Just passing this along....
DISNEY FEATURE: Our Scope on Mission:SPACE
========================================================
by Jennifer Watson and Dave Marx
The long wait and hoopla were finally over. It was time for us to ride Epcot's newest headline attraction, Mission: SPACE. We had scheduled our August research trip so we'd be on hand August 15 for the attraction's "soft" opening (the official opening date is October 9, but that's just a ribbon cutting ceremony for the media's benefit). Then, a few weeks ago, Disney added a five-day preview period to the soft opening, complete with "countdown to opening" cloisonné pins. That still fit our original plans fairly well. We arrived in Orlando the afternoon of August 11, and were at Epcot the next morning, ready to brave long lines and queasy stomachs, and to pick up a Day 3 limited edition countdown pin.
Mission: SPACE is Disney's latest entry in the high tech thrill ride category. Riders are strapped into a space program-inspired centrifuge/simulator to train for a flight to Mars. With Disney Imagineering's legendary attention to story line and authentic detail, this promised to be a fantastic ride!
The ride's richly-detailed queue area includes a full-size mock-up of the Mars spacecraft's living quarters, a historic lunar rover vehicle, plaques commemorating important milestones in manned space flight, and many video displays and warning signs describing just what will take place in the simulator.
We arrived in the colorful entrance plaza to Mission: SPACE at around 11:00 am, just an hour after the park opened. Already, the FASTPASS Return time was 4:30pm, the Standby queue was 90 minutes long, and even the Single Rider queue was pegged at 55 minutes! As planned, we skipped FASTPASS to sample the complete Standby experience. Considering the return time, FASTPASS would have to wait for another day.
This was Jennifer's first time through the attraction, but Dave was present for the media preview back in April. Only then he wasn't allowed to ride, or even see the ride vehicle! Now we were in for the full treatment, and the anticipation mounted as we crept through the queue. As we're both space geeks, we had a great time gawking at all the details in the queue. Before we knew it, cast members were dividing us into teams of 40, and then again into ten crews of four. We received our mission briefing, then headed into the ride staging area, where two crews stood flanking each of five entrances to the ride area. Another quick briefing, the doors opened, and we boarded our four-person simulator. OK, now, place any loose articles into the storage compartment, and pull down the shoulder restraints. Then, the final safety check, and our capsule closed around us. Now here we were navigator, pilot, commander and engineer, each with our own viewing screen, arrays of working pushbutto
ns, and a flight control joystick.
Dave's Experience: "Ride startup was nearly imperceptible--just a little shudder, than absolute stillness. I knew the centrifuge was beginning to spin, but I couldn't feel a thing. Until the launch sequence began. It felt (and looked) like the spacecraft was being raised from horizontal to a vertical position alongside the launch tower. Then the rockets roared, and I was pressed back into my seat. My cheeks were pushed back to my ears by the g-forces, and I felt totally new sensations as the spacecraft rose through the atmosphere and spun slowly. I was queasy and exhilarated at the same time. Then the atmosphere thinned, the g-forces eased, and I felt like I was floating out of my seat, all previous sensations erased from my gut. Next, we accelerated into a high-speed lunar fly-by, perhaps 50 miles above the moon's surface. More g-forces, more queasiness, and relief again, as we were placed into "hypersleep" for the long trip to Mars. We "awoke" in a meteor field just above t
he Martian surface, pulling gees and dodging house-sized boulders on our approach to the Red Planet. I didn't know how much more of that my stomach could take, but then the sensations eased a moment, just long enough to begin our descent and landing at the Mars base. My body felt heavy (and queasy) again as we roared towards the landing zone. I couldn't wait until touchdown! By now my face was drenched in a cold sweat, and I was happy for the stiff breeze that blasted from the ventilators to clear my senses. Land! Please, land! Whew, we're down! Relief seemed seconds away, but the Imagineers weren't quite done with us. My stomach lurched once more during the surprise ending, but finally, all was well! Our simulator came to a full stop, the hatch opened, and we all made our way out of the vehicle. While I was disoriented by all these new sensations, I wasn't dizzy, and the queasiness disappeared almost immediately. We walked down a long, curving hallway into the post-show are
a, and collected our wits."
"OK, so what do I think? This is an awesome attraction! I've never experience anything like it. Even though I knew it was a simulator from the get-go (in the story line we're trainees at the International Space Training Center, after all) the sensations of liftoff, weightlessness and landing were completely convincing. I never once felt like I was spinning."
