I saw an interview a few months back that stated that they were currently testing different trains etc on space mountain to see how they performed and no decision has yet been made. I would expect a change soon though . Was it 1995 the ride originally opened? If so maybe they will do it ready for spring/summer 2015 and advertise it as 20th birthday thing.
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Disneyland Paris : New trains for Space Mountain Mission 2
- Thread starter Pedro
- Start date
DiogoJ42
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- The Metropolitan Line
cdd89 said:Hey,
Thread-necro-ing here
I went to DLP a couple of weeks ago and was shocked by how rough SM:M2 was. I was sat in the back seat of one of the front cars, and banged my knee against some big of metal every time there was an inversion.
It's a real shame, because it was such a great ride in every way apart from that snag. Two questions:
1) Are the new trains in yet (i.e. is this as good as it will get?)
2) Any suggestions on what I was doing wrong? Are different seats better or worse?
Thanks!
It doesn't have the new trains yet, so what you endured is exactly why it needs them!
Enter Valhalla
TS Member
Dave said:
You find Dragon Khan more painful than Kumali? Gosh! I know Kumali is smoother than your average SLC but it still feels rough and a big part of this is due to Vekoma's horrible over sized restraints. Saw is a different kind of roughness for me, it's not a head banger so much, it just hurts your head and spine on impact points. Furius Baco is, again, not a head banger. I personally just find it rattles alot and can give a headache, as surprising as this sounds I don't actually find Baco too rough, just slightly painful on my head and back.
As for Space Mountain against Dragon Khan, both coasters are head bangers, but Space Mountain beats Dragon Khan hands down in that respect. I'm very surprised that people are saying they find DK so painful, I find you just bang your head once or twice in the ride, nothing else. I guess this just goes to show how people's interpretations of roughness differ from one another, I guess that's why Furius Baco divides opinion so much. Dragon Khan though... that's one I've not heard before!
QTXAdsy
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
Ian said:Maelstrom said:
Would be the perfect opportunity to relaunch the ride as Mission 3, given it wasvandalisedrethemed to Mission 2 for it's 10th birthday
And give us the Moon theme back please! I did hear that some of the management admit that Mission 2 was a backfire for them.
N
_nemesis_
Whilst some of the changes for mission 2 were criminal, the new on board audio is much better and the new laser tunnel at the end was a great addition. However I will admit, it is among one of the roughest coasters I have ever ridden, just missing out on the top spot, that title goes to Fiorano GT Challenge at Ferrari World, 60mph, with no banked corners.QTXAdsy said:Ian said:Maelstrom said:
Would be the perfect opportunity to relaunch the ride as Mission 3, given it wasvandalisedrethemed to Mission 2 for it's 10th birthday
And give us the Moon theme back please! I did hear that some of the management admit that Mission 2 was a backfire for them.
I'd be interested know what changed in Mission two as well. Everyone seems to say it's worse, but apart from the idea it was more "futuristic", I'm not sure what actually changed. It's all very vague on the Internet.
I only just realised how well-designed it was though. For example, I had no idea that it had a mid-ride lift hill. That's very well disguised, to the extent that you almost think it is just a slow bit of the coaster.
As for "headbanging", it's weird – I've never found a coaster "headbanging" before, in the sense that I understand that word. It was my knees that took the bashing, which made me wonder if there's a way of sitting that avoids that.
I only just realised how well-designed it was though. For example, I had no idea that it had a mid-ride lift hill. That's very well disguised, to the extent that you almost think it is just a slow bit of the coaster.
As for "headbanging", it's weird – I've never found a coaster "headbanging" before, in the sense that I understand that word. It was my knees that took the bashing, which made me wonder if there's a way of sitting that avoids that.
QTXAdsy
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Black Hole
Rupert said:
The original was all this Jules Verne Steampunk feel to it that was applied to the whole of Discoveryland. The ride itself was loosely based of the novel 'From the Earth to the Moon', hence why we have it's large cannon to begin with, and the ride itself was, not surprisingly, a flight to the moon.
