Today’s column entry covers two amazing space-themed rides at Disney World in Florida. One a brilliant roller coaster and another one . . . as you’ll see . . . harder than I thought to ride . . . but I overcame!
By now, you know that my family and I went to Florida to celebrate Jessica and I’s 15th wedding anniversary. It was a very fun time yet it was extremely hot and humid, two components that lent itself adversely to the formation of hurricane Michael which was struck west of us nearly a few days later.
Nighttime was the most comfortable time of day to be out and about . . . and get on rides easier! Usually, you had to utilize a Fast Pass to schedule when/where you’d get in line. But there are ways around this. We all took advantage of nighttime and the nightly fireworks shows to get on more rides. This held true at all parks, but most importantly for me, the Space Themed Ones!!!
One of our prime destinations took us on a visit to The Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland. Very futuristic look especially at night too. There, the first of two notable space rides exists!
SPACE MOUNTAIN ?
While at Disney World, we had the opportunity to go on two rides that were space-themed. The oldest of these, of course, was Space Mountain at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
Space Mountain is set up to loosely simulate a space rocket flying from a base to another starbase. There are actually two separate roller coasters built inside of the round, mountain-shaped structure.
Space mountain was officially constructed and completed in the late 1970s at Disney World. It’s highly identifiable along the viewscape of the Disney park, resembling an advanced UFO/saucer-shaped craft.
The “Rockets” are single-row seated roller coaster cars. This is meant to add dimension and a fact to the ride. The props used throughout the entrance all the way up to the rocket coasters are very well done and give a sense of a futuristic space theme which I make younger kids get very excited or in this case, a seasoned space systems engineer that still loves related inspiration!
In the beginning, the traditional upward ramp of the roller coaster is made to look like some sort of a “pre-launch work tunnel” and at the very end it releases you out where you go on a series of spiraling roller coaster tracks with lighted starlight flying all around to simulate the depths of space. It’s not one of those things that you can photograph well, you have to go there and experience it and it definitely is a very fun ride. To see someone’s POV video, click HERE to see the video.
My son and I during the fireworks each night we were at the Magic Kingdom, we would purposely duck away and go on this ride repeatedly where they were zero lines. We even got our picture taken while shooting through the stars!
Those that have been to Disney understand that lines can often be 45 minutes to an hour long unless you have their “Disney Fast Pass”. Unless you have any kind of health issues with blood pressure, heart condition, or things like that, I would highly recommend Space Mountain!
NOTE: I have heard that Space Mountain at Disney Land has been updated extensively, and includes modern special effects and graphics. As I now live about 5 hours away, I told my kids we need to go visit soon (mostly for the opening of Star Wars Land) and check this out. I’ll see about having a good article about both when this happens).
MISSION: SPACE ?
At Epcot center, however, there was another ride which was meant to give you the sights, sounds, and feels of real space flight. Mission: Space is what I’m talking about. The premise of this mission is to fly a rocket shuttle from Earth to a space destination.
There are special effects and structural additions that make this possible. It simulates upward flight, as well as the G-forces an astronaut might experience while in flight which includes a forward pulling feel that can add several times normal gravity to your body.
The set up of all the props between the entrance to the rides looked very well done including this video of a command center you would expect to see from a launch base like Cape Canaveral (but set in the future).
NOW FOR THE SHADIER SIDE OF ALL THIS. As you stand in line to get ready to go, there are a constant stream of advisories saying things like “if you have a heart condition, are claustrophobic, and other health conditions then please step out of line”. For me, I don’t have any, but I felt that the continuous broadcast of this did not really help settle my nerves too much.
This is a small toy model of the “X2” shuttlecraft that four passengers, including yourself, are supposed to ride on into space. The simulation and briefing goes as far as to describe the ship, the type of rocket boosters it launches aboard, and the destination.
You have two launch pads and/or missions to choose from. One is the Green path and one is the Orange path. The Green path will take you into space on a more gentle ride with a less chaotic ending that includes a smooth flight. I chose the Orange one which is the more dramatic one where the G forces were higher and there was a lot more intense action.
Once on board your craft, for riders, you sit in a row. They have the names “Navigator, Pilot, Engineer, and Specialist”. Each of them has a control stick and controls that they can use when commanded during flight. I took the navigator role on the far left. Once again, the constant advisories about “if you have heart conditions, anxiety, illness, and all that please stay off” kept coming through. I got buckled in feeling OK except for hearing that . . . and it was starting to get to me.
My seat was on the far left which (again) is the Navigator seat like you see pictured here. Finally, they said, “enjoy your flight”. The command panel then folders forward with you buckled in. At this point for some reason, I started to find myself hyperventilating and I told my wife that I was having a problem. She told me “just calm down, remember this is your career and what you want to do”, but I have to admit I kept panicking. The constant warnings before getting on were psychologically playing with me”.
I kept the deep breathing going and finally, the ship got underway and launched where I felt a large amount of G-forces on the acceleration. There were then some intense moments when the ship almost smacked into the Moon and into an Earth base but finally broke away but got caught in a meteor shower near Mars and a harrowing landing. This actually wasn’t as bad as I had thought, but I think we could’ve done a lot more with toning back on the advisories with “power of suggestion” getting anyone into feeling panicked.
After getting off that ride, I suddenly found myself extremely frustrated and embarrassed especially since the other two riders besides my wife and I were another couple LOL. Fortunately, they didn’t speak English but I think they understood.
I felt like kicking myself. A fellow engineer told me not to feel bad because “We’re engineers, not astronauts”. I understand, and I agree . . . but I’m not content with just that! So much so that I told my wife “I’m riding on this again!” I ran (actually, almost stormed in frustration/embarrassment) around and got in line (right back in the Orange ride). I strapped myself in with face-like-flint determination, REFUSED to panic, and we flew, and THIS TIME I did literally every single one of the commander functions and succeeded . . . FEARLESSLY!!! ????
REFLECTION: A lot of it was literally as I felt like I was wimping out and being a coward when I had the panic attack on the ride earlier. I guess the situation aggravated me enough to say you know what? I think I’m going to do whatever it takes to learn how to do this so maybe I could be an astronaut one day. Well, it worked! Afterward, I treated myself to a souvenir or more of the Mission: Space ride. And I plan on flying this and even other “more realistic” ones somewhere down the road.
All in all, I believe Disney has great rides. On the inspirational side of things, I believe both did really well. As before, the only downside is them giving health advisories on Mission: Space repeatedly to a fault but if you don’t have any of those conditions, and don’t let that get to them which I unfortunately did, you should do just fine. Best thing, of course, is, as always, Space Inspiration. I can picture many future young scientists, engineers, and astronauts experiencing this when riding these. Maybe you will too, regardless of age!
For the Great Galactic Space Gimmick, I’m Gimmick Commander Ben Faltinowski! 🙂
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