Two roller coasters are under construction at Walt Disney World. Whenever Epcot’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and Tron: Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom are complete, the resort will have nine coasters in operation.
In this week’s Disney World at 50 installment, posted on OrlandoSentinel.com on Wednesdays, we look at what people (including Sentinel reporters) thought about the rides when they debuted, in order of appearance. That includes one thrill ride that’s no longer spinning heads.
Mountain high
What: Space Mountain, Magic Kingdom
When: January 1975
What happened: Astronauts James Irwin, Scott Carpenter and Gordon Cooper were on hand for the dedication. Irwin’s son “was ready to go again … but I’d just as soon wait,” Irwin told the Sentinel. The trip “accelerates somewhat less” than the real trip to space, said Irwin, who was lunar module pilot of Apollo 15.
Numbers: Space Mountain cost $15 million to build on 10 acres in Tomorrowland, the Sentinel reported. It has 72 precast concrete beams that weigh 149,000 pounds apiece. It could carry 3,000 passengers an hour.
What else: Also dedicated that day were the neighboring Carousel of Progress and StarJets. The PeopleMover opened six months later.
Ride’m
What: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Magic Kingdom.
When: November 1980
What happened: “Wild as a cattle stampede, surprising as a bucking bronco, and as suspenseful as a shootout,” Disney promotional literature exclaimed.
Numbers: BTMR had a top speed of 24 mph and a track length of 2,780 feet. Space Mountain goes faster and for a longer stretch, the Sentinel noted. Big Thunder ride time was 3 minutes and 28 seconds.
What else: In September 1980, the Sentinel said the ride “somewhat resembles a two-acre Florida mini-version of the Grand Canyon.” But Imagineer Skip Lange said it was not modeled after a specific place. “It’s a mountain of its own,” he said.
Getting Goofy
What: Barnstormer, Magic Kingdom
When: October 1996
What happened: The Barnstormer opened as part of Mickey’s Toontown Fair amid Walt Disney World’s 25th-anniversary celebration. In 2011, it was rethemed as the Great Goofini’s Barnstormer, although it is currently called Barnstormer again and it’s part of Storybook Circus, which was a leg of the Fantasyland expansion.
Numbers: It’s a kiddie coaster, and it tops out at 30 feet. But the speed for the minute-long ride is 25 mph.
What else: The Sentinel didn’t write much about the Barnstormer upon its opening, although a search results in many hits for the Iowa Barnstormers, an Arena Football League team that played the Orlando Predators.
Upside-down debut
What: Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Disney’s Hollywood Studios
When: July 1999
What happened: Several firsts came with Rock ‘n’ Roller, including the first Disney World inversions and the first coaster outside of Magic Kingdom.
Numbers: It’s 0 to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds at the beginning. Each stretch limo holds 24 people, and they sported 120 speakers. There are five inversions. There were six soundtracks, narrowed down from 17, senior show producer Paul Osterhout said in 1999.
What else: The incorporation of Aerosmith and its music wasn’t confirmed until the month before the attraction opened, although it had been leaked by band members. The 1999 version of the group (plus actress Illeana Douglas) still appears in the preshow video. Its debut was on the heels of the grand opening of Universal’s Islands of Adventure and its two intense, inversion-happy coasters, the Incredible Hulk and the late, great Dueling Dragons.
Spin cycle
What: Primeval Whirl, Disney’s Animal Kingdom
When: March 2002
What happened: Four years after Animal Kingdom opened, the park got its first coaster, a spinning time-machine-themed contraption for DinoLand USA. It had two identical tracks and theming that fit into the carnival setting of the area. Its history is marred by the deaths of two cast members in 2007 and 2011. The coaster still stands but has not operated since March 2020.
Numbers: It’s 42 feet high and went 29 mph, but it was mostly a spinning, dipping sort of an experience.
What else: About the time Primeval Whirl debuted, River Country closed.
Yeti boop
What: Expedition Everest, Animal Kingdom
When: April 2006
What happened: Disney went all in on the Himalayan theme for the coaster and queue, and it got more intense on the ride, too, with a dramatic plunge, a dark stretch that goes backward and an encounter with a yeti, big time. In town for the opening: Bob Iger, Jane Goodall, Isabella Rossellini and John Cleese. Sentinel writer Eric Michael called the ride a “juiced-up hybrid of Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain railroad.”
Numbers: The facade tops out at 199.5 feet high. Its reported price tag was $100 million. There were more than 8,000 props in the queue, and an Expedition Everest billboard in New York’s Times Square was 57 stories high.
What else: If you saw the swipe by the yeti early on, you’re among the lucky few. That it doesn’t work as originally planned is a big bummer, literally, but the strobe light fix-of-sorts gave us one of the best in-the-know Disney nicknames: Disco yeti.
Pick of the litter
What: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Magic Kingdom
When: May 2014
What happened: Mine Train capped off the New Fantasyland project. It was a late arrival to the original plan but has ended up being the crowd-pleasing centerpiece. It was subbed, in a way, for Snow White’s Scary Adventures, a Magic Kingdom classic closed for other Fantasyland purposes. Tom Staggs, then chairman of Disney Parks & Resorts, dedicated the ride with a golden pickax, with help from Snow White and Dopey.
Numbers: It tops out at 34 mph, and the drop is 39 feet. It stands on the ground where 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea operated.
What else: The coaster has a dark-ride-ish center section that features audio-animatronic dwarfs, shiny jewels and “Heigh-Ho,” which can be heard from outside the ride. The train features wobbly cars rocking left and right on the move. The dancing figures (and one scary lurker) at the end are repurposed from the original Snow White ride.
Spring into action
What: Slinky Dog Dash, Disney’s Hollywood Studios
When: June 2018
What happened: Toy Story Land’s thrill ride continues the theme of visitors being shrunk down to toy size, and the queue features oversized board game boxes as its décor (and ceiling). The ride vehicles are Slinky Dogs, and there’s a fairly steep hill, launch and humpbacks on the return to the station, where Wheezy the Penguin animatronic serenades riders.
Numbers: SDD goes 40 mph and that drop measures at 50 feet.
What else: For a while, Slinky Dog Dash gave the best views of the neighboring construction site of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
This series
This story is part of the Orlando Sentinel’s “Disney World at 50” series — a year’s worth of stories leading up to the 50th anniversary of the historic opening of Walt Disney World on Oct. 1, 1971. Find more stories, photos and videos at OrlandoSentinel.com/WDW50.
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Order your copy of “Disney World at 50,” the Orlando Sentinel’s new hardcover keepsake book chronicling the 50th anniversary of the opening of the most magical place on Earth. Supplies are limited. Order your copy at OrlandoSentinel.com/DisneyBook.
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