The Disneyland Book of Secrets 2014: One Local's Unauthorized, Rapturous and Indispensable Guide to the Happiest Places on Earth (116 page)

Words can’t adequately describe the exhilaration of the
Space Mountain
journey.  You simply have to experience it for yourself.  From the peak of the mountain’s interior, you race down a gracefully swooping track, with only glints of starlight illuminating your path.  You can’t see where you’re headed or where you’ve been–you can’t see your hand in front of you.

The music is perfectly synchronized to the curves, dips
, and rises.  There are no insanely steep plunges. 
Space Mountain
’s shallow drops are delightful rather than frightening; in the beauty of the simulated space environment, you can’t see the dips approaching; they catch you by surprise, in the best possible way, and the brief plunges give you a momentary sensation of weightlessness, as they’re designed to, a taste of the zero gravity that astronauts experience in outer space.

When you’re dashing through the
Space Mountain
attraction, look up and down, in every direction, not just straight ahead.  It enhances the majesty and the thrill of the ride to see the layers of stars around, above, and below you.

The journey lasts about three minutes in total. 
Your rocket ship never exceeds 35 mph, but careening through the starlit darkness, with unseen fans blowing blasts of cold air at you, it feels like you’re moving at light speed.

When you can see what seem like miles of stars above you, and your craft begins a series of tight, level curves that press you back against your seat, then you know you’re voyage is almost over. 
During a final dip bright lights burst around you, and then there’s a blinding flash–that’s your photo being snapped as you make the last plunge!

When your craft pulls up to the unload
ing zone the restraint bars snap up suddenly–be prepared.  Retrieve your gear from the mesh pouch and then disembark to your right.

Head
through one of the clearly marked “Exit” gates and bear right up a ramp and then up a staircase.  Follow the other Guests and the exit signs to a row of monitors.  On the monitor screens are snapshots of Guests as they plunged down the final drop.  If you can find the photo of you and your companions, note the photo ID number on it.  You can proceed to the adjacent counter and purchase prints of your photo; just tell the Cast Member the photo ID number, and inquire about different print packages and pricing.  The counter also sells
Space Mountain
T-shirts if you want one to commemorate your amazing journey.

Many Guests, having waited up to or longer than an hour in line,
make a beeline for the nearby rest rooms.  Beyond the rest rooms is the
Starcade
for the gamers in your group, and beyond that the
Star Trader
, one of the park’s biggest and best stores, pure catnip for your party’s shopaholics.

Or, you can do what so many
Space Mountain
riders do after their ride ends; rush along the exit corridor, bear right, head to the
Space Mountain
entrance, and hop in line again!

Space Mountain is a poetic experience, a thrill, but a much gentler coaster than people expect.  And it’s kept in top condition.  When a mechanical issue was discovered in April 2013,
Space Mountain
was closed for weeks while it received a thorough overhaul.  Instead of making a single repair, the park took the opportunity to review the safety and integrity of the entire attraction.  That’s the high
Disneyland
standard Guests have learned to expect.
Did You Know?
  When
Disney Theme Parks
launch a new attraction, they hold a celebration and a ceremony with notable speakers and pageantry that will fix the event in everyone’s mind.  To put it succinctly, they make a big deal out of it, as well they should!  In that spirit, six of the seven Mercury astronauts attended the 1977 grand opening of
Disneyland
’s
Space Mountain
.  They were
Scott Carpenter
,
Gordon Cooper
,
John Glenn
,
Wally Schirra
,
Alan Shepard
, and
Deke Slayton
.  Project Mercury was the first phase of the United States’ space program.  The astronauts who participated in Mercury’s tests and manned orbits around earth from 1961 to 1963 paved the way for the Apollo program and the moon landing of 1969. 
Did You Also Know?
 
