It was in the paper today:
Has Epcot's wild ride tamed down?
Mission: Space has seen a steep decline in hospital stays from 6 to 1; possibly guests are heeding warning signs
By Sean Mussenden | Orlando Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted January 4, 2005
Walt Disney World designed Epcot's Mission: Space ride to rocket tourists on a fake journey to Mars. During the stomach-churning attraction's first eight months, though, it sent more people on a real trip to the emergency room than any other ride in Orlando.
That dubious distinction now appears on the wane.
After six people were hospitalized for more than a day from the August 2003 "soft opening" to March, only one person was sent for an extended stay in the six months that followed, according to state ride safety data.
Has Mission: Space -- a ride so intense it comes with a free space sickness bag -- lost its edge?
Disney says no. Despite persistent rumors that Imagineers would retool the ride to make it less intense, the company said it has not toned down the ride in response to the hospitalizations.
"There's been no material change to the ride itself," spokesman Bill Warren said, adding that the company safety officials cannot fully explain the drop-off.
The $100 million ride is unlike anything at Walt Disney World. Riders sit inside a small capsule, staring at a video screen. The capsule spins, first mimicking the intense G-forces of a rocket launch, followed by the weightlessness of space.
The spinning and abrupt movement has landed some riders in the hospital, mostly older men experiencing chest pains or nausea.
During the "soft opening" in 2003, a two-month period in which tourist riders help Disney work out bugs before the grand opening, company safety officials decided they needed to better explain the intensity.
Today, more than a dozen signs warn would-be riders with medical conditions and those who might get motion sickness to think twice. And a pre-boarding video was altered to highlight the spinning motion, an unusual move for Disney.
"We don't want to give away the magic, but we felt it was important to do given the circumstances. It's tough for you to make a decision if you don't know it spins," Warren said.
If those changes, which were all in place by the October 2003 grand opening, helped keep vulnerable riders off the ride and out of the hospital, they did not do so immediately. Five hospitalizations occurred from October 2003 to March.
Then, the number abruptly dropped. From April 1 to Sept. 30, only one person, a 40-year-old woman who fainted on the ride, went to the hospital for more than 24 hours. Statistics for the fall will not be available until later this month.
State ride safety officials said there has been no change in the way Disney, Universal Orlando and SeaWorld Orlando report accidents to the state. The major parks are exempt from state ride safety regulations. Since 2001, they have voluntarily reported injuries that result in a hospital stay of more than 24 hours.
Mission: Space could still be sending people to the hospital, albeit for shorter stays. Certainly, it is still making some riders ill.
According to data from the Reedy Creek Fire Department, which responds to accidents on Disney property, rescuers fielded 22 calls near Mission: Space between Nov. 1 and mid-December. A Fire Department spokesman estimated that 15 of those calls, none of which resulted in hospitalization, were related to the ride.
So what explains the drop?
As word spreads about the ride's intensity, it is possible that the warnings are doing a better job reaching at-risk riders, like Helen Thewliss of Scotland.
Her age -- 55 -- and inner-ear problems increase her chances of getting sick on Mission: Space. She reached the same conclusion after reading several unofficial Disney Web sites describing the ride's intensity.
She arrived at Epcot shortly before Christmas with a plan. Like the proverbial canary in the coal mine, her grown daughter Louise Thewliss went in to test it out.
"It's very mean of me, I know," Helen Thewliss said.
Louise Thewliss came out, smiling. "It was absolutely brilliant. You wouldn't have liked it," she said to her mom, who decided to skip the ride.
Bless this child and prayers for her family.