For those who have listened to the original soundtrack, you can't help but feel that it feels a lot more grander than the modern track we have on it today. Nowadays, the ride itself is about a trip to the edge of the universe to witness a supernova. Now it's a strange mess of steampunk and modern theming which, in my eyes, doesn't fit as it looks as they are copying it's cousins. Admittedly, the effects on the original ride were looking a bit dated by the time it closed, but they didn't have to go that far with it's re-theme when it could've just gave it new effects and ofc those new trains.
I could go into detail with it and all the other changes, but what it did lose in the end, was it's soul. :/
Cheese
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Helix, Liseberg
I’ve outlined the changes I’m aware of below, but TL;DR, what Adsy said.
I’m still hoping to write a trip report of the visit Rowe and I made to DLP just before Christmas, but as I haven’t got around to it yet (damn procrastination!) and this thread has made a comeback I thought I’d put my thoughts on Space Mountain here. Apologies if it’s too trip-reporty and off-topic.
Vekoma get a lot of stick from enthusiasts for the kind of rides they’ve built over the years with inside wheelsets (primarily SLCs and Corkscrews/other MK1200 rides). Although to an extent that’s justified, I feel the reputation these rides have can be unfair to certain examples of them. Nevertheless, I’d heard so much about Space Mountain supposedly being horrifically rough that I didn’t think this would be one of those situations. I’d seen relatively few people say it was OK, let alone rate it highly (aside from Jeremy on Roller Coaster Philosophy). This seemed like a real shame, because I’d seen the old BBC documentary from when it was new and absolutely loved the concept behind it.
This alleged roughness meant that I really hoped to see the new MK1212 trains we’ve discussed here materialise during the ride’s late November scheduled closure. I checked YouTube and DLP fansites afterwards to see if they had after it reopened. There were no news articles about new rolling stock, and videos uploaded days after showed the old trains. Bad news, I thought.
My first ride was in the evening of our first day there. We’d just been on Big Thunder Mountain, and although I warmed to that slightly on later rides I wasn’t very impressed; it merely met my expectations of a solid but tame family coaster. We had another four days, and as a theme park enthusiast whose primary interest is coasters, I was suddenly even more concerned about whether there'd be any worth reriding as we made our way to Discoveryland.
After a short wait we reached the station. Time to find out whether it was going to attempt to destroy my ears. The train had the usual Vekoma shortcomings; a big step down from the platform to enter, front wheelset bulges taking up valuable foot space, shoulder-squashing restraints and not quite enough room for your arm to fit past the restraint on the outer side of the car. The lack of solid foam ‘padding’ around my ears and chin was very welcome though, especially when compared to SLC restraints.
So far, so Vekoma. The vibration coming through the headrest even on the first bend approaching the lift/launch quickly made it clear that this would be a head-forward ride, but this was hardly a surprise. Most coasters are, so why would this Vekoma looper not be? I still had no idea what to expect from the ride, and it’s not very often that I board a coaster without a reasonable idea of what it’ll be like.
The launch was surprisingly good, though it’s disappointing that the slope means you instantly start losing speed after it. It’s a shame that the train couldn’t be accelerated right to the top and over a crest that levels out more gently.
More surprising however was the way that the ride was a lot of fun and generally quite comfortable. I certainly had no complaints about the layout or trackwork. It flowed nicely without the cumbersome transitions I thought it would surely have, especially in the two inversions, and it seems much more substantial when you’re riding than when you think about how few elements it actually has. I think that’s probably because each direction change feels like it has a purpose, which is unfortunately much more than can be said about all the aimless trundling around in the dark you experience on Rock ‘n’ Roller.
All the comfort issues came from the train, but these were largely counteracted by the way I was sat as upright as possible with my hands on the restraint handles and my head forwards. We got five rides over the course of the week (doesn’t sound like much I know, but we were taking it easy), and I only recall my ear making contact with the restraint on one of them.
“Really good!” was my reply when Rowe asked my opinion afterwards. I’m actually very pleased that I liked it so much. OK, it’s worlds behind the truly amazing Tower of Terror on an experience level, and even with my love of coasters I’d never deny that, but it was my solid second favourite and a good reason for me to want to return to the park in future.
Notice I said very good rather than brilliant though. There are three reasons for that:
Firstly, it’s essentially the resort’s headline coaster, and as fun as I found it, Europe’s top coasters such as Blue Fire, Nemesis and EGF are obviously in a completely different league. I’d be really interested to see what a top manufacturer’s coaster would look like at a Disney Park (let’s ignore the bland-looking California Screamin’ for a moment).