Space Mountain
is such a popular attraction that versions of it exist in
Walt Disney World
(1975),
Disneyland
(1977),
Tokyo Disneyland
(1983),
Disneyland Paris
(1995), and
Hong Kong Disneyland
(2005). The central concept of catapulting Guests on a
magical
journey through the universe is a constant, but architecture, décor, and story details vary from culture to culture.
Space Mountain
at
Disneyland Paris
is among the most beautiful of this intergalactic mountain range.  Themed to the Jules Verne science fiction novel “De la Terre à la Lune” (“From the Earth to the Moon”), the vintage Victorian artwork alone was gorgeous, offering Guests lunar excursions (“Excursions Lunaires”) on signs with elegant period illustrations, but it’s the show building that most impressed.  Cast in the traditional
Space Mountain
shape of a squashed cone, it was a highly detailed, bronze structure, its style heavily influenced by Jules Verne and the Victorian sci-fi sensibilities of that era.  Rocket vehicles were launched via a metal and glass tube that climbed the mountain’s exterior.  A stylized rendering of a mythological archer gleamed on the tube’s base; the metaphor was that the rockets were fired into space as from a goddess’ bow.  Through the tube’s glass portions and a retractable hatch, Guests on the ground below could watch rocket ships being launched up the side of the mountain.  Rockets then entered the mountain at its peak, and the space journey began.  An acquaintance who experienced
Space Mountain
at
Disneyland Paris
described it as an incredibly beautiful experience.  The ride was so smooth, she said, that it didn’t feel like being on a roller coaster.  The movement and the visual effects perfectly replicated a sensation of fluid, weightless travel in the reaches of space. A 2005 re-imagining and re-naming (the attraction is now called
Space Mountain – Mission 2
) added new ride elements and removed the grinning moon which was a visual reference to the groundbreaking 1902 French silent film “Le Voyage Dans La Lune” (literally, “The Trip into the Moon”) by Georges Méliѐs (the subject of “Hugo,” Martin Scorcese’s 2011 valentine to early cinema).  In the film, a rocket ship shot from a giant cannon crashes into a smiling moon.  Scientists in frock coats and top hats alight from the rocket and explore the lunar world, battling the local Selenites, who explode in a vaporous powder when struck.  The film was based on Verne’s novel. In a case of life imitating art, Verne has once again proved to be prophetic.  In October of 2009 NASA blasted a rocket the size of an SUV into the moon’s south pole region at 6,000 mph, raising a miles-high debris field that scientists could scan for ice.  The purpose of this experiment?  If the moon contains adequate amounts of ice, colonists can tap it to withdraw hydrogen for fuel and water for hydration.  A lunar base, long a languishing concept, becomes viable again. The good news?  The existence of lunar ice has been confirmed.
Weight a Minute:
  In autumn 2013, a Cast Member shared with the author and a research associate that the
Space Mountain
ride system is able to weigh rocket vehicles before they launch.  Why bother to do that?  Because according to the CM, if a ride vehicle exceeds 5,000 pounds (2.5 tons), its brakes might fail.  Focusing on safety, as always,
Disneyland
utilizes a system that secretly weighs each ride vehicle, and if one tops out over the safe limit, that vehicle is diverted backstage before launch, and the riders are asked to debark and are then redistributed among other rockets so that the weight limit
isn’t
exceeded.  This is an infrequent occurrence.  Each vehicle can seat six in the front car, and six in the back, for a total of twelve passengers.  Since the rocket weighs around 2,000 pounds, that means the twelve passengers can safely total about 3,000 pounds—an average of 250 pounds per rider.  Rarely does a group of Guests meet the 3,000 pound limite.  Usually each ride vehicle contains an empty seat or two, and at least a few kids.  You’d practically have to pack a rocket full of pro football players to hit the 3,000 pound mark!
Hidden Mickey:
  Notice anything interesting about the configuration of the large and small speakers between the rocket seats?  That’s right; they form the silhouette of
Mickey
’s head and ears! 
Night Vision:
Disneyland
’s
Space Mountain
is gorgeous at night, its white dome drenched in other-worldly blue and purple light.  However, it’s at night that
Space Mountain
is usually the most crowded, especially during spring break, the summer, and the holiday season.  Guests of all ages enjoy
Space Mountain
, but it’s particularly popular with teens, who queue up en masse with friends, schoolmates, teammates, and dates in the evening and nighttime hours.  Expect lines of an hour to an hour-and-a-half once darkness falls, and by then the
Space Mountain
FastPass
supply will have long since run out (they’re usually tapped out between noon and mid-afternoon depending on crowds).  So if you plan to ride
Space Mountain
at night, be prepared for a long wait. 
Holiday Vision:
  In late September of 2009
Disneyland
introduced
Space Mountain – Ghost Galaxy
, a new part of
Disneyland
’s Halloween celebration.  Adapted from
Hong Kong Disneyland
’s
Space Mountain
– Ghost Galaxy
overlay for Halloween 2007, the Halloween features include a ghostly green lightshow that plays over