Jennifer's Experience: "I have to start with a confession. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. I know just about everyone else did, too, but I was really into it. I remember drawing a fake keyboard and instrument panel on a piece of cardboard, going to my closet, closing the door, and pretending to orbit in my little pod. So when I saw the Mission: SPACE pods for the first time, I was in heaven. It was just what I'd imagined as a kid. Even the confined space of my closet was mimicked by the slightly claustrophobic pod as it closed around us. I eagerly began playing with all the switches and buttons, and was delighted to discover most of them made little beeps. All I could think was, "COOL." So I was thoroughly distracted from any fear of the ride, and I was all ready to love this to death. Alas, that feeling ended the moment the ride began. Unlike Dave, the spinning of the pod was immediately detectable - I could even tell that we were going in a clockwise directio
n and I had a general sense of acceleration and deceleration. I was no longer in my fantasy world, but stuck in some mad, spinning contraption. The launch sequence was almost nightmarish in recollection. While I never felt like I'd lose my breakfast, I did feel wildly out of control. It just spun way too much for me. And yes, I kept my eyes straight forward the entire time. But during the most intense parts, my screen blurred. Was it my screen or me? I'm still not sure. I ended up breathing deeply and visualizing the end of the ride, and that got me through. I was surprised by the ending - it seemed abrupt, and even though I was more than ready to leave, I found myself thinking, "is this really the end?" The doors to the pod opened and I got out the opposite side from everyone else, and found myself alone, confused, and disoriented. People were walking towards me, presumably to board, and I worried I'd really goofed. Eventually I followed the voices and found the rest of the
exiting riders. In the pre-show, I felt dazed and nauseous. We sat down for a bit, and ended up staying at least 30 minutes until I felt more like myself."
"So what did I think? Once I the nausea wore off, I felt disappointed. I was really prepared to embrace this particular thrill ride. But in the end, it was just too much for me - I'm apparently too sensitive to the spinning motion. I know many other folks will love it, but it isn't for me. and I would not recommend it to anyone else who gets dizzy easily."
In some ways this whole thing is nothing more than a multi-million dollar Tilt-a-Whirl, with theming and some story elements recycled from other great Disney attractions of the past. But this is no cheap carnival ride or a tired re-hash, but a trip for the body and imagination. Still, for many folks, you'll probably want to ride this only once, or once per visit. While Dave felt like he'd get sick several times during his first ride, he got relief whenever the mission went into a new phase. You can't say that for most thrill rides, which never give you a break. Let's face it, the ride portion of the attraction lasts over four minutes (talk about value!) and you're under the sustained forces of liftoff for more than 30 seconds. Try getting that out of a coaster! Still, when it was all over Dave wasn't exhilarated by the experience, and neither was anyone else nearby. Quiet awe may be a better way to look at it. After a coaster ride there are always a few people shouting trium
phantly. We watched the riders exit while we were sitting down (just inside the post show area), and we saw very few smiling faces.
Another emotion missing from our experience was fear. Of course, few Disney attractions trade on fear, but most thrill rides do. That's supposed to be part of the thrill-anticipatory fear, extreme motion, and release. Here, we never encountered the illusion of risk. Oh, there were a few half-hearted attempts (meteor field, landing "surprise"), but nothing convincing enough to matter. Disney wants us to feel confident and secure as we train for our mission, and we thank them for it. As we discovered, the sensations of space flight are thrilling enough without feeling endangered by the experience.
Now, the experts tell us that the simulator never spins faster than 15 rpm, slower than a playground merry-go-round when the kids get it spinning (the force on Mission: SPACE is stronger because its diameter is much greater than the playground ride). Still, the g-forces never exceed 2.5 to 3 gees, which is matched or exceeded by many thrill rides. The difference on Mission: SPACE is that you feel those gees (and weightlessness) for an extended period, while on coasters and elevators they last just a few seconds at a time.
We knew we couldn't just go around and ride it again immediately, but Dave had to do it again for research purposes. He made a point of returning on a later visit to Epcot. He breezed through the FASTPASS queue and soon was lifting off again. Second time around was more exciting and less nauseating, and he has a feeling it will continue to grow on him as time goes by. We have a feeling Dave wasn't the only person with this reaction. This time as Dave monitored the exit, far more people were leaving excited and smiling.
It's kind of odd. Usually you love or hate something like this immediately. If you love it, you come to love it even more with time, and if you hate it, you avoid it completely. Mission: SPACE is somewhere in the middle. At the moment it may not be getting the kind of rave reviews that an attraction with this kind of build-up requires, but we have a feeling it'll gather a very large and loyal following as the months and years go by.
