When planning your Disney World vacation it’s important to prioritize which rides are your absolute musts, which you’d like to ride but won’t be heartbroken to miss, and which you feel comfortable skipping!
Spaceship Earth
When it comes to EPCOT there are four rides that these experts skip just about every time.
Mission: SPACE
First on our list of attractions that the Disney World pros SKIP is Mission: SPACE.
Mission: SPACE
This ride is a “thrilling simulated NASA-style mission to Mars,” which Disney developed in association with real-life NASA astronauts and scientists. Those astronauts definitely have stronger stomachs than we do, though, as this simulator tends to make us feel pretty sick.
Mission: SPACE
If you tend to get motion sickness on other rides (like Avatar Flight of Passage in Disney’s Animal Kingdom or Star Tours in Disney’s Hollywood Studios), you will for sure want to skip this one. It’s probably the worst culprit when it comes to rides that leave guests feeling ill.
Mission Space is known for making people nauseous!
There is the option to choose the Green mission rather than the Orange one, and it’s true that the Green is quite a bit calmer than the alternative. However, it’s still a risk that we’re not willing to take when we’ve been eating or drinking around World Showcase.
Mission Space
If you’re a big fan of space or have ambitions of becoming an astronaut yourself, however, you might love this ride!
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Frozen Ever After
Frozen Ever After replaced the Maelstrom ride in the Norway pavilion of EPCOT’s World Showcase, and that fact alone has some Disney World pros upset to the point that they won’t go on the new ride.
Frozen Ever After
However, even if they’re not upset about the extinct Maelstrom ride, lots of people are deterred by the loooong wait times that we often see at this boat attraction.
It’s a long line!
The new Frozen theme definitely appeals to kids, and it’s pretty cute! If you’re a huge fan of the movies, it might be worth a visit.
Anna and Kristoff
But unless you’ve got a member of the Frozen fan club in your group, we definitely wouldn’t recommend waiting in a line that’s usually over an hour long.
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Spaceship Earth
Spaceship Earth is literally an icon in EPCOT — it’s located inside the huge geometric ball that is used to represent this park. However, the ride itself hasn’t always lived up to people’s expectations in the past. However, that may be changing thanks to an ongoing refurbishment, which began in August of 2025.
Spaceship Earth
Once the ride reopens, if it’s your first time visiting EPCOT, it’s practically required that you go on this ride at least once (just to say that you’ve been inside the EPCOT ball and, of course, to thank the Phonecians). But if the line is super long or you’ve already been on this ride once before, it might be worth spinning.
Lightning Lane at Spaceship Earth
That queue can get very long, especially since this is the first ride people see when they go into EPCOT from the main entrance. Often people will hop in line without even really knowing what they’re waiting for.
Long line
Another problem we frequently encounter with Spaceship Earth is that it really likes to break down. We’ve been stuck on this ride one too many times, listening to the automated announcement tell us that it’ll resume soon over and over and over again. Hopefully, the current refurbishment alleviates this issue.
Inside Spaceship Earth
It’s no fun to waste time in Disney World just sitting there, stuck on a ride!
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Living With the Land
BEFORE YOU COME FOR US, you should know that there was an intense debate about this particular attraction, so it’s by no means the opinion of every Disney World pro that you should skip Living With the Land.
Living With The Land
However, enough people agreed that this attraction might not be a must-do that we had to include it…with some caveats, of course.
Living with the Land
Living With the Land is a slow, educational boat ride that takes you through the greenhouses at EPCOT’s World Nature pavilion. It’s relaxing and honestly pretty cool to see all that behind-the-scenes stuff. Plus, the line isn’t usually very long.
Very relaxing
It takes about 15 minutes to ride Living With the Land, so it’s a great ride to visit if you’re in need of a break or even a little nap (though keep in mind that the boat seats are not super comfortable). But if you’re trying to get as much done as possible, that 15 minutes might feel like FOREVER.
Living with the Land
There’s also not much “Disney-ness” to this ride — you won’t see any movie characters, and none of the plants break out into Disney songs — so younger kids (and even some adults) might find it to be…well…boring. 😬
Living with the Land
Again, this ride is a classic for many EPCOT fans, but it’s not exactly the most exciting or thrilling ride in EPCOT. If you love it, you’re not alone! But we could definitely see some people getting off the boats feeling underwhelmed. And please — if the wait is longer than 20 minutes do NOT ride it. Just give it a little bit and see if that wait time goes down (it very likely will).
Long line
Stay tuned to DFB for more theme park tips and updates on all the latest Disney news!
Find out which rides you should skip in Magic Kingdom here!
And check out our list of the most skippable rides in Disney’s Hollywood Studios here.
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Frozen Ever After and Living With the Land are non-negotiables
Mission Space #1?! That’s the best ride in all of Disney World. It is unique and powerful. It’s a shame it seems to be wasted on the Disney Pros.
Spaceship Earth? Blaspheme. Great history lesson away from the oppressive heat and humidity of Orlando.
living with the land should be replaced with figment – one of the worst and irritating rides in all of WDW. Plus, there is plenty of disney in living with the land! This ride probably has the most (and most obvious) hidden mickeys out of all the rides in WDW.
We visit WDW and NEVER skip Spaceship Earth or Living with the Land. We love these two classic attractions! Always must do’s for us on every trip!
living with the land is always a nice relaxation, and not a long wait, ever.
spaceship earth is easy to hit later in the day, even close to close and there’s never a line.
My daughter loves Frozen and I enjoy gardening. Frozen is a nice ride, just get it with a shorter line it is not a 45-minute line ride. Living with the Land does get seasonal overlays it is a gentle ride closer to old school edutainment Epcot.