Secondly, it’s indoors. That in itself makes it difficult to compare to a lot of coasters because indoor coasters are designed so differently. They have to fit neatly inside buildings, and can get away with lots of block brakes and even small lift hills in ways that outdoor coasters just can’t.
Thirdly, this ride was plainly much stronger thematically in its original form. There are a few changes for the better, but on the whole it’s a real shame that the highly original Jules Verne theme has been so heavily compromised.
I’d welcome corrections from people that were lucky enough to ride Paris’ Space Mountain in its De la Terra a la Lune guise, but the changes I’ve seen that were made for Mission 2 are:
Let’s hope that Mission 2’s thematic shortcomings will be addressed with a future refresh, and that most of the original feel is returned at the same time.
I’m still hoping to write a trip report of the visit Rowe and I made to DLP just before Christmas, but as I haven’t got around to it yet (damn procrastination!) and this thread has made a comeback I thought I’d put my thoughts on Space Mountain here. Apologies if it’s too trip-reporty and off-topic.
Vekoma get a lot of stick from enthusiasts for the kind of rides they’ve built over the years with inside wheelsets (primarily SLCs and Corkscrews/other MK1200 rides). Although to an extent that’s justified, I feel the reputation these rides have can be unfair to certain examples of them. Nevertheless, I’d heard so much about Space Mountain supposedly being horrifically rough that I didn’t think this would be one of those situations. I’d seen relatively few people say it was OK, let alone rate it highly (aside from Jeremy on Roller Coaster Philosophy). This seemed like a real shame, because I’d seen the old BBC documentary from when it was new and absolutely loved the concept behind it.
This alleged roughness meant that I really hoped to see the new MK1212 trains we’ve discussed here materialise during the ride’s late November scheduled closure. I checked YouTube and DLP fansites afterwards to see if they had after it reopened. There were no news articles about new rolling stock, and videos uploaded days after showed the old trains. Bad news, I thought.
My first ride was in the evening of our first day there. We’d just been on Big Thunder Mountain, and although I warmed to that slightly on later rides I wasn’t very impressed; it merely met my expectations of a solid but tame family coaster. We had another four days, and as a theme park enthusiast whose primary interest is coasters, I was suddenly even more concerned about whether there'd be any worth reriding as we made our way to Discoveryland.
After a short wait we reached the station. Time to find out whether it was going to attempt to destroy my ears. The train had the usual Vekoma shortcomings; a big step down from the platform to enter, front wheelset bulges taking up valuable foot space, shoulder-squashing restraints and not quite enough room for your arm to fit past the restraint on the outer side of the car. The lack of solid foam ‘padding’ around my ears and chin was very welcome though, especially when compared to SLC restraints.
So far, so Vekoma. The vibration coming through the headrest even on the first bend approaching the lift/launch quickly made it clear that this would be a head-forward ride, but this was hardly a surprise. Most coasters are, so why would this Vekoma looper not be? I still had no idea what to expect from the ride, and it’s not very often that I board a coaster without a reasonable idea of what it’ll be like.
The launch was surprisingly good, though it’s disappointing that the slope means you instantly start losing speed after it. It’s a shame that the train couldn’t be accelerated right to the top and over a crest that levels out more gently.
More surprising however was the way that the ride was a lot of fun and generally quite comfortable. I certainly had no complaints about the layout or trackwork. It flowed nicely without the cumbersome transitions I thought it would surely have, especially in the two inversions, and it seems much more substantial when you’re riding than when you think about how few elements it actually has. I think that’s probably because each direction change feels like it has a purpose, which is unfortunately much more than can be said about all the aimless trundling around in the dark you experience on Rock ‘n’ Roller.
All the comfort issues came from the train, but these were largely counteracted by the way I was sat as upright as possible with my hands on the restraint handles and my head forwards. We got five rides over the course of the week (doesn’t sound like much I know, but we were taking it easy), and I only recall my ear making contact with the restraint on one of them.
“Really good!” was my reply when Rowe asked my opinion afterwards. I’m actually very pleased that I liked it so much. OK, it’s worlds behind the truly amazing Tower of Terror on an experience level, and even with my love of coasters I’d never deny that, but it was my solid second favourite and a good reason for me to want to return to the park in future.
