I would bet it was. Attack of the Clones (2002) was the first film shot completely digitally and I remember reading that it was a big deal to get theaters to update to digital projection around that time. (It was also printed on film for those theaters that hadn’t converted). DCA opened in 2001, so it’s possible but unlikely they had the foresight to install digital projectors, but who knows.
Also I seem to remember there being film artifacts in the early days – little blotches, flashes of light, etc. Maybe that’s a false memory though.
I recall this also. Wikipedia says the DCA switched from imax film to digital during the 2015 refurb. It’s less clear on Epcot, but probably safe to assume the refurb that added a third theater in 2016 also included a switch to digital.
The music is my most absolute favorite part of Soarin’. My favorite part of the Over California version is the hangliding over Yosemite and both the replacement scene (Iguazu Falls) and music for that specific part, fall short for me, and I was so excited to see it & for it to inspire wonder in me, so I like Around the World decidedly less, but I do still enjoy the variety of the world scenery (and Monumental Valley in the US is awesome too!!), but I will laugh and roll my eyes at the c-curved Eiffel Tower and very obviously fake CGI imagery of the Taj Mahal every time I don’t get B.
Sorry you’re missing it Ryan! Come out to DL for Food & Wine!!! I think it’s coming back for it.
My favorite part is when the French horns come in right after the golf scene with the orange groves (and scent!). Then the castanets join in and we see the horses cresting the hill in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Here it is time stamped:
DW and I will be there next weekend – March 1 & 2nd. That will probably be our only trip to DL for this year. Ok maybe one more time in the fall – we’ll see.
This is what destroys my love of Around the World. The Fake CGI throughout. The fake elephants. The fake jumping whale. The fake boaters at the island. The fake polar bear. The fake plane. The fake people and kites on the Great Wall. The fake Eiffel tower (and flying INTO it). Everything just looks fake. But the Taj Mahal scene is definitely the fakest!
The music for Around the World is also not nearly as good as as the original. Good, but if I’m going to listen to it, the Around the World version is boring compared to the Over California version.
Hm. This thought could be a game-changer. It isn’t that the Eiffel tower is being displayed crooked…it is that they are immersing you into realism, including the Parisian culture! (Maybe they should pump in the smell of wine during that scene.)
This. It was really fuzzy. I also wasn’t wowed with the scene of wine country, seems like so many more epic vineyard views than the one they picked. I won’t mind when the word version comes back. I think the scene changes isn’t he told version, while yes full of CGI things, make better transitions.
Ok maybe one more time in the fall – we’ll see. 
So I will catch it there before heading to WDW the week after.