Have you been on Mission:SPACE? Please take a few moments to send us your rating at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=66193261336
DISNEY FEATURE: Our Scope on Mission:SPACE
========================================================
by Jennifer Watson and Dave Marx
The long wait and hoopla were finally over. It was time for us to ride Epcot's newest headline attraction, Mission: SPACE. We had scheduled our August research trip so we'd be on hand August 15 for the attraction's "soft" opening (the official opening date is October 9, but that's just a ribbon cutting ceremony for the media's benefit). Then, a few weeks ago, Disney added a five-day preview period to the soft opening, complete with "countdown to opening" cloisonné pins. That still fit our original plans fairly well. We arrived in Orlando the afternoon of August 11, and were at Epcot the next morning, ready to brave long lines and queasy stomachs, and to pick up a Day 3 limited edition countdown pin.
Mission: SPACE is Disney's latest entry in the high tech thrill ride category. Riders are strapped into a space program-inspired centrifuge/simulator to train for a flight to Mars. With Disney Imagineering's legendary attention to story line and authentic detail, this promised to be a fantastic ride!
The ride's richly-detailed queue area includes a full-size mock-up of the Mars spacecraft's living quarters, a historic lunar rover vehicle, plaques commemorating important milestones in manned space flight, and many video displays and warning signs describing just what will take place in the simulator.
We arrived in the colorful entrance plaza to Mission: SPACE at around 11:00 am, just an hour after the park opened. Already, the FASTPASS Return time was 4:30pm, the Standby queue was 90 minutes long, and even the Single Rider queue was pegged at 55 minutes! As planned, we skipped FASTPASS to sample the complete Standby experience. Considering the return time, FASTPASS would have to wait for another day.
This was Jennifer's first time through the attraction, but Dave was present for the media preview back in April. Only then he wasn't allowed to ride, or even see the ride vehicle! Now we were in for the full treatment, and the anticipation mounted as we crept through the queue. As we're both space geeks, we had a great time gawking at all the details in the queue. Before we knew it, cast members were dividing us into teams of 40, and then again into ten crews of four. We received our mission briefing, then headed into the ride staging area, where two crews stood flanking each of five entrances to the ride area. Another quick briefing, the doors opened, and we boarded our four-person simulator. OK, now, place any loose articles into the storage compartment, and pull down the shoulder restraints. Then, the final safety check, and our capsule closed around us. Now here we were navigator, pilot, commander and engineer, each with our own viewing screen, arrays of working pushbutto
ns, and a flight control joystick.
Dave's Experience: "Ride startup was nearly imperceptible--just a little shudder, than absolute stillness. I knew the centrifuge was beginning to spin, but I couldn't feel a thing. Until the launch sequence began. It felt (and looked) like the spacecraft was being raised from horizontal to a vertical position alongside the launch tower. Then the rockets roared, and I was pressed back into my seat. My cheeks were pushed back to my ears by the g-forces, and I felt totally new sensations as the spacecraft rose through the atmosphere and spun slowly. I was queasy and exhilarated at the same time. Then the atmosphere thinned, the g-forces eased, and I felt like I was floating out of my seat, all previous sensations erased from my gut. Next, we accelerated into a high-speed lunar fly-by, perhaps 50 miles above the moon's surface. More g-forces, more queasiness, and relief again, as we were placed into "hypersleep" for the long trip to Mars. We "awoke" in a meteor field just above t
he Martian surface, pulling gees and dodging house-sized boulders on our approach to the Red Planet. I didn't know how much more of that my stomach could take, but then the sensations eased a moment, just long enough to begin our descent and landing at the Mars base. My body felt heavy (and queasy) again as we roared towards the landing zone. I couldn't wait until touchdown! By now my face was drenched in a cold sweat, and I was happy for the stiff breeze that blasted from the ventilators to clear my senses. Land! Please, land! Whew, we're down! Relief seemed seconds away, but the Imagineers weren't quite done with us. My stomach lurched once more during the surprise ending, but finally, all was well! Our simulator came to a full stop, the hatch opened, and we all made our way out of the vehicle. While I was disoriented by all these new sensations, I wasn't dizzy, and the queasiness disappeared almost immediately. We walked down a long, curving hallway into the post-show are
a, and collected our wits."
"OK, so what do I think? This is an awesome attraction! I've never experience anything like it. Even though I knew it was a simulator from the get-go (in the story line we're trainees at the International Space Training Center, after all) the sensations of liftoff, weightlessness and landing were completely convincing. I never once felt like I was spinning."
