Space Mountain

Our journey through Tomorrowland finally brings us to its most famous attraction - Space Mountain.  This ride appears in all of the Disney parks with the exception of the recently opened Shanghai Disneyland, and is more or less identical aside from the steampunk theming of Disneyland Paris's version.,

Occasionally, the ride will have extra theming added at particular times of year, such as a Hallowe'en theming and a Star Wars one but generally the ride is a classic 'in the dark' rollercoaster.

Now, my wife and I love rollercoasters.  Absolutely adore the things.  We always seek out the newest, thrillingest rides in any theme park we may visit.  Disney, of course, isn't all about the thrills and spills of fast rollercoasters and, actually, across the various parks, there aren't that many 'fast' rollercoasters - Mountains, Space and Thunder, Rock and Rollercoaster and Expedition Everest are the only ones that spring immediately to mind (and even Everest isn't that fast).  So Space Mountain is a must-do for us on any trip to the Disney parks.

Unfortunately, on our last visit to Disneyland Paris, the ride was being refurbished so our children, who are quickly growing into rollercoaster fans like their parents, haven't had a chance to ride it.  (This may, actually, have been a good thing because they did get to ride Thunder Mountain and it terrified them!  They're a bit older now so I think Space Mountain would thrill them rather than scare them witless).

My other blog posts have described attractions in detail, but that's a bit difficult to do with Space Mountain due to the darkness and speed.  A lot of Youtube videos start well but end up just being a lot of darkness and noise.  That said, we can have a look at the queue line theming, the after-ride theming and some of the elements that are visible in the ride in terms of various light shows.  I'm going to focus on the Walt Disney World version (that being the iteration of the ride I've most recently ridden - albeit 10 years ago!).

The queue line for Space Mountain is not necessarily anything special.  It is highly reminiscent of the queue line for Star Tours in that it is metallic and functional.  A large bank of screens  welcome travellers to the Starport and then guest walk down a narrow passageway lit with a low, red light.  Further along, various lit displays show the different routes travellers can take from this starport around the galaxy.  More screens further on continue to inform Starport users of various information and small banks of controls are lit up along the way.  Views of different planets also hang in alcoves.

A large loading area, lit in blue, is split into two sections - Alpha and Omega with guests able to choose which route they want to take.  Guests are loaded into the toboggan-like vehicles which vaguely resemble rocket ships and are sent off on their journey through the darkness of space.

Although mostly in darkness, there are some lighting effects such as the early one which makes guests feel like they are travelling into hyperspace.

At the end of the ride, guests exit the mountain via a travelator which takes them past various displays including a robot monitoring screens and the surfaces of alien planets.

Space Mountain is an iconic, dark rollercoaster and a must-ride attractions for any visitor to the theme parks.