WDW's Space Mountain is REALLY bad

Disgruntled Walt

Disgruntled Walt

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
C33Mom said:
I often ride the DL several times a day, I cannot imagine riding the MK version more than once a day (and my husband refuses to ride it at all) because it’s so jerky. I do prefer the MK hill sequence as you travel by the space shuttle and astronauts, but I can’t really focus on the actual coaster since I’m focused on keeping a strong core to brace against the track knocking us around.

Do you actually think the single row of riders is superior to DL’s side by side seating configuration? 🤨
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If they did a total track replacement, people would realize the MK version is superior. I haven't ridden it since 2017, so I'm sure it's much worse now.

And yes, sitting alone on a roller coaster was a rite of passage for me when I was young, and sitting in the front row made me feel like I was controlling the spaceship. So yeah, I do prefer it!
 
C

cbarry26

Member
Space Mountain is just as crazy as it’s ever been. Coasters from 1975 kind of feel like that. I’m not sure what you’re expecting…. It’s never been smooth at least in the 20 + years I’ve been riding.

Guardians is awesome and I’m sorry, just my opinion, but anyone that complains about it is just looking for something to complain about. Or… it’s simply not your thing, that’s completely understandable, but it’s miles from a mistake.
 
Twirlnhurl

Twirlnhurl

Well-Known Member
osian said:
I've just ridden The Boss in Six Flags St Louis. Once. Enough said.
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I rode that with my dad and was afraid it was going to kill him. That ride is rough.
C33Mom said:
but I can’t really focus on the actual coaster since I’m focused on keeping a strong core to brace against the track knocking us around.

Do you actually think the single row of riders is superior to DL’s side by side seating configuration? 🤨
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I really like the single-file seating of Space Mountain '75. It is unusual and makes you feel more exposed. The first time I rode it, it felt like a big accomplishment to be "on my own". The Space Mountains in Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland are fine. But I do have a strong preference for the trains and track layout of the original. (The one in Paris is not my cup of tea, although I have only been on it with the Star Wars overlay. But who ever thought a cut back would be a good inversion?)

Next time you ride Space Mountain in Florida, try being more loose, similar to how you might ride the Safari ride at Animal Kingdom. Let your shoulders and core be more loose, it will put a lot less strain on your body. If you let the ride toss you around in a more relaxed position, it won't feel very rough, as the roughness is more the result of awkward transitions. The turns seem to have very circular shapes (as opposed to a more parabolic shape, which allows the banking to transition with a minimum of lateral forces). So on the entry and exit of each turn, the ride will throw you the opposite direction, while the middle of each turn is appropriately angled.
 
C

C33Mom

Well-Known Member
𝕴𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖗97 said:
If they did a total track replacement, people would realize the MK version is superior. I haven't ridden it since 2017, so I'm sure it's much worse now.

And yes, sitting alone on a roller coaster was a rite of passage for me when I was young, and sitting in the front row made me feel like I was controlling the spaceship. So yeah, I do prefer it!
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I prefer being able to ride side by side with a loved one (husband or kid), but your experience brought a big smile to my face and made me appreciate it differently— I’ll suggest that perspective to my kids next time they ride.
Twirlnhurl said:
I really like the single-file seating of Space Mountain '75. It is unusual and makes you feel more exposed. The first time I rode it, it felt like a big accomplishment to be "on my own". The Space Mountains in Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland are fine. But I do have a strong preference for the trains and track layout of the original. (The one in Paris is not my cup of tea, although I have only been on it with the Star Wars overlay. But who ever thought a cut back would be a good inversion?)

Next time you ride Space Mountain in Florida, try being more loose, similar to how you might ride the Safari ride at Animal Kingdom. Let your shoulders and core be more loose, it will put a lot less strain on your body. If you let the ride toss you around in a more relaxed position, it won't feel very rough, as the roughness is more the result of awkward transitions. The turns seem to have very circular shapes (as opposed to a more parabolic shape, which allows the banking to transition with a minimum of lateral forces). So on the entry and exit of each turn, the ride will throw you the opposite direction, while the middle of each turn is appropriately angled.
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Different strokes for different folks— DLR is my favorite standard Space Mountain (also my childhood space mountain) but I think the Star Wars overlay at Paris is far superior, doing a barrel roll while dodging enemy fighters incoming fire is awesome.

