores use similar scent injection canisters.  She talked about the new smells of grass (Africa), rose (India) and ocean (Fiji).  I mentioned that I thought the India scene smelled like Jasmine and she said that it is actually rose and roses are common in their cultural experience.

We were taken through the Fastpass+ line about 8:45am to experience an exclusive ride.  There were only about 16 people on the tour, so we all had terrific views from section B.  I was on my favorite row of B1 which is the top row, center section.

She narrated a little while we rode Soarin’.  She told us in advance that we could turn off our ear piece, if we desired.  I chose to leave it on as I’ve ridden a number of times and was interested in the discussion.  She pointed out when the scent canisters were charging and dispensing.  She said the ride is designed to re-circulate the air really quickly so the scents aren’t left in the air for the next ride.

After the ride we took a brief look into the pit and at the ride mechanism while they loaded regular day guests.  After the tour she allowed us to take a photo of the map that displays the pin points for each section of the film.  If you aren’t aware, the final scene of Soarin’ Around the World is different in each park.  Here, we end with Epcot, in California it ends with Disneyland and Shanghai ends with their park.  I still think it’s funny that they filmed the Epcot scene so it looks like fireworks are being shot from the parking lot instead of World Showcase.

Here’s a complete list of all the scenes listed in Soarin’.  I’ve visited 5 of them, can you name them?

The new Disney Vacation Club Soarin’ Around the World Tour was fun and we learned a few details that we didn’t know along the way.  I liked seeing the actual scent canisters.  Laura was a great host.  Thanks to Diane for inviting me and my friend along to experience the tour!