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Welcome, dreamer, to Part 1 of Your Guide to Virtual Attractions at Disney! By now I’m sure you know I’m Disney’s number 1 fan, but even so, I still have some challenges navigating the attractions in the park, particularly the virtual attractions! Having visited the parks more times than I can count, I decided to be brave and start trying the virtual attractions at Disney. Now, I can say with confidence that I’ve found resources to help make these rides enjoyable for me, and I’m excited to share them with you!
Today we’re diving into the virtual attractions at Magic Kingdom Park and EPCOT. Stay tuned next week for tips navigating the virtual attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park!
Before we get started, I want to let you know what I personally consider a virtual attraction, as this is the guideline I will follow with both posts! To me, virtual attractions are those with 3D or 4D glasses, along with any that involve a motion simulator. If you’re looking for attractions that can specifically induce motion sickness, I highly recommend you check out my other blog post, Top Tips to Avoid Motion Sickness at Disney. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, let’s get started!
Magic Kingdom Park
Magic Kingdom is generally a safe park in terms of Virtual Attractions, as the park focuses heavily on physical attractions instead! In fact, the beauty of Magic Kingdom is that there are no attractions with virtual motion simulators specifically! Woohoo!
Mickey’s PhilharMagic
While there aren’t any virtual attractions with motion simulators, many might consider Mickey’s PhilharMagic to be a virtual attraction. This attraction is a theater-style show on a screen, and while the seats do not move in the least, guests do wear 3D glasses throughout the duration of the show. I absolutely love this attraction – it is so fun and cute, packed with musical numbers from your favorite Disney movies!
While I have not known anyone who cannot participate in this attraction due to motion sickness, I will mention that a few (including myself) can find the Aladdin scene to be a bit sickening. During this scene, Donald, Aladdin, and Jasmine fly through the village quickly on the magic carpet with the audience following along as they dip, spin and flip through the sky.
That said, this is one of my favorite virtual attractions at Disney World because this attraction has no motion simulators, so you can easily avoid the rumbling in your tummy by simply shutting your eyes during the scene. I just love attractions where I can still participate with my husband!
EPCOT
The Seas with Nemo and Friends
This is a slow-moving attraction where you progress throughout multiple scenes of the Finding Nemo movie while sitting in a conch shell, making this such a cute ride! I also love this attraction because it ends in the middle of the second-largest aquarium in the United States, where you can spend hours visiting with all the fish. But that’s not what we’re discussing today!
While not a virtual attraction, there is a scene that is a bit virtual in nature and makes many guests queasy! It’s about three-quarters of the way through the attraction, when you enter the East Australian Current with Crush, Squirt, and tons of bubbles! The bubbles move quickly on a screen in front and above you, while you are also slowly moving, which can be disorienting. Like PhilarMagic at Magic Kingdom, however, you can easily avoid this by simply shutting your eyes when you enter the bubble scene.
Mission: SPACE
For me, this is by far the worst of the virtual attractions at Disney World! It’s definitely a doozy if you struggle with motion sickness of any kind! This attraction is an intense motion simulator, designed to make you feel as though you’re launching into space.
There are two tracks you can pick from – the Orange track is the more intense simulator, and the Green track is the less intense option. However, if you struggle with motion sickness from virtual attractions, just don’t do this attraction at all! Orange or green, it doesn’t really matter to me, as both are sickening. Trust me on this one; skip Mission: SPACE if you value your lunch. I’ve got nothing else to say!
Soarin’ Around the World
While many guests with motion sickness on virtual attractions at Disney cannot enjoy Soarin’, I actually love this attraction! This attraction physically suspends you at a height above the ground, so if you have an intense fear of heights, I would not participate.
Once suspended in the air, the motion simulator calmly and gently sways to make you feel as though you are on a hang glider, flying through the world. I love this attraction for all the stunning scenes and scents you can take in.
Further, I believe the reason some are able to participate in this attraction is because there is a continuous stream of air blowing in your face, providing a gentle breeze as you go through the scenes. While I have no idea why this is helpful, it truly prevents my stomach from feeling any kind of queasiness and seems to make a difference for me.
There are a few scenes I shut my eyes during, including scaling the Great Wall of China and climbing the Eiffel Tower, but overall, I have no problem with this attraction because of the gentle, continuous breeze! If you have any hesitations, I highly recommend speaking to the Cast Members at the attraction, as they can offer wisdom to help you in making the decision to ride or not!
