Ever been selected to ride something before it opens?

[DisneyFreak23]

Have you or anyone that you know ever been selected to ride or experience an attraction before it opens? i haven't but it sure would be cool. post your stories here!

[robhink]

I've been in the right spot twice to experience attraction "soft" openings.

In January 1995, I was able to ride the "first" version of Alien Encounter at the Magic Kingdom. This was the version that Eisner rode and ordered reworked before it opened later in 1995.

In December 1998, I was able to visit the Maharajah Jungle Trek in the Animal Kingdom. It was the last day of our vacation and we were in the park early and it had just opened for visitors that month.

[disneycouple2004]

We did !!..Mission Space ...you think is intense now...you should have been on the test runs..we rode it about 10 times back to back..each time they changed things..it was amazing...alot of people could not handle it....it was all i could do to hold it back..but i made it all 10 runs...way cool

[SpecJoe Magic]

I was also among the firsts of the general public to ride Mission: Space, but I don't recall whether or not it was more intense than it is now even though some claim that the current orange version is less intense than the original version. I just happened to notice a Cast Member wearing what appeared to be a M:S costume standing out in front of the ride. I asked her about it and was told that early previews were occurring. This happened in June 2003 (the ride officially opened in October 2003), and it was such a pleasant and exciting surprise.

[MGKpotc8283]

This happened to me twice that I can remember. The first time which was a while ago, my family was there for Christmas. My brother and I were at EPCOT and they were having a preview for Test Track. We waited in line for what seemed forever and then right as we were about to get into the car, it broke down (they were still having a lot of problems with the ride at this point). Well we hung around for the hour it took to fix and finally rode. The second time was just this past March when me and my brother were down. I guess they were having a "soft" opening for the Monsters Inc. Comedy Club. We were just walking by and a cast-member working there asked if we wanted to go in. We of course said yes, and saw the show.

[mrp4352]

We went on the Keys to the Kingdom tour, and they told us to come back the next day because it would be the very first time the 25th anniversary parade would be shown to the public. It was the first 'interactive' parade, and had the beautiful crystal palace for the princesses ("Come sway along with us!" ) The float is now part of the MVMCP parade. It was very cool to be among the first to see it!

[Lizzie]

We went on the new Finding Nemo ride at Epcot before it opened. We went to see Crush and were suprised to be riding in clam shells to get to him.

[Dawnya]

We rode Mission Space before it opened. "soft" run. It was cool. As a mom, I was really hopeing that they pretty much had the bugs worked out of the system. DS was scared to death. It was pretty cool. There were people standing in line hopeing to get to ride it. We were just walking by. Afterwards the CM's standing outside asked the kids how they liked it and if they would ever ride it again, etc.

[Tink-N-Me]

Actually, I was able to do this twice. First on the Buzz Lightyear ride which was awesome because my DSs were so into Toy Story at that time. The second time it was Stitch's Great Escape for its soft opening. My youngest DS was pretty young at the time and there were no height restrictions determined yet. The CMs had him sit in a seat by himself and in the middle of the ride he got scared and climbed out of the seat. Luckily I was sitting next to him and was able to grab ahold of him and pull him onto my lap for the duration of the ride. Needless to say...it was his favorite ride at Disney, but my other 2 DSs loved it!

[LandFan]

Mission Space!! It definitely was tougher in the beta testing! I've since heard that the video and audio were out of sync during the time that we rode it and that is why so many of us were like

[BriarRose]

I know you are talking about WDW, but being a westcoaster, my experience was with Space Mountain at DL. We were there in May 1977 and they were still testing the speed. It was great! We even got bumper stickers that said "I survived Space Mountain".

I am so dating myself! I was 8 at the time, but I remember it so clearly. The next time we rode it in 1979, they had slowed it down quite a bit.

[LudwigVonDrake]

I was there for the soft openings of Mission: Space. I had one ride that the video kept going in and out. It was interesting to say the least.

[PrincessEmmasMommy]

I did the soft opening of Everest! We just happened upon it to see that it was already open. What a ride! They were asking everyone who got off the ride what they thought of it.
Jen

[LarryBoy]

We also got to ride Everest during the soft opening. Thanks to Intercot, I knew there was a good chance we would get to ride it. I knew they were doing the soft opening so we went to check it out, and loved it by the way!

[ILive4Disney]

It was Soarin' for us!!

[KAT1811]

Not an attraction but Epcot, the entire park. My family was staying at Fort Wilderness and they gave us all passes to preview Epcot in order to get our feedback. The "ponds" didn't even have water in them yet!

[LoriMistress]

We did !!..Mission Space ...you think is intense now...you should have been on the test runs..we rode it about 10 times back to back..each time they changed things..it was amazing...alot of people could not handle it....it was all i could do to hold it back..but i made it all 10 runs...way cool

I would have loved to test out that ride! That's one of my favorite rides. I can go on this ride numerous times without getting sick.

[TinkiTime1989]

Not a ride but my mom and I got to preview the new Behind the Seeds Tour at EPCOT a few years ago when they re-did it for FREE! It was a lot of fun, especially since The Land has always been one of my favorite things (I'm not really sure why either lol). It was cool to get to see everything going on backstage, especially since Living With The Land was down for refurbishment.

[markb]

We got to ride Soarin' and see Philharmagic and the Nemo Musical before they opened, during the AP Previews. I almost got to ride RnR in 1999 during a soft opening, but nobody else in the group wanted to join me

[Morpheous]

Well, twice for me.. Once the one time I went to WDW.. and once at Disneyland...

We got to ride Soarin at Epcot during a soft opening, it was pretty cool.. but we had already been on it Dozens of times at Disneyland Resort. But still always cool to ride a ride before its official open date.

The Other time was at Disneyworld for the Indiana Jones Ride just before it first opened. That was a lonnng time ago and I was alot younger so I dont remember it too much, beyond the fact that I loved it and it become one of my favorite rides.