EPCOT CENTER WORLDKEY
THE DEPTHS
Here at EPCOT Center, the future is only ever getting brighter, which is why in 1985 we are going to continue to expand Future World with a brand new pavilion. This time, we're taking you somewhere that truly is still full of mystery and ready for tomorrow's exploration. Welcome to: The Depths.
The Depths will further extend EPCOT Center's mission in that it will both inspire guests with exciting experiences and introduce them to fascinating real world topics. What exactly do The Depths truly entail? Well, now is your chance to explore for yourself before opening day!
Expedition from the Deep
Welcome to the headliner attraction of Epcot's 'The Depths' pavilion, an immersive E-Ticket experience and the park's very first thrill ride. Set to open in 1987 as a part of Epcot's Phase II, Expedition from the Deep will provide guests with an exciting opportunity to experience the next phase of 'Edutainment,' a perfect balance of an educational adventure and entertainment. The attraction, building off of the pavilion's mission statement to educate Epcot guests about what goes on deep beneath the Earth's crust, brings guests on a harrowing trip to the Core of the Earth.
Queue
Guests begin their experience inside the main atrium of 'The Depths' where a large marquee leads them to their journey. The first part of the queue takes guests around ponds and large rock formations within the atrium itself. This part of the queue largely serves as overflow and buildup to the main portion of the queue, but will often be left empty, due to the ride's high capacity.
Guests then enter a rock outcropping and weave their way through beautiful and colorful caves, continuing the theming of 'The Depths' with waterfalls and outcroppings, until they find themselves at the "Project Core" Laboratory, the departure zone for their adventure. But, before riders can depart on their mission, they must find out exactly what this mission is!
Pre-Show
Guests enter the Briefing Room in medium-sized groups where they are greeted by Dr. Eisenlore, Project Core's head geologist.
"Greetings everyone, thank you for volunteering your time here at Project Core. Currently, we are the only privately-run corporation in the entire world investigating and researching the depths of the Earth below our feet.
As a result, we often have fewer resources than many large, government-funded institutions. So, we rely on people like you to help us gather data to help increase understanding of such an unknown part of our world.
Your mission today is simple. We recently discovered the existence of a rare rock type at the Earth's Core, named Aldonium. Here at Project Core, we need to gather a sample of Aldonium in order to study how it keep the Depths of the Earth in balance.
Because this rock is at the center of the earth, it is incredibly hot and molten. The rare properties of Aldonium cause it to solidify if not transported efficiently and in the correct conditions. Therefore, your mission is aided by your transport, a state of the art vehicle that protects you from intense heat through the use of Shadow-Barrier technology while also encapsulating the sample and slowing it's cooling. You will have precisely three minutes between the time you collect the sample and place it within the transport's protective casing and the time in which you place it here, in this Molten Chamber back at our labs.
This trip will have to be fast if we want to prevent the sample from solidifying, so make sure you keep all hands, arms, feet and legs inside the transport at all times. Each seat inside the vehicle is equipped with state of the art protective technology that utilizes small pores within each safety belt that adjust the vehicles pressure within each seat, protecting the rider from varying pressure. Plus, this expedition will throw you around a little bit, so these belts will keep you in place at all times! Speaking of which, if you have any back or neck injuries or are pregnant, now's the time to speak with a Project Core lab assistant for directions to return to the surface. Thanks team and good luck."
Guests exit the briefing room and move into the loading area.
Loading Area/Vehicles
The loading area is simple, a darkly-lit, gray laboratory.
Expedition from the Deep features state of the art technology in its ride vehicles. These transports are able to stop, start, accelerate, decelerate at any point throughout the attraction. Furthermore, the setup of seats and loading area permits constant loading, allowing the Expedition from the Deep to be high capacity, similar to other Epcot attractions.
The vehicles are similar to Revenge of the Mummy at Universal Studios. However, due to the fact that Expedition from the Deep surfaces 15 years prior to the Mummy's reign down the street, these vehicles are slightly more primitive with fewer capabilities and technological advancements.
Guests board their vehicles and the ride experience begins.
Ride Experience
Scene 1
Guests leave the loading area and begin their descent to the center of the Earth. The slight slope of the ride track, along with a variety of lighting, sound, and pyrotechnic effects are utilized in this scene to convince riders that they are actually descending far below the surface. This part of the attraction serves as a dark ride portion that provides a learning experience...
