Please tell me about Stitch Encounter

[momto2]

I know that it replaced Alien Encounter. In our packet from WDW the picture of this attraction shows a shoulder-chest harness. What is the need for this? Isn't is more of a kids' attraction? I thought it was being tamed down from Alien Encounter?

Thanks a bunch

 

[momto2]

My son is a HUGE Stitch fan. He is 9. What stinks about the attraction?

 

[WDW_DV]

There is no actual motion on the ride. The harness contains the audio and other sensory effects that the attraction tricks you with in the dark. It provides stereo sound to make you think Stitch is right on top of you, hot air so you think he's breathing on your neck, and even the scent of a burped up chili dog

One thing to remember is once the show starts the harness is NOT adjustable upwards...but it continues to be adjustable downwards. So if you get uncomfortable and try to slouch down to get away from it - it will come down with you and not let you back up! This can make you really uncomfortable if you drop down too low.

 

[DisneyWisher]

I think your son will get a kick out of it. We were AE fans too. DD11 says Stitch is "all right" but we've been back 4 times and everytime she says I want to go on Stitch. When we were there a few weeks ago they made some slight changes to it.

 

[tommygirl79]

I ditto everyone above who said the Stitch ride ummm....wasn't "great". I wanted so badly to love this ride as I do everything else at Disney. Up until Feb when we went on Stitch for the first ride I have NEVER been on anything Disney that I couldn't wait was over - I love it all. However, the Stitch ride was, as said above, boring and a little scary IMO for little ones. We went on a test ride before taking our almost 4 yr old and I'm soooo glad we did. She would have cried the whole time. The "aromatherapy" in the ride made me sick for 30 minutes afterwards and I can usually ride anything out there without getting sick. This is the one thing Disney that we said we would not do again unless DRASTIC changes were made.

 

[Greenhouse]

My 14 year old daughter, 11 year old neice and I were all VERY dissappointed in Stitch. The only good thing that came out of our experience was a free fast pass to Jimmy Neutron after complaining that our 30 minute wait turned into 50 minutes because of technical problems. It allowed us to get through Space Mountain and Jimmy in 45 minutes. It's not worth waiting more than 20 minutes for, or using up a fast pass.

 

[DisneyDuo]

This is the only attraction at Disney that I hate. I don't like being restrained, I don't like the chili dog burp, and I don't like the screaming, frigntened kids. It is basically Alien Encounter with Stitch instead of the old Alien. IMO, too frightening for most small children - but parents insist on bringing them on because, after all, it's Stitch!

You have to know your own kids and what they will tolerate.

As for me, once was enough, thanks!

Lin

 

[poohbear8]

Add me to the list of "never again". I am a Stitch fan, but this one just didn't do it for me.

Thankfully, I had read about the harnesses hurting you. As soon as they came down, I pushed it back up an inch or so. When Stitch was walking on my shoulders, I barely felt it. I didn't feel him breathing on me, because it was up a bit. I did still smell the chili-dog. It was gross!

DD, age 7 got spooked before going and refused to try it. I am glad she did. She loves Stitch, but this would have freaked her out. DS, age 12 thought it was ok, but said he felt sick after the smell. He did complain for hours afterwards that he kept smelling it.

DH got to ride it the next day with DS again, using the stitch-off pass they gave him when DD skipped out. He said it was ok. DS still didn't like it.

A hint if you choose to do it with kids: do it in the evening and take one of those glow bracelets with you. (local dollar store sells them cheaper than Disney) I had a bracelet and necklace on while riding. It lit up the area. I wasn't aware how much, until a 10 year old next to me, thanked me and said she was scared of the dark, and the bracelet helped her. Others may not like it, but at least there will be some light for your little one.

HTH!

Peg

 

[Kuzco]

I HATED Alien Encounter for numerous reasons...but I actually get a bit of a kick out of Stitch. I think I'm in the minority, though...or at least in a minority of internet users. I love Stitch (the character), though, so perhaps I'm biased.

I did this attraction twice on my trip earlier this month. Maybe there weren't many little children in it, but no one was crying at all the entire time. People were laughing during it and seemed to think it was ok.

If your child is afraid of some loud noises and pitch darkness, I'd skip. If he is a good sport about such things, it might be worth a shot.

 

[Aneille]

My 3 year old really wants to go on this ride. What is scary about it besides the darkness and Stitch breathing on your neck?

My daughter usually doesn't scare that easily so even after others have said kids were screaming I am still thinking of taking her if she is well rested that day.

My husband and I have decided that one of us will probably preview it first. But no sense in previewing it if theres something I know will scare her!

Also even with the harness I could hold her hand right?

Also I love AE and was bummed it was gone last time I went to Disney. I hadn't been to Disney in about 6 years and I was really looking forward to it and it was gone.

 

[TheIncredibles]

This would probably be easier if you had asked what DOESN'T stink?

But, anyways - I guess first off, I was a big fan of AE. But, I was totally willing to give this one a chance. I admit, I don't like Stitch, but wasn't gonna let that predetermine my opinion.

1.It's boring.
2.There's a part where Stitch belches and it smells AWFUL. I mean, to the point I thought I was gonna lose my lunch.
3.There's no creativity behind it. It's like watching a movie where the director lost his patience and just ended it with no resolution.
4.The sounds of kids crying their heads off isn't very uplifting.

Of all these reasons, I think the boredom is what really did it for me. I have never walked out of a Disney attraction. If I could have raised the shoulder restraint, I would have.

Exactly right with excellent insight that describes this pointless attraction perfectly. We all walked out surprised that Disney has it's name attatched to this and will not return.