I think you are correct that for every normal person relaxing into the chaotic turbulence probably makes it better—but I have a spinal disc injury in my lumbar spine— I don’t expect them to make coasters to accommodate me, but SM in WDW is noticeably harder on me than every other Disney coaster worldwide (haven’t been to the China parks since 2019 though).

Wading into the “lap bar” debate— there are two reasons we’re unlikely to see them at U.S. Disney parks — the first reason is larger guests and the second reason is Disney has much deeper pockets (both financially and perceived brand safety) so they aren’t going to risk an aggressive coaster than anybody can wriggle out of— even if it’s the guest’s deliberate recklessness, American tort law (and social media influencers) will make it extremely costly. If you wedge yourself out of a safety harness and die in Europe, there’s no pot of gold for plaintiffs’ lawyers in it for them, so it’s a totally different calculus. I’m sympathetic because I hate the head horseshoes, but I’d be happy with some more Tron and Cosmic Rewind type attractions.
 
osian

osian

Well-Known Member
Twirlnhurl said:
Next time you ride Space Mountain in Florida, try being more loose, similar to how you might ride the Safari ride at Animal Kingdom. Let your shoulders and core be more loose, it will put a lot less strain on your body. If you let the ride toss you around in a more relaxed position, it won't feel very rough, as the roughness is more the result of awkward transitions. The turns seem to have very circular shapes (as opposed to a more parabolic shape, which allows the banking to transition with a minimum of lateral forces). So on the entry and exit of each turn, the ride will throw you the opposite direction, while the middle of each turn is appropriately angled.
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Yes to both points. Rigidly gripping onto hand rails for example just heightens any jarring movements, it will ripple through your body. Being more flexible and riding "into" the elements works nicely. And awkward transitions - it's the old Arrow way of having a library of fixed radius curves that are just tacked onto straight pieces of track without smoothing the transitions between the two.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
cbarry26 said:
Space Mountain is just as crazy as it’s ever been. Coasters from 1975 kind of feel like that. I’m not sure what you’re expecting…. It’s never been smooth at least in the 20 + years I’ve been riding.

Guardians is awesome and I’m sorry, just my opinion, but anyone that complains about it is just looking for something to complain about. Or… it’s simply not your thing, that’s completely understandable, but it’s miles from a mistake.
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SM has gotten rougher.

A lot of the issues with the box coaster are to do with thematic integrity and all that. As a piece of hardware it’s quite fun.
 
HauntedPirate

HauntedPirate

Park nostalgist
Premium Member
TalkToEthan said:
Completely different clientele??

So MK guests are completely different than Hollywood Studio guests.

Hmmmm……….
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There's more to reading than seeing the words. Ponder what I wrote. I'll even start you off - The audience being targeted for things like ToT, RnRC, Rise, etc. is different than the audience being targeted for Buzz, Barnstormer, basically all of FL, etc. There's far less of the former at MK than there is of the latter at DHS.
 
Smiley/OCD

Smiley/OCD

Well-Known Member
osian said:
Yes to both points. Rigidly gripping onto hand rails for example just heightens any jarring movements, it will ripple through your body. Being more flexible and riding "into" the elements works nicely. And awkward transitions - it's the old Arrow way of having a library of fixed radius curves that are just tacked onto straight pieces of track without smoothing the transitions between the two.
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This!! It’s the same thing in an auto accident…20 years ago I was in my Hyundai Accent waiting to make a left turn when I was rear ended by a drunk hit & run driver in a Ford F-150 p/u…I couldn’t move and saw him barreling towards me at 40 mph…my trunk was in by back seat and he pushed my car into oncoming traffic where I hit someone on the way to a wedding…I made myself as limp as could be and thank God WALKED away from the accident.
The less tense you are, the better you handle it.
 
