Rock’N’Roller Coaster with Aerosmith will be closing on March 1st. We got to do our last super stretch ride with Aerosmith last weekend. Life is going to be busy the next two months. Riding through was bittersweet as I am excited for the Muppets but have so many fun memories with Aerosmith! You have until the end of February to get those backstage passes. But let’s hop on and go for one last ride on Rock’N’Roller Coaster together!
Rock’N’Roller Coaster with Aerosmith
Rock’N’Roller Coaster featuring Aerosmith opened on July 29, 1999. There was a grand opening that Aerosmith attended. This was part of the first expansion of what was then, MGM Studios. Rock’N’Roller Coasters initial launch sends riders from 0-57 mph in 2.8 seconds! It’s the only roller coaster in Disney World that goes upside down and has a cork screw. Disneyland Paris also had Rock’N’Roller Coaster with Aerosmith but it was retimed to Avengers Assemble: Flight Force.
There have not been a lot of changes to Rock’N’Roller Coaster over the years. But there have been some interesting overlays. In 2015 Disney did a Star Wars overlay to promote the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The queue line featured Star Wars posters and the pre-show was disabled and replaced with just music from the movie playing. Disney did this same overlay again in 2017. In 2016 the pre-show was edited to take out what people said was a crud hand gesture called the shocker that Steven Tyler was making. My question was always, why did you notice that and how many people even know what that is without looking it up? But they blurred out his had, it was weird! Haha!
Muppets Takeover Rock’N’Roller Coaster
In 2024 Disney announced that The Muppets would be taking over Rock’N’Roller Coaster from Aerosmith. Honestly, I felt like this was our consolation prize for the announcement that Muppet Vision 3D and Muppet Courtyard were closing. Absolutely not the same but still glad the Muppets will have a place in Hollywood Studios. They should really put Miss Piggy’s fountain over there, just saying! There will not be any changes to the ride itself, it will still be what it is now, just with Muppets instead of Aerosmith. The retime is set to open in Summer of this year!
Our Last Ride on Rock’N’Roller Coaster
This holiday season felt so much busier than usual so we didn’t get to Hollywood Studios before 2025 ended to see all the decorations. So that was our first park of the year once our passes were no longer blacked out! First priority after seeing decorations was to ride Rock’N’Roller Coaster with Aerosmith one last time. Dance season is starting a little early this year and a busy schedule means we may not make it back to Hollywood Studios to ride again before March 1st. Gotta do it when we can!
The Wait
The posted wait time was 85 minutes. Which meant that the hubs and Thatcher bailed on us, they are not big on long wait times! But Sawyer and I were determined and decided to wait. Honestly it was nice to have that much time alone with the big kid. That doesn’t happen very often and we had a good time goofing off in the line. I kept bugging him that we could have gone through single rider and he just didn’t want to do it. He finally said “look I just really want to ride it one more time with my mom ok, not a stranger.” I’m not sure if that was true or if he just didn’t want to ride with a stranger but my mom heart grew three inches that day! Haha!
Sawyer has a love/hate relationship with his ride. When he was first tall enough to ride we were here with my dance studio for a performance. We were hanging out with a family we were very close with at Hollywood Studios. We did ride swap with them since Thatcher was just a baby. Me, Sawyer and the hubs rode first and then Sawyer went with them. BUT, when he went the second time they told him he was too short. They even took him to a back room with a measuring tape and a ride vehicle he had to sit in. They did not let him ride that second time and Sawyer vowed he would never ride that ride again because they were mean! Needless to say he got over that but he still brings it up to this day!
Was The Wait Time Accurate
Unfortunately yes it was. We did wait a good 80 minutes, but like I said it was kind of nice to hang out with the big kid. The pre-show had already closed back in December. We were a little bummed we didn’t get to see Steven Tyler’s blurred hand and get those backstage passes one last time. The ride was fantastic, as always and well worth the wait.
Conclusion
Although I love Aerosmith and we have had some good times on this ride, I am excited to see how the Muppets takeover. Someone mentioned it would be cool if Statler and Waldorf were heckling people in the garage area right before you blast off. I honestly can’t unsee that in my mind now and hope they do that! As Disney fans we get upset about changes, rethemes and attraction closures but Walt always said the parks would always be changing, growing and evolving. I think if they really get it right, this one could be a really cool change. How are you feeling about this change? Will you get one more concert in with Aerosmith before the take their final bow? I hope you do and I hope you have the most magical day!