Disney Parks Quiz: Can You Identify These 15 Disney Coasters Based Only On Their Layouts?

• If the layout you’re looking at looks wild, that’s because it is. This coaster features a “spaghetti bowl” of intertwining track as its core…
  
• The long straightaways are a powered LIM electromagnetic launch on the way into the spaghetti bowl, and a brake run on the way back.
  
• And if that doesn’t give it away, this ride is also enclosed in a soundstage…

ANSWER: Of course, it’s Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Opened in 1999, the ride was Vekoma’s best mimic of the revolutionary “Flight of Fear” coaster (developed by competing coaster manufacturer Premier Rides) that debuted at Paramount’s Kings Island the year prior. Though Vekoma is Disney’s go-to coaster manufacturer, any park can buy from Vekoma’s catalogue. That creates the unique situation wherein Six Flags bought a copy of the “LSM Coaster” model for its park in Belgium (today called Walibi Holland), so if you’ve ever wondered what Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster would look like without a box built around it, here it is!

We should also mention that another Disney coaster shares this layout. When Walt Disney Studios Paris opened in 2002, the park came with its own copy of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. That version of the ride closed in 2019 as the park’s Backlot was reimagined into an Avengers Campus. The coaster re-opened in 2022 with the same layout, but as Avengers Assemble: Flight Force, sending guests rocketing through the stars with Iron Man and Captain Marvel. So now, two otherwise unrelated and very differently decorated Disney coasters both use the layout above. 

• What makes this coaster unusual is just how un-unusual it is. In fact, this ride is one of twenty eight twins across the world (including one that’s less than 15 miles away).
  
• This could be the Chip & Dale Gadget Coaster at Disneyland except for one thing… 
  
• The one thing that makes this version different from its 27 siblings is that its it’s layout is mirrored versus the more common off-the-shelf model.

ANSWER: Yep, it’s the Barnstormer at Magic Kingdom! Flip it and you’ve got not just Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster at Universal Studios and Chip & Dale’s Gadget Coaster at Disneyland, but a whole lot more. (This is a Vekoma Junior Coaster – 207m model. The longer, taller, 335m model has 29 identical installations of its own, including the Flight of the Hippogriff at Universal’s Islands of Adventure.)

• This roller coaster is made up of two heavily intertwined but completely independent ride tracks. 
  
• Both tracks use a unique water brake that not only serves as a visual splashdown for onlookers, but helps lower the trains’ speed re-entering the station.
  
• This ride wasn’t just Disney’s first coaster; it was the first modern, tubular-tracked, steel roller coaster on Earth.

ANSWER: Before Disneyland’s Matterhorn Bobsleds, all roller coasters were what we’d now call “wooden coasters.” The groundbreaking innovation of the ride – designed and built by legendary classic coaster manufacturer Arrow Dynamics of California – also came with a cutting-edge computer system that used block sections to allow multiple trains to safely travel through the ride at once. 

• This coaster also launches riders into a complex “spaghetti bowl” of track.
  
• This is the longest indoor roller coaster on Earth.
  
• Even though a massive Disney dark ride once occupied the space, only the coaster’s load and unload fit into the very large pavilion it took over.

ANSWER: Spoiler alert! You’re looking at the layout of the new Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT. At 5,577 feet long, the more-than-a-mile coaster including multiple launches, randomized music selections, and – its signature – first-of-its-kind “Omnicoaster” technology that allows the coaster to rotate throughout the ride. Unlike free-spin coasters, Cosmic Rewind follows a pre-programmed rotational plan, orienting guests forwards, backwards, and sideways to view show elements as they travel back from the Big Bang.

• Nearly every “Castle Park” on Earth has a ride with this name, but only one version has this layout.
  
• Despite the sensation most guests report, this coaster’s top speed is actually less than Seven Dwarfs Mine Train’s.
  
• “Based on” the Matterhorn, this coaster also includes two separate tracks, but they’re nearly perfect mirror images of each other.

ANSWER: You’re looking at the jaw-dropping interior of Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain… Which kinda sorta helps explain why “near-miss” illusions cause most guests to keep their hands and arms well inside the “rocket” during flight… Opened in 1975, Magic Kingdom’s version of the ride is the only one that uses the mirrored double coaster layout. Despite leaving many children and parents shrieking with memories of their white knuckle interstellar journey, Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain only reaches speeds of 27 miles per hour – typically, the speed limit on a residential street.