Good Morning! I’m taking my husband to WDW for his birthday in December. He LOVES all things space, Mars and Zero-G so I figured Orange was the best pick for him. I’m personally a little concerned about getting sick on it so when is it better to ride it? First thing in the morning or after lunch. I’ve read conflicting recommendations so I’m really not sure what to do.
Thanks!
If you are prone to motion sickness at all, then you might consider doing green instead, or taking Dramamine the night before and doing it early.
But if you don’t take medication for it, I’d not recommend first thing. If you get motion sickness on your first ride of the day, you might ruin the rest of the day! I know for me, once motion sickness sets in, it takes a long time to feel better.
I’ve done Orange without medication, but I do come off slightly queasy. I don’t get motion sickness easily, but things that go round/upside down, as I age, affect me far more than they used to. I think I’ll end up trying the less-drowsy Dramamine for our next trip.
It’s not the feeling of Zero-Gs that get people ‘sick’ it is the feeling of Plus-Gs.
I like the feeling that it gives.
Just one word of advice if you do ride it, Don’t move your head. Put your head back, look forward. Moving your head is what gets you ‘sick’
Don’t ride it on an empty stomach.
Thanks everyone for the feedback. Will definitely take Dramamine just in case I do decide to join. I also feel I get queasier as I get older.
The motion sickness has virtually noting to do the “Gs” that you pull, but rather the spinning that is required to create the Gs.
I have never been prone to motion sickness (I’ve flown in the back seat of Navy fighter jets), but as an Aerospace Physiologist, talking about motion sickness to student aviators was a frequent event. As you have no control over your “aircraft” here are the few things that you can do (without meds)
Don’t move your head around; keep it back against the headrest and look around with your eyes. If you must move your head, slowly rotate it. Do not tip it from side to side and do not look up or dawn.
Don’t ride on a completely empty stomach. You may not want to chow down on a giant burrito or go right after a gorge-fest at BG, but something in you stomach will help “keep it in place” a bit more. We frequently recommend bananas as they taste almost as good coming back up as they do going down.
Do not ride after consuming alcohol. Alcohol effects the specific gravity of the endolymph in your inner ears, which can lead to increased potential to motion sickness.
All that being said, as someone with no motion sickness issues, I like to ride after a couple of margaritas, and I intentionally move my head around because I love the vertigo rush you get from it…
Never. Sorry it’s the one ride in all of Disney that makes me sick.
Mission: Space Orange is a 4.5/5 barf bag ride. 
It’s almost as bad as Forbidden Journey. I wish I had @bswan26’s expert advice before I had ridden it. I highly recommend riding Green if you are at all prone to motion sickness on the likes of Star Tours.
(P.S. I don’t get sick on roller coasters - just simulators. It’s a very different phenomenon.)
“Simulator Sickness” is a very real thing, even among seasoned aviators. This comes about from a phenomena called “sensory mismatch” - when the eyes are telling you one thing and other sensory systems are telling you something else. On simple things like a linear acceleration it’s pretty easy; show a video of going faster (e.g. going to light speed) and tip the simulator pack (pushing you into your seat) and the effect is very good. Rocking side to side is the same.
The issue with MS is that it’s using radial acceleration (spinning in a centrifuge) combined with a visual picture of linear acceleration - serious mismatch.
I’ve been in military training centrifuges where I’ve experienced 8 Gs along the +Z axis (i.e. pulling straight from to head to your butt). I had no problems, but there are certainly aviators who become quite sick during the training. Here’s a very short video
I wish it was longer, but it’s the best I could find on line. I have much better in my own collection, but on this site you can only link to videos, not upload them directly.
This is the one attraction I regret riding on our last visit in May. I had only ridden MS Green once before. It was fine not very interesting so I wanted to see if the Orange version would be better. I am not prone to motion sickness and ride all other Disney attractions. During “orange” I followed directions and kept my head against the headrest, but felt awful. I had to conjure up those breaking exercising I learned 20 years before in Lamaze Classes. I’d ride green and let hubby ride orange. During the ride, it’s not really a shared experience.
I’ve only gotten motion sickness once…and that was when I rode Star Tours 10 times in a row. So, I love Orange…but, I’m always weary of taking people on Orange. I usually do Green if I’m with other people. There is such a huge jump from Green to Orange that you riding Green to ‘test the waters’ doesn’t really give you a good idea.
This! I did it once and will never do it again. My DH didn’t even know it was a thing because I’ve never mentioned it or put it in any of our plans 
Unfortunately, my DS (who ironically gets motion sick in the car and on planes) loves the ride but he is old enough to ride alone–I take the time to browse at Mouse Gear.
We were recently watching a video on YouTube about EPCOT and DH was like what is that? And I was like “Mission Space, we don’t ride that” and he didn’t ask anymore questions lol. Luckily he trusts my judgement and I truly think he’d hate it.
Thanks for the insightful explanation.
Last time I rode it was after fish and chips and dessert. Survived but I don’t recommend that combination 
@Jeff_AZ my FIL gets simulator sick too so I totally get it
@bswan26 great tips especially with the banana. I think I’ll put it sometime after a light breakfast, and make sure he eats a banana.
Whether or not I do it is still debatable. Definitely don’t want to feel sick all day, especially with the Festival of the Holidays going on when we go since I’ve never been. I’ve been to Disneyland several times (both CA and Paris) but I’m a WDW newbie.
I still can’t talk myself into going on Orange again I’ve done it once. Probably never again. (I have been on Green a few times). I am prone to motion sickness, but usually Bonine works for me. Not on this ride. It made my first trip to Epcot a not fun day 
(I love Epcot now that I avoid that ride)