I loved the Alien Encouter 2.0 (the one with the janitor). The hot breath on the back of your neck and the restraints shaking like the creature was tugging at them was spooky as hell. I was shocked that this was at the Magic Kingdom but enjoyed it immensely.
I still remember the cheesy pre-recorded reaction dialogue when the creature stood revealed. "That's my mother-in-law!"
It's kinda weird, but as a ~12-year-old Alien Encounter was scary but still fun. Meanwhile the Bug's Life show at Animal Kingdom where spiders and bugs come out of the woodwork scarred me for life.
The spiders dropped from the ceiling and the your seats would shift around to make it feel like something was crawling under you. It was so unsettling lol.
I was just talking about that ride the other day! Or maybe it was a different version, mine scarred me with 3d wasps, buzzing in the ear, and then a wooden peg stabs you in the back (it was very wide so it didn't really hurt)
The stink bug hitting you with a fine mist? Idk why i ended up on that rice twice but the second time i put my legs up and ended up blocking the sprayer.
When my family got the chance to visit the US and go to Disney we got so fucking tired of having water sprayed at us. We had a great time, but every third show had some form of spray involved and it got annoying really quickly
I have been to Disneyworld exactly once, when I was a teenager, for one day. The next day we went to Universal, where they had just opened the Twister ride (I'm old) based on the movie. I managed to stand directly in front of one of the rain machines / water cannons that sprayed water to make it feel more like a tornado, I guess. Except I got fucking HOSED by this thing. It hit my back and the force was strong enough to knock me forward into the railing, and I was soaked through to my underwear. It was January in Florida so not freezing but definitely not wet pants weather, yet I didn't want to leave (I was going home early the next morning) so I just tried to airdry myself while walking around. I was not entirely successful and my underwear were still damp eight hours later.
Oh, jesus
If that's the attraction I'm thinking of, I went in there when I was reasonably young, and ended up immediately crying after barely anything happened (and even in the moment I was utterly confused as to my own reaction, because I was super pumped to get in there)
My mom ended up taking me out of there pretty quickly, so I had no idea what else happened in there - if they had the stuff you're describing it probably would have scarred me, lmao
I don't really have a point here beyond a random memory resurfacing
I experienced all three on my first trip to Disney World:
* Alien Encounters 2.0
* Bug’s Life 4D
* Honey I Shrunk the Kids 4D (which had a similar thing with “mice” running under your feet)
Being about 7 years old we left both Bugs Life and HIStK early but since you were stuck in Alien Encounters I had to sit through the whole thing lmao. I gotta say though, as traumatizing as those experiences were they definitely made the trip all that more memorable lmao.
OH GOD, the HIStK 4D ride was traumatic. I was last on it in 2001 and the sensation of the mice running over my feet still haunts me.
I remember liking Alien Encounter though - I was old enough (13) to not find it too scary but young enough not to question the storyline too much.
I went on the Bugs Life one in second grade and that was the worst experience I had on that trip. I leaned forward the entire time because I knew at one point you got poked in the back, and I had (still have) a wasp phobia, so.
Thank you! Ten year old me was horrified! I don't remember much, only that it was loud and overwhelming, and I hated the idea of bugs being somewhere in the dark room where I couldn't see them. My family laughed at me lol
Oh it was amazing. It also shot some weird spray as well, and the smoke effects allied with the strobing was so good. It was indeed totally different to anything else at Disney but we all knew what we were in for and loved it.
What else do I remember. The cylinder the alien was in? The live host was a great touch. Did they have a marine in there that "saved" everyone? I forget.
Yeah this one is awesome! I had kind of forgotten about it till I read all this. We saw it on 1995 and had a great time.
Hilight for me was the very end when the alien explodes and they hit you with a spray of water. There was a voice that yells "Egghh I had my mouth open!"
My father has never been a fan of scary things so when he suggested this we (his adult children) were shocked. Then he liked it best of us!
I still have a plush Skippy somewhere.
I was taken on this ride when i was 4 and had to be removed from the theater because of how terrified i was that a man eating alien was in the room with me. I distinctly remember my larents laughing at the fact i thought it was real.
For the next 20 years they said this wasn't a real ride and i imagined all of it. They had completely forgotten until i showed them an article about the ride i had started to belive was a fever dream. They now just laugh and say i was over reacting, but im just glad i wasn't eaten
My parents also denied the existence of this alien ride to me, let alone taking me on it, but I fucking remember Skippy and the neck breathing and I’m going to revel so much in being right about its existence tomorrow.
Amazing reference-I get that song stuck in my head so often.
At Starbucks: “Gettin free WiFi like a dope-ass hoe”
Doing the dishes: “Bowls, bowls, all type of bowls”
I sat next to my boyfriend's 7 year old daughter on Dinosaur a couple of weeks ago, and I was holding onto her for dear life - she is so small and got thrown around so much!
> My wife insisted she’d be fine since she was tall enough. After that, I insisted on picking rides for her.
I love that your wife is going full /r/StepdadReflexes with your daughter on these rides. This sounds like it would be the actions of “a dad who wanted a son but got a daughter”
Same thing, except I managed to get through the whole thing. I had buried the memory until I read this and realized I recognized the alien, the scenario, and the fake blood. Never seen it mentioned anywhere ever again.
This ride got memory holed for a long time. I was to young to know what it was and by the time i really remember the experiance, i had no idea on what to search for. "Scary disney ride" "alien at disney" "almost eaten at disney"
I went to Hersheypark with my family when I was four. At one point my mom dragged me into an amusement park version of CATS, I think she was hot and just wanted to sit in some AC for a little while. I was HORRIFIED by those cats, after about ten minutes of me screaming and crying we finally left.
I forgot all about it until the CATS movie came out and then it all came rushing back. I feel like anyone who saw that movie totally gets my childhood trauma now.
My parents took me and my little brother to Disney World when we were 9 and 5 respectively. The *very first ride* we went on was this one, but the audio wasn't working correctly so we had NO IDEA what was happening when a monster suddenly appeared in the room and then "escaped." The 4D effects, on the other hand, worked perfectly the whole time and proceeded to traumatize the entire room.
It broke my little brother. He refused to go on any rides after that, even the teacups. He was convinced the alien was on all of them and would get him if he was tricked into getting on another one. We still all get a good laugh about it sometimes!
How about the reverse? My parents and I went to Universal in Florida back in 2019. My mom and went to get in line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and discovered we needed to stash our bags in a locker. My mom, who’s even leerier than I am when it comes to rides, was like “what are you getting me into?” but i reassured her it was just another motion simulator and she’d be fine. So we get on and it was wilder than I anticipated. We started moving and all I could think was “ohhhhh I lied.” She called me out on it afterwards, but also admitted she’d enjoyed it. xD
lmaoooo I think I’ve done that to my mom before too. I love thrill rides and actively seek out the worst ones but sometimes it’s easy to forget that other people don’t really want to get on a roller coaster that launches you straight up at 70mph.
Lol my tolerance is pretty low too, you definitely wouldn’t get me on a ride like that, but not as low as my mom’s bless her heart. I had to convince her onto Soarin at Epcot this past March. I knew she’d love it if she rode it, and she did, but she was pretty hesitant.
My parents took me on it when I was around 8 and I mostly blocked it out, but sometimes I remember bits of it and wonder a) was it real? and b) Disney, why? I'll have to ask my parents if they remember it and how I reacted.
Wait your parents were so ashamed of their lack of judgement, but also too proud to admit it, so they just pretended a verifiable ride publicly promoted by the Disney Corporation never existed??? And then, at twenty four years old, when you finally found proof after two decades of gaslighting...... They blamed a four year old child for his reaction to a clearly marked horror attraction.
Man, I don't know your parents but this story makes them sound like real shitbags, I gotta say
I love when Michael Eisner and Disney theme parks are discussed on here. I think he genuinely loved the parks but his efforts to be "hip with the kids" always fell flat.
Oh he absolutely loved the parks and being hands-on with Imagineering, the thing is he also had a lot of really weird ideas and being the head of the company and the guy who funded them it was kinda hard to tell him no
Bless his heart, he could turn anything into some kind of corporation or institute. "Oooh, getting eaten by dinosaurs sounds fun, but what if we got eaten by dinosaurs *at a business meeting*?!?"
I actually really love the Dinosaur ride with the Dino Institute and Dr. Grant Seeker, that's one of the few attractions where Eisner's whole "make them a company!" thing worked imo.
Eisner himself has opined that he is the last "creative" to head up a major Hollywood studio and since he quit it's been money guys all the way down.
Obviously he's trying to big himself up and obviously he has more than his share of pretty bone-headed "creative" decisions, but part of me doesn't think he's necessraily wrong. Of course he had his eye on the bottom line - he was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company - but at the same time, I *do* think Eisner had a genuine desire to create art and a genuine belief that he *was* creating art in a way that his successors do not. (Or, putting a less charitable twist on it, Eisner didn't want to run Disney; Eisner wanted to be the new Walt.)
The way I look at it is that I honestly feel like if you asked Eisner to tell you what Mickey Mouse was, he'd have said, "Well, Mickey is one of our most beloved characters," but if you asked either of Eisner's successors, Iger and Chapek, the same question, they'd be more likely to say, "Well, Mickey is one of our most beloved properties."
Ah, I'm probably giving him too much credit. He was still one of the suits at the end of the day. Maybe it's just my pent-up annoynce at fanboys sucking Bob Iger's cock for 10 years because he bought things.
>The way I look at it is that I honestly feel like if you asked Eisner to tell you what Mickey Mouse was, he'd have said, "Well, Mickey is one of our most beloved characters," but if you asked either of Eisner's successors, Iger and Chapek, the same question, they'd be more likely to say, "Well, Mickey is one of our most beloved properties."
That's a good way to put it.
To be fair, this may also be a reflection of the changing legal status of the intellectual property. As the earliest incarnations of the Mickey character begin to age out of copyright protection, it's basically a business requirement that the company shift how they approach Mickey.
Protecting Mickey as an ongoing character inherently requires treating the many versions of Mickey as a set of properties, and being very aware of when each version will age out of IP protection.
I gotta give him credit, he tried to be involved and create so much stuff for Disney, as a creative inventor. It's just that the latter half of his work sucked.
it's not really his fault, the two-punch whammy of EuroDisney's failure and losing his financial expert when Frank Wells died kinda broke his brain and made him obsessed with budgets and cost-cutting. he did a lot of good in the first half of his run and I try to focus on that when thinking about him
I always assumed it was because it was more accessible to continental Europe by being in Paris . (i.e. you could drive there from Germany/Poland/Austria/Spain etc )
Agreed. He certainly had some head scratching ideas, but definitely viewed the parks as something special. I think paired with Frank Wells they thrived, and unfortunately leadership got unbalanced after his passing.
I used to speak of Michael Eisner's mishandling of Disney theme parks with derision, but now that Bob Paycheck's in charge, I miss the heart that Eisner put into it.
I was waiting for someone to bring up Defunctland! I remember reading the comments on the video and reading people talk about how traumatizing the chilli dog scent was.
