Disney Holiday Magic with Samantha Brown and Spaceship Earth

Something different today, Disney Holiday Magic with
Samantha Brown premiered on The Travel Channel last
night. I had a chance to catch it and it really was a bit of
the old Disney magic. The special highlighted holidays in
both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. In Disneyland,
It’s a Small World and Haunted Mansion Holiday were
highlighted. In Disneyworld, Osborne lights, the Cinderella
Castle Suite, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, some
of the resorts, and Candlelight Processional were some of
the areas visited.

Last night I received an e-mail from a friend who attended
MouseFest and was able to get a sneek peek at Spaceship
Earth. Here is what she wrote:

"The historical scenes in the first half are basically the same,
but renovated. Most of the audio-animatronic figures have
been updated, to the new type of Captain Jack Sparrow type
of movements. They are so realistic and have so many degrees
of freedom of movement at the same time! They're fabulous.
The Phonecian scene is great in that the two boats are being
held by the figures with ropes and it looks like they're really
bobbing on the water. The Greek drama scene has been
changed to reflect more Greek learning in general, but that's
OK. Then from the modern family watching the television scene
onwards, it's completely different. They have added 2 scenes
about modern computers -- a fellow MouseFest attendee
commented that the mini-skirted/leather booted girl in the
computer main frame room looks very much like Lieutenant
O'Hura from Star Trek! They they go up into the top of the ball
for the space scene. On the way down, they have you interact
with a computer screen in your vehicle. They ask you a few
questions about the previous presentations, then they ask
you what you would prefer for you vacation in the future.
Then they present an animation which reflects your personal
choices about your vacation (including the question do you
worry more about your home or about your pets when you're
away -- we know what we would both answer!) I think the
lighting/scenery on the descent is not yet completed. (At least
I hope they will add more...) The "you choose the animation"
sequence is cute, but not quite what I was hoping for as I had
heard it previously described it as a "horizons" type of next
generation whatever.... They didn't ask for our feedback, but
hopefully they will get feedback, because it was a little
disappointing. So in sum, the audio-animatronic figures were
so fantastic that the renovations are terrific (even if the ending
is a little bit of a fizzle).