Forgotten Disney

Horizons

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN MAY-17-2015

Horizons: EPCOT
Lost DisneyWorld Attractions

Horizons was an Omnimover attraction in Future World at Epcot that took guests into the future of what earth might be like based on scientific advancements. The attraction opened on October 1, 1983 on the first anniversary of the opening of EPCOT Center. The ride closed permanently on January 9, 1999 due to a sinkhole beneath the building, much to the dismay and public outcry of fans. The symbol used for the ride from 1983-1994 symbolizes the sun rising over the land, representing a new horizon.

The ride was a loose spiritual sequel to the Carousel of Progress. The queue area led through FuturePort, a spaceport which linked all the focal points of the ride together and to the unusual overhead Omnimover vehicles. An announcer read "Horizons 1 is now departing. Our final destination today, the 21st century." The guests could then hear people that sounded like the father and mother characters in the Carousel of Progress (which kept the tie-in really sharp).
The first portion of the attraction was titled "Looking Back at Tomorrow", which explored different ways that we have envisioned the future. This included Jules Verne and his book "From the Earth to the Moon", a fanciful futuristic city full of flying machines as envisioned by French artist Albert Robida, a futuristic Art Deco apartment with a robotic butler, tanning machine, and a malfunctioning robot chef, and a Neon City showcasing science fiction films and television ranging from 1927's Metropolis to Disney's Magic Highway, U.S.A.

The vehicle then entered one of the two giant OmniMax IMAX screens, known as the Omnisphere, where a very brief view of the present was portrayed, showcasing advances in computer technology, the study of DNA, and leading up to a space shuttle launch and space station docking, foreshadowing Brava Centauri.

After leaving the Omnisphere, we enter "Tomorrow's Windows", where we visit the future world our narrators come from. We begin with a visit to their apartment in the city of Nova Cite. While the grandfather plays a motion-sensing musical synthesizer instrument, the grandmother is in the midst of a holographic phone call with their "agricultural engineer" daughter in Mesa Verde. Entering Mesa Verde, we travel through the futuristic desert farm, where large irrigation robots help take care of crops, supervised by the daughter. We pass through her home where her husband and son are preparing a birthday cake in the kitchen and her daughter is in video chat with her marine biologist boyfriend at the floating city of Sea Castle. Seeing the other side of the conversation, we journey through the marine base, seeing a diving classroom and an underwater restaurant looking out at the sea floor, where robots are harvesting kelp for biomass energy projects. A submarine goes by and transitions into a spaceship as we finally approach Brava Centauri, home to the narrators' son. Going inside we see various activities in the station such as crystal growing and zero gravity exercise machines, as well as a newly arrived family adusting to the zero gravity. Finally, we go to their grandson's birthday party, where everyone comes together through holographic teleconferencing, singing "Happy Birthday".

The two narrators left the guests briefly while another announcer stated that they would be returning to FuturePort very soon. Unlike any other attraction, Horizons allowed guests to choose their own ending in a segment called "Choose Your Own Tomorrow." In it, riders selected one of the lit up designs on a keypad in front of them. The winner (majority rules) got presented with a 31-second clip of high-speed motion before returning to one of the docking bays of FuturePort. Riders then were told "If we can dream it, we really can do it" before disembarking.

Source: Disney Wiki

December-12-2019 Update: Updated and changed chapter with added information. Original title, "Epcot Horizon."