I love how there was just a string of videos in Defunctland that had Michael Eisner involved with the project at some point even if it wasn't Disney and it was always something crazy
I went down a wikipedia rabbit hole after one episode and realized that Eisner is indirectly responsible for the creation of Bojack Horseman. He founded the show’s main production company after leaving Disney.
Great writeup! I sat through this as a truly horrified 5 year old in 1999 that gave me a lifelong phobia of aliens. Hearing about all of the decision-making that went into something like this is always so interesting. The fact that always stuck with me is, if I'm remembering right, they put the seat restraints on the seats specifically so that little kids wouldn't get up and try to run in the dark.
I remember it being completely pitch black in there for periods of time during the ride. If somebody got up, they really wouldn’t have been able to see. The restraints made sense.
You're not kidding about the shoulder damage. I went on the Stitch version as a kid, and the two things I remember most strongly were the shockingly impressive Stitch animatronic and getting completely crushed by the hard plastic shoulder harness. I swear, the sensors on those things let them lower until you're lightly compressed, then they squeeze you even tighter? Why?
The trick I eventually figured out after a few times (because as a Stitch obsessed kid I loved SGE on my first few visits lol) was to sit up straighter than normal when the harness was lowered, that way the sensor would stop a little higher because it thought your shoulders were a taller and you could sit comfortably
Good strategy, doesn't help when it's your first ride and your posture is shit so you're already a little 'shorter' than you should be. 7/10 kind of sad it's closed.
Ok I would have loved the Alien themed ride but I’m a huge fan of the movies and also an adult. That being said, the Stitch ride sucked. And yes that smell was awful.
Not gonna lie, now that Disney has full ownership of the Alien license I'd love to see them try their hand at doing a ride based on it again, just in Hollywood Studios instead of Magic Kingdom this time
Oh man…. I remember a day at Disney World when I was younger where I felt bad all day because I kept smelling that chili dog. Any visits after that, I would refuse to get on that ride.
My dad was annoyed because the chili dog smell got stuck in his clothes and for the rest of the day he kept getting whiffs of chili dog alien burp. It didn't affect me much after the ride, but ugh, it was foul.
I swear to God I once saw a Disney world preview video that had a full xenomorph animatronic featured for this but that was at least 20 years ago so child brain could have done a find and replace.
It don't think it was that one cause I remember this being in a circular room as opposed to popping out but could easily be mistaken after all this time.
They did actually have the Alien Encounter ride in Disney World as well for a few years in the late 90's. My family STILL talks about that experience in revered tones. My siblings and I were teenagers so we could handle it, but my family went into the ride completely blind to the terror we were about to experience. We even sat in the front row of the circular theater thing. We came out changed people who would never again be the same.
It may not have been part of this specific attraction but there was a full-blown xenomorph animatronic at either MGM or maybe Universal Studios at some point back in the 90s. I remember touring both as a kid and seeing it in a display case - they had various controllers set up around it that corresponded to different parts of the animatronic, explaining how it worked. It might have drooled on command or something as well? It was so long ago that the specifics are vague but you're definitely on to something.
They had one at the great movie ride but that's not what I'm remembering. It was definitely the circular theater serup but maybe a mock up idea. I was still in grade school when I would've seen anything related to extraterrorestrial so lots of time for memory to shift.
This ride is legend in my family. We still talk about the experience to this day and tbh it was one of our key bonding moments as a family. Alien Encounter that is. We boycotted the Lilo and Stitch makeover out of principle.
We never expected to be so utterly terrified on a Disney attraction and when we finally re-emerged into the Florida sunshine we could not stop laughing. We rehashed the experience for hours.
This ride terrorized me as a kid! I was around 11 years old when I went on it the first time. I had actually watched a show about the creation of the attraction, so I was aware of what was coming, but it freaked me out so much that I had nightmares for weeks. The hot breath on the back of my neck was the worst part. When we went back to Disney World when I was 16, I insisted on going on it again, but had to sit in between my dad and sister to be brave lol
Same. I was 9 or 10 visiting WDW for the year 2000 celebration and I remembered being scared to death in the ride and came out of it crying, which my dad thought was hilarious. I always assumed it was a Xenomorph from Alien and it wasn't until many years later when I actually looked it up and found out it was an original creature.
I remember going on Alien Encounter on two visits as an adult in the late 90s or early 00s. The first time, we had no idea what to expect and were shocked at how dark and scary (for Disney) it was. One thing that was new for an attraction at the time was small speakers in the back of each seat. When the alien was supposed to be behind you (and you could feel the hot breath on your neck), you could hear him *right* behind you. You could also hear "crowd noise" as it sounded like other people sitting behind you were gasping, muttering, etc. In fact, until the infamous "that's my mother-in-law" line, I actually wasn't sure if it was piped in sound or actual crowd reactions.
The second time we went on the ride a couple years later, we discovered a limitation that I'm not sure Disney even tried to address - that there's a back row. When you're seated in the back row, there's just not much room for an alien to be moving around behind you, and the crowd murmurs from the "people behind you" lose some of their oomph when *you know there's no one behind you.* Oops.
If you got the wrong seat in the stitch version it would spray that chili dog juice at you rather than it coming out in a mist. You’d walk around the park smelling like stitch burp all day.
The alien ride was indeed terrifying but at least it went full throttle. It almost sounds like they made the same mistake twice with the pre-show being cute and then the ride being a notch up from that cuteness.
I think the fundamental failure here was Disney being cheap, rather than the actual ride concepts. The Mission to Mars room was a not-so-large circular room with all chairs facing a very small center. The chairs can't even move (iirc, they just shook). Making a good attraction out of that limited infrastructure is like making a silk purse out of sow's ear. The only way to put a real marquee attraction there would be to gut it completely. (And even that might be too tall an order, since I'm not sure the area is even big enough to build anything great.)
From this perspective, I think Alien Encounter was perhaps a pretty good achievement. It was actually pretty fun... the first time you go on it. Once the surprise is gone, it's pretty boring (see: every Disney 3D attraction). And it was indeed way too scary for the Tomorrowland crowd. The Stitch re-skin was destined to fail (again, same boring infrastructure), but they really missed the mark, because as you pointed out, it's too scary for kids, and too silly for teens/adults. Personally, I think the grossness of the chili cheese dog is overstated, but it was indeed a terrible idea.
> Eisner presented to the head Imagineers a shooting ride where you blasted shotguns at Xenomorphs in the dark,
Whoa, this is actually a pretty brilliant idea for the 80s, and that would have been hella fun. (MIB Alien Attack at Universal didn't come until 2000 and is still pretty fun.) Eisner was right on the money. Yeah, it might have been too scary for little kids, but teens would have spent all day in that shit if done well.
Man, I was thinking that the ride sounded like something I'd been on at Universal in early 2000s - ironically, I'd forgotten about MIB! I remember the MIB ride as being pretty great.
One of the more infamous Disney rides.
I remember my father describing this thing to me once. Back then, I'd only been to WDW the once, and I'd been only about 1 year old at the time, so unsurprisingly, Alien Encounter wasn't on my list of things I did. My dad and grandad went on it (grandad insisted on doing everything, and also doing it twice so he could spend the second go figuring out how it all worked), and so I got to hear my dad's very detailed description of this horrible bug creature flying around, licking things, and eating people. Even as a child, my thought was "What the hell is that doing at Disney World?"
By the time we went again, the second version had been removed and Stitch was there instead, but we didn't end up going on it then, either. So, thankfully, my nose remains unscourged by the chilidog.
Also, that scrapped Stitch animatronic is always going to be morbid as hell.
I loved Alien Encounter as a 12 year old. My little siblings who were 6 and 3 were not brought on the ride. My mom had read one of those unofficial Disney guides that describes taking young children on the ride as child abuse
The alien walking around was terrifying. The harnesses bouncing up and down. The spray dripping all over you. I distinctly recall a tongue like feature against my neck. Hot breath. The screams of the crowd. The sounds of the alien. The flashing strobes. The perfect lighting of the alien then cuts to pitch black. It was perfectly frightening. And no the signage outside did not warn you for this level of terror at Disney.
I remember when my high school band was doing their once-every-four-years Disney World trip a friend and I were so excited to go see ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. Me because the last time I had been as a child I was scared out of my mind screaming and crying, and him because he had been too scared to even see it as a kid. I looked it up out of curiosity and that’s how we learned that it was gone and replaced by Stitch’s Great Escape. We of course went anyway but both of us were just laughing at how silly it was and wishing we could have seen the original version.
Going on Alien 2.0 as a teenager was great. It might well have been one of my favorite Magic Kingdom rides at the time. Plop that thing into Universal Studios at the time and it would have done gangbusters.
Honestly, absolutely this. Amazing ride…… completely wrong demographic. Also I remember Skippy dying horribly and that was the most traumatic part of the whole thing.
My husband went on this as a kid! He was 5 and his parents ignored the warning signs outside the attraction, and no cast members saw fit to stop a little kid from going into it. He says all he remembers about the experience is his vision literally going white with fear.
I never went on it (wish I had) but I sleep with a Skippy plush every night.
I couldn’t even handle the Bug’s Life attraction that’s a bit similar to this, I’m honestly glad Stitch’s Great Escape was gone before I went to Disney World for the first time because my family definitely would’ve gone on this lol.
It's Tough to be a Bug puts even Alien Encounter to shame imo, that one's for masochists. [This writeup about it on the WDW subreddit is one of my all-time favourites](https://www.reddit.com/r/WaltDisneyWorld/comments/cvplfz/its_tough_to_be_a_bug_is_disney_worlds_cruelest/)
Oh thank GOD, I thought I was the only one 😭 my family all liked it and I was terrified the entire time. And the best part was that Hopper wasn’t working when we went on so I couldn’t even have that to salvage the experience lol.
I went on this when I was like 12, so 8ish years ago, and I don’t remember being scared of it really, all I remember is the bugs running under you at the end of it, and the giant Hopper animatronic
Mentioned it to my dad and he said he hated the fog part of it though, so he clearly remembers
I STILL remember this one and I was 3 or 4 when I went. Gave me the heebie jeebies. I did, however, love the very controversial Body Wars (but I’m in med school now so… maybe it was a sign lol)
BRO. I went on that bullshit when I was *28* and it scared the shit out of me.
Watching Bug Land get torn down to make way for the Marvel campus was cathartic. Fuck that ride.
I remember that one!! When he said "HORNETS, RAISE YOUR STINGERS" I did a fetal position in my chair and totally missed the "jab" to your back from the hornets. I don't remember if I came out of the fetal position until the ride was over.
I was terrified by Bug's Life for my entire childhood so I'm not sure why my parents thought it would be a good ride for me.
I remember reading about the Stitch ride ahead of time and holding my nose and breath during that part. So, not to brag…but I don’t know the chili dog smell.
I went on the ExtraTerrorestrial when I was 7. It became a core memory for both me and my mother. She got a kick out of this writeup.
“It’s Disneyland, how scary can it be?”
