Wallpaper pictures of "Soarin'" in The Land in Epcot - presented in both 4:3 regular and 16:10 widescreen formats!

Officially opening to the general public on May 5, 2005, "Soarin'" in Epcot is a clone of the popular "Soarin' over California" ride at Disney's California Adventure theme park in Anaheim, CA. 

Like its California counterpart, the Epcot version of the attraction is extremely popular and commonly has a line queue between 60 and 120 minutes during the busier parts of the year.

The space for "Soarin'" was originally occupied by "Kitchen Kabaret Revue" when EPCOT Center first opened in 1982.  The Audio-Animatronic show educated park guests on the essentials of good nutrition through the usage of singing and dancing fruits, vegetables, bread, dairy products, and of course, a ham and an egg.  In 1994, "Kitchen Kabaret" was replaced by "Food Rocks", a newer and more hip version of the show with the same good nutrition theme.  "Food Rocks" lasted until 2004 despite the fact that the crowds stopped filling the theater many years before that point.

The addition of "Soarin'" required a total conversion of the old "Kitchen Kabaret" & "Food Rocks" waiting room and theater.  The entire area was demolished and a massive new show building was added to the back of The Land to house the two IMAX-style screens for the new attraction.

"Soarin" was one of four new shows and attractions added to the Walt Disney World theme parks during Disneyland's 50th birthday "Happiest Celebration on Earth" party.  And since its opening in 2005, "Soarin'" has been a smash-hit and very popular amongst all of the Epcot visitors.

The Epcot version of "Soarin'" is themed as a flight to and over the great state of California.  The line queue is themed to an airport boarding station, and all of the crew members wear flight attendant uniforms to complete the theming.  The ride itself has relatively little motion considering that it's a simulator ride, and the extremes of the motions are often compared to sitting in a rocking chair.  Despite the little motion, the way that the people are surrounded by the IMAX screen makes them feel as if they really are flying above the scenery.

"Soarin'" is a very popular FastPass ride, and on the busiest days it's common for the FastPasses to be "sold out" as early as 11 am!  In the summertime most of the FastPasses are gone by 1 or 2 pm, and during the off-season the FastPasses are usually available as late as 5 or 6 pm.

Despite "Soarin'" being a very fun simulator ride, the biggest complaint with most people is that the stand-by line just moves too slowly.  In the early days of the ride the barrier wasn't very tall between the two line queues, and many of the stand-by people were quite frustrated spending over an hour in a slow moving line as the FastPass people sprinted by them in a much shorter line queue.  That jealousy problem led Disney to modifying the line queue and removing most of the FastPass line from the sight of the stand-by people.  An interactive video game using infrared technology was also added to the stand-by side to help keep the people amused while waiting for their turn to ride.

The other problem with "Soarin'" deals with those visitors in electric powercarts, and this still occur today.

Basically, if you're in an electric cart (this also happens to a lot of regular wheelchair guests), the workers automatically seat you in the rear corner of the attraction (which is the far corner on the lowest level once the ride starts).  In other words, it's the very worst view of the ride along with the opposite corner on the other side.  The workers claim that it's to make it easier for the wheelchair people to leave the ride if they're up front by the door.  Then again, the workers are also under the impression that all seats have the same exact view, which is not true.  It's annoying having to constantly look up and to the side to see the ride, especially when your line-of-sight is cut off by the row of people right above you and you cannot see what's happening on top of the screen.  The images on the side of the screen are also distorted, which is a common problem for all IMAX screens including those used at Universal for "The Simpsons Ride."

Luckily for those of us traveling with a disabled person, all of the rows can accommodate electric wheelchairs (wheelchairs weren't automatically sent to the front corner when the ride first opened), and you don't have to be discriminated against and forced to sit on the extreme lower corner if you don't want to, especially if you're with a small group of people.

Nonetheless, "Soarin'" is an excellent ride and a worthy addition to Epcot.  I still miss "Kitchen Kabaret," but "Soarin'" is just plain fun.

Note - Each picture can be opened in one of two styles - regular (4:3 ratio) and widescreen (16:10 ratio). You may download and share these pictures, but please, do not modify or alter them in any way!

The above Epcot guidebook and guidemap pictures are (c) The Walt Disney Company.

The regular 4:3 pictures all have a resolution of 1600x1200 (960x1280 for vertical pictures), unless it's otherwise noted.  They can also easily fit monitor resolutions of 1280x960 or even 2133x1600 without needing any special modifications.  Just select the image and have Windows stretch and fit it to the other 4:3 resolution.

The widescreen 16:10 pictures all have a resolution of 1440x900, unless it's otherwise noted.  They can also easily fit a resolution of 2560x1600 without needing any special modifications.  Just select the image and have Windows stretch and fit it to the other 16:10 resolution.

Warning - There will be some slight variations between the regular and widescreen pictures!

To help save bandwidth for the other visitors, please open each picture only once. If you like it, save it to your hard drive. You can also right click on the link and select "save as" instead of manually loading each picture.

- Epcot - Future World - The Land - "Soarin'" - outside sign - 01 - regular, widescreen

- The Land - "Soarin'" - ride entrance - sign - 01 - regular, widescreen

- "Soarin'" - ride entrance - warning sign - 01 - regular

- "Soarin'" - stand-by entrance - New Year's Eve 2008 - 220 minute wait - 01 - regular, widescreen

- "Soarin'" - neon line queue - hang glider and sign - 01 - regular, widescreen

- "Soarin'" - neon line queue - sign - 01 - regular, widescreen

- "Soarin'" - ride exit - "Thanks for Soarin' with us!" sign - 01 - regular, widescreen