Walt Disney might not have expected it himself, but today, more than 50 years after Disneyland opened its first one, roller coasters have become integral elements of every single Disney Park on Earth. Seriously, some of the most iconic, beloved, and classic rides at Disney’s theme parks are – fundamentally – thrill rides.
Between its dozen theme parks, Disney operates a substantial collection of coasters – 34 in all. Today, we wanted to dip our toes into the world of Disney Parks’ roller coaster by quizzing you on ten of them. For each of the selected coasters below, we’ll show their layout (hand-drawn by me, complete with the direction of train travel), then provide three hints… When you think you know, check out the “Answer” for each one.
How many of the 10 are you able to recognize at first glance? Let us know in the comments below! If you enjoy this kind of quiz (and seeing the rides you know and love differently through this kind of hand-drawn image), let us know so we can bring you more! And until then, let’s start our quiz with an easy one…
1.
HINT:
- If the layout you’re looking at looks wild, that’s because it is. This coaster feautres a “spaghetti bowl” of intertwining track as its core…
- The long straightaways are a powered LIM launch on the way into the spaghetti bowl, and a brake run on the way back.
- And if that doesn’t give it away, this ride is also enclosed in a soundstage…
ANSWER: Of course, it’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Opened in 1999, the ride was Vekoma’s best mimic of the revolutionary “Flight of Fear” coaster (developed by competing coaster manufacturer Premier Rides) that debuted at Paramount’s Kings Island the year prior. Though Vekoma is Disney’s go-to coaster manufacturer, any park can buy from Vekoma’s catalogue. That creates the unique situation wherein Six Flags bought a copy of the “LSM Coaster” model for its park in Belguim (today called Walibi Holland), so if you’ve ever wondered what Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster would look like without a box built around it, here it is!
We should also mention that another Disney coaster shares this layout. When Walt Disney Studios Paris opened in 2002, the park came with its own copy of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. That version of the ride closed in 2019 as the park’s Backlot was reimagined into an Avengers Campus. The coaster re-opened in 2022 with the same layout, but as Avengers Assemble: Flight Force, sending guests rocketing through the stars with Iron Man and Captain Marvel. So now, two otherwise unrelated and very differently decorated Disney coasters both use the layout above.
2.
HINTS:
- What makes this coaster unusual is just how un-unusual it is. In fact, this ride is one of twenty eight twins across the world (including one that’s less than 15 miles away).
- This could be the Chip & Dale Gadget Coaster at Disneyland except for one thing…
- The one thing that makes this version different from its 27 siblings is that its it’s layout is mirrored versus the more common off-the-shelf model.
ANSWER: Yep, it’s the Barnstormer at Magic Kingdom! Flip it and you’ve got not just Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster at Universal Studios and Chip & Dale’s Gadget Coaster at Disneyland, but a whole lot more. (This is a Vekoma Junior Coaster – 207m model. The longer, taller, 335m model has 29 identical installations of its own, including the Flight of the Hippogriff at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.)
3.
HINTS:
- This roller coaster is made up of two heavily intertwined but completely independent ride tracks.
- Both tracks use a unique water brake that not only serves as a visual splashdown for onlookers, but helps lower the trains’ speed re-entering the station.
- This ride wasn’t just Disney’s first coaster; it was the first modern, tubular-tracked, steel roller coaster on Earth.
ANSWER: Before Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds, all roller coasters were what we’d now call “wooden coasters.” The groundbreaking innovation of the ride – designed and built by legendary classic coaster manufacturer Arrow Dynamics of California – also came with a cutting-edge computer system that used block sections to allow multiple trains to safely travel through the ride at once.
4.
HINTS:
- This coaster also launches riders into a complex “spaghetti bowl” of track.
- This is the longest indoor roller coaster on Earth.
- Even though a massive Disney dark ride once occupied the space, only the coaster’s load and unload fit into the very large pavilion it took over.
ANSWER: Spoiler alert! You’re looking at the layout of the new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT. At 5,577 feet long, the more-than-a-mile coaster including multiple launches, randomized music selections, and – its signature – first-of-its-kind “Omnicoaster” technology that allows the coaster to rotate throughout the ride. Unlike free-spin coasters, Cosmic Rewind follows a pre-programmed rotational plan, orienting guests forwards, backwards, and sideways to view show elements as they travel back from the Big Bang.
5.
HINTS:
- Like Cosmic Rewind, this ride is billed as a family attraction.
- There are two launches among the straightaways of this coaster’s layout.
- The ride features an Audio-Animatronics figure… but not until trains reach the brake run.