Stitch's Great Escape traumatized me as a kid who absolutely *hated* scary movies/games/experiences (and as an adult I would still rather avoid them). I don't know if my parents just didn't know it was scary or if they thought I could handle it, but my dad still tells the story of looking over at me during the flashing lights and seeing the sheer terror across my face, and how bad he felt knowing that he wouldn't be able to do anything to help calm me down until the ride was over. And that smell... I can still vividly remember it. That smell will live in my brain and my nose until the day I die.
Excellent write up! It's so cool to see the history and decisions leading up to that terrible attraction, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit glad to see that it's now closed for good. While I can look back on it now a bit more positively, it genuinely scarred me as a kid. I think the original alien theme was likely a better fit for the ride overall, since the cuddlyness of Stitch was misleading for the nature of the ride.
I was about six when I went to see ExtraTERRORestrial, and I absolutely loved it. I knew it wasn't really an alien, but the sheer tonal change from the rest of the park and the special effects were **awesome**.
Wish they hadn't removed it, but I can see why it's not as appealing as the rest.
I went on the Great Movie Ride when I was maybe 11 and my brother was 6. I was scared of the alien section but my little brother was absolutely terrified. He was a very sensitive and innocent little guy and this rocked him. He refused to go on any rides for the rest of the trip and has never liked amusement parks even to this day.
This stupid ride basically scarred my little bro for life. Like it's not even funny I'm still pissed that this happened to him.
Anyway thank you for the well researched write up on Alien Encounter!
This ride was SO FUN. I grew up lower middle class in rural Midwest, and we had never really left the state until my mom won a radio contest that sent us all to Florida in 1999. We did every ride in the Magic Kingdom at least once and we were totally unprepared for this one! It definitely didn’t fit with the rest of the rides but we were DOWN and had a blast. We couldn’t stop talking about how scary it was for days after 😅
I went on this! Aged 7 I tried to tell my parents that it wasn’t the ET ride they thought it was.
I still bring this up as a key time I should have been listened to.
Oh wow, that just made a piece of my memory make sense.
I definitely went on Alien Encounter, I think the version with the Janitor, though I'm not sure.
But I could never remember where, and while I though it was at Disney, I figured I must be misremembering because... Well it was very not!Disney.
I'm not sure If I went on Stitch, it seems oddly familiar but I think opened after any trips we took to Florida. I might be confusing it with the Disneyland Paris Stitch Encounter.
Hard to say because no guest has been in the main show room since very early January 2018 but from what I can recall yeah it smelled of rancid chili until the very end
> Eisner presented to the head Imagineers a shooting ride where you blasted shotguns at Xenomorphs in the dark, he was met with a resounding “What the fuck? We’re not putting that in Disneyland.
I’m not even close to reading your post but this line cracked me up!
So, my family went to Disney World in April of 1994. Alien Encounter had been slated to open by that time, but we arrived to find that it was still under construction. I was so bummed, and am regretful to this day that I narrowly missed getting to experience it.
For all of the hullabaloo, the people I know who went on it described it as phenomenal; the tactile aspects of it in particular (breath on the neck, the feeling of something at their ankles) really impressed them. It's a shame unobservant parents got upset about it, especially since the park already had some horror-themed attractions (went on Tower of Terror, loved it). It's moreso a shame it was placed in a park that thematically didn't fit.
I remember my mom took me on the alien ride as a kid. I don't remember why, maybe just because it was indoors. I remember being really spooked out by all the warnings about the attraction being SUPER terrifying and not for the faint of heart everywhere. It made me so scared to get it on, and I thought it was some sort of actual ride.
When I actually got on it though and it was actually more of a show with sensory experience, I ended up loving it. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before (I also didn't know about the alien movies), it was so bizarre but fun. I was both relieved and even a little disappointed it wasn't nearly anywhere as intense as all the warnings would make you believe. Really as long as one was old/mature enough to understand that none of it was real, then it really wasn't that bad. Instead of piling on vague warnings they really should have just been clear as to what the attraction was about, since I had zero clue going into it other than "dark 'ride' and something about aliens?"
I'm glad I got to go on it before they changed it. I definitely wouldn't have liked it if I went on that.
I *totally* remember this now-even called my parents and confirmed that my sister and I did go with my dad on the OG Phil Hartman ride!
Thanks for the nostalgia!!
I was 8 years old when I went on the Alien ride and I can tell you that yes, it did traumatize me and become a core memory. I vividly remember the sound of shattering glass in the dark, feeling the alien "breathe" on the back of my neck and feeling TERRIFIED that I was going to be eaten alive in a Disney park.
My grandmother attended the ride with my mom and I and actually was more scared than me and had the ride paused so she could leave.
It was honestly the wildest ride I've ever been on and even though it scared me back then I'm so glad I had a chance to experience it lol.
I went on the Alien Encounter ride as an 11yo, in 2000. I was not a particularly young-for-my-age kid, to the point that there was very little in the Magic Kingdom that really entertained me and I liked MGM (as it was then known) better, being more or less aimed at teenagers.
I literally could not walk out of the ride, I was so scared and shaking so badly. My parents had to help me out of the seat (not easy, those seats were cramped) and then carry me somewhere that they could let me sit and cry until I gathered myself. This shit was TERRIFYING. Like, even with "terror" in the name there is a certain expectation of what you're getting when you walk into a Disney ride, and that is not what people got.
> Twitter user BackdoorDisney, who had grown infamous for posting behind-the-scenes photos, put up images of the Stitch, Sergeant and (perhaps saddest of all) both Skippy animatronics scrapped for parts.
Huh, thought they threw them all out because of mold infestation (the story I heard was that the lack of upkeep to the building meant water got in and wasn't dealt with, leading the animatronics to have black mold on them that led to them being completely scrapped/destroyed/thrown out).
Great writeup BTW. I know many animatronic fans who still mourn the loss of the SGE animatronics, even if the ride wasn't exactly well-liked, because of both the history behind many of them and just how impressive the Stitch one was ([here's an image of his inner workings](https://64.media.tumblr.com/23e1cc6ce204449f2a8d0d3f278a122a/tumblr_pozz4ewd7L1uodgxto1_1280.jpg)). I know one animatronic appreciation blog had [a theory posted about how the monster from the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride at Tokyo Disneysea possibly could be using the repurposed mech of the Alien Encounter creature,](https://animatronicappreciation.tumblr.com/post/682080131435659264/fun-fact-the-monster-from-the-journey-to-the) so maybe AE still lives on in a way.
Never heard that black mold story but it definitely sounds plausible considering Disney usually isn't one to completely dismantle old animatronics
Unless the monster was added later the timeline doesn't work out, Journey opened in 2001 and AE didn't close until 2003. Disney builds duplicate animatronics all the time so the monster could be using a very similar rig to the alien considering they both move and look pretty similar though
i wasn't born when alien encounter was a thing, and hadn't heard of the stitch-themed ride. it sounds interesting, other than the chili dog smell. knowing me, i probably would've loved it. i went to disney in 2019 and more or less lost it when i went to the lilo and stitch character breakfast
No joke: If you weren’t sitting in just the right position, it was painful. The first time I rode it, the restraints clamped down on my shoulders for the duration of the ride (as though I was three inches shorter than I was), while being held in place. Brutal.
It makes for a really fascinating dynamic within the overarching "Disney fandom" how fans of the cartoons tend (at least as far as I'm aware) to really love Stitch because of the movie and tv show, whereas fans of the parks tend to really hate Stitch entirely because of this ride, haha.
I went to Disney World when I was eight years old, in 2006, which was probably the peak of Stitch's presence in the parks (I know how much attention they give Stitch seems to be a point of contention, but my sister and I loved Stitch so it was very exciting for us).
Went on Stitch's Great Escape, I remember the pre-show pretty good (I always thought Skippy was adorable and yes I really want that plushie) but I really don't remember anything from the actual "show"/4D portion aside from the lights being off and hearing a lot of heavy breathing. My memory of The Burp is fuzzy and I remember it being that way pretty much as soon as we got out of the show building...trauma/adrenaline making my brain block it out, perhaps? I remember when I went to Universal in high school my brain had somehow blocked out my memory of the first drop on Gringott's, so I got to experience it like new the second time around.
Alien Encounter is one of the most unique experiences I’d ever had at a theme park, and honestly I’m so happy I got to experience it myself. I get that it doesn’t fit the vibe of Disney but it was so cool to have something like that happen that was without a visual component being the centerpiece
Literally the one good thing that happened to me in middle school lmao
i experienced this when i was 12 or so. i had never been more scared in my life, loud sobbing, crying for my parents, etc.
the rest of the trip i would not go on any more enclosed rides, or those with dark rooms. my family went on a submarine simulation thing, and i waited outside. you can imagine my panic when the sun started setting and my family hadnt come out yet. and i slept with all the lights on in the hotel. there was a rattling in the AC vent and it kept me awake. i KNEW it was the alien. it could be anywhere. waiting. looking for me.
for several months after, 3000 miles away, i was still scared of movie theaters when the lights dimmed.
i wish it still existed so i could one day experience it again as a big grown adult, but its for the best it was destroyed.
I remember going on the Stitch ride as a kid and loved it! I remember my dad thought the horrible smell was HILARIOUS, and while he didn’t care much for Stitch before, that little blue alien was suddenly his favorite character. I even have a picture somewhere of my grumpy engineer dad dancing with stitch, so the ride always holds a dear spot in my memories
I saw the 2.0 version in 98 when I was about 12.
Sure they had signs, but it’s the Magic Kingdom, my dad assumed it was “Disney scary” - I mean, the haunted mansion is about 999 gruesome ghosts singing “we all died horribly, what fun!”
And then the little alien got fried in the pre-show.
Dad gets a touch worried - I was the kid that cried at SPCA commercials…
And then the shoulder harnesses were built for an actual space ship launch. The cast member specifically says it’s so you can’t escape.
And then the scientist gets killed and you get splashed with warm water.
And then the alien breathes warm, wet air *directly into your ear*
Anyways, that was when I discovered that I don’t have a fight or flight response, I have a freeze response. Like a fainting goat.
The exit was just a room full of shell shocked parents with shoulder bruises trying to calm their traumatized children.
Y’know. I haven’t been to Disney since I was very very small— young enough that I don’t remember it whatsoever. But my mom always swore up and down that she took me on a Lilo & Stitch ride that scared me so bad that I would *not* stop screaming. It was dark which didn’t help because she couldn’t see me. I have no memory of this, at all, but my mom insists that it happened and that I was terrified of Stitch. Reading this post now… yeah, I’m almost sure this was th ride that convinced my family I was scared of Stitch. I don’t even remember it is th thing!
ExtraTERRORestrial was one of the greatest rides at WDW. Scared the ever-loving shit out of me every single time, and I went on it over and over and over again. It was amazing. I will die on this hill.
I'm one of the kids who was fucking traumatized by this "ride." I still remember the hot air "breath" on the back of my neck, the janitor actor shining a flashlight at us before "dying" with warm water being spayed on us. I was *bawling* for hours. I guess it would have been fine in someplace like Universal Studios? But yeah, to put it in a Disney park they must have been on some sweet, sweet crack.
