Days After Debut: Disney World Attraction Faces Complaints After Political Uproar

We have been on Soarin’ more times than we can count at this point. Soarin’ Over California is genuinely one of our favorite theme park attractions on the planet. Soarin’ Around the World was a step up in geographic ambition even if it did not fully top the original for a lot of people.

So when cast member previews of Soarin’ Across America opened up and we got the chance to ride, we were paying close attention.

Here is what we found. And here is what a lot of other people found too, because the reactions across social media have been fairly consistent on a few specific things.

Soarin’ Across America officially opens at EPCOT on May 26th and at Disneyland Resort on July 2nd. Annual Passholder preview days are May 19th and 20th, with Disney Vacation Club member access on May 21st.

Here is what the film actually is before we get into the problems: The ride begins with an Artemis II rocket launch from Kennedy Space Center before sweeping you across the Statue of Liberty and the New York skyline, the Maine coast and the Portland Head Light lighthouse, the National Mall and Washington Monument, a Louisiana bayou, the Great Plains, Mount Rushmore, the hibiscus-scented shores of Diamond Head in Hawaii, and the Los Angeles skyline including the Griffith Observatory and Hollywood Sign.

The finale returns to EPCOT, where Spaceship Earth is wrapped in a projection of the American flag while fireworks form eagle shapes, stars, and a hidden Mickey in the sky.

The queue got some love too. Brighter blue LED lighting, new carpet, and a new interactive trivia game called The Soarin’ Challenge Across America developed with National Geographic. Patrick Warburton is back in the pre-show as Captain Patrick for a new comedic safety briefing. We liked those additions. The ride itself is where we have notes.

Problem One: The Transitions Are Gone and You Feel It

If you are a regular Soarin’ rider, you know exactly what we mean when we talk about the transitions. The plane that cuts across the frame and carries you into the next scene. The wave rolling in to wash the image away. The physical seat movement that sells the shift from one location to the next.

Those moments are not just nice-to-haves. They are what makes the ride feel like you are actually flying rather than watching a very large movie.

Soarin’ Across America has pulled back significantly on all of that. The version is designed to be quieter and more peaceful, which is a legitimate creative direction, but the effect for a lot of riders has been a ride that feels disjointed rather than continuous.

The scenes arrive and depart without the connective tissue that made the previous versions feel like a coherent journey. After our first ride we kept thinking: is something missing? And yes, something is missing. The transitions are missing.

Problem Two: Three Smells for the Entire Ride

This one might sound minor until you have been on a version of Soarin’ that absolutely nails the scent work and then you ride one that does not. We counted three scents across the entire film: fresh grass over the prairie, earthy swamp water in Louisiana, and hibiscus in Hawaii. Three.

Soarin’ Over California had orange groves and pine and sea air and a series of scented moments woven throughout. Soarin’ Around the World had its own throughline of scents matching the landscapes.

The scent experience is a huge part of what makes Soarin’ feel like you are somewhere rather than watching somewhere. Three scents across a film of this length leaves a lot of the ride sensory-flat in a way that pulls you out of the experience at the exact moments when you should be most in it.

Problem Three: Soarin’ Over California Is Still Winning

We are just going to say this plainly because it needs to be said.

Soarin’ Over California opened in 2001. It is a 25-year-old film made with 2001 technology. And after riding Soarin’ Across America, we are still not ready to say it has been dethroned. We are not the only ones. Across social media, the overwhelmingly dominant take from cast member preview riders has been that Soarin’ Over California is still the best version of this ride.

That should not be possible in 2026. The technology available to Disney Imagineering today compared to what existed in 2001 is not even comparable. And yet here we are. The question that keeps coming up in our conversations and in every review thread we have read is: how much work actually went into this?

The Political Reception Is Also Happening and It Is Worth Acknowledging

Separate from everything we just said about the ride mechanics, Soarin’ Across America has walked into a controversy that its predecessors never had to deal with.

The specific creative choices in the film have generated sustained pushback from a portion of the Disney fan community. Mount Rushmore has a genuinely complicated history in American culture and its prominent placement in the ride has been read by some as an intentional choice rather than a neutral geographical one. Branson, Missouri has specific cultural associations that generated similar reactions. But the moment that broke through most loudly was the finale.

Spaceship Earth, the structure that literally defines EPCOT and was designed to represent global communication, shared human progress, and the unity of all people on earth, is covered entirely by a projection of the American flag at the climax of the ride. For the portion of the Disney community that sees EPCOT as specifically a park about global unity, that image landed as something more like a statement than a celebration.

The nickname “Soarin’ Over MAGA” has spread across social media and is now part of the conversation around this attraction ahead of its public opening. Disney designed this as a bipartisan celebration of the United States’ 250th birthday through the Disney Celebrates America initiative. Whether that framing holds up with the general public when they start riding on May 26th is the open question.

Imagineering was given a task that may have had no clean solution: create a universally resonant American celebration in a cultural moment where almost nothing reads as universally resonant. The early results suggest the attempt produced something that lands very differently for different people.

What This Means for Your EPCOT Visit

We want to be clear about something: you should ride this. Form your own opinion. The Annual Passholder preview reviews that come out of May 19th and 20th will be the most useful data point before the public opening, because AP guests tend to be experienced enough riders to articulate what specifically works and what does not.

The concerns from cast member previews are consistent enough that we think you should go in with calibrated expectations rather than building the visit up as a replacement for something you already love. Fewer transitions. Fewer smells. A more explicitly patriotic framing that will resonate differently depending on who is watching. Those are the things we heard over and over.

As a food and lifestyle Disney site we are not in the business of telling you what political opinions to bring to a theme park attraction. That is genuinely your business. What we are in the business of is telling you what the experience is actually like so your day goes well. And based on cast previews, the experience is quieter, more patriotic, and more sensory-minimal than previous versions of the ride.

If EPCOT is in your plans around the May 26th opening, keep an eye on the AP preview responses coming out of May 19th and 20th before you finalize your expectations. We will have our full coverage up as soon as those previews generate fresh reviews. Check back here for updated takes on how Soarin’ Across America is landing with the broader Disney community.