Jennifer's Experience: "I have to start with a confession. When I was a kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. I know just about everyone else did, too, but I was really into it. I remember drawing a fake keyboard and instrument panel on a piece of cardboard, going to my closet, closing the door, and pretending to orbit in my little pod. So when I saw the Mission: SPACE pods for the first time, I was in heaven. It was just what I'd imagined as a kid. Even the confined space of my closet was mimicked by the slightly claustrophobic pod as it closed around us. I eagerly began playing with all the switches and buttons, and was delighted to discover most of them made little beeps. All I could think was, "COOL." So I was thoroughly distracted from any fear of the ride, and I was all ready to love this to death. Alas, that feeling ended the moment the ride began. Unlike Dave, the spinning of the pod was immediately detectable - I could even tell that we were going in a clockwise directio
n and I had a general sense of acceleration and deceleration. I was no longer in my fantasy world, but stuck in some mad, spinning contraption. The launch sequence was almost nightmarish in recollection. While I never felt like I'd lose my breakfast, I did feel wildly out of control. It just spun way too much for me. And yes, I kept my eyes straight forward the entire time. But during the most intense parts, my screen blurred. Was it my screen or me? I'm still not sure. I ended up breathing deeply and visualizing the end of the ride, and that got me through. I was surprised by the ending - it seemed abrupt, and even though I was more than ready to leave, I found myself thinking, "is this really the end?" The doors to the pod opened and I got out the opposite side from everyone else, and found myself alone, confused, and disoriented. People were walking towards me, presumably to board, and I worried I'd really goofed. Eventually I followed the voices and found the rest of the
exiting riders. In the pre-show, I felt dazed and nauseous. We sat down for a bit, and ended up staying at least 30 minutes until I felt more like myself."
"So what did I think? Once I the nausea wore off, I felt disappointed. I was really prepared to embrace this particular thrill ride. But in the end, it was just too much for me - I'm apparently too sensitive to the spinning motion. I know many other folks will love it, but it isn't for me. and I would not recommend it to anyone else who gets dizzy easily."
In some ways this whole thing is nothing more than a multi-million dollar Tilt-a-Whirl, with theming and some story elements recycled from other great Disney attractions of the past. But this is no cheap carnival ride or a tired re-hash, but a trip for the body and imagination. Still, for many folks, you'll probably want to ride this only once, or once per visit. While Dave felt like he'd get sick several times during his first ride, he got relief whenever the mission went into a new phase. You can't say that for most thrill rides, which never give you a break. Let's face it, the ride portion of the attraction lasts over four minutes (talk about value!) and you're under the sustained forces of liftoff for more than 30 seconds. Try getting that out of a coaster! Still, when it was all over Dave wasn't exhilarated by the experience, and neither was anyone else nearby. Quiet awe may be a better way to look at it. After a coaster ride there are always a few people shouting trium
phantly. We watched the riders exit while we were sitting down (just inside the post show area), and we saw very few smiling faces.
Another emotion missing from our experience was fear. Of course, few Disney attractions trade on fear, but most thrill rides do. That's supposed to be part of the thrill-anticipatory fear, extreme motion, and release. Here, we never encountered the illusion of risk. Oh, there were a few half-hearted attempts (meteor field, landing "surprise"), but nothing convincing enough to matter. Disney wants us to feel confident and secure as we train for our mission, and we thank them for it. As we discovered, the sensations of space flight are thrilling enough without feeling endangered by the experience.
Now, the experts tell us that the simulator never spins faster than 15 rpm, slower than a playground merry-go-round when the kids get it spinning (the force on Mission: SPACE is stronger because its diameter is much greater than the playground ride). Still, the g-forces never exceed 2.5 to 3 gees, which is matched or exceeded by many thrill rides. The difference on Mission: SPACE is that you feel those gees (and weightlessness) for an extended period, while on coasters and elevators they last just a few seconds at a time.
We knew we couldn't just go around and ride it again immediately, but Dave had to do it again for research purposes. He made a point of returning on a later visit to Epcot. He breezed through the FASTPASS queue and soon was lifting off again. Second time around was more exciting and less nauseating, and he has a feeling it will continue to grow on him as time goes by. We have a feeling Dave wasn't the only person with this reaction. This time as Dave monitored the exit, far more people were leaving excited and smiling.
It's kind of odd. Usually you love or hate something like this immediately. If you love it, you come to love it even more with time, and if you hate it, you avoid it completely. Mission: SPACE is somewhere in the middle. At the moment it may not be getting the kind of rave reviews that an attraction with this kind of build-up requires, but we have a feeling it'll gather a very large and loyal following as the months and years go by.
Have you been on Mission:SPACE? Please take a few moments to send us your rating at
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=66193261336