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
This attraction shrinks you down to the size of a rat as you travel through Remy’s world as a chef! This has a ride vehicle that physically moves you through scenes, but you will wear 4D glasses throughout the attraction. The mix of 4D, along with physically scurrying and zipping around the scenes can cause tummy problems for some! I personally have no issues with the attraction, however! If you are nervous, I recommend taking an anti-nausea pill prior to this attraction on your first trip to be safe.
Summary
That’s it for Part 1 of Your Guide to Virtual Attractions at Disney. Today we’ve covered all the virtual attractions at Magic Kingdom Park and EPCOT, and I hope you found some helpful ways to give these attractions a shot during your next visit! If this was useful for you, please be sure to send it to a friend who is visiting Disney soon! Stay tuned next week when we cover Part 2 of Your Guide to Virtual Attractions at Disney, covering Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. Stay magical, and I’ll see ya real soon for another blog post!
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Every time I read one of your Disney posts I get more excited to go! I think of all the parks I’m most excited about EPCOT. The Nemo and Friends one ending up in an aquarium sounds amazing!!
EPCOT is such a relaxing park! You can really take it as slow as you want, and the food and beverage is so great. The aquarium is so fun! I can spend hours!! 🙂
I love your suggestions on virtual attractions. Definitely Disney is in my radar to visit one day. Can’t weight to see the part 2 of this post!
Thank you so much for reading! Part 2 is out next week 🙂
I love your Disney posts, makes me want to go so bad! My partner suffers with motion sickness so I’ll be checking this post again before we go to any virtual attractions! Thanks for sharing ☺️
Thanks for your sweet comment! I hope this helps your partner on your next visit!
It all looks like so much fun! I’m all the way here in Europe so i’m living the experience through your blog. Thank you!
Aww I love that! Thank you so much for following along!
I didn’t even know that Disney had virtual rides. This is great to know for the next time I go there.
There’s not too many, but it’s enough to warrant some tips! Haha I hope it helps!
This is interesting, never tried virtual attractions. It’s been a while since we went to the Disney park. Very informative!
Virtual attractions can definitely be nauseating for some! Thanks for taking the time to read 🙂
I am so overdue for a Disney trip! All of these virtual attractions are new since I was last there. I love all things, Disney – and need to get back!
I think everyone is overdue! Hahaha 🙂 I hope you get to visit soon!
Thanks for sharing. It definitely helps to know about some of these before you go!
Thanks for your kind words!
This is such a great list! I love that I can reference the different places and determine where best to spend time!
Yay, I’m glad this is helpful for you!
Love Disney and what a great idea for a post!
Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment 🙂
These all look like fun options! I went on Soarin’ which I enjoyed but will need to check out the Nemo one next time.
Soarin’ is one of my favorite attractions for sure!
I’ve never been to Epcot and definitely on the list with the kiddos. Saving this post for future reference!
It’s a great park for kids, as there are so many attractions without height requirements!
How fun!! I enjoy reading your posts and learning more about Disney. The Soarin’ ride sounds like so much fun!
Thanks for your sweet message! Soarin’ is one of my favorite attractions! Thanks for reading 🙂
The child in me gets excited every time I discover something new after reading your articles. It makes me look forward to revisiting & enjoying the rides that I missed. I always tend to skip the virtual attractions since I prefer being on the rides. But I will consider them for sure now!
Thanks so much for your kind message! I’m glad you enjoy reading them, and I hope you’re able to visit soon 🙂
This is a great guide! I love that you give lots of disclaimers but offer some options to get through certain things (like closing your eyes). I have a huge fear of heights and getting me to ride any kind of ride is difficult. But I like to know what I’m getting myself into. This post helps a lot with that!
I am the same way, I like to be as prepared as possible because I’m a big wimp hahaha. I’m glad this was helpful for you!
I loved Mission: Space!
And I went for the Orange. But I agree that it’s not the ride for you if you suffer from motion sickness.
And I would never do it after lunch.
But it’s FUN!
I will say, Mission: Space has such amazing technology! The imagineers actually worked with NASA to create the ride and make it as realistic as possible, which is super impressive to me! I just prefer to admire from afar since I get motion sickness so easily. But I’m so glad you love it, my husband does too! 🙂
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