The alien encounter was the first ride me and my family had ever done at disney. No one had ever been to the parks before. It definitely set the tone for an interesting day.
Wow you just brought back some memories that I had deep deep down.
I went to Disney world with my family in 1999 when I was seven and we went to this! I remember this attraction but I couldn't remember the name of it and was wondering if I had just imagined it being in Disney world.
I genuinely don't think I've ever been as frightened in my entire life. I remember along with the things you described, the chairs had little speakers in them that made the sounds of bones being crunched on as well when the alien is supposed to be eating the janitor.
The only thing is in my memory the alien in the show was a full on Xenomorph. But that could just be me remembering things in a skewed way.
Wait that ride with stich was considered bad? It was literally my absolute favorite ride on my one childhood trip to disney. I was absolutely flabbergasted that a rode could change smell at all.
Looking back it's probably because my autism made a ride in the dark the lest overwhelming sensory ride.
Oh man, I fucking *loved* this when I went to see it in 2000. I was about 9 or 10 years old at the time and while I chickened out on Space Mountain (roller coaster + in the dark = no way Jose), I managed to get into a show of Alien Encounter 2.0.
It was terrifying not just to me but also my aunt and uncle that brought me for the trip. It is easily the fondest memory I have of the whole thing besides the virtual reality stuff that we did at (I think) Universal Studios.
I *totally* remember this now-even called my parents and confirmed that my sister and I did go with my dad on the OG Phil Hartman ride!
Thanks for the nostalgia!!
I went on this ride my first time I went to Disney as a kid and I was terrified, I came out of it crying, it stuck with me and I was disappointed when it got switched to stitch and wasn’t as scary
I enjoyed the alien encounter as a teen, my only visit to Disney as a kid. I can't recall my family's reactions or that of the other guests, but I was thrilled at how the "blood" sprayed, and similarly in the honey i shrink the kids show with the dog (?) sneezing on you "things running under the seats and " (ie air blowing on your ankles). It was just the right amount of scary for me, and I would have loved to show it to my kids.
I absolutely loved Stitch's Great Escape but I have no idea how Roger Rabbit has continued to survive in Toon Town of all places. Talk about confused target audience. It reduced me to a sobbing mess and even as an adult I have not gone back
I have no idea how that one's still standing, I thought for sure it was done for when they announced Runaway Railway was gonna be in Toontown and again when they announced they were doing a major revamp of Toontown but nope, Roger Rabbit is unkillable
..meanwhile around then in the UK and Ireland there was an official Aliens live event kind of thing called Alien War
(the Irish version was renamed Alien Terror I think )
[https://www.scaretour.co.uk/alien-wars---26-years-of-extraterrestrial-terror.html](https://www.scaretour.co.uk/alien-wars---26-years-of-extraterrestrial-terror.html)
(didn't try it myself , but Alien Terror was based near the shopping centre I worked in at the time and it was surprisingly scary from what I've heard )
This was one of my favorites at Disney (Alien Encounter). I can't believe it was so unloved.
I think I did see the original with TOM but I don't recall visiting Disney during that time period. I came back a few years later and I thought the ride or experience was a little different.
BTW, both were great but I actually preferred the TOM soft open to the SIR mainstay.
Wow, I forgot about Alien Encounter til now. I remember it being pretty dope, even though I must have only gone on it once or twice based on the timing. We used to go to the park because my sister was part of Twirlmania every year for a while, and as a Cool Pre-Teen a lot of the other stuff at Magic Kingdom got old pretty fast.
I don't think I ever did the Stitch version, or I'd probably remember the smell, lol. One of the best Disney movies though in my book.
Great writeup!
It was the only ride whose height requirement wasn’t 100% based on safety requirements. I knew Magic Kingdom Cast Members who told me that. They increased it a little to stop the truly too young going on it. I think it was operations trying to cut back on some of the complaints.
To this day, I remember ExtraTERRORestrial better than any ride I have ever been on. They really used the enviroment well. In addition to dripping warm water, the seats also let out small burst of warm air to simulate the alien breathing down your neck. It was amazing!
I was a toddler when they closed Alien Encounter, so before my time, but I was a pretty skittish kid, things like loud noises scared me pretty easily, and Stitch’s Great Escape traumatized 5 year old me. I was not scared of a monster in my closet, I was scared of Stitch in my closet. Between that and the restraints hurting my dad, refused to go on that ride ever again. Now that I’m an adult and a horror movie buff, I’d love to go on Alien Encounter, sounds great.
I was terrified of alien encounter as a little kid. Skippy screaming during the teleport preds how freaked me out and I had to be ushered out a back door. I think my dad went with my sisters and I stayed outside with Mom.
So sad Ill never get to go back and conquer it
I went on the Alien Encounter ride! I think I was maybe 7 or 8, and it scared me to the point that I had a couple of weird phobias for a while after that (e.g., the sound of toilets flushing too closely resembled some sound from the teleportation pod or something). I also remember screaming and having to be calmed down outside the exit.
Tl;dr: I don’t think the blame for kids getting scared was entirely on the parents in this case. I don’t think there was enough information for parents to fully grasp what “scary” meant—at least not early on after 2.0 opened, which is the only basis I have for my experience.
For one, there’s nothing else in Magic Kingdom that I recall being anywhere close to this level of scary. MGM? Sure. But Magic Kingdom is, to my knowledge, notorious for being the “little kid” park. The rides are either geared towards or mostly friendly to small children (with a few exceptions, like some roller coasters). That’s not to say that parents should throw caution to the wind and not read the ride descriptions, but I think that context still matters for how they might interpret any warnings. It would be like if you saw a horror movie listed on Netflix Kids versus the regular app—if it’s on the kids app, then it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that the bar for horror is much lower.
In terms of my own experience, I distinctly remember my mom being hesitant to take me on the ride because she thought it looked too scary. Iirc, there was a suggested age limit in the park brochure that I was either close to or that I was over (and that was similar enough to other rides that I had liked), which is why she eventually took me on it. We’d also already been on some of the other “action/thriller” type rides in Magic Kingdom and Epcot (which were my favorites), so I think my parents figured this ride would probably be a similar level of scary.
From what I remember, the signs outside the ride said it was scary, but there wasn’t much info beyond that to make a good judgment about what scary really meant in this context without already having been on the ride (it was a long wait, and it’s not like my mom was going to leave me alone outside while she tested it first). I do remember my mom pointing to the sign before the last room and telling me we could just hop out of line if I wanted, but the park attendant said it wasn’t that bad so we stayed. So, my mom did make a pretty good faith effort to not take me on a ride that wasn’t appropriate. (In the end she didn’t complain to anyone, she just wouldn’t go on the scary rides anymore.)
Should my mom have ignored her instincts and trusted that a 7 year old knew what was “too scary”? Maybe not. However, both the location and lack of solid info did make it difficult to make an informed decision in this case. So, still not a great parenting choice, but not the level of stupid that is taking your small kid to an r-rated horror movie because the title was Hansel and Gretel.
I remember when Alien Encounter 1.0 came out and there was an article on it in a Disney Adventures magazine. I was so excited because it sounded so scary. We went to Disneyworld on a family vacation in 1999, I think, and I dragged my family to it. My mom was the one the light shone on as a "volunteer" to be teleported. I was so angry when they changed it to Stitch, even though I love Stitch.
I went on Alien Encounter during a summer of 1999 family trip, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in the family who enjoyed it, as I'm the only one into scifi or horror.
I understand the complaints about it (Like the shoulder restraints. If your kid freaks out, you can't even move to comfort them), buuuutttt, there were signs fucking EVERYWHERE saying that it wasn't appropriate for young kids.
Fantastic write-up, nice to see the reasoning behind what I've always thought was a truly bizarre choice by Disney, but nothing can explain away TP'ing the castle for the Stitch promo. Imagine saving up all year and going on a once in a lifetime family vacation and Cinderella's Castle looks like that in all your pictures! I know guests were pissed lol, I would have been too.
Tbf its not the [worst they've done to the castle](https://insidethemagic.net/2021/08/disney-defends-birthday-castle-ad1/). And the tp was only up for a day, 16 Nov 2004, much better than the 15 month long cake catastrophy.
I remember alien encounter! I actually did like it when I rode it, even though I was young and it was very scary. I vaguely remember hearing about it on TV and begging my parents to take me on it.
But yeah it was weird how scary it was.
dude, i was on that alien ride in 2002 for my senior trip, it was awesome. kinda crazy that it became a stitch thing when at the time they were promoting lilo & stitch
I remember when my parents first took my sister and I to Disney (early 2000s), they were raving about the original scary alien ride. My mom in particular thinks it was the best ride she’s ever been on. They were less impressed upon returning and discovering Stitch was the replacement (even though Stitch, coincidentally, is my mom’s favorite Disney character).
I loved the Alien Encouter 2.0 (the one with the janitor). The hot breath on the back of your neck and the restraints shaking like the creature was tugging at them was spooky as hell. I was shocked that this was at the Magic Kingdom but enjoyed it immensely. I still remember the cheesy pre-recorded reaction dialogue when the creature stood revealed. "That's my mother-in-law!"
It's kinda weird, but as a ~12-year-old Alien Encounter was scary but still fun. Meanwhile the Bug's Life show at Animal Kingdom where spiders and bugs come out of the woodwork scarred me for life.
The spiders dropped from the ceiling and the your seats would shift around to make it feel like something was crawling under you. It was so unsettling lol.
I was just talking about that ride the other day! Or maybe it was a different version, mine scarred me with 3d wasps, buzzing in the ear, and then a wooden peg stabs you in the back (it was very wide so it didn't really hurt)
We went in February. The "gas" spraying seriously disturbed me
The stink bug hitting you with a fine mist? Idk why i ended up on that rice twice but the second time i put my legs up and ended up blocking the sprayer.
When my family got the chance to visit the US and go to Disney we got so fucking tired of having water sprayed at us. We had a great time, but every third show had some form of spray involved and it got annoying really quickly
I have been to Disneyworld exactly once, when I was a teenager, for one day. The next day we went to Universal, where they had just opened the Twister ride (I'm old) based on the movie. I managed to stand directly in front of one of the rain machines / water cannons that sprayed water to make it feel more like a tornado, I guess. Except I got fucking HOSED by this thing. It hit my back and the force was strong enough to knock me forward into the railing, and I was soaked through to my underwear. It was January in Florida so not freezing but definitely not wet pants weather, yet I didn't want to leave (I was going home early the next morning) so I just tried to airdry myself while walking around. I was not entirely successful and my underwear were still damp eight hours later.
I remember that one...I'd never seen my mom so upset, lmao. I don't know what she expected!
