The answer to this question may be: I am old! But imma ask it anyway…
When we went to WDW in 2000, we all loved Space Mountain and Dinosaur. I have a vivid memory of that wonderful WHEEEEEE!!! feeling of riding a coaster on SM.
We visited WDW again in 2018 and both SM and Dino were downright horrible. Felt more like shaken baby syndrome than an amusement ride. And all the visuals on Dino just sucked… was there too much ambient light? Were portions of the ride gone?
I recently heard a podcast talking about SM @ DL being great but SM @ WDW sucking. I had thought it was just me being a brittle old hag that didn’t enjoy these rides as much as my younger self. But the podcast made me wonder… is it deferred maintenance? Are the rides not being fine tuned as well? Interested to hear your thoughts.
SM is old, but it hasn’t really gotten noticeably worse. It is what it has always been as I remember it. I rode it two years ago and wasn’t terribly bothered by it.
Having said it, rumors are that it will undergo a massive refurbishment after Tron opens. So even Disney recognizes it had seen better days.
Dinosaur I’m not sure about, but SM had a refurb in 2010 that I think messed it up a bit. We went the year before and immediately after that refurb, and it was noticably rougher. Can’t chalk that up to getting older
Not sure if it’s me getting old or not, but SM is brutal; the only ride in WDW that leaves my back hurting. When I first rode it in '75, it was a whole different (much better) experience. The DL SM is one of my all-time favorite Disney rides; I could ride it all day.
Dino is rough, but it’s more side-to-side than hard vertical jolts so it doesn’t bother me. I haven’t been on Dino since it’s last major refurb so I can’t comment on the current state of the visuals, but from day one it has always been inferior to DL’s Indy ride (ride system is identical, theming completely different).
I just rode both in mid-Dec. and didn’t mind either on the roughness front. Dinosaur wasn’t a very interesting ride, but we loved Space and rode it multiple times.
Dinosaur was modified at some point to be a bit more kid friendly, but I don’t remember the year. The original ride was more intense, louder and darker. I much prefer the original.
I have also noticed that Space Mountain feels bumpier (in a bad way) than it used to, but I have no evidence to prove it other than my memory.
Looks like Dinosaur was changed a couple months after we rode it in 2000:
“Since the ride originally opened, there have been some adjustments made to the ride and effects. The first time warp tunnel (where the Time Rover is “sent back into the past”) no longer uses the lasers and pyro effects. The compsognathus that jumped over the Time Rover were on a chain and pulley system. This was deactivated and now they are only illuminated. A lot of the audio effects were tamed down, especially the chase with the carnotaurus. This was done as a lot of Guests were saying the ride was simply too frightening for children (and maybe themselves too!). The laser net was no longer used and the asteroid that is coming right at the Time Rover at the end is no longer in place; it was changed to a carnotaurus.”