On the intercom, guests can hear Dr. Eisenlore informing them of their surroundings. As guests pass each layer of the Earth (crust, magma, inner core and outer core), Eisenlore tells guests about each layer. (Reminding them that it's their transport vehicle that allows them to travel this deep, as they'd all be toast without it!)
Scene 2
Next, the ride track flattens out and Dr. Eisenlore tells the guests that they've arrived at the Center of the Earth.
(Note: While other attractions like Journey to the Center of the Earth focus on the guests' Journey to the Earth's core, this experience is different. Expedition from the Deep maintains a focus on the guests' escape from the center of the Earth).
A beautiful, and increasingly fantastical set of glowing rocks and caverns, accompanies a soaring symphony score recording just for the attraction. Pools of water lit up with red and orange lights simulate magma and twinkling lights give the scene an iridescent glow.
Scene 3
Guests round a corner (created by a rock outcropping) to see a large, glowing, shining rock surrounded by a pool of "magma." Dr. Eisenlore exclaims that that's "our rock" and reminds guests that once the sample is collected, they have three minutes to return to the Earth's surface. The transport vehicles slowly approach the rock and come to a stop once it sits directly to the right of the vehicle. Dr. Eisenlore asks the guests if they're ready, and the sound of a mechanical arm loudly begins. An animatronic robot arm seemingly extends from the transport, during which Dr. Eisenlore counts down from 3. When he reaches 1, the rock instantly splits apart in pieces, releasing a sudden, hot burst of steam. The guests then launch off at a high speed into the thrill part of the attraction.
Scene 4
The guests race through colorful caverns for about forty five seconds, including close misses with rock outcroppings and waterfalls before slowing down to a crawl, at the opening to the Outer Core that they entered the Inner Core from. Dr. Eisenlore informs the guests that the route that they took is now blocked due to the flowing magma. At this point, the transport vehicle exclaims "Two minutes remaining until sample is lost." Quickly, Dr. Eisenlore transmits a new route to the surface and calibrates the vehicle, sending it off to the left for another high speed section for another forty five seconds.
Scene 5
When the vehicle's computer states, "90 seconds remaining until sample is lost."The vehicle slows to yet another crawl. Suddenly, the rocks in front of the guests begin to shake and crumble. Dr. Eisenlore exclaims loudly to "get out of there!"Slowly, the vehicle begins to back up (!) before rocketing backwards into a backwards section for about thirty seconds. ("60 seconds remaining until sample is lost").
Scene 6
Finally, Dr. Eisenlore informs the vehicle (once it comes to a stop on a turn table that turns it around) that the vehicle is overheating. At this point, according to him, it would take a miracle to get back to the surface with both us and the sample okay. He explains that the Shadow-Barrier technology is failing! This dialogue is accompanied by flashing red lights along the vehicle and the temperature in the room slowly rising. Dr. Eisenlore tells the guests that he'll use the last bit of energy the transport vehicle has to try and get us back to the surface! He says that he'll need to rocket the guests off at an insane speed for this too work and tells them to hold on! The guests rocket forward for the fourth and final roller coaster section. This section is forty five seconds long as well, and when the countdown clock in each row reaches ten, the vehicles begin to both beep/flash and countdown from ten (i.e. "Five seconds remaining until sample is lost.") Guests hear Dr. Eisenlore exclaim that it's going to be tight! Finally, guests approach the lab and lock into the lab's Magma Chamber just in time. The transport shuts off, having finally broken. Guests hear Dr. Eisenlore for the final time.
"Congrats recruits, we made it! I'm having our recovering transports drag you back to the lab. Thanks for making this expedition a success, we couldn't have done it without you."
The music swells as guests approach an identical lab to the Loading Area and the vehicles stop. Guests finally disembark, exit the attraction and return to 'The Depths.'
The Great Seas
To help further tell the story and theme of the pavilion, a new dark ride will give guests a look at the oceans of the world like one they've never had before. The Great Seas will be a c-ticket omnimover dark ride that will capture the essence of the the adventure that has been man's relationship with the seas.
The ride will be similar in scale to what would have become The Living Seas/Seas with Nemo and Friends dark rides, and will serve as the Listen to the Land of sorts for The Depths in format and story.
The queue/load area for the ride will be simple, with a small series of switchbacks not far off from the main throughway of the pavilion, as not much space will be needed given the capacity and anticipated crowd draw of the attraction compared to the nearby e-ticket.