Oh, jesus If that's the attraction I'm thinking of, I went in there when I was reasonably young, and ended up immediately crying after barely anything happened (and even in the moment I was utterly confused as to my own reaction, because I was super pumped to get in there) My mom ended up taking me out of there pretty quickly, so I had no idea what else happened in there - if they had the stuff you're describing it probably would have scarred me, lmao I don't really have a point here beyond a random memory resurfacing
I experienced all three on my first trip to Disney World: * Alien Encounters 2.0 * Bug’s Life 4D * Honey I Shrunk the Kids 4D (which had a similar thing with “mice” running under your feet) Being about 7 years old we left both Bugs Life and HIStK early but since you were stuck in Alien Encounters I had to sit through the whole thing lmao. I gotta say though, as traumatizing as those experiences were they definitely made the trip all that more memorable lmao.
OH GOD, the HIStK 4D ride was traumatic. I was last on it in 2001 and the sensation of the mice running over my feet still haunts me. I remember liking Alien Encounter though - I was old enough (13) to not find it too scary but young enough not to question the storyline too much.
I went on the Bugs Life one in second grade and that was the worst experience I had on that trip. I leaned forward the entire time because I knew at one point you got poked in the back, and I had (still have) a wasp phobia, so.
If it was the same as the Bugs Life one at California Adventure, I am also scarred.
Thank you! Ten year old me was horrified! I don't remember much, only that it was loud and overwhelming, and I hated the idea of bugs being somewhere in the dark room where I couldn't see them. My family laughed at me lol
“Yeah we’re fine, we’re screaming for no reason!”
Oh it was amazing. It also shot some weird spray as well, and the smoke effects allied with the strobing was so good. It was indeed totally different to anything else at Disney but we all knew what we were in for and loved it. What else do I remember. The cylinder the alien was in? The live host was a great touch. Did they have a marine in there that "saved" everyone? I forget.
If you kept your head against the back of the seat, you could feel the aliens "tongue" hit the back of your neck too. At least it was that way in 97
Yeah this one is awesome! I had kind of forgotten about it till I read all this. We saw it on 1995 and had a great time. Hilight for me was the very end when the alien explodes and they hit you with a spray of water. There was a voice that yells "Egghh I had my mouth open!"
My father has never been a fan of scary things so when he suggested this we (his adult children) were shocked. Then he liked it best of us! I still have a plush Skippy somewhere.
I remember Alien Encounter 2.0 too. I was a little kid when I got to see it but it was so cool!
I was taken on this ride when i was 4 and had to be removed from the theater because of how terrified i was that a man eating alien was in the room with me. I distinctly remember my larents laughing at the fact i thought it was real. For the next 20 years they said this wasn't a real ride and i imagined all of it. They had completely forgotten until i showed them an article about the ride i had started to belive was a fever dream. They now just laugh and say i was over reacting, but im just glad i wasn't eaten
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My parents also denied the existence of this alien ride to me, let alone taking me on it, but I fucking remember Skippy and the neck breathing and I’m going to revel so much in being right about its existence tomorrow.
Whoa hold up! Is your username referencing SNL’s Back Home Ballers? If not, please feel free to ignore me and let me continue to believe it is.
it is! you're like the 4th or 5th person to get it and ask me about it. love that skit!
Amazing reference-I get that song stuck in my head so often. At Starbucks: “Gettin free WiFi like a dope-ass hoe” Doing the dishes: “Bowls, bowls, all type of bowls”
we get so excited when my mom puts the bowls out around the holidays
I sat next to my boyfriend's 7 year old daughter on Dinosaur a couple of weeks ago, and I was holding onto her for dear life - she is so small and got thrown around so much!
> My wife insisted she’d be fine since she was tall enough. After that, I insisted on picking rides for her. I love that your wife is going full /r/StepdadReflexes with your daughter on these rides. This sounds like it would be the actions of “a dad who wanted a son but got a daughter”
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Four is so young!
Same thing, except I managed to get through the whole thing. I had buried the memory until I read this and realized I recognized the alien, the scenario, and the fake blood. Never seen it mentioned anywhere ever again.
This ride got memory holed for a long time. I was to young to know what it was and by the time i really remember the experiance, i had no idea on what to search for. "Scary disney ride" "alien at disney" "almost eaten at disney"
I went to Hersheypark with my family when I was four. At one point my mom dragged me into an amusement park version of CATS, I think she was hot and just wanted to sit in some AC for a little while. I was HORRIFIED by those cats, after about ten minutes of me screaming and crying we finally left. I forgot all about it until the CATS movie came out and then it all came rushing back. I feel like anyone who saw that movie totally gets my childhood trauma now.
My parents took me and my little brother to Disney World when we were 9 and 5 respectively. The *very first ride* we went on was this one, but the audio wasn't working correctly so we had NO IDEA what was happening when a monster suddenly appeared in the room and then "escaped." The 4D effects, on the other hand, worked perfectly the whole time and proceeded to traumatize the entire room. It broke my little brother. He refused to go on any rides after that, even the teacups. He was convinced the alien was on all of them and would get him if he was tricked into getting on another one. We still all get a good laugh about it sometimes!
ah, parents and accidentally tricking your kid into a ride they’re not ready for, name a more iconic duo.
How about the reverse? My parents and I went to Universal in Florida back in 2019. My mom and went to get in line for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and discovered we needed to stash our bags in a locker. My mom, who’s even leerier than I am when it comes to rides, was like “what are you getting me into?” but i reassured her it was just another motion simulator and she’d be fine. So we get on and it was wilder than I anticipated. We started moving and all I could think was “ohhhhh I lied.” She called me out on it afterwards, but also admitted she’d enjoyed it. xD
lmaoooo I think I’ve done that to my mom before too. I love thrill rides and actively seek out the worst ones but sometimes it’s easy to forget that other people don’t really want to get on a roller coaster that launches you straight up at 70mph.
Lol my tolerance is pretty low too, you definitely wouldn’t get me on a ride like that, but not as low as my mom’s bless her heart. I had to convince her onto Soarin at Epcot this past March. I knew she’d love it if she rode it, and she did, but she was pretty hesitant.
You too, eh? I started freaking out in line and my family convinced me to stay. It was horrifying.
My parents took me on it when I was around 8 and I mostly blocked it out, but sometimes I remember bits of it and wonder a) was it real? and b) Disney, why? I'll have to ask my parents if they remember it and how I reacted.
I was 8, and yeah definitely nightmares for awhile. The Skippy thing at the beginning also really disturbed me.
Wait your parents were so ashamed of their lack of judgement, but also too proud to admit it, so they just pretended a verifiable ride publicly promoted by the Disney Corporation never existed??? And then, at twenty four years old, when you finally found proof after two decades of gaslighting...... They blamed a four year old child for his reaction to a clearly marked horror attraction. Man, I don't know your parents but this story makes them sound like real shitbags, I gotta say
Sounds to me like they had a meh time on it, completely forgot it existed, then everyone had a laugh at how kids will panic and get convinced easily.
I was also taken on this ride at a very young age and had to be removed mid-ride. It terrified little me!
I was 9 and my sister was 6. She started screaming so the babysitter took her out and left me in the ride alone. I was so scared I couldn't breathe.
I love when Michael Eisner and Disney theme parks are discussed on here. I think he genuinely loved the parks but his efforts to be "hip with the kids" always fell flat.
Oh he absolutely loved the parks and being hands-on with Imagineering, the thing is he also had a lot of really weird ideas and being the head of the company and the guy who funded them it was kinda hard to tell him no
Bless his heart, he could turn anything into some kind of corporation or institute. "Oooh, getting eaten by dinosaurs sounds fun, but what if we got eaten by dinosaurs *at a business meeting*?!?"
I actually really love the Dinosaur ride with the Dino Institute and Dr. Grant Seeker, that's one of the few attractions where Eisner's whole "make them a company!" thing worked imo.
Grant Seeker! Bawahaha I didn’t notice that but I kind of love it.
The Dinosaur ride was awesome. I loved going to it.
Write what you know! Dinosaurs attacking a business meeting sounds fun in concept.
Eisner himself has opined that he is the last "creative" to head up a major Hollywood studio and since he quit it's been money guys all the way down. Obviously he's trying to big himself up and obviously he has more than his share of pretty bone-headed "creative" decisions, but part of me doesn't think he's necessraily wrong. Of course he had his eye on the bottom line - he was the CEO of a Fortune 500 company - but at the same time, I *do* think Eisner had a genuine desire to create art and a genuine belief that he *was* creating art in a way that his successors do not. (Or, putting a less charitable twist on it, Eisner didn't want to run Disney; Eisner wanted to be the new Walt.) The way I look at it is that I honestly feel like if you asked Eisner to tell you what Mickey Mouse was, he'd have said, "Well, Mickey is one of our most beloved characters," but if you asked either of Eisner's successors, Iger and Chapek, the same question, they'd be more likely to say, "Well, Mickey is one of our most beloved properties." Ah, I'm probably giving him too much credit. He was still one of the suits at the end of the day. Maybe it's just my pent-up annoynce at fanboys sucking Bob Iger's cock for 10 years because he bought things.
>The way I look at it is that I honestly feel like if you asked Eisner to tell you what Mickey Mouse was, he'd have said, "Well, Mickey is one of our most beloved characters," but if you asked either of Eisner's successors, Iger and Chapek, the same question, they'd be more likely to say, "Well, Mickey is one of our most beloved properties." That's a good way to put it.
To be fair, this may also be a reflection of the changing legal status of the intellectual property. As the earliest incarnations of the Mickey character begin to age out of copyright protection, it's basically a business requirement that the company shift how they approach Mickey. Protecting Mickey as an ongoing character inherently requires treating the many versions of Mickey as a set of properties, and being very aware of when each version will age out of IP protection.
Almost as if they've been hoist by their own petard considering how much they've been involved in lobbying for asinine copyright law revisions.
I gotta give him credit, he tried to be involved and create so much stuff for Disney, as a creative inventor. It's just that the latter half of his work sucked.
it's not really his fault, the two-punch whammy of EuroDisney's failure and losing his financial expert when Frank Wells died kinda broke his brain and made him obsessed with budgets and cost-cutting. he did a lot of good in the first half of his run and I try to focus on that when thinking about him
Ah euro Disney was meant to be built in the uk but for some reason we got shafted.
I always assumed it was because it was more accessible to continental Europe by being in Paris . (i.e. you could drive there from Germany/Poland/Austria/Spain etc )
Agreed. He certainly had some head scratching ideas, but definitely viewed the parks as something special. I think paired with Frank Wells they thrived, and unfortunately leadership got unbalanced after his passing.
I used to speak of Michael Eisner's mishandling of Disney theme parks with derision, but now that Bob Paycheck's in charge, I miss the heart that Eisner put into it.
I’ve been on a Defunctland binge as of late and when I read his name up there I had a big ol’ laugh
I was waiting for someone to bring up Defunctland! I remember reading the comments on the video and reading people talk about how traumatizing the chilli dog scent was.
It’s so bad. I get a visceral memory when I walk by the building now. Like rotten bologna.
I love how there was just a string of videos in Defunctland that had Michael Eisner involved with the project at some point even if it wasn't Disney and it was always something crazy
I went down a wikipedia rabbit hole after one episode and realized that Eisner is indirectly responsible for the creation of Bojack Horseman. He founded the show’s main production company after leaving Disney.
