"Living for the Anxiety of a Backwards Launch" — We Did NOT Expect This to Happen to Us on the Guardians Ride in EPCOT

If there’s one thing most people dread happening to them on a ride in Disney World, it’s getting stuck.

Now, for us, since we get the chance to go on these rides frequently, we don’t mind being stopped briefly; however, getting stuck for a while or at a stressful part of the ride certainly isn’t ideal. Personally, I’ve been stuck on many rides, but only evacuated from three (which was really interesting!). However, there’s ONE spot I’ve gotten stuck at before that I hope to NEVER repeat, because talk about anxiety!

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is one of my favorite rides in all of Disney World — in fact, I think it IS my favorite — and a big part of that is because of its thrill factor. I love most roller coasters, and this one is SO smooth. The screens, fortunately, don’t give me any motion sickness, and I feel they enhance the smoothness of the attraction so much.

This is also the only ride in Disney World that has a backwards launch. While Expedition Everest GOES backwards at one point, it’s not a launch, so we think they’re different. While it’s beyond thrilling and exciting, this is also THE WORST spot to get stuck at on the ride, because you never know when the launch is actually going to happen.

This actually happened to me on a previous trip! There I was, riding by myself (so a stranger was beside me), and we had already struck up a conversation about what song we were hoping to get. We were both stoked as our cars turned backwards, hoping we’d get at least one of the songs we were hoping for. Since I’ve ridden the attraction multiple times, I know the line of dialogue the backwards launch is supposed to happen right after, which is Gamora saying, “I think we jumped back.” After that line, there’s usually a brief pause, then a flash of light as whatever song you get begins to play, and you’re shot backwards.

In this case, though, that didn’t happen. Gamora said her line, there was a brief pause, and then the lines KEPT GOING. There was no change in lights or beginning of the song, but it was clear we were delayed. These lines are only heard if the ride is delayed for a brief amount of time, which can sometimes occur if someone in another car at the station needs assistance getting on or off, or if a minor issue needs to be addressed quickly.

Since our lights didn’t turn on, I had a feeling we’d be going soon, but there would be no visual or audio cue to inform us what to expect. Suddenly, time felt like it had doubled. It was that excited-yet-nervous feeling in your stomach, like butterflies, when you know something is about to happen, but don’t know when. I started chatting with my seatmate again, and then, just as I expected, about 10-15 seconds after the delay started, BAM, we shot backwards and were off. Since this was such a short amount of time, we didn’t have any announcement from Cast Members telling us we’d begin moving soon, but when you’re sitting there, in the dark, knowing the main part of the roller coaster is about to start, but you’ve got no clue when, yeesh, the anxiety is REAL. Those 15 seconds felt like a lifetime!

Thankfully, the rest of my ride was smooth, and I can’t IMAGINE being stuck here for minutes on end, having no idea if or when the ride will start back up (in those cases, though, work lights will likely turn on, and you’ll hear updates from Cast Members, so you won’t be totally in the dark).