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Woman Dies After Riding Mission Space


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WALT DISNEY WORLD, Fla. -- In a written statement, the Walt Disney World Resort said a 49-year-old woman died Wednesday after riding “Mission: Space†at Epcot.

The woman became ill after she got off the ride Tuesday afternoon. She was taken to Celebration Hospital.

“We have closed the attraction to reconfirm proper operation of the ride,†the statement read. ...

http://www.wftv.com/news/8653845/detail.html

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Wasnt there another death on Mission Space around this time last year? I bet this one was due to a medical condition again, it is an intense ride, and I cant stress enough to park guests how important it is to read the warnings before riding, but we'll wait and see the official outcocme of what happened.

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Guest TombraiderTy

When we went in the summer of 2005 the video before the ride mentioned not to ride if you had certain problems so mant rimes, it got anoying.

The ride is intense. It spins you around a large ring at great speeds, while the vehicles tilt and move up and down. Scary wacko.gif

Was fun though

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When we went in the summer of 2005 the video before the ride mentioned not to ride if you had certain problems so mant rimes, it got anoying.

The ride is intense. It spins you around a large ring at great speeds, while the vehicles tilt and move up and down. Scary wacko.gif

Was fun though

Is it like the old Rotor at Kings Island?

Where the ride spins and the floor drops out?

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Guest TombraiderTy

Uh.. not really. Guests sit in vehicles facing another about 20 feet away. An arm holds all the cars. The arm spins, causing all the cars to spin. The cars move up, down, and side to side. I hope that makes it clearer.

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Uh.. not really. Guests sit in vehicles facing another about 20 feet away. An arm holds all the cars. The arm spins, causing all the cars to spin. The cars move up, down, and side to side. I hope that makes it clearer.

Ahhhh, have never seen that ride before.

It's been a few years since I've been at EPCOT.

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Mission Space is meant to simulate a trip to Mars.

The backstory is that you are a new astronaut who is going for space shuttle bridge training.

You enter a rather futuristic looking buiding and the main section fo queue is decorated with space travel related decor, then you go down a hallway that has observation windows into "mission control", which is a nicely detailed set, and after that hallway you are sent to one of 4 briefing rooms. Once in briefing a film is shown about your mission, and you are grouped into teams of four. This briefing also contains a strongly worded health/safety warning and if you do not think you are up to the rigors of space travel, they give you an out before proceedeing.

If you proceed you are shown to a round hallway outside the ride itself where another video continues the briefing, this time assigning each person in your 4 person team a specifc role on the flight deck, and telling you about what you are assigned to do.

You are then shown to the ride vehicle itself. Each ride pod is a fully enclosed unit, meaining that once sealed inside of it you can't see out of the pod. Each person gets a seat, a shoulder restraint, a barf bag, and a 'workstation' that has all sorts of very real looking controls and guages, as well as a viewscreen. Some claim claustrophobia at this point becuse when the pod closed the view screens lower so that the monitor seems to be mere inches from your face. So it has the characteristics of a motion simulator ride, and your pod itself is in fact a motion base capeable of rolling forwards and backwards, or moving up and down. The ten pods are connected to a huge wheel of sorts, and the whle thing spins similar to a flat ride. By spinning the main ride very fast, it creates g forces, pushing you back into your seat.

the ridefilm takes you through launch, cruise to mars, and landing on mars. Along the way, each rider has been assigned some tasks to perform to 'ensure the succuess of the mission" Twice during the ride each rider will need to activate a control on the panel. Don't worry those will light up and flash when its time. Also towards the end of the ride you have to pilot the craft manually and you do that via a joystick that vibrates and gives resistance to the move you are trying to make.

All in all its a fully immersive dark ride experience. It is also very intense, hence all the stern safety warnings. I feel my spin ride tolerance is quite high, and there is a momment on Mission Space right after the shuttle lauch scene where the pob lurches and I had doubts on it I'd make it through the ride without sickness. Its so far easily the most intense ride on Disney property. Thats also why each rider station comes with a barf bag, and the also have a fan in front of each rider that constantly blows a stream of cold air in the riders face.

IIRC, this was installed in the 2003-2004 time frame.

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Here's a link to some photos that someone had posted on Coasterbuzz:

http://lostworld.pair.com/trips/florida2005/wdw5.shtml

I haven't been back to Epcot since it opened, but I've heard it's pretty intense. (It's the only ride I'm aware of that has barf bags in the ride vehicle...)

Sweet Building!

EPCOT just has the best architecture of any of the Disney Parks.

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(It's the only ride I'm aware of that has barf bags in the ride vehicle...)

THe ride is great and I laughed so hard when ir elized those were in there as i exited. Then when walking down the exit ramp I noticed a little boy holding one close to his face and coughing and i laughed probably of rhalf an hour. Ive never had a problem with rides making me sick.

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Guest TombraiderTy

I liked the ride and didn't get sick, but when our family left this Disney band, banging on trash cans was there. My sister and mom had such headaches! laugh.gif

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Wasnt there another death on Mission Space around this time last year? I bet this one was due to a medical condition again, it is an intense ride, and I cant stress enough to park guests how important it is to read the warnings before riding, but we'll wait and see the official outcocme of what happened.

It was a four year old (heart attack)....this is the second death on this ride within a year

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