Soaring Over the Horizon
| Soaring Over the Horizon | |
|---|---|
| Park | Shanghai Disneyland |
| Land / area | Adventure Isle |
| Type | Flight motion simulator |
| Opened | June 16, 2016 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | 102 cm minimum |
| Status | Operating |
'Soaring Over the Horizon is a flight motion simulator attraction in Adventure Isle at Shanghai Disneyland. It opened with the park on June 16, 2016, and was the debut of the worldwide version of the Soarin film: the same production opened the following day at Disney California Adventure and Epcot as Soarin' Around the World, and later at Tokyo DisneySea as Soaring: Fantastic Flight. The Shanghai version is set apart by its setting — not an airfield or an airport, but an ancient Arbori temple and celestial observatory.[1]
History
The attraction was a late addition to Shanghai Disneyland. It was not part of the park's original plan, and was added after Imagineering began developing the new worldwide Soarin film for the American parks; the film then premiered in Shanghai because the park opened first. The ride system follows the established Soarin design: rows of seats under a wing-like canopy are lifted into a large concave dome screen, with synchronised motion, wind and scents — including rose blossoms at the Taj Mahal, grass over Africa and a sea breeze over the South Pacific — completing the impression of hang-gliding flight.
The attraction has remained one of Shanghai Disneyland's most demanded rides. On September 23, 2025, Shanghai Disney Resort announced an expansion of Soaring Over the Horizon: a third theatre, increasing capacity by about 50 per cent, and a new finale scene, with the attraction remaining open during the work.[2]
Experience
Adventure Isle's backstory holds that the island is home to the Arbori people and to Q'otar, their condor god and protector of the skies. The attraction building is presented as the Arbori celestial observatory and temple to Q'otar, and the queue winds through corridors and shrines beneath a starfield in which Arbori animal spirits appear as living constellations.
In the preshow, an Arbori shaman — first seen as an eagle before she transforms — welcomes guests, explains the temple, gives the safety instructions and grants guests the gift of flight. Her shapeshifting is imperfect: she leaves having accidentally turned herself into a frog, then corrects herself into a hummingbird and flies off. No other Soarin' version has a host like her; the American versions use a chief flight attendant's recorded briefing instead.[3]
The flight itself visits, in order, the Matterhorn; the fjords of Greenland; Sydney Harbour; Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria; Mount Kilimanjaro; the Great Wall of China; the Great Pyramids of Egypt; the Taj Mahal; Monument Valley in Arizona; the Lau Islands of Fiji; and Iguazu Falls, before reaching Paris and the Eiffel Tower. The finale is the version's signature difference. Every other version of the film ends with a flyover of its own home resort, but Shanghai's ends over Lujiazui, the central business district of Shanghai, at night with fireworks — the park itself does not appear, because Shanghai Disneyland was still under construction when the film was shot. The finale announced in 2025 will correct that omission, ending instead over Shanghai Disneyland itself.[4]
The score, by Bruce Broughton, is built heavily on Jerry Goldsmith's music for the original Soarin' Over California.