We’ve all been there. At one time or another, we’ve all felt that rising, dizzying nausea that turns your legs to jelly and makes you want to throw up and find the nearest chair to spend the next couple of hours just sitting in and doing nothing at all. You really don’t want to experience this on your vacation so I’m going to take a look at how to avoid motion sickness at Disney World. Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway Motion Sickness exists believe it or not and there are other attraction to be wary offer.
The one thing that I learned as a child with motion sickness on long road trips, is that whining only makes it worse – Lindy Hughes
When that feeling hits you, it can ruin your whole day and put whatever plans you’ve already made to rest.
The subject of planning brings me rather neatly to Walt Disney World, as there is no vacation spot in the world that requires as much planning and forethought as WDW does, so if you’re setting sail for Orlando and heading to the parks, you’ll want to make sure that nothing spoils your plans and the time that you’re going to spend there.
And that includes motion sickness.
What Is Motion Sickness?
In its simplest terms, motion sickness is caused when your brain can’t accurately decipher the sensory information that it receives from your eyes and ears about whether your body is in “motion” or not.
The resultant confusion sends your brain into panic mode and the almost instantaneous side effect of that cerebral fear and your brain not knowing which way is up or down is that you’ll start to feel like you’re stuck in an endlessly spinning room and if you don’t get to stand still or sit down straight away, you’ll end up losing your lunch or your breakfast, or in the worst-case scenario, both of them.
It can hit you out of the blue at any moment, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a hardened roller coaster rider or if you get sick just driving to the store as a passenger in your partner’s car (weirdly, motion sickness never seems to bother anyone who’s actually driving, which is probably due to the brain actually knowing where it’s going and feeling like its in charge rather than being an unsuspecting “victim” in the experience), there’s a good chance that you might be struck down by motion sickness when you least expect it.
Anyone who has ever felt the familiar grip of the rising gore that accompanies motion sickness knows all too well that a primary cause of it is theme park rides.
That means that if you are prone to that nausea, and you’re heading to Walt Disney World, a place in which all four parks are, to some degree built around rides that can make you go weak at the knees in a split second, you’ll need to find a way or multiple ways to stop it rearing its ugly head while you’re there and turning your well-planned vacation into a nightmare.
So what can you do? How can you halt motion sickness in its tracks when you arrive at Disney World? Sit down, stop worrying and start looking forward to your trip, I’ve got this covered.
I’ve put together a short, simple-to-follow list of the things that you can do to make sure that you can enjoy every single second of your trip without having to worry about your brain getting frightened enough to squeeze your breakfast out of your stomach.
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Let’s Start At The Beginning – The Attractions
The easiest way to avoid becoming a victim of motion sickness while you’re staying at Disney World is by staying away from, and off, any of the rides that might let it sink its fingers into your brain. And the easiest way to do that is by sticking to this list of where to find the rides that could potentially be a motion sickness problem like crazy glue.
Avoiding Motion Sickness at Magic Kingdom
It stands to reason that the park with the most attractions in Walt Disney World is the one that’s going to be the most problematic, which is why I’ve gone straight to the biggest threat first, and started with the Magic Kingdom.
Space Mountain – Up, down, and around and around in the dark? That’s a big no for anyone who suffers from motion sickness, especially as you can’t see when the multiple twists and turns that the track takes are coming.
Big Thunder Mountain – You know the dips are coming, you can see them just before you hit them, but this ride is fast and will spin you around before your mind has had time to register where you’re going. It isn’t the speedy drops that you need to worry about with Big Thunder, it’s the fast banked turns.
Splash Mountain – Technically, it might not exist in its current form for much longer as it’s being refurbished as a Princess And The Frog themed attraction, but whatever it ends up being called, it’ll have the same huge drop at the end and that might be all the impetus that you’ll need to lose your lunch.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – It isn’t the speed of this attraction that you need to think about, it’s the dips and the turns that are problematic, and to be safe and not sorry, it’s wise to give it a wide berth.
Astro-Orbiters – The Tomorrowland mainstay has always been an issue for anyone who suffers from motion sickness, as the combination of going up and down (admittedly, with you in control) and spinning around in a circle is a deadly motion sickness combination that can waylay even the toughest stomach.
Mad Tea Party – The worst motion sickness offender of all in the Magic Kingdom is the Mad Tea Party. I know it’s a children’s ride, but all it does is spin around and around and go back and forth, and if you’re looking for a sure-fire way to send your brain haywire and end up benched for the rest of the day with a bout of motion sickness, this is it.
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway Motion Sickness at Hollywood Studios
Almost everything in Hollywood Studios with the exception of has the potential to wreak havoc on your brain and stomach. Don’t believe me? Okay, I’ll prove it
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway Motion Sickness – Although a fairly gentle ride Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway does feature screens and spinning motions that can cause motion sickness to some guests.
Star Tours – Simulator rides are especially problematic for anyone who suffers from motion sickness, as your brain interprets the supposed motion one way, as it’s following the visual stimulus, while your body reacts to not actually moving in a completely different way. Put the two together, and it’s an instant recipe for motion sickness disaster.
