I Have Social Anxiety, and I Avoid This Disney World Ride at All Costs

Here we are again, friends.

Has my social anxiety gone away since we last chatted? Not in the slightest. Did I also just take a trip to Disney World anyway and was reminded how bad I am in social situations? ABSOLUTELY. So here are Disney World rides I avoid unless I want to have a panic attack and/or rethink my awkward interaction with the people around me approximately 50,000 times throughout the rest of the day.

TRON Lightcycle/Run

Let me walk you though this: I have written posts about TRON ever since it opened about a year ago in Magic Kingdom. I knew about the virtual queue, I knew that the ride was pretty short but that the launch was epic, and despite writing about how to get on the Lightcycles MANY times, I STILL MESSED IT UP.

YES. You’re not supposed to climb over the first bike to get to the other, because it’s unsafe. So the Cast Member very kindly but very suddenly had to correct me, and I felt like I had just moved my card from green to red in elementary school.

In my defense, the Virtual Queue line is usually quite long (which is another reason I usually wouldn’t do well with it), so you watch the preparation video a few times while you wait, but I went during the Happily Ever After fireworks, and it was DEAD. Before I knew it, I was at the front of the line and had zero clue what I was doing.

Kali River Rapids

Ah, one of the most hated rides in Disney World. I’ll be honest, I don’t mind water rides at all. I will willingly walk with no rain gear in the pouring rain in the parks, so getting soaked isn’t something I’m against. No, there’s a whole other reason I can’t do this ride.

YOU SIT WITH LIKE 11 STRANGERS! Well, that’s in my case since I’m usually going alone, but unless you have a large amount of people in your travel party, you will very likely be seated with strangers. And I don’t know about you, but that’s a decently long time to be hanging out with people you don’t know.

If you’re saying, “well just don’t talk to them!” or even worse, “Just strike up a conversation!” I invite you to take a look back at the title of this post and remember this is ME we’re talking about. I have two modes when anxious — silent shy mouse or word vomit central, there is no in between. I’ll forgo this experience all together, thank you.

Rise of the Resistance

HEAR ME OUT, okay, don’t hate me yet. I adore Rise of the Resistance and love how interactive it is. I am also literally an actor, but if I’m not in the right state of mind before those doors open and I’m about to be interrogated…ruh roh.

Rise of the Resistance is a very unique ride in the sense that the Cast Members stationed throughout the experience are often VERY into their characters. And that’s incredible! But if they expect me to interact back, I may get so nervous I accidentally reveal WAY too much information, aka the location of the secret base. (I never agreed to be a spy, okay, I’m TRYING MY BEST.)

In all seriousness though, the Cast Members usually only interact with the people they notice seem to be really eager to participate, but sometimes, communication signals get crossed, and halfway through the ride I’m still trying to (unsuccessfully) calm down my heartbeat.

Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run

You know exactly where I’m going with this one — you are quite literally FLYING the Millennium Falcon in this ride and what you do and don’t do genuinely affects what happens. STRESS!

I’ll say it again — STRANGER DANGER! Have you ever had children piloting your flight? What about people who have zero clue what’s going on (regardless of age)? Yeah, it’s not fun.

I’ll be honest, I love piloting, but not with strangers. I’m not terrible (my brother may disagree, but he’s not here right now, so we’ll go off my totally non-biased assessment), but I’m also not the greatest. What if the rest of the group yells at me in the heat of battle? Yeah no, I’ll stick with single rider as a solo traveler and just pressing a ton of buttons. 

Mission: SPACE

Y’all are about to learn way more than you wanted to about me (or not if the editors take this out — hi editors!), but my biggest phobia is emetophobia, which is the fear of throwing up. You see exactly where this is going, right?

Yeah, Mission: SPACE Orange Mission is so intense with its G-Forces that there are barf bags INSIDE the ride vehicle. Green Mission is much less intense, as it doesn’t have those G-Forces, but a lot of people hop on Orange Mission not realizing just how intense it is, and that’s where my fear comes in. (Plus, how the HECK do you handle that situation normally, not to mention with crippling anxiety? I think I’d just curl up in a ball and die.)

Thankfully, I’ve never been on the ride with someone who got sick, but that’s because I used to ride it at off-peak times when I was sometimes the only one in the vehicle. I’m also not prone to motion sickness myself, but I’m terrified that it’ll suddenly change, and I’ll be on the ride and start to feel queasy, and then I’ll be anxious for the rest of the day.

And that, my friends, is why you won’t catch me on these rides unless I’ve REALLY done some soul searching and worked myself up to it. So if you’re like me, you may want to think twice about these rides, or at least have a plan going in for how to reduce anxiety triggers as much as possible. And as always, stay tuned to AllEars for the latest Disney news!

If you’re also socially anxious, these are restaurants you may DEFINITELY want to skip!

What ride would you add to this list? Tell us in the comments!

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