I attended the D23 event on Sunday, and rode 3 times. Twice back-to-back to start the event, and the final one at the end post-Harmonious, post-natural light show.
Starting with the TL;DR: It's an updated Space Mountain. On ride #3, I tried to pay attention to the "story" but still my experienced deteriorated into "I'm riding a Space Mountain at WDW, that doesn't hurt and has music!" But Space Mountain isn't really a needle pegging experience. Fun, but as coasters go Hagrid's and Velocicoaster offered more for us in the: "that was unexpectedly cool AND fun."
Longer review... Check-in was at 3:30, and the ride opened at 4, so it gave time for a long queue to form, and then they walked us up in chunks. This gave time to have a few moments in each of the queue areas. We were near the front, so we didn't spend that much in the first room. Did I read this is a 30 minute loop? So we saw about 3 minutes of it. The model in the 2nd area is pretty cool, it would be nice to have more time to watch and look at it. The other displays... the costumes in the old GMR did more for me. It felt pretty static presentation for such a technologically advanced society. Like old exhibits in museums instead of the newer, curated exhibits. I noticed the floor, and asked my Dad if he saw more "stacked cubes" or "diamond star/flower" pattern. We declared this floor more successful than the one in Club Cool
. Then you get up to the "interview" section, and everyone just wanted to see the "old Epcot, reference" clip. On ride #1, I didn't realize that was where it was. Ride #2, everyone just stopped until that section played, and once it finished then everyone moved on. Ride #3, we went through the LL queue, and there is a very small spot where the same video plays and we happened to walk by it just as Peter was talking about "Veggie Veggie Fruit Fruit."
Then you are put in a large room with purple lighting, and you just stand there for a couple minutes. It was boring. It seemed like the interview segment should have continued to be watchable / hearable in the is section. Into the first pre-show. The first time, when Terry Crews came on the screen, people laughed. All through his schtick, people laughed. Ride #2 and 3. Nothing. Everyone already saw it and it was apparently no longer funny. My favorite pre-pre show was the goggles stuff in the Minion ride, and I would laugh at "they are guaranteed to last 5 times as long as the person wearing them" and "they may be used as a flotation device, but not to hold cheese and jalapeño dip. (that's gross)" every time. I still quote it, and it's not even there anymore. So you can write a script that holds up to more than one viewing. Honestly, I think I laugh more at the Dinosaur preshow than I did at this and that's been playing for almost 25 years now. Main pre-show room. On ride #2, and #3 people were just automatically heading to the spot closest to where the exit to the room is.
Main ride. We ended up working our way from the back of the ride to the middle. Ride #1 we were Row 10, #2 Row 8, #3 Row 6. Our songs were: September, Conga and I Ran. September was the one I wanted most, and got that first, and so I was happy. Unexpectedly, "I Ran" was my favorite of the three. All three started strong, but I felt like "I Ran" was the most high energy and paced well with the track throughout the entirety of the ride, the other two there were moments like the song needed to be "more" for what the track was doing. On my flight home, my playlist played "We are Here to Change the World" from Captain EO, and I would really like to hear what *that* sounds like on the ride. In the future, I may try to use my own ear buds and phone to play it. Made me nostalgic for Rip Ride Rocket (and no one should say that) and the option to pick your own soundtrack.
Intensity. The previous Sunday, we rode Velocicoaster in the back row. That is an intense ride. This is not. My Dad and I were both looking at each other over the previous reports of intensity. That first backwards turning bit, which feels like Everest, but not as long as on Everest would be the only point that might have felt intense. The rest just seemed smooth, and fun. As the discussion of the last few pages. Roller coaster + soundtrack = Fun. The ride is fun. We'd both ride it, if people wanted to wait. But the big question is how long are we, willing to wait in line? Longer than for SDMT, but not as long as Hagrid's. Given the state of the Yeti, probably longer than Everest. We had nothing resembling motion sickness. I didn't see anyone who had a rough time upon exiting our trains. I did see some people on a bench after Ride #3 but it was so late I don't know if they reacted to the ride, or just tired at the end of the day.
Story... I had seen a comment that the soundtrack competes with the dialog, and I agree with this. It's hard to follow what's happening when your brain starts singing along with the song playing. After Ride #1, I looked up the Easter Eggs and so on Ride #2 and #3 I tried to listen for the Universe of Energy theme in the right spot, before the soundtrack is even playing and the other noises were just so loud, we couldn't pick it up. I would have much rather had something like the Xandarians "showing off" their spaceship technology, by having Terrans do a ride-along as the ship performed a series of maneuvers, so we could just listen to the soundtrack while flying around in Space, instead of whatever we are supposed to be doing. I just spent time watching the track, the stars, the Earth, the Moon and reminding myself "I'm supposed to be paying attention to a story."
So anyway, it was fun, and it's re-rideable. However, it seems like there was far more that could have been done to elevate the experience, and so it felt like it was a bit of a waste of the new ride system. There was so much that felt empty, boring and done before, that we didn't get off and immediately think "I need to ride that again!" We were fortunate we could immediately get back in ride as much as we wanted, but we only chose to ride it twice. My Dad wondered what the point was. I told him, he knows what the point was... "Marvel representation, East of the Mississippi." And at that I guess it succeeds. Unless there is a bigger motion sickness reaction than we felt (which was nothing in the slightest), people will ride, have a good time, it will survey well, LLs will be sold. I have ridden Mission: Breakout at DCA, and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. It was a terrible ToT, but a fun and on-point Guardians of the Galaxy attraction. This is, like I said at the beginning... more Space Mountain, despite the presence of the Guardians of the Galaxy characters.