Smuggler’s Run – Have you always dreamed about flying the Millenium Falcon? If you’re prone to motion sickness, that dream might just have to stay a dream, as it’s another 3D simulator ride just like Star Tours. This means you’ll have to avoid jumping into Han Solo’s seat.
Rise Of The Resistance – The pre-ride simulated flight (or is actually part of the ride? I’m not sure how Disney actually labels it, and to be honest I think the only people who do know are the Imagineers) and the drop from the Imperial ship, are enough to bring anyone’s motion sickness on. And my friend Barry, after he took his first trip on Rise, was all the proof that I needed to know I’m right.
The Tower Of Terror – Multiple fast (controlled) drops in a supposedly out-of-control elevator car? The idea that this attraction was built around is on the first page of the ‘Things That You Need To Stay Away From If You Suffer From Motion Sickness” handbook.
Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster – I love Aerosmith as much as the next die-hard rocker, but any ride that shoots you into the dark at sixty miles per hour straight to a loop and then throws you through another three inversions and a series of sharp twists and turns and high-speed drops that you can’t see coming because you’re traveling so fast on a dimly lit track isn’t going to be kind to anyone who suffers from motion sickness.
Avoiding Motion Sickness at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Even the Animal Kingdom isn’t free from potential motion sickness terrors and has attractions that could lay you low for the rest of the day.
Expedition Everest – It’s one of the fastest roller coasters in Walt Disney World, and when you reach the broken track? It’ll plummet you backward through a series of twists, turns, and speedy drops. Do I need to say anymore? I didn’t think so either.
Kali River Rapids – Being strapped into an out-of-control (it’s actually fully controlled, but the illusion is brilliant) raft that bobs and weaves and dips its way down a raging river? That’s seasickness and motion sickness wrapped up together in one neat little attraction-shaped bundle.
Dinosaur – It all depends on whether or not you get sick when you’re thrown around and shaken up. If you do, avoid Dinosaur, but if you don’t, by all means, take a trip back in time to meet the giant lizards and hope that you can escape their dreaded clutches without starting to feel like you want to throw up
Flight Of Passage – There are 3D simulators, and there’s THE 3D simulator otherwise known as Flight Of Passage. If you’re even slightly susceptible to motion sickness there’s a pretty good chance that this ride will bring your nausea on faster than the Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster launches you into its first loop.
Avoiding Motion Sickness at EPCOT
You didn’t think that I’d forgotten about EPCOT did you? How could I when it’s home to one of the worst motion sickness offenders in Walt Disney World.
I know, it seems so innocuous and I adore the World Showcase, Spaceship Earth, and Journey Into Imagination With Figment, but I learned my motion sickness lesson when I was catapulted to Mars on Mission: Space.
Mission: Space – As I’ve already mentioned it, we might as well cut straight to the chase and talk about the single biggest cause of motion sickness in Walt Disney World, Mission: Space. It’s a fully immersive 3D simulator that purports to let you fly to Mars as an astronaut and makes sure you feel every moment of G-Force and weightlessness (or more accurately does a very clever job of simulating both), before disaster strikes and you end up crashing on the Martian surface.
It’ll turn you inside out and upside down, and even if you don’t suffer from motion sickness (and regardless of whether you take the easy or difficult channel when you get on the attraction) it can bring the feeling of nausea on in a heartbeat.
Soarin’ – It’s a gentle way to travel around the world by soaring through the clouds, but this 3D large-scale simulator can let your motion sickness get the better of you if you don’t keep your eyes focused on the screen. Granted, it’s unlikely to happen, but it could.
Test Track – Test drive a car that you’ve designed while it’s put through its paces, which includes sudden stops and starts and a sixty mile an hour charge through a steeped curve track that takes you outside the building it’s housed in, high above the park? No, that doesn’t sound like it’s certain to bring your motion sickness on, does it? Of course, it will. If you ride it. If you don’t you’ll be fine.
What If I Want To Ride The Attractions? What Can I Do?
Truthfully, there are a number of things that you can do to stop your motion sickness from getting the better of you if you want to enjoy all of the attractions at Walt Disney World. The easiest way to do it is to make sure that you don’t get on any of the attractions just after or before you’ve eaten.
Riding anything with either a full or empty stomach is like inviting motion sickness to climb on the attraction with you. Just don’t do it.
Alternatively, you could try taking a couple of Dramamine before you begin your day in the parks, as this anti-nausea drug will stop you from feeling any effects of motion sickness, and can put the pep back in your Disney step. But if you prefer taking a more natural path, you could follow the homeopathic route, which should be just as effective as the pharmaceutical one.
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway Motion Sickness at Disney World
Motion sickness doesn’t have to spoil your day or even your week at Walt Disney World and armed with the knowledge of what you can and can’t ride, and what you’ll need to take if you do want to experience everything, you can kiss nausea goodbye and focus on what’s important at WDW. Having a good time, all the time.
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Thanks for stopping by.
Darren
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