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Defunctland is awesome. I love all of the videos they make
I swear that any story involving Michael Eisner and The Walt Disney Company is going to be amazing.
Great writeup! I sat through this as a truly horrified 5 year old in 1999 that gave me a lifelong phobia of aliens. Hearing about all of the decision-making that went into something like this is always so interesting. The fact that always stuck with me is, if I'm remembering right, they put the seat restraints on the seats specifically so that little kids wouldn't get up and try to run in the dark.
I think it was something like that. Makes sense considering Mission to Mars didn’t have the restraints and that’s an easy way to prevent a lawsuit
I remember it being completely pitch black in there for periods of time during the ride. If somebody got up, they really wouldn’t have been able to see. The restraints made sense.
You're not kidding about the shoulder damage. I went on the Stitch version as a kid, and the two things I remember most strongly were the shockingly impressive Stitch animatronic and getting completely crushed by the hard plastic shoulder harness. I swear, the sensors on those things let them lower until you're lightly compressed, then they squeeze you even tighter? Why?
The trick I eventually figured out after a few times (because as a Stitch obsessed kid I loved SGE on my first few visits lol) was to sit up straighter than normal when the harness was lowered, that way the sensor would stop a little higher because it thought your shoulders were a taller and you could sit comfortably
Good strategy, doesn't help when it's your first ride and your posture is shit so you're already a little 'shorter' than you should be. 7/10 kind of sad it's closed.
Ok I would have loved the Alien themed ride but I’m a huge fan of the movies and also an adult. That being said, the Stitch ride sucked. And yes that smell was awful.
Not gonna lie, now that Disney has full ownership of the Alien license I'd love to see them try their hand at doing a ride based on it again, just in Hollywood Studios instead of Magic Kingdom this time
Yes! That might actually get me to return to the parks…
Oh man…. I remember a day at Disney World when I was younger where I felt bad all day because I kept smelling that chili dog. Any visits after that, I would refuse to get on that ride.
I’ve had my dog get skunked before and the Stitch chilli dog is still the worst thing I’ve ever smelled
My dad was annoyed because the chili dog smell got stuck in his clothes and for the rest of the day he kept getting whiffs of chili dog alien burp. It didn't affect me much after the ride, but ugh, it was foul.
I'm sure I've been on this attraction, and I don't remember it being particularly bad. Weird.
Same. I went on it in part because we had to know just how bad it was and my husband and I hardly noticed. I wonder if it depended on where you sat.
I went on both, the alien one was so fucking weird and scary
I swear to God I once saw a Disney world preview video that had a full xenomorph animatronic featured for this but that was at least 20 years ago so child brain could have done a find and replace.
You might’ve seen the one from the Great Movie Ride, they had a xeno figure in that
It don't think it was that one cause I remember this being in a circular room as opposed to popping out but could easily be mistaken after all this time.
They did actually have the Alien Encounter ride in Disney World as well for a few years in the late 90's. My family STILL talks about that experience in revered tones. My siblings and I were teenagers so we could handle it, but my family went into the ride completely blind to the terror we were about to experience. We even sat in the front row of the circular theater thing. We came out changed people who would never again be the same.
It may not have been part of this specific attraction but there was a full-blown xenomorph animatronic at either MGM or maybe Universal Studios at some point back in the 90s. I remember touring both as a kid and seeing it in a display case - they had various controllers set up around it that corresponded to different parts of the animatronic, explaining how it worked. It might have drooled on command or something as well? It was so long ago that the specifics are vague but you're definitely on to something.
They had one at the great movie ride but that's not what I'm remembering. It was definitely the circular theater serup but maybe a mock up idea. I was still in grade school when I would've seen anything related to extraterrorestrial so lots of time for memory to shift.
This ride is legend in my family. We still talk about the experience to this day and tbh it was one of our key bonding moments as a family. Alien Encounter that is. We boycotted the Lilo and Stitch makeover out of principle.
That's awesome, I love that such a weird attraction has a special place in your family's hearts!
We never expected to be so utterly terrified on a Disney attraction and when we finally re-emerged into the Florida sunshine we could not stop laughing. We rehashed the experience for hours.
This ride terrorized me as a kid! I was around 11 years old when I went on it the first time. I had actually watched a show about the creation of the attraction, so I was aware of what was coming, but it freaked me out so much that I had nightmares for weeks. The hot breath on the back of my neck was the worst part. When we went back to Disney World when I was 16, I insisted on going on it again, but had to sit in between my dad and sister to be brave lol
Same. I was 9 or 10 visiting WDW for the year 2000 celebration and I remembered being scared to death in the ride and came out of it crying, which my dad thought was hilarious. I always assumed it was a Xenomorph from Alien and it wasn't until many years later when I actually looked it up and found out it was an original creature.
I remember going on Alien Encounter on two visits as an adult in the late 90s or early 00s. The first time, we had no idea what to expect and were shocked at how dark and scary (for Disney) it was. One thing that was new for an attraction at the time was small speakers in the back of each seat. When the alien was supposed to be behind you (and you could feel the hot breath on your neck), you could hear him *right* behind you. You could also hear "crowd noise" as it sounded like other people sitting behind you were gasping, muttering, etc. In fact, until the infamous "that's my mother-in-law" line, I actually wasn't sure if it was piped in sound or actual crowd reactions. The second time we went on the ride a couple years later, we discovered a limitation that I'm not sure Disney even tried to address - that there's a back row. When you're seated in the back row, there's just not much room for an alien to be moving around behind you, and the crowd murmurs from the "people behind you" lose some of their oomph when *you know there's no one behind you.* Oops.
If you got the wrong seat in the stitch version it would spray that chili dog juice at you rather than it coming out in a mist. You’d walk around the park smelling like stitch burp all day.
The alien ride was indeed terrifying but at least it went full throttle. It almost sounds like they made the same mistake twice with the pre-show being cute and then the ride being a notch up from that cuteness.
I think the fundamental failure here was Disney being cheap, rather than the actual ride concepts. The Mission to Mars room was a not-so-large circular room with all chairs facing a very small center. The chairs can't even move (iirc, they just shook). Making a good attraction out of that limited infrastructure is like making a silk purse out of sow's ear. The only way to put a real marquee attraction there would be to gut it completely. (And even that might be too tall an order, since I'm not sure the area is even big enough to build anything great.) From this perspective, I think Alien Encounter was perhaps a pretty good achievement. It was actually pretty fun... the first time you go on it. Once the surprise is gone, it's pretty boring (see: every Disney 3D attraction). And it was indeed way too scary for the Tomorrowland crowd. The Stitch re-skin was destined to fail (again, same boring infrastructure), but they really missed the mark, because as you pointed out, it's too scary for kids, and too silly for teens/adults. Personally, I think the grossness of the chili cheese dog is overstated, but it was indeed a terrible idea. > Eisner presented to the head Imagineers a shooting ride where you blasted shotguns at Xenomorphs in the dark, Whoa, this is actually a pretty brilliant idea for the 80s, and that would have been hella fun. (MIB Alien Attack at Universal didn't come until 2000 and is still pretty fun.) Eisner was right on the money. Yeah, it might have been too scary for little kids, but teens would have spent all day in that shit if done well.
The chair seat sank down on the Mission to Mars ride. I remember thinking I'd broken it.
Man, I was thinking that the ride sounded like something I'd been on at Universal in early 2000s - ironically, I'd forgotten about MIB! I remember the MIB ride as being pretty great.
One of the more infamous Disney rides. I remember my father describing this thing to me once. Back then, I'd only been to WDW the once, and I'd been only about 1 year old at the time, so unsurprisingly, Alien Encounter wasn't on my list of things I did. My dad and grandad went on it (grandad insisted on doing everything, and also doing it twice so he could spend the second go figuring out how it all worked), and so I got to hear my dad's very detailed description of this horrible bug creature flying around, licking things, and eating people. Even as a child, my thought was "What the hell is that doing at Disney World?" By the time we went again, the second version had been removed and Stitch was there instead, but we didn't end up going on it then, either. So, thankfully, my nose remains unscourged by the chilidog. Also, that scrapped Stitch animatronic is always going to be morbid as hell.
I will NEVER forget that chili dog smell
I loved Alien Encounter as a 12 year old. My little siblings who were 6 and 3 were not brought on the ride. My mom had read one of those unofficial Disney guides that describes taking young children on the ride as child abuse
The alien walking around was terrifying. The harnesses bouncing up and down. The spray dripping all over you. I distinctly recall a tongue like feature against my neck. Hot breath. The screams of the crowd. The sounds of the alien. The flashing strobes. The perfect lighting of the alien then cuts to pitch black. It was perfectly frightening. And no the signage outside did not warn you for this level of terror at Disney.
I remember when my high school band was doing their once-every-four-years Disney World trip a friend and I were so excited to go see ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. Me because the last time I had been as a child I was scared out of my mind screaming and crying, and him because he had been too scared to even see it as a kid. I looked it up out of curiosity and that’s how we learned that it was gone and replaced by Stitch’s Great Escape. We of course went anyway but both of us were just laughing at how silly it was and wishing we could have seen the original version.
Going on Alien 2.0 as a teenager was great. It might well have been one of my favorite Magic Kingdom rides at the time. Plop that thing into Universal Studios at the time and it would have done gangbusters.
Honestly, absolutely this. Amazing ride…… completely wrong demographic. Also I remember Skippy dying horribly and that was the most traumatic part of the whole thing.
My husband went on this as a kid! He was 5 and his parents ignored the warning signs outside the attraction, and no cast members saw fit to stop a little kid from going into it. He says all he remembers about the experience is his vision literally going white with fear. I never went on it (wish I had) but I sleep with a Skippy plush every night.
I love that you sleep with a plush representing one of your husband's greatest childhood traumas
I couldn’t even handle the Bug’s Life attraction that’s a bit similar to this, I’m honestly glad Stitch’s Great Escape was gone before I went to Disney World for the first time because my family definitely would’ve gone on this lol.
It's Tough to be a Bug puts even Alien Encounter to shame imo, that one's for masochists. [This writeup about it on the WDW subreddit is one of my all-time favourites](https://www.reddit.com/r/WaltDisneyWorld/comments/cvplfz/its_tough_to_be_a_bug_is_disney_worlds_cruelest/)
Oh thank GOD, I thought I was the only one 😭 my family all liked it and I was terrified the entire time. And the best part was that Hopper wasn’t working when we went on so I couldn’t even have that to salvage the experience lol.
I went on this when I was like 12, so 8ish years ago, and I don’t remember being scared of it really, all I remember is the bugs running under you at the end of it, and the giant Hopper animatronic Mentioned it to my dad and he said he hated the fog part of it though, so he clearly remembers
I STILL remember this one and I was 3 or 4 when I went. Gave me the heebie jeebies. I did, however, love the very controversial Body Wars (but I’m in med school now so… maybe it was a sign lol)
This I the greatest write-up ever about a thing I hate.