After boarding sea cab-esque cars (the main difference being more back support to lean against), the ride begins. Leaving the loading area, the opening scene of the ride will be an open air look into the pavilion, riding along one portion of the wall, giving unique views at the incredible architecture in the building. Soon, the vehicles will turn you backwards and begin a very slight decent, as you enter the showrooms for the ride. It is dark, but with shimmering blue lights shined onto fog to give the impression of traveling to a water-based atmosphere. The narrator, Judi Dench (before it was cool), begins:
"For every question yet to be answered, there are a million questions yet to be asked. From an outside perspective, it would be quite impressive to take a look at the human race and see how much we've been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. However, to say we've even begun to understand everything about the world around is surely mistaken."
Once we reach level ground, the vehicles turn back to the side. It is still dark and curious, but out of the corners of our eyes we see a grand scene off to the distance that we're riding towards.
"This process of great discovery surely is a long and potentially dangerous one. There may be no better example of this than the vast oceans and other waters that fill our planet. For nearly all of human history, mankind has had an invaluable relationship with it, from coming to rely on it for survival and growth, to discovering its mysterious power in good and..not-so-good ways."
The next few scenes (all in one room, combined more into one large one) consist of grand murals and set pieces, depicting the very journey Dench talks about of the history of humans discovering first hand the waters of the world. While there are no animatronics given the scale of the attraction, there are a few LMFs and light projection effects to add energy and movement to the scenes. These scenes include people on ships and sailboats, on fishing piers and desolate beaches, and showing off the beauty of it but also the danger with huge, rough waves. A grand oceanic score plays throughout this segment.
"Of course, we all know what the ocean is...lots of fish, water, and salt, right? Well quite truly, we don't know just what lies beyond how far we've been able to explore so far. There are depths and secrets held in the ocean, far beyond anything we've come close to being able to go to, right here on our own planet! But someday, as long as we keep asking questions, and pushing discovery and exploration of the unknown, who knows what we may find." As the vehicles begin to ascend back up, we pass by a futuristic submarine scene representing the future of sea travel.
The second half of the attraction is very special in its own way. Exiting the first level show-scene room for the ride, we are immersed into grand fish tanks much like at the end of the Living Seas. In addition, guests get to get a "behind the seas" look at what goes into maintaining the tanks and health of the animals, as well as EPCOT Center staff conducting research in special labs, all much like in LwtL. As the ride begins to come to a close, Judy Dench welcomes us to explore the rest of The Depths pavilion's exhibits to get a better understanding of everything we, well, don't understand yet, with the rest of the interactive exhibits and tanks in the pavilion. Overall, it is with great hope that the purpose of the pavilion is helped to be met with this ride, to have a new generation of thinkers inspired by the wonder of the seas and the depths of the Earth altogether.
The Living Seas Theater Experience
Taking homage to the "alternate" pavilion that inspired The Depths, "The Living Seas" will be a C Ticket mixed multimedia show featuring projections, film, and minimalist AA's. The theater will be set in a "dry/wet" environment where a projected "Wave" similar to the one that will be used in the future for "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" hovers above guests heads.
A series of tidepools with a screen in the center will serve as the main stage. Throughout the show, the water collapsing into the tidepools gets harder and harder until water is cascading down the ceiling. You may get wet in this theater experience! On the screen you see the sea life just outside our underwater cave as if it's being presented in real time.
About midway through the show, an AA of a large eel similar to the one in Super Mario 64 will poke its head through the ceiling and start to educate the guests on the relationship between land and sea and how the two affect each other. It's here where the screen changes from a real time "feed" of sea life to graphs, charts, and diagrams to show off the eel's point. With one last crashing wave into the tidepools the eel urges us one last time to have a harmonious relationship between the land and the sea.
The Crystal Gardens
The Crystal Gardens will be the name of the main central area of the pavilion. Here in this hub area, several tanks and educational exhibits will be surrounding you, giving plenty to do to explore during the day. There will be several merchandise kiosks themed to lab stations set up in the middle of the futuristic research facility. Lastly, there will also be a restaurant, called the Crystal Gardens Restaurant, which will serve as a counter service at lunch and breakfast, and table service at dinner. Artisan seafood dishes will be served here, as you dine in a unique environment that gives special views of the fish tanks and incredible architecture in the pavilion.