Keep the land and Spaceship Earth with some minor updating, dump Mission Space and Frozen. Spent 3 hours on the lawn out front after my one and only voyage. Never been able to see Frozen, lines too long. Know absolutely nothing about the movie.
Our family definitely agrees with your first three on this list, but we are coming for you with your Living with the Land selection!!! There are a few reasons to ride this attraction: 1) It’s educational for children 2) It’s a nice easy ride you can just relax on 3) It’s a great way to get off your feet and in the A/C!!!!!
Frozen ever after is a terrible replacement of maelstrom very underwhelming and not worth the incredibly long wait times.
Mission Space is actually my favorite ride at Epcot, and I did get to ride everything last month. I loved both sides of it. There is nothing else like it that I have experienced anywhere else. I liked it more than Soarin & Cosmic Rewind. That said, I do enjoy high thrill rides.
I am a big fan of Frozen, but that ride wasn’t as good as I had hoped. It still has it’s charm, and it was worth riding a 2nd time for me, but it was only my 5th favorite ride in the park, when I thought it would be # 1 ahead of time. I’m sure the retrofit limited what they were able to do with that ride. For Frozen fans, the show at Hollywood Studios is a much higher priority.
Spaceship Earth & Living with the Land were fine, but once was enough. Whenever I go back, I might do them again, but only if I have the time and the lines are short. Living with the Land was really cool for awhile, then the greenhouse portion just kept dragging on and on and on and on and on. Some people hate Figment, but I loved it as a kid, and I still love it now.
I don’t know who these “pros” you are talking about but they aren’t Disney Fanatics for sure.
Mission:Space is the best way to wake up in the morning (almost always our first ride of the day).
Living with the Land is great. You sit for 20 min on a boat and get to see the cool things EPCOT is growing.
Spaceship Earth is ICONIC. NEVER ride first thing. Wait u til later when the line is shorter.
Figment really needed to be on that list. He has to be the most annoying Disney park characters.
I agree with Aukse and Amber. We never ride Figment or Mission Space. I, too, can easily skip Frozen…kills my back….bumpiest ride in Epcot.
I love Living with the Land. I have even done the Behind the Seeds Tour. And Spaceship Earth. Come on…
Living with the Land is pure, enjoyable, old-school EPCOT and a must for us! Parks have been mostly stripped of learning, thinking, imagination, and inspiration in favor of more mindless movie scenes. We need MORE to challenge and inspire! Imagination has been replaced by whatever game designers put on tiny screens for our kids and kids deserve to be motivated and inspired.
Let’s try again! Why did it post in one long line???
Wow I’m beginning to think your pros aren’t so pro! Yes, Rocky and AnanC! And so many of you others! Mission Space is a rough, thrilling ride that can make you very sick and that people have died on (which is why they created the green side). But for thrill seekers who don’t have heart issues or suffer motion sickness, have fun. Frozen is underwhelming and definitely not worth a long wait, though kids will like it. Maelstrom and the Norway shops were much better before Disney changed it all. Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land are absolute must dos!!! We also love the new Moana water attraction and are annoyed by Figment. Time for him to go. Ratatouille is a 3D ride that imo may also bother those with motion sickness. If it doesn’t bother you to watch on a YouTube video then you’re probably ok to ride! I wish DFB would have a page to Meet the Authors, age, picture, etc. More and more I’m thinking they don’t see wdw the way the rest of us do. It may be a generational issue so it would help to know about them so the reader can put their opinions in context….
Spaceship Earth and Living with the Land?! Sacrilege! You people are dead to me!
disney pros know to rope drop frozen with early entry and grab LL for test track and soaring and figment. go from frozen to figment and scan that LL in and secure Remy. this is the way.
Three of the four are absolute must-rides. Frozen is a possibility but depends on lines, and I’m not inclined to get Lightning Lanes in EPCOT… But Mission Space (caveat: I worked at NASA and I’ve flown in the zero-G airplane quite a few times) is a must ride as are Spaceship Earth, and Living with the Land. In fact, I almost always pay extra for the Behind the Seeds tour, as I’m into hydroponics and almost always learn something else. I wish there was a Behind the Behind the Seeds tour where we could talk to the scientists and technicians about the process!
@Norma, I first rode Mission Space when it was in beta-testing, and it was significantly more intense then. As I noted in my other comment, I trained to fly in NASA’s zero-G airplane (“The Vomit Comet”) and trained astronauts for a flight experiment or two, so I was somewhat better equipped than most, but I do NOT think it’s too hard on the neurovestibular system. If you don’t want the acceleration, go on the Green side. But if you want to get some sense of a low-G launch sequence and transition to microgravity, Orange is a hoot.
A thing to remember about rides with continuous loading, like Spaceship Earth and the Peoplemover: it’s not that it’s breaking down, it has to be stopped for certain guests to load and unload, which makes it seem like it malfunctions often.
I think so called “Disney Pros” are people that run franticly from attraction to attraction trying to cram in as many rides as they can in one day. They are constantly on their phones trying to score that Lightning Lane slot so they can hurry to the next one. They don’t believe in sitting down to a meal because such things “take too much time”. They don’t believe in relaxing from time to time. Hurry, hurry, hurry is their mantra.
Living with the Land and Spaceship Earth…over Figment? These pros need to be dropped back down to amateur status.
This is rage bait.
so I was very disappointed when they took away Maelstrom. I did not like the frozen ride and would not stand in line again for it. However, I went to this show on my last and was hysterical. I think any child would love it if they are FROZEN fans. The narrators are ‘Court historians” and they re-tell the history of Arendelle and they sometimes goof it up. I think both adults and children would really enjoy it. It is in Hollywood studios. So you can skip EPCOT’s Ride and enjoy Norway’s pavilion without it. For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, is the Hollywood Studios show.