ANSWER: Yep, you’re looking at Slinky Dog Dash at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. There are four Toy Story Lands around the globe, but most just feature off-the-shelf flat rides. Only Walt Disney World’s version includes a dark ride (by absorbing Toy Story Mania) and a substantial family coaster. Obviously, the park needed not just the ride capacity, but the family ride capacity, because this otherwise simple, outdoor, lightly-themed family coaster remains one of the hardest Lightning Lanes to get ahold of.
Did you guess five out of five so far? Well just wait… things get a little tougher on the next page…
6.
HINTS:
- Nearly every “Castle Park” on Earth has a ride with this name, but only one version has this layout.
- Despite the sensation most guests report, this coaster’s top speed is actually less than Seven Dwarfs Mine Train’s.
- “Based on” the Matterhorn, this coaster also includes two separate tracks, but they’re nearly perfect mirror images of each other.
ANSWER: You’re looking at the jaw-dropping interior of Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain… Which kinda sorta helps explain why “near-miss” illusions cause most guests to keep their hands and arms well inside the “rocket” during flight… Opened in 1975, Magic Kingdom’s version of the ride is the only one that uses the mirrored double coaster layout. Despite leaving many children and parents shrieking with memories of their white knuckle interstellar journey, Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain only reaches speeds of 27 miles per hour – typically, the speed limit on a residential street.
7.
HINTS:
- Three rides of this name exist across Disney Parks, but only one has this layout so figure out the ride and the park.
- This coaster features three lift hills along its 2,780 foot course.
- The coaster is so beautifully cradled in the rockwork of a Disney “mountain,” it’s hard to tell whether the coaster or the landscape was designed first.
ANSWER: This is Magic Kingdom’s Big Thunder Mountain. You can tell it’s Florida’s version of the ride because Disneyland’s is mirrored (and is missing an extended straightaway that’s used for the “flood” scene) and Paris’ version takes place on an island, requiring a dive under the Rivers of the Far West on the way out and back.
8.
HINTS:
- This coaster’s layout may look sprawling and disorganized, but that’s because it’s got a story to tell.
- On our layout graphic, gray track is outdoors while brown track is indoors.
- Portions of this roller coaster travel backward (indicated above by reversed arrowheads) thanks to two switch tracks during the course of the ride.
ANSWER: Peel away the elaborate decoration and this is what you’d see from above at Animal Kingdom’s Expedition Everest. The sensational E-Ticket ride isn’t just the last IP-free major addition at Walt Disney World; it’s also the king of Disney’s “Mountains” thanks to an 80 foot drop and speeds of 50 miles per hour – twice as fast as Space Mountain. Some report that from above, Expedition Everest is designed to resemble a giant Hidden Mickey. Any resemblance is likely coincidental. But in any case, with the “mountain” lifted off and your head tilted, it looks more like Winnie the Pooh with antlers or a very tall cowboy hat.
9.
HINTS:
- This coaster can easily be identified by a launch into a sweeping turnaround followed by a nimble, compact second half
- Most – but not all – of this ride takes place indoors
- Reaching 60 miles per hour, this ride officially bests Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, becoming the fastest Disney coaster on Earth.
ANSWER: TRON Lightcycle Run may be the most-anticipated new ride at Walt Disney World in years. Given that it’s a copy of a ride that’s already been thrilling guests at Shanghai Disneyland since 2016, it’s easy to see why. The new coaster debuting Spring 2023 is meant to give guests the experience of riding aboard the glowing, digital motorcycles found in the computerized landscape of the Game Grid seen in the 1982 film TRON.
10.
HINTS:
- This compact roller coaster packs a lot into a small footprint including a single inversion.
- You won’t find this roller coaster at a Disney Park unless you travel outside of the United States.
- There are two correct answers for this one…
ANSWER: When it comes to this layout, there are two Disney coasters that use it. The first is Indiana Jones et le Temple du Péril at Disneyland Paris. Famously the first Disney coaster to send riders upside down, the Temple of Peril was a quick-fix, low-cost addition to the park (opening just a year after the park’s 1992 launch) meant to draw more visitors in and generate enough cash flow to keep the park running. In 2005, a near-identical clone of the coaster was installed at Tokyo DisneySea as Raging Spirits. Ironically, the coaster in Tokyo is not explicitly themed to Indiana Jones even though it’s in the park’s Indiana Jones themed Lost River Delta land.
Frankly, neither Temple of Peril nor Raging Spirits is a particularly good roller coaster, but the ride’s compact layout and multi-tier support structure does lend itself well to a “mine carts around an excavation site” aesthetic which is clearly what Disney wanted. And by nature of being “off-the-shelf” coasters, they’re quick, easy, and inexpensive to install when a park needs a capacity boost. Interestingly, though both coasters were manufactured by well-known coaster company Intamin, the blueprints were lifted from an Italian ride manufacturer named Pinfari who produced 3 of its “TL-59” coasters in the ’80s. So technically, you can find a practically-identical version of this ride outside of Disney Parks, too.