Notice I said very good rather than brilliant though. There are three reasons for that:
Firstly, it’s essentially the resort’s headline coaster, and as fun as I found it, Europe’s top coasters such as Blue Fire, Nemesis and EGF are obviously in a completely different league. I’d be really interested to see what a top manufacturer’s coaster would look like at a Disney Park (let’s ignore the bland-looking California Screamin’ for a moment).
Secondly, it’s indoors. That in itself makes it difficult to compare to a lot of coasters because indoor coasters are designed so differently. They have to fit neatly inside buildings, and can get away with lots of block brakes and even small lift hills in ways that outdoor coasters just can’t.
Thirdly, this ride was plainly much stronger thematically in its original form. There are a few changes for the better, but on the whole it’s a real shame that the highly original Jules Verne theme has been so heavily compromised.
I’d welcome corrections from people that were lucky enough to ride Paris’ Space Mountain in its De la Terra a la Lune guise, but the changes I’ve seen that were made for Mission 2 are:
- Entrance sign replaced by a much less detailed one. The original had a train orbiting a small moon on top.
- ‘Interstellar Starway’ queue through ride building enclosed, removing the opportunity to watch the ride in action before riding aside from the launch (still visible outside) and brake run (Electro De-Velocitor, still visible from the queue). There was also a viewing gallery for non-riders which was also closed. These would have required lighting; was this changed to make the building darker maybe?
- Queue is now somewhat boring, despite dramatic space images applied to walls in places. Supposedly mission-related radio chatter heard throughout queue. Why is this technology in use/available when the method of getting to the moon is as low-tech as firing us from a cannon?
Internal theming altered. Blue Moon Mining Company machine (previously very visible from the queue) removed. Edges were apparently smoothed off meteors too to make them easier to project onto. - Trains given new colour scheme. Padding removed from headrests and restraints. Knowing the reverse effect that Vekoma’s usual ‘padding’ has, this was probably a welcome change.
Complete on-board soundtrack change. The original is a wonderful classical-style piece. Its replacement is alright, but certainly nowhere near as special in my opinion. The old one also started as soon as the train left the station, whereas there is now no music until the launch to allow for a countdown in French. - The train originally stopped at the loading hatch in the Columbiad cannon. It then moved further forward so that the front car of the train was near the front of the barrel, launching from there. You now launch from the base of the cannon. This is one thing that Mission 2 has perhaps improved, as it seems a reasonable assumption that the launch has to be more powerful to still get the train over the top. It also makes more sense thematically; I’m no weapons expert, but in a real gun the projectile is guided by the barrel, and shortening the barrel length generally decreases accuracy. If your ammunition only just fits inside your cannon's barrel, it's probably not going to hit the moon even if you line your cannon up perfectly!
- Slightly creepy yet iconic Smiling Moon replaced by a supernova on the tyre-driven lift hill.
- Rather cool tunnel of spiralling red light strips added around final bend into brake run.
Let’s hope that Mission 2’s thematic shortcomings will be addressed with a future refresh, and that most of the original feel is returned at the same time.
Pixie-Ro
TS Member
I too visited just before Christmas, and although I liked the track layout, I found the ride almost unbearably painful. My other half enjoyed it, so I had to go on again, and this time I wore two wooly hats and put my furry hood up, which did help slightly! I enjoyed it enough to endure re-rides, which is more than can be said of Rock and Rollercoaster, a one time blast of pain just to tick off the list! I would be interested to see if new trains would make a difference, but I wonder if I'm just an awkward height that is prone to ear bashing!
Scott
Former TS Team Member
- Favourite Ride
- Nemesis
It's funny that most people here find it rough due to head-bashing, which is a sensation I nearly never experience. Being 6' 5" my head is very rarely in line with an OTSR meaning that my discomfort is usually caused by my shoulders being bashed by the restraint - an unbearable feeling I got the last time I rode SMM2. Weirdly enough I rode Rock n Rollercoaster plenty of times without discomfort :/
For comparison, when my Dad last rode both rides he ended up with bruises! As for height, he's around 6ft.
For comparison, when my Dad last rode both rides he ended up with bruises! As for height, he's around 6ft.