Welcome space travelers. How’d you like to take a flight to the moon? When the attraction Flight to the Moon first debuted at Walt Disney World, man had never walked on the moon. By 1975 in Tomorrowland, a world of the future not the present, trips to the moon were passé, so Disney offered one better than a trip to the moon… now guests could take a trip to Mars. The journey began in Mission Control, where an Audio-Animatronic® figure, Mr. Johnson, who looked and sounded remarkably like the previous attraction host, Mr. Tom Morrow, both voiced by radio announcer George Walsh, helped us to understand what to expect during our journey. Guest flight crews were then escorted to another room, comfortably seated and ready for the simulated journey to Mars. The tour guide for the actual flight was the voice of Third Officer Collins, voiced by veteran voice actor Pete Renoudet, who has provided voices for many theme park attractions and even Mickey Mouse on Disney records. The Mars journey featured circular film screens both at the top and bottom of the theater, acting as “windows” showing our location in the universe. An informative trip around the Red Planet allowed us to admire the surface and even see Olympus Mons, which is actually the largest volcano in the solar system. Unfortunately, a shower of meteoritic particles causes damage to our vehicle, our journey is aborted, and we are forced to make a hyperspace return to the Magic Kingdom. The last Disney trip to Mars returned on this day in 1993. Today that location is home to another out of this world attraction, Stitch’s Great Escape.
