The Price of Progress

Obviously, free admission to the theme parks is one of the biggest perks of the CP. I'm looking immensly forward to seeing how many times i can ride It's a Small World before I lose my mind, and riding Tower of Terror until I find enough guts to keep my hands up the entire time. I'm going to be testing the limits of human endurance.

Unfortunately, my ride count might be a little low on one of my all-time favorites. Space Mountain will be going down for a long refurbishment this month. The refurb is scheduled to last until November 2009, at which time I will still have at least a full month to get in some rides. But I would imagine that it's not unusual for a project like this to run behind schedule.

There is a bright side, I suppose : a couple of years ago, the Haunted Mansion was down for 3 months. In that time, they put in quite a few substantial updates, and changed some of the show elements. If they can do all of that in just 3 months, Space Mountain may be in for some big changes during its 7 month refurb!

But, that still doesn't change the fact that I'm bummed. One of the defining rides of WDW, and it won't even be open most of the months that I'm down there. And as you can see from the cheesy publicity photo above, this ride is tons of fun! Look how much those kids are enjoying it, with their 90's haircuts and that crazy guy in the back. I'm just going to have to find some way to work through my disappointment...hmm...maybe I can ride Its a Small World enough times to shrivel the "disappointment" compartment of my brain.