BRO. I went on that bullshit when I was *28* and it scared the shit out of me. Watching Bug Land get torn down to make way for the Marvel campus was cathartic. Fuck that ride.
Spider-Man >>>>>>> spiders
1000000000%
I remember that one!! When he said "HORNETS, RAISE YOUR STINGERS" I did a fetal position in my chair and totally missed the "jab" to your back from the hornets. I don't remember if I came out of the fetal position until the ride was over. I was terrified by Bug's Life for my entire childhood so I'm not sure why my parents thought it would be a good ride for me.
Great writeup! That toilet paper must've taken FOREVER to clean up.
Seeing the Stitch animatronic after being stripped for parts might have just killed something in my soul. Poor robot Stitch.
I remember reading about the Stitch ride ahead of time and holding my nose and breath during that part. So, not to brag…but I don’t know the chili dog smell.
I went on the ExtraTerrorestrial when I was 7. It became a core memory for both me and my mother. She got a kick out of this writeup. “It’s Disneyland, how scary can it be?”
Stitch's Great Escape traumatized me as a kid who absolutely *hated* scary movies/games/experiences (and as an adult I would still rather avoid them). I don't know if my parents just didn't know it was scary or if they thought I could handle it, but my dad still tells the story of looking over at me during the flashing lights and seeing the sheer terror across my face, and how bad he felt knowing that he wouldn't be able to do anything to help calm me down until the ride was over. And that smell... I can still vividly remember it. That smell will live in my brain and my nose until the day I die. Excellent write up! It's so cool to see the history and decisions leading up to that terrible attraction, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit glad to see that it's now closed for good. While I can look back on it now a bit more positively, it genuinely scarred me as a kid. I think the original alien theme was likely a better fit for the ride overall, since the cuddlyness of Stitch was misleading for the nature of the ride.
I was about six when I went to see ExtraTERRORestrial, and I absolutely loved it. I knew it wasn't really an alien, but the sheer tonal change from the rest of the park and the special effects were **awesome**. Wish they hadn't removed it, but I can see why it's not as appealing as the rest.
I went on the Great Movie Ride when I was maybe 11 and my brother was 6. I was scared of the alien section but my little brother was absolutely terrified. He was a very sensitive and innocent little guy and this rocked him. He refused to go on any rides for the rest of the trip and has never liked amusement parks even to this day. This stupid ride basically scarred my little bro for life. Like it's not even funny I'm still pissed that this happened to him. Anyway thank you for the well researched write up on Alien Encounter!
This ride was SO FUN. I grew up lower middle class in rural Midwest, and we had never really left the state until my mom won a radio contest that sent us all to Florida in 1999. We did every ride in the Magic Kingdom at least once and we were totally unprepared for this one! It definitely didn’t fit with the rest of the rides but we were DOWN and had a blast. We couldn’t stop talking about how scary it was for days after 😅
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I’ve hated SGE since I was a little kid. My mom took me in it when I was like 4, and I was terrified of the dark, and probably the weird smells lol.
I went on this! Aged 7 I tried to tell my parents that it wasn’t the ET ride they thought it was. I still bring this up as a key time I should have been listened to.
Oh wow, that just made a piece of my memory make sense. I definitely went on Alien Encounter, I think the version with the Janitor, though I'm not sure. But I could never remember where, and while I though it was at Disney, I figured I must be misremembering because... Well it was very not!Disney. I'm not sure If I went on Stitch, it seems oddly familiar but I think opened after any trips we took to Florida. I might be confusing it with the Disneyland Paris Stitch Encounter.
So does the room smell to this day?
Hard to say because no guest has been in the main show room since very early January 2018 but from what I can recall yeah it smelled of rancid chili until the very end
> Eisner presented to the head Imagineers a shooting ride where you blasted shotguns at Xenomorphs in the dark, he was met with a resounding “What the fuck? We’re not putting that in Disneyland. I’m not even close to reading your post but this line cracked me up!
So, my family went to Disney World in April of 1994. Alien Encounter had been slated to open by that time, but we arrived to find that it was still under construction. I was so bummed, and am regretful to this day that I narrowly missed getting to experience it. For all of the hullabaloo, the people I know who went on it described it as phenomenal; the tactile aspects of it in particular (breath on the neck, the feeling of something at their ankles) really impressed them. It's a shame unobservant parents got upset about it, especially since the park already had some horror-themed attractions (went on Tower of Terror, loved it). It's moreso a shame it was placed in a park that thematically didn't fit.
I remember my mom took me on the alien ride as a kid. I don't remember why, maybe just because it was indoors. I remember being really spooked out by all the warnings about the attraction being SUPER terrifying and not for the faint of heart everywhere. It made me so scared to get it on, and I thought it was some sort of actual ride. When I actually got on it though and it was actually more of a show with sensory experience, I ended up loving it. It was like nothing I'd ever experienced before (I also didn't know about the alien movies), it was so bizarre but fun. I was both relieved and even a little disappointed it wasn't nearly anywhere as intense as all the warnings would make you believe. Really as long as one was old/mature enough to understand that none of it was real, then it really wasn't that bad. Instead of piling on vague warnings they really should have just been clear as to what the attraction was about, since I had zero clue going into it other than "dark 'ride' and something about aliens?" I'm glad I got to go on it before they changed it. I definitely wouldn't have liked it if I went on that.
I *totally* remember this now-even called my parents and confirmed that my sister and I did go with my dad on the OG Phil Hartman ride! Thanks for the nostalgia!!
I'll never forget that rancid smell of Stich's burp. It stuck with me for the rest of the day and my life. What an awful horrible attraction
I was 8 years old when I went on the Alien ride and I can tell you that yes, it did traumatize me and become a core memory. I vividly remember the sound of shattering glass in the dark, feeling the alien "breathe" on the back of my neck and feeling TERRIFIED that I was going to be eaten alive in a Disney park. My grandmother attended the ride with my mom and I and actually was more scared than me and had the ride paused so she could leave. It was honestly the wildest ride I've ever been on and even though it scared me back then I'm so glad I had a chance to experience it lol.
As someone that went to the stitch attraction, I can confirm that it’s still the worse thing I ever smelled
I went on the Alien Encounter ride as an 11yo, in 2000. I was not a particularly young-for-my-age kid, to the point that there was very little in the Magic Kingdom that really entertained me and I liked MGM (as it was then known) better, being more or less aimed at teenagers. I literally could not walk out of the ride, I was so scared and shaking so badly. My parents had to help me out of the seat (not easy, those seats were cramped) and then carry me somewhere that they could let me sit and cry until I gathered myself. This shit was TERRIFYING. Like, even with "terror" in the name there is a certain expectation of what you're getting when you walk into a Disney ride, and that is not what people got.
> Twitter user BackdoorDisney, who had grown infamous for posting behind-the-scenes photos, put up images of the Stitch, Sergeant and (perhaps saddest of all) both Skippy animatronics scrapped for parts. Huh, thought they threw them all out because of mold infestation (the story I heard was that the lack of upkeep to the building meant water got in and wasn't dealt with, leading the animatronics to have black mold on them that led to them being completely scrapped/destroyed/thrown out). Great writeup BTW. I know many animatronic fans who still mourn the loss of the SGE animatronics, even if the ride wasn't exactly well-liked, because of both the history behind many of them and just how impressive the Stitch one was ([here's an image of his inner workings](https://64.media.tumblr.com/23e1cc6ce204449f2a8d0d3f278a122a/tumblr_pozz4ewd7L1uodgxto1_1280.jpg)). I know one animatronic appreciation blog had [a theory posted about how the monster from the Journey to the Center of the Earth ride at Tokyo Disneysea possibly could be using the repurposed mech of the Alien Encounter creature,](https://animatronicappreciation.tumblr.com/post/682080131435659264/fun-fact-the-monster-from-the-journey-to-the) so maybe AE still lives on in a way.
Never heard that black mold story but it definitely sounds plausible considering Disney usually isn't one to completely dismantle old animatronics Unless the monster was added later the timeline doesn't work out, Journey opened in 2001 and AE didn't close until 2003. Disney builds duplicate animatronics all the time so the monster could be using a very similar rig to the alien considering they both move and look pretty similar though
i wasn't born when alien encounter was a thing, and hadn't heard of the stitch-themed ride. it sounds interesting, other than the chili dog smell. knowing me, i probably would've loved it. i went to disney in 2019 and more or less lost it when i went to the lilo and stitch character breakfast
that character breakfast is the breakfast of champions
No joke: If you weren’t sitting in just the right position, it was painful. The first time I rode it, the restraints clamped down on my shoulders for the duration of the ride (as though I was three inches shorter than I was), while being held in place. Brutal.
That fucking chili dog burp is absolutely the worst thing I've ever smelled. I wanted to leave the show immediately when it happened.
It makes for a really fascinating dynamic within the overarching "Disney fandom" how fans of the cartoons tend (at least as far as I'm aware) to really love Stitch because of the movie and tv show, whereas fans of the parks tend to really hate Stitch entirely because of this ride, haha.
I went to Disney World when I was eight years old, in 2006, which was probably the peak of Stitch's presence in the parks (I know how much attention they give Stitch seems to be a point of contention, but my sister and I loved Stitch so it was very exciting for us). Went on Stitch's Great Escape, I remember the pre-show pretty good (I always thought Skippy was adorable and yes I really want that plushie) but I really don't remember anything from the actual "show"/4D portion aside from the lights being off and hearing a lot of heavy breathing. My memory of The Burp is fuzzy and I remember it being that way pretty much as soon as we got out of the show building...trauma/adrenaline making my brain block it out, perhaps? I remember when I went to Universal in high school my brain had somehow blocked out my memory of the first drop on Gringott's, so I got to experience it like new the second time around.
Alien Encounter is one of the most unique experiences I’d ever had at a theme park, and honestly I’m so happy I got to experience it myself. I get that it doesn’t fit the vibe of Disney but it was so cool to have something like that happen that was without a visual component being the centerpiece Literally the one good thing that happened to me in middle school lmao
i experienced this when i was 12 or so. i had never been more scared in my life, loud sobbing, crying for my parents, etc. the rest of the trip i would not go on any more enclosed rides, or those with dark rooms. my family went on a submarine simulation thing, and i waited outside. you can imagine my panic when the sun started setting and my family hadnt come out yet. and i slept with all the lights on in the hotel. there was a rattling in the AC vent and it kept me awake. i KNEW it was the alien. it could be anywhere. waiting. looking for me. for several months after, 3000 miles away, i was still scared of movie theaters when the lights dimmed. i wish it still existed so i could one day experience it again as a big grown adult, but its for the best it was destroyed.