Space Mountain
’s exterior at night, and a new soundtrack and visual elements for the ride inside.  Legions of eager
Space Mountain
fans of all ages queued up for the
Main Street
rope drop before 9 am on September 25, 2009.  When the rope fell, a mass of Guests, guided by Cast Members, pressed forward along
Main Street
and bore to the east, funneling through one narrow
Tomorrowland
opening–apparently engineered for crowd control–north of the
Astro Orbitor
.  Guests swept past all other
Tomorrowland
attractions and formed a massive queue that stretched down the long approach ramp and out into
Tomorrowland
’s plaza.  The
FastPass
machines were down at the beginning of the day, and the regular standby queue was 45 minutes from the start, and didn’t grow any shorter as the day progressed.  Those who were among the first in line were happy to wait 45 minutes to experience the intriguing new
Ghost Galaxy
version of
Space Mountain
.  The time passed quickly as Guests were efficiently routed through
Space Mountain
’s queue ramps and switchbacks.  Multiple signs warned that the attraction could be scary for small children, but masses of children decided to put that to the test.  (It really
is
very scary for small children; in 2012 a little boy in our group was seriously frightened by
Ghost Galaxy
, scared by the unnerving audio more than the visuals.)  What happens when you experience
Ghost Galaxy
?  Upon launch, the space craft’s speakers play an unsettling horror movie-like soundtrack, scored specifically for
Ghost Galaxy
by Emmy-nominated composer
Ed Kalnins
.  The music is sparse, punctuated by spectral moans, groans, and disturbing rattles and clanks.  The usual light show that performs as each space craft is chain lifted up the initial hills is absent.  Instead, out of misty orange galactic vapors, a grisly face and torso form, and the terrifying face and the creature’s lanky arm lunge for the space ship and the Guests inside!  Lightning crackles throughout the chamber.  More monstrous forms emerge from clouds of orange vapor as the rocket is pulled up the final hill, then the vehicle begins its free fall and the dark soundtrack
really
kicks in.  Is that all for frights?  Not by a long shot! 
Space Mountain
’s coaster track is rigged with motion sensors.  As a vehicle trips each sensor, a ghoulish holograph is projected on a surface in front of or alongside the speeding space craft, rotting, vaporous monster faces, grasping claws–it’s like being chased among the stars by a series of intergalactic monsters to the accompaniment of that unnerving music.  Toward the end, a large blue phantom eyeball appears, the signal that the end of the journey, and the photo flash, is near.  Guests pulling into the unloading zone are in various states of nervous laughter and joyful fear, like movie-goers stumbling out of the theater after seeing the latest “Scream” or “Saw” sequel.  The Halloween overlay truly brings a different mood to what is usually a purely exhilarating space journey, giving it a darkly funny edge.  Guests embraced the
Ghost Galaxy
experience from the first day onward; on the attraction’s final night, November 1, 2009, lines reached
110 minutes
in length.  This extremely popular attraction returned for Halloween 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013, and is likely to continue as an annual
Disneyland
tradition.
Ghost Vision:
Speaking of specters,
Disco Debbie
is a glowing green ghost reportedly seen from time to time in
Space Mountain
. 
Disco Debbie
is reputed to be the spirit of a
Space Mountain
Cast Member or Guest who died of an aneurysm.
Disneyland
ghost stories like this one remain unconfirmed, but continue to intrigue Guests and Cast Members alike. One way to pass the time while you wait in the final queue above the loading area is to keep your eyes open for her, although plenty of Guests insist she’s a myth, and that the
real
spirit is next door at
Innoventions
!
Disco Debbie
has her following, though; at the author’s YouTube site, some commenters have insisted that
Space Mountain
’s
Debbie
is as real as the tragic spirit next door.
FastPass:
  Yes.  As one of the most popular attractions at
Disneyland
,
Space Mountain
often has queues exceeding an hour, even on weekdays or off season.  During peak times, the standard line can exceed 90 minutes.  Your best bet for enjoying this stellar adventure is to make a beeline for it first thing in the morning.  For the first half hour that the park is open, lines can be as short as ten minutes, but they grow quickly.  The
FastPass
dispensers for
Space Mountain
are just to the right of the entrance queue.  The
FastPass
dispensers often have their own line, which is much shorter than the attraction line, but can still take several minutes. 
Note Bene:
 
FastPasses
for
Space Mountain
can run out by noon or mid-afternoon, especially during spring break, summer, and holidays.  Get your
FastPass
early in the day. 
Kid’s Eye View:
  I definitely love it!  A thrilling ride that never gets old.  The only challenges:  A huuuuuge line, and you might feel dizzy at the end of the ride. 
Teen’s Eye View:
The countdown to
Space Mountain
will make you anxious and ready for the super-fun, quick ride through the stars.  Even though it’s a crazy roller coaster, you’ll still think of how pretty the stars are.