Disney Reviews: Ride Edition #7 - Mission Space
Disney rides are not like "real" rides. Nothing goes too fast, no roller coaster has too many (or any) corkscrews, etc. Nothing really gives your stomach that "wooo" feeling like a "real" ride does. But it is Disney so you would expect that. There is one notable exception however...Mission Space. People have actually died on this ride (usually due to unknown previous heart conditions that get exacerbated by the ride experience). Not long after it opened, they "softened" it a bit to bring down the intensity, but more people still died, so they created a second side that is much milder. It's probably not a good ride for someone with a brain tumor either, but I always say that if you gotta go, it might as well be in Disney World, and the ride ain't killed me yet!
Located in Future World at Epcot, Mission Space is your chance to go to Mars!
There are very detailed descriptions of each side of the ride and what you could experience, pretty much leaving nothing to the imagination:
I absolutely LOVE the planets (and the moon with the landing sites all marked) outside the ride:
Once you get to the entrance, you choose your side (orange is the regular side and green is what we like to call the "wuss" side) and they give you a coordinating card with your color. Throughout the queue, there are more warning signs and they ask you time and time again are you sure that you've picked the right side. I have never ridden the green side so I can't comment on how similar (or not similar) to the orange side it is. And the orange side of today is nothing compared to the original ride, but it's still extremely thrilling!
The premise of the ride is this...you are part of a four person crew to Mars guided by your capcom, Gary Sinise. You are assigned a role (commander, navigator, engineer, or pilot) and once you are safely seated and harnessed into the "vehicle", you will be instructed to push certain buttons according to your role (but you don't have to, the ride will still run just fine and just say "override"). You go through liftoff (the coolest part), you do a slingshot around the moon, drop into hypersleep, get woken up by a meteor shower and have a turbulent landing on the surface of Mars ("Don't Move A Muscle"...most quoted line in Disney ride history, at least in our household).
In all actuality, you are in a pod that does nothing but spins, but it spins at a rate so fast that it simulates weightlessness...the kind of weightlessness that astronauts experience in space (and numerous astronauts have ridden it and agree it's extremely similar to the real thing). The green side is the same experience, just without the spinning. In addition to the numerous other warnings about the dangers of the ride, they also tell you to not close your eyes during the ride, not to turn your head or lift it off the headrest. I don't typically want to close my eyes, but I have turned my head numerous times and it's just hard to turn it back again, almost like gravity is preventing you from moving (which is actually what is happening). There are times I ride it and feel nothing afterwards and other times I do feel a bit wobbly for a moment or two once I first step out of the vehicle (it never lasts long). I have seen more than one person upchucking in the bushes outside the ride though, and I don't ever underestimate the effects of the ride. We don't eat beforehand or afterwards (at least for a while). It is not a ride for the faint of heart (literally) and it's not one I recommend much because of it, but it is still one of my favorite Disney World rides (go orange team!).
Oh, and in typical Disney fashion, you exit through a gift shop, Mickey welcoming you in to buy moon rocks and space toys!
Located in Future World at Epcot, Mission Space is your chance to go to Mars!
There are very detailed descriptions of each side of the ride and what you could experience, pretty much leaving nothing to the imagination:
I absolutely LOVE the planets (and the moon with the landing sites all marked) outside the ride:
Once you get to the entrance, you choose your side (orange is the regular side and green is what we like to call the "wuss" side) and they give you a coordinating card with your color. Throughout the queue, there are more warning signs and they ask you time and time again are you sure that you've picked the right side. I have never ridden the green side so I can't comment on how similar (or not similar) to the orange side it is. And the orange side of today is nothing compared to the original ride, but it's still extremely thrilling!
The premise of the ride is this...you are part of a four person crew to Mars guided by your capcom, Gary Sinise. You are assigned a role (commander, navigator, engineer, or pilot) and once you are safely seated and harnessed into the "vehicle", you will be instructed to push certain buttons according to your role (but you don't have to, the ride will still run just fine and just say "override"). You go through liftoff (the coolest part), you do a slingshot around the moon, drop into hypersleep, get woken up by a meteor shower and have a turbulent landing on the surface of Mars ("Don't Move A Muscle"...most quoted line in Disney ride history, at least in our household).
In all actuality, you are in a pod that does nothing but spins, but it spins at a rate so fast that it simulates weightlessness...the kind of weightlessness that astronauts experience in space (and numerous astronauts have ridden it and agree it's extremely similar to the real thing). The green side is the same experience, just without the spinning. In addition to the numerous other warnings about the dangers of the ride, they also tell you to not close your eyes during the ride, not to turn your head or lift it off the headrest. I don't typically want to close my eyes, but I have turned my head numerous times and it's just hard to turn it back again, almost like gravity is preventing you from moving (which is actually what is happening). There are times I ride it and feel nothing afterwards and other times I do feel a bit wobbly for a moment or two once I first step out of the vehicle (it never lasts long). I have seen more than one person upchucking in the bushes outside the ride though, and I don't ever underestimate the effects of the ride. We don't eat beforehand or afterwards (at least for a while). It is not a ride for the faint of heart (literally) and it's not one I recommend much because of it, but it is still one of my favorite Disney World rides (go orange team!).
Oh, and in typical Disney fashion, you exit through a gift shop, Mickey welcoming you in to buy moon rocks and space toys!
Comments
kind of ride.
Linda