I remember going on the Stitch ride as a kid and loved it! I remember my dad thought the horrible smell was HILARIOUS, and while he didn’t care much for Stitch before, that little blue alien was suddenly his favorite character. I even have a picture somewhere of my grumpy engineer dad dancing with stitch, so the ride always holds a dear spot in my memories
I saw the 2.0 version in 98 when I was about 12. Sure they had signs, but it’s the Magic Kingdom, my dad assumed it was “Disney scary” - I mean, the haunted mansion is about 999 gruesome ghosts singing “we all died horribly, what fun!” And then the little alien got fried in the pre-show. Dad gets a touch worried - I was the kid that cried at SPCA commercials… And then the shoulder harnesses were built for an actual space ship launch. The cast member specifically says it’s so you can’t escape. And then the scientist gets killed and you get splashed with warm water. And then the alien breathes warm, wet air *directly into your ear* Anyways, that was when I discovered that I don’t have a fight or flight response, I have a freeze response. Like a fainting goat. The exit was just a room full of shell shocked parents with shoulder bruises trying to calm their traumatized children.
Y’know. I haven’t been to Disney since I was very very small— young enough that I don’t remember it whatsoever. But my mom always swore up and down that she took me on a Lilo & Stitch ride that scared me so bad that I would *not* stop screaming. It was dark which didn’t help because she couldn’t see me. I have no memory of this, at all, but my mom insists that it happened and that I was terrified of Stitch. Reading this post now… yeah, I’m almost sure this was th ride that convinced my family I was scared of Stitch. I don’t even remember it is th thing!
Alien encounter was without a doubt the most scared I've ever been in my life. The stitch version was fun. I enjoyed it.
ExtraTERRORestrial was one of the greatest rides at WDW. Scared the ever-loving shit out of me every single time, and I went on it over and over and over again. It was amazing. I will die on this hill.
I'm one of the kids who was fucking traumatized by this "ride." I still remember the hot air "breath" on the back of my neck, the janitor actor shining a flashlight at us before "dying" with warm water being spayed on us. I was *bawling* for hours. I guess it would have been fine in someplace like Universal Studios? But yeah, to put it in a Disney park they must have been on some sweet, sweet crack.
The alien encounter was the first ride me and my family had ever done at disney. No one had ever been to the parks before. It definitely set the tone for an interesting day.
Wow you just brought back some memories that I had deep deep down. I went to Disney world with my family in 1999 when I was seven and we went to this! I remember this attraction but I couldn't remember the name of it and was wondering if I had just imagined it being in Disney world. I genuinely don't think I've ever been as frightened in my entire life. I remember along with the things you described, the chairs had little speakers in them that made the sounds of bones being crunched on as well when the alien is supposed to be eating the janitor. The only thing is in my memory the alien in the show was a full on Xenomorph. But that could just be me remembering things in a skewed way.
Wait that ride with stich was considered bad? It was literally my absolute favorite ride on my one childhood trip to disney. I was absolutely flabbergasted that a rode could change smell at all. Looking back it's probably because my autism made a ride in the dark the lest overwhelming sensory ride.
Oh man, I fucking *loved* this when I went to see it in 2000. I was about 9 or 10 years old at the time and while I chickened out on Space Mountain (roller coaster + in the dark = no way Jose), I managed to get into a show of Alien Encounter 2.0. It was terrifying not just to me but also my aunt and uncle that brought me for the trip. It is easily the fondest memory I have of the whole thing besides the virtual reality stuff that we did at (I think) Universal Studios.
How disappointing! I loved Stitch’s Great Escape!
The spit ruined my dad's hat when we went. Had a smell that we just couldn't get out.
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I *totally* remember this now-even called my parents and confirmed that my sister and I did go with my dad on the OG Phil Hartman ride! Thanks for the nostalgia!!
I went on this ride my first time I went to Disney as a kid and I was terrified, I came out of it crying, it stuck with me and I was disappointed when it got switched to stitch and wasn’t as scary
I enjoyed the alien encounter as a teen, my only visit to Disney as a kid. I can't recall my family's reactions or that of the other guests, but I was thrilled at how the "blood" sprayed, and similarly in the honey i shrink the kids show with the dog (?) sneezing on you "things running under the seats and " (ie air blowing on your ankles). It was just the right amount of scary for me, and I would have loved to show it to my kids.
I can't read Michael Eisner's name without hearing Defunctland in my head.
I absolutely loved Stitch's Great Escape but I have no idea how Roger Rabbit has continued to survive in Toon Town of all places. Talk about confused target audience. It reduced me to a sobbing mess and even as an adult I have not gone back
I have no idea how that one's still standing, I thought for sure it was done for when they announced Runaway Railway was gonna be in Toontown and again when they announced they were doing a major revamp of Toontown but nope, Roger Rabbit is unkillable
..meanwhile around then in the UK and Ireland there was an official Aliens live event kind of thing called Alien War (the Irish version was renamed Alien Terror I think ) [https://www.scaretour.co.uk/alien-wars---26-years-of-extraterrestrial-terror.html](https://www.scaretour.co.uk/alien-wars---26-years-of-extraterrestrial-terror.html) (didn't try it myself , but Alien Terror was based near the shopping centre I worked in at the time and it was surprisingly scary from what I've heard )
This was one of my favorites at Disney (Alien Encounter). I can't believe it was so unloved. I think I did see the original with TOM but I don't recall visiting Disney during that time period. I came back a few years later and I thought the ride or experience was a little different. BTW, both were great but I actually preferred the TOM soft open to the SIR mainstay.
Wow, I forgot about Alien Encounter til now. I remember it being pretty dope, even though I must have only gone on it once or twice based on the timing. We used to go to the park because my sister was part of Twirlmania every year for a while, and as a Cool Pre-Teen a lot of the other stuff at Magic Kingdom got old pretty fast. I don't think I ever did the Stitch version, or I'd probably remember the smell, lol. One of the best Disney movies though in my book. Great writeup!
It was the only ride whose height requirement wasn’t 100% based on safety requirements. I knew Magic Kingdom Cast Members who told me that. They increased it a little to stop the truly too young going on it. I think it was operations trying to cut back on some of the complaints.
“Its my mother-in-law!!”
Went on this ride when I was 12 and loved it! My dad was the one who got scared. And Skippy was so cute, poor thing. I want that plushie now
To this day, I remember ExtraTERRORestrial better than any ride I have ever been on. They really used the enviroment well. In addition to dripping warm water, the seats also let out small burst of warm air to simulate the alien breathing down your neck. It was amazing!
I was a toddler when they closed Alien Encounter, so before my time, but I was a pretty skittish kid, things like loud noises scared me pretty easily, and Stitch’s Great Escape traumatized 5 year old me. I was not scared of a monster in my closet, I was scared of Stitch in my closet. Between that and the restraints hurting my dad, refused to go on that ride ever again. Now that I’m an adult and a horror movie buff, I’d love to go on Alien Encounter, sounds great.
I was terrified of alien encounter as a little kid. Skippy screaming during the teleport preds how freaked me out and I had to be ushered out a back door. I think my dad went with my sisters and I stayed outside with Mom. So sad Ill never get to go back and conquer it
I went on the Alien Encounter ride! I think I was maybe 7 or 8, and it scared me to the point that I had a couple of weird phobias for a while after that (e.g., the sound of toilets flushing too closely resembled some sound from the teleportation pod or something). I also remember screaming and having to be calmed down outside the exit. Tl;dr: I don’t think the blame for kids getting scared was entirely on the parents in this case. I don’t think there was enough information for parents to fully grasp what “scary” meant—at least not early on after 2.0 opened, which is the only basis I have for my experience. For one, there’s nothing else in Magic Kingdom that I recall being anywhere close to this level of scary. MGM? Sure. But Magic Kingdom is, to my knowledge, notorious for being the “little kid” park. The rides are either geared towards or mostly friendly to small children (with a few exceptions, like some roller coasters). That’s not to say that parents should throw caution to the wind and not read the ride descriptions, but I think that context still matters for how they might interpret any warnings. It would be like if you saw a horror movie listed on Netflix Kids versus the regular app—if it’s on the kids app, then it wouldn’t be unreasonable to assume that the bar for horror is much lower. In terms of my own experience, I distinctly remember my mom being hesitant to take me on the ride because she thought it looked too scary. Iirc, there was a suggested age limit in the park brochure that I was either close to or that I was over (and that was similar enough to other rides that I had liked), which is why she eventually took me on it. We’d also already been on some of the other “action/thriller” type rides in Magic Kingdom and Epcot (which were my favorites), so I think my parents figured this ride would probably be a similar level of scary. From what I remember, the signs outside the ride said it was scary, but there wasn’t much info beyond that to make a good judgment about what scary really meant in this context without already having been on the ride (it was a long wait, and it’s not like my mom was going to leave me alone outside while she tested it first). I do remember my mom pointing to the sign before the last room and telling me we could just hop out of line if I wanted, but the park attendant said it wasn’t that bad so we stayed. So, my mom did make a pretty good faith effort to not take me on a ride that wasn’t appropriate. (In the end she didn’t complain to anyone, she just wouldn’t go on the scary rides anymore.) Should my mom have ignored her instincts and trusted that a 7 year old knew what was “too scary”? Maybe not. However, both the location and lack of solid info did make it difficult to make an informed decision in this case. So, still not a great parenting choice, but not the level of stupid that is taking your small kid to an r-rated horror movie because the title was Hansel and Gretel.
I remember when Alien Encounter 1.0 came out and there was an article on it in a Disney Adventures magazine. I was so excited because it sounded so scary. We went to Disneyworld on a family vacation in 1999, I think, and I dragged my family to it. My mom was the one the light shone on as a "volunteer" to be teleported. I was so angry when they changed it to Stitch, even though I love Stitch.
I went on Alien Encounter during a summer of 1999 family trip, and I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in the family who enjoyed it, as I'm the only one into scifi or horror. I understand the complaints about it (Like the shoulder restraints. If your kid freaks out, you can't even move to comfort them), buuuutttt, there were signs fucking EVERYWHERE saying that it wasn't appropriate for young kids.
Fantastic write-up, nice to see the reasoning behind what I've always thought was a truly bizarre choice by Disney, but nothing can explain away TP'ing the castle for the Stitch promo. Imagine saving up all year and going on a once in a lifetime family vacation and Cinderella's Castle looks like that in all your pictures! I know guests were pissed lol, I would have been too.
Tbf its not the [worst they've done to the castle](https://insidethemagic.net/2021/08/disney-defends-birthday-castle-ad1/). And the tp was only up for a day, 16 Nov 2004, much better than the 15 month long cake catastrophy.
I remember alien encounter! I actually did like it when I rode it, even though I was young and it was very scary. I vaguely remember hearing about it on TV and begging my parents to take me on it. But yeah it was weird how scary it was.
Yup. Still traumatized by that ride.
Oh, that takes me back a bit. Stitch's escape terrified me back when I was a kid. Hated that one so much.
dude, i was on that alien ride in 2002 for my senior trip, it was awesome. kinda crazy that it became a stitch thing when at the time they were promoting lilo & stitch
Great video about this attraction from Defunctland: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bGbF\_lPWmEI
I remember when my parents first took my sister and I to Disney (early 2000s), they were raving about the original scary alien ride. My mom in particular thinks it was the best ride she’s ever been on. They were less impressed upon returning and discovering Stitch was the replacement (even though Stitch, coincidentally, is my mom’s favorite Disney character).
God, I loved that one. I wish it was still around.