L

Lilofan

Well-Known Member
Smiley/OCD said:
This!! It’s the same thing in an auto accident…20 years ago I was in my Hyundai Accent waiting to make a left turn when I was rear ended by a drunk hit & run driver in a Ford F-150 p/u…I couldn’t move and saw him barreling towards me at 40 mph…my trunk was in by back seat and he pushed my car into oncoming traffic where I hit someone on the way to a wedding…I made myself as limp as could be and thank God WALKED away from the accident.
The less tense you are, the better you handle it.
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Seems like the opposite advice many get " Brace for impact !! ".
 
Coaster Lover

Coaster Lover

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Is the concern that Space Mountain is "rough" or are people just calling it "rough" because it is janky? I've been on a LOT of coasters and I really don't find it rough. Is it janky? Heck yeah, but that's something I love about coasters of that age. When you compare it against everything else at WDW, one could certainly call it "rough", but yeah... I digress...

If it were up to me? Instead of kicking the can down the road on a SM retrack, they would have gutted the building and built the Cosmic Rewind coaster in Magic Kingdom (utilizing the current SM building for the queue/station and using Tron's spot for the gravity building), EXCEPT instead of being GotG themed, you make it Space Mountain 2.0 and just go heavy on the space theming/imagery (sure, you still use a bunch of screens to give you the option for HyperSpace Mountain and Ghost Galaxy type overlays if you want, but otherwise, it's just "space" themed). Then, the money you would have used to refurb SM (+ the Tron money) goes to building an indoor/outdoor SM clone (with mountain theming instead a.l.a. DL's Matterhorn) in an appropriate country in EPCOT (Mt. Fuji for Japan?)

The track issue for Space Mountain is resolved... we still get the very cool Cosmic Rewind coaster style... fans of Space Mountain still get to experience the coaster layout (just in EPCOT) with track and trains that will last >30 more years... EPCOT gets its coaster (in a thematically appropriate place)... and the only major loss is no Tron (which I think many agree was on the weaker side of the new additions anyways... only thing to still figure out is what to do with the old UoE building...
 
Smiley/OCD

Smiley/OCD

Well-Known Member
Coaster Lover said:
Is the concern that Space Mountain is "rough" or are people just calling it "rough" because it is janky? I've been on a LOT of coasters and I really don't find it rough. Is it janky? Heck yeah, but that's something I love about coasters of that age. When you compare it against everything else at WDW, one could certainly call it "rough", but yeah... I digress...

If it were up to me? Instead of kicking the can down the road on a SM retrack, they would have gutted the building and built the Cosmic Rewind coaster in Magic Kingdom (utilizing the current SM building for the queue/station and using Tron's spot for the gravity building), EXCEPT instead of being GotG themed, you make it Space Mountain 2.0 and just go heavy on the space theming/imagery (sure, you still use a bunch of screens to give you the option for HyperSpace Mountain and Ghost Galaxy type overlays if you want, but otherwise, it's just "space" themed). Then, the money you would have used to refurb SM (+ the Tron money) goes to building an indoor/outdoor SM clone (with mountain theming instead a.l.a. DL's Matterhorn) in an appropriate country in EPCOT (Mt. Fuji for Japan?)

The track issue for Space Mountain is resolved... we still get the very cool Cosmic Rewind coaster style... fans of Space Mountain still get to experience the coaster layout (just in EPCOT) with track and trains that will last >30 more years... EPCOT gets its coaster (in a thematically appropriate place)... and the only major loss is no Tron (which I think many agree was on the weaker side of the new additions anyways... only thing to still figure out is what to do with the old UoE building...
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I agree with most of what you said…YES, I love the old coasters…YES, I like feeling it when I get off…YES, GotG would’ve been a great choice for TL, but I’d hate like hell to lose SM…it’s such an iconic ride. It would be like bulldozing the Cyclone at Coney Island and replacing it with a European designed “off the shelf” coaster…there would be a bigger outcry than the congestion pricing catastrophe in NY right now…
 
M

Mondo

Active Member
I find this reputation disconcerting. My father loved Space Mountain when we went in 1998. Now he’s in his 60s and apparently the roughness has increased over the years.

I’ll give it a test ride before he goes. I’m sure he’ll appreciate that.
 

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