Anyone up for a ride on one of the world’s longest indoor roller coasters?
That’s right, it’s time to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT! If you want to see FULL photos inside the ride, details about the story, and more — click here for our detailed post WITH SPOILERS. But we also wanted to provide a summary for those who don’t want any of the spoilers. So here you go — this is our official spoiler-FREE review of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind!
If you do happen to change your mind and want some spoilers, we’ve got links below to direct you to where you want to go. Alright, into our review!
The Basics
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is located in the World Discovery neighborhood and is based off of the characters from the Guardians of the Galaxy films. The ride is a family-friendly coaster and has a height requirement of 42 inches.
It is an indoor coaster, and in fact is one of the LONGEST fully enclosed coasters in the entire world and is the first Disney coaster to feature a reverse launch.
The ride does NOT have a standby line right now, but instead is available through a virtual queue system. It is also available through the Individual Attraction Selection (or pay-per-ride) system.
Click here to learn more about the virtual queue for Guardians of the Galaxy!
More About the Ride
The Guardians of the Galaxy coaster is located within the Wonders of Xandar pavilion. You may recognize the Nova Corps Starblaster out front!
When you enter the ride building, you first visit the Galaxarium, which is an exhibition all about Earth (Terra) and Xandar.
If you want a LOT more details on this area, you can click here!
After that, it’s time to enter the Xandar Gallery, where you’ll learn more about Xandarians. More photos and details can be seen here.
You’ll then head to experience some pre-shows. There’s one pre-show in an initial area, a pre-show portion in the Phase Chamber, and then another pre-show. WARNING: Tiny spoiler ahead (but if you’ve been reading our recent posts or even post titles you likely already know this).
During these pre-shows, you’ll see Nova Prime (with the role reprised by Glenn Close) and Terry Crews as another character. We won’t share details about those pre-shows here — click here if you’re ready for spoilers!
Some important story moments take place during the last pre-show in particular. The main thing you need to know is that your tour of the Wonders of Xandar pavilion goes a bit awry and an evil villain affects your journey.
Ultimately, the Guardians of the Galaxy are called in to save the day and you’ve got to help them!
That’s when you’ll go off to board your 4-seater Starjumper ride vehicle! This coaster is known as an omnicoaster, which means that the vehicles rotate 360 degrees so that you don’t miss a second of the story. A traditional Omnimover ride would be something like The Haunted Mansion, where your vehicle can turn in the direction the Imagineers want, so they can showcase moments of the story.
This ride takes that system and puts it on a coaster, so you’re moving around to look at the story moments but also moving fast (as a coaster would).
This is where we’ll leave you in mystery, but trust us when we say this ride was quite the sight! If you want a bit more details on what happens next, click here.
After your ride, you can go check out the Treasures of Xandar gift shop, which pays tribute to Xandar and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Click here if you want to get a look at the new Guardians of the Galaxy merchandise in that gift shop!
Overall Thoughts
Overall, our feeling on Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is that it feels like a combination of Space Mountain and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. There are definitely elements of both present in the ride. It’s smooth, indoors, and doesn’t really stop moving once it gets going.
We think that older kids will really like this. As for the younger ones, you’ll want them to be thrill-seekers or ready for thrills before taking them on this ride. Basically, think about Space Mountain and whether that is something they like. If they aren’t ready for Space Mountain, then we think this would likely be a “skip” for now.
In terms of the nausea factor, we have a FULL post on that. You can read all about if the ride will make you sick here. We’ll say that your response to this ride will vary. We were with someone who shared that, in their opinion, the ride felt more intense than Space Mountain, but less intense than Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Expedition Everest.
Will the new Guardians coaster make you sick? See our thoughts and our experience HERE!
We, on the other hand, felt very nauseous. Our reporter who attended the event said they normally don’t have motion sickness on rides, but the combination of the dark, the mild spinning, and the feeling of their eyes trying to figure out where to look, made it nausea-inducing for them. So your experience could depend greatly on how you normally respond to rides and other factors.
If you want to check out this new ride, you can head into EPCOT now! Stay tuned to DFB for more Disney news!
Want ALL the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind spoilers?! CLICK HERE!
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Would you ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind? Let us know in the comments!
Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ
Ken says
Finally, some definitive response to the key question… the spin and puke factor. It appears by the reporter comment that it is relatively high for this attraction. It is now a definite pass for me. The one time I went on Mission Space, I spent 3 hours on the lawn out front of the attraction after I go off due to the extreme nausea it produced for me. This attraction sounds simular to the Expedition Everest effect by going backwards I the dark, and now add the spin to induce projectile vomiting. I wonder what the thru-put number is for processing guests in and out after cleaning up the mess in the Omni vehicles. I won’t even bother to go into this section of Epcot now… after the lousy redesign of Test Track into another dark ride, there is no reason to turn left after passing Spaceship Earth. Imaginers need to stop turning Disney/Epcot into a thrill park and back into the learning lab that it once was. What are we teaching our young… nothing I guess…
Teresa Swanson says
Well I love most thrill rides- only problem I have with Space Mountain is the getting in and out of the cars (mostly out) so this looks easier. Then Rock and Roll Coaster I have issues because of my height- my ears box on the over the shoulder holder- and again looks like not a problem on this. Love Everest period… so I am so looking forward to this if those are the comparison! Couple hundred days!
Janet says
Thanks for the heads-up regarding potential motion sickness. That’s excellent information to have.
Rich says
I read a review that said the rider got Dramamine from a Disney Cast Member. Is this something available to all guests?
Sylvia says
AJ, Question about ride drops. In your video you said the ride doesn’t have big drops. I am not a big roller coaster fan, but do ride smaller (Thunder Mountain, Mine Train, Slinky, like that, NEVER Space Mountain)… would this be for me? Thanks!! Scary Cat Disney Fan
Nessa says
This is the first coaster ride that has ever made me so sick after! I have riden all the Disney “intense” rides and loved them all, but this one just hit different like the reporter said, the spinning, backwards and visuals combination was too much. I did not throw up, but certainly was shaky and needed to sit down for lunch after to feel better. Also made the BIG mistake of allowing my 6 year old to ride, she met the height requirement and it is being advertised as a “family coaster” but it is far from. She did not throw up, but was also nauseous after and said she hated it. I am huge Marvel fan, specifically went to Epcot to experience this ride, but will never ride this one again.