So, my brother and i experienced this ride through all 3 original incarnations, soft opening, tweek, and final. And I have to say, it’s the single most amazing ride we have ever experienced at Disney. In the soft opening version.
Anyone else feel the same?
I guess the versions I saw was the final. Can’t say I especially liked it - but was certainly better than Stitch that replaced it.
I only experienced the final version. I really enjoyed the attraction and am sorry it is gone. That said, I would not say it’s the most amazing ride I have experienced at WDW.
I only rode it once or maybe twice on my first ever trip, so I don’t remember it clearly, but I did enjoy it.
I am not sure which versions I tried. The first time was in 1995. But I remember being impressed. A good percentage of adults were coming off in tears. Including my wife. It did have the employee getting eaten alive and we got splattered with blood.
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I saw it in 2003. When I went back in 2005 it had changed to Stitch. I imagine it was because of the one little girl who was sitting by me in the 2003 ride who is probably still traumatized to this day.
We loved it. But, as a parent, I would not want my kids going on that. When we went in “It’s Tough to be a bug” We knew they might be scared so we got by the door. There was no leaving in ALien Encounter.
It wasn’t the most amazing ride ever, but it was super cool .
The trouble was, people didn’t believe the signs. The signs basically told parents not to take kids. But this was the Magic Kingdom. How bad could it be?
When aliens are eating human being alive, though, the warnings should have been heeded.
I do believe that a later version (before Stitch) changed it so that the guy wasn’t actually eaten. But that first version we saw, he was definitively dead as a door nail. It was so incredibly well done and immersive, though.
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I loved alien encounter before it became stitches escape. It was definitely not for young children in its original version! The later two versions were not as good, but less scary for little ones.
The one I saw in 2003 had the “worker” on top of the cage that got eaten. We felt the “Blood” splatter, which was really just water.
You are correct. There were signs and it was immersive. I’m honestly not sure if I would have taken my kids on it or not, because I would have thought what you just said - How bad can it really be?
Okay. So apparently they didn’t get rid of that part as I had thought!
Me, being the engineer, sat there in awe of how they pulled it all off. But my wife was in tears and lots of people (both men and women) were screaming and walked out in tears. I do feel bad for the poor kids whose parents dragged them on it. I can just imagine later.
Mom: “It’s a Small World!”
Child: “No way I’m riding that!”
Mom: “But it’s just full of dolls. It is cute!”
Child: “Yeah. Dolls that eat people. Ever seen Chucky?”
Mom: “No, really. It is fine.”
Child: “That’s what you said last time!”
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I agree that from en engineering perspective, it was very well done, and I wish they could have used the AA alien somewhere else. I think had it been in DHS it would still be going strong and would be one of the more popular attractions, but it was dreadfully out of place in the MK. The old “Mission to Mars” was horribly dated and desperately needed replacing, but not with that. I don’t remember seeing adults in tears, but some of the screaming kids may have needed a nightlight until they were in their teens.
My kids never went on it, they were too young at the time and the oldest too sensitive- he’s 26 and I still would not let him go even now 
… I went once and that was enough. We never did the Stitch version, not a fan of Stitch…
I always felt it was completely out of place at MK. It should have been over in DHS. I guess they thought, hey, it’s space-themed let’s put it in Tomorrowland 
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Experiened it in 1995 and 2000. Terrifying! I don’t miss it at all.
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