 

[mom2mira]

I was excited about this ride, but now I'm not so sure it will be worth the wait. My dd(4) doesn't like the dark rides, so it may not be for her. I am pregnant and smells are really getting to me(no one can breath on me even after they brush their teeth without me gagging...lol), so maybe I couldn't handle it. I'm also worried about the harness getting tight on her if she cowers down and my belly. Oh well. She actually wasn't sure if she wanted to ride it after seeing the picture on the WDW site, so maybe this one should be a pass.

 

[springbreak!]

i went on this ride on the 19th when i was there and i was very dissapointed...i had read other posts about this ride and was expecting a lot..we got a fast pass 4 this ride cause i knew it wasnt worth the 45 min wait. the only wait we had was where u wait inside right before u c the preshow...anyways we probaly only waited 10 min and i regret it...the ride wasnt even like alien encounter....i thought it was gonna be the same only w/ stich.....in this ride stich isnt mean.....no big thing like hes dangerous....he just pretends to run around and jump on your heads....it is also not even that dark....i really can't understand why this would scare any kids older than 3.....there were no scared kids when i went...however somehow like half way through the show my mom looked over and the harness was pushed so far down is was crushing her legs...i have no idea how this happend....she is 13 but really small....probaly no more than 80 pounds..my sis was in a lot of pain and my mom actually had to pull the restraints off her..the restraints did go up, and when i looked around a lot of people had the same problem and were also able to pull up the restraints...so im not sure what was going on with that whole thing....my sis complained for the rest of the day how her legs hurt from being crushed.. but besides all that we all thought it was a waste of time, and agreed not to do it again....w

 

[crazyj4488]

Oh man, I've done a lot of research on this debacle. I can't express my negative feelings over things like this in a strong enough manner.

What the heck happened to a Tomorrowland that inspired us to look towards the future? I really miss the days of Dreamflights and If you had wings. That's the kind of things MK needs to stick with...journeys that actually ride you through well-scripted environments and some memorable audio-animatronics to ehance the experience. It works wonderously for Splash Mountain / Haunted Mansion / Pirates of the Caribbean...they need to stick with that formula. Getting strapped down into a seat and watching an obnoxious character fufill a boring and awfully scripted story adds nothing to the theme of Tomorrowland. The glimpse of the future it does give doesn't inspire us and it does nothing to actually make us look forward to Tomorrow. Heck you can't even call it a ride....you aren't riding it anywhere.

Tomorrowland has become a mess in my opinion. There is too much carnival and especially too much movie branding going on. There is talk of replacing Timekeeper with Toy Story green alien bumper cars...UGH....give me a break. Walt is rolling over in his grave.

As a small tangent to this...Just think about it...in EPCOT now, Spaceship Earth is the only attaction left that features a set based omnimover experience with audio-animatronics...this made Disney attractions famous. Did you know that since the late 80's that CM's have reported that 255 audio animatronic figures have been removed from Future World without replacement leaving us with just over 100 figures in all of Future World. Now there is talk about changing SE into a freaking roller coaster?! Models have already been made by Imagineering with tubular tracks shooting out of spaceship earth, etc. How the heck does that symbolize the global community and how is that a good intro into Future World? How does riding around real fast in circles for a quick thrill create a window into the Future?? They might as well change Future World to Fun World because that's what it is becoming.

Go here for some great articles on this Stitch craziness along with complete details of the attraction's current state:

http://www.d-troops.com/articles.php?id=320
http://www.d-troops.com/articles.php?id=348
http://www.d-troops.com/articles.php?id=371

Here are direct links to some great articles about the SE whackiness:

http://www.d-troops.com/articles.php?id=42
http://www.d-troops.com/articles.php?id=45

-J

 

[smoochie]

There is no actual motion on the ride. The harness contains the audio and other sensory effects that the attraction tricks you with in the dark. It provides stereo sound to make you think Stitch is right on top of you, hot air so you think he's breathing on your neck, and even the scent of a burped up chili dog

One thing to remember is once the show starts the harness is NOT adjustable upwards...but it continues to be adjustable downwards. So if you get uncomfortable and try to slouch down to get away from it - it will come down with you and not let you back up! This can make you really uncomfortable if you drop down too low.

this happend to me last week. I felt like it was trying to push my shoulders into the floor. Hated this ride.

 

[tink22]

My 14 year old daughter, 11 year old neice and I were all VERY dissappointed in Stitch. The only good thing that came out of our experience was a free fast pass to Jimmy Neutron after complaining that our 30 minute wait turned into 50 minutes because of technical problems. It allowed us to get through Space Mountain and Jimmy in 45 minutes. It's not worth waiting more than 20 minutes for, or using up a fast pass.

what do you mean Jimmy Neutron? Do you mean Buzz Lightyear? There is no Jimmy Neutron at Disney.

 

[momto2]

What had small children screaming and crying? The darkness? the unexpected? the harness?

 

[momto2]

Oh man, I've done a lot of research on this debacle. I can't express my negative feelings over things like this in a strong enough manner.

Go here for some great articles on this Stitch craziness along with complete details of the attraction's current state:

http://www.d-troops.com/articles.php?id=320
http://www.d-troops.com/articles.php?id=348
http://www.d-troops.com/articles.php?id=371
-J

crazyj - Thanks the above articles were great! Appreciate the info.

 

[MichiganMomto4]

We did this in early November during a soft opening. We waited over 40 minutes to "ride". Blech! It was awful in every sense of the word. I actually asked a CM on the way out if Disney would refund me my wasted 45 minutes. I have never felt so strongly about a completely awful attraction in Disney as I feel about this supposed attraction.

 

[kellymouse]

Gosh, thank you so much for telling me it stinks! I am very sensitive to smells, and being trapped in a chair smelling something disgusting sounds horrible!
Thanks for the warning!