Flying Saucers 2.0
B-ticket flat ride
Practice your aim during a dizzying spin in a UFO
A goofy, gonzo, gloriously bonkers flat ride awaits in Cosmic Crater’s central caldera. This is Flying Saucers 2.0, also sometimes known as “Foo Fighters,” a spiritual successor to an old dearly departed (and never entirely successful) Tomorrowland favorite. This followup envisions a training facility for S.K.Y. astronauts, preparing them for all the dizziness and lasers of outer space. Guests will find Flying Saucers 2.0 to be surprisingly repeatable! For while it might look like a standard teacups ride, interactive astro-guns elevate this ride type into the stratosphere!
RIDE STATS
Ride type: Interactive teacups
Capacity per Ride: 60
Hourly capacity: 1,440
Ride cycle duration: 2 minutes
Height restriction: None
Ride type: Interactive teacups
Capacity per Ride: 60
Hourly capacity: 1,440
Ride cycle duration: 2 minutes
Height restriction: None
Two hemispherical domes house our UFO testing facility - doubling up for capacity! The polymer domes’ rooftops are awash in a haphazard assortment of sci-fi satellite dishes, mechanical panels, and antennae. The domes are held up by white Googie arches like the LAX Theme Building. Passersby can watch the craziness from off-ride, which should prove quite a spectacle!
The queue begins in between the two domes, underneath a hand-welded sign on chains announcing “Flying Saucers 2.0.” A crashed UFO smoking in heaps spans the entrance archway. Guests wait in the shade under an eave inspired by Tomorrowland 1955’s Space Bar. Vintage NASA-style S.K.Y. posters beckon guests to “Enlist!,” to “Become an Astronaut!,” generally spelling out the ride’s training program premise. Switchbacks overlook both rotating ride platforms; helpful illustration-heavy signage explains the ride’s laser gun mechanisms.
The queue splits in a “Y” against the far crater wall, where the ride controller oversees from a slanted mission control window built into the sands. Mid-century cinder blocks hold the crater walls in place, dirt visibly pouring over them in spots. Cast members at the “Y” gather groups of guests in both directions, just enough to fill both domes at the same time.
Our pre-ride music - the strangely experimental mid-century oddity that is 1956’s “The Flying Saucer” by Buchanan & Goodman - plays out as guests walk onto the floor. Each dome hosts eighteen flying saucers, with six each on three spinning discs. The ride vehicles are hubcap-shaped retro-futuristic UFOs with simple bench seating facing forward. In each UFO are two atomic ray guns holstered in the dashboard. In both form and function, these blasters borrow a lot from Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters.
The ride begins, speed picks up, as surf guitarist Dale’s 1996 recording for Space Mountain plays. The large ride platform rotates clockwise, while the smaller inset discs rotate counter-clockwise - physically, this is Mad Tea Party. But then there are the ray guns! Because on Flying Saucers 2.0, guests don’t spin themselves...they spin other riders!
Large light-up targets cover every available interior surface. Targets are all over the semi-dome ceiling, in recessed panels and rafters inspired by old, forgotten Discoveryland concept art. At the center is a target-covered chrome 1950s robot - equal parts Robbie, Daleks, Gort, and others - spinning opposite the main ride platform. Targets are even found on other UFOs’ rear exhaust ports. Now fire away!
The object of all this? To shoot other UFOs and cause them to spin uncontrollably for a second or two. Hitting non-UFO targets along the ceiling or along the support arches strengthens your own UFO’s “shield” from opposing laser blasts. Of course different targets hold different values - more shield, or longer spin for your opponents. There is no final score tally, but simply the sheer adrenal pleasure of an out-of-control ray gun frenzy! And should riders grow nauseous from the rotation, their UFO comes equipped with an on-off switch...it stops the spinning, and it also powers down the ray guns. There is the potential to use this strategically. Our ride designers are still fine-tuning the gameplay elements, but they are confident that the end result will be addictively confounding.
Flying Saucers 2.0 is a kaleidoscope of trippy psychedelic lights beams! It is a disorienting dance floor of disco balls and green beams and whatnot! Disneyland locals will be reminded of ElecTRONica. And like a dance party At night the ride becomes Flying Saucers Unearthed, a dance party version of a flat ride, which comes complete with a live DJ and incredible new light show packages. No two rides on this are ever the same!