New Horizons for You and for Me!

Check out this suitcase from the end of Space Mountain.  This suitcase can be found right before the moving walkway that takes you back up to Tomorrowland.  If you inspect the stickers on this case, it should be obvious that this traveler has clearly visited the gone but not forgotten ride, Horizons, that used to exist in EPCOT Center.  This ride was a look at the world of the future.  This view was not an apocalyptic view; it was a sunshine and rainbows view of all of the things that could be possible.  The song that played throughout the attraction told the riders that "if we could dream it, then we could do it." 

I really enjoyed this ride because it was audio animatronic based, which is honestly a rarity nowadays with all of the modern focus on technology and 3-D screens and movies.  This ride offered guests that ability to see the future in several different types of environments.  People could farm in the desert and communicate over many thousands of miles via very cool technology.  This creators of this ride also paid a great deal of attention to detail.  If you want an interesting look at this ride, hop on over to Hoot and Chief's site, the Mesa Verde Times, in order to read the story of their adventure and see this ride from a completely different vantage point. 

Anyway, Horizons just could not last because with all rides or experiences that focus on the future, eventually the future becomes the present and then the past.  It is very difficult to keep up with this type of ride.  Instead of constantly updating this ride, the powers that be at Disney decided that its popularity had run its course.  Eventually this ride was shut down and completely razed.  Now, in its place sits a fun thrill ride, Mission Space.   While this ride may offer big thrills, it does lack the heart and story that were present in Horizons.  Now, all I can do is sit and listen to my recording of the music, and think to myself, "if you can dream it, then you can do it; yes you can, yes you can!"