Advanced Training Lab

Advanced Training Lab: attraction at EPCOT, Walt Disney World — live wait times, operating status, and planning data on MouseHub.

Wait time history

Historical wait patterns for Advanced Training Lab accrete daily as MouseHub records waits every 15 minutes. Charts appear here once enough history exists.

Visitor sentiment

4.4· 47 Google ratings

The MouseHub take

The Advanced Training Lab is the indoor play area at the back of the Mission: SPACE pavilion in World Discovery at EPCOT, and it's where the ride sends you once the mission ends. Disney lists it as its own attraction at any height, so you can walk in without riding the centrifuge. The smallest cadets crawl through wormholes in the interactive playground, Space Base. Older kids head for Expedition Mars and fly over the Martian surface with a jetpack, working a joystick and a jet-pack button. A multiplayer game puts you against other players to send a rocket into space, and Postcards from Space records a short video and emails it wherever you want.

The pavilion opened on August 15, 2003 in the building that once held Horizons. The games look dated now, and teenagers tend to last a few minutes before drifting back out. Younger kids do better, and parents get what they came for: cool air, a bench, and a room where a toddler can run without anyone chasing. It's loud, the seating runs out by mid-afternoon, and a single rain shower fills the place. Come for the break rather than for the attraction.

At a glance

Best for
Families with young kids who need an indoor hour, and anyone waiting out a Mission: SPACE ride they're not taking.
Skip if
You want somewhere quiet to sit, or you have one EPCOT day and headliners still to get to.
Ride type
Indoor interactive play area and game room
Intensity
Loud and busy. No motion, no darkness, no height requirement.

The good

  • Air conditioning does most of the work here
    The lab is indoors and cool in the middle of a Florida afternoon, which is why plenty of families end up in it without having planned to.
  • Any height, so nobody sits it out
    Disney lists the lab at any height. Toddlers take the playground while older kids take the screens, and nobody waits outside with the stroller.
  • Non-riders wait in here, not outside
    Skip the centrifuge and you can still come in and sit down. The rest of the party walks out of the ride into the same room.
  • Space Base gives small kids room to climb
    The interactive playground is built for the youngest cadets, with wormholes to crawl through. It's the one part of the lab that gets a toddler moving instead of standing at a screen.
  • The rocket race works for a whole group
    The multiplayer game puts you against other players to send a rocket into space, so the party plays together rather than taking turns at one station.
  • Postcards from Space emails a video home
    Record a short space video at the kiosk and it goes out as an electronic postcard to whatever address you type in. It's the closest thing the lab has to a souvenir.

The bad

  • The room is loud
    Sound off a dozen screens bounces around an enclosed space, with kids shouting over the top of it. Anyone hoping for a quiet sit-down gets the opposite.
  • One rain shower and the lab is packed
    When an afternoon storm hits World Discovery, this is the nearest indoor room with something to do. The playground and the game stations back up within minutes.
  • The games look their age
    Expedition Mars reads as old software next to what teenagers play at home, and most of them drift off after a few minutes.
  • Benches fill up by mid-afternoon
    Seating runs along the walls, and non-riding parents take most of it during peak hours. Anyone carrying a day's worth of bags may not find a spot.
  • Controls take a beating
    The joysticks and jet-pack buttons at Expedition Mars get heavy use, and hitting a station that won't respond partway through a game is a common complaint.

Veteran tips

  • Walk in through the gift shop
    You don't have to ride to reach the lab. The pavilion's shop, Mission: SPACE Cargo Bay, is the way in for the people who are sitting the ride out.
  • Save it for the worst heat of the day
    Early afternoon is when this room earns its place, with kids burning off energy indoors while the adults sit. Spending rope drop here wastes the hour when EPCOT's lines are shortest.
  • Check the lab's hours, not the park's
    Disney lists the lab noon to 6:00 PM, while Mission: SPACE Cargo Bay next door runs 9:00 AM to 9:00 PM. Confirm the day's times in My Disney Experience before you build an afternoon around it.
  • This is where the Rider Switch party waits
    Mission: SPACE is on Disney's Rider Switch list, so one adult rides while the other stays with the kids in here. Only two people ride in the second group, so plan who goes when.
  • There's no Lightning Lane to buy here
    The lab isn't a Lightning Lane attraction. Mission: SPACE itself sits in EPCOT's second Multi Pass group, so if you're spending a selection there, send the non-riders into the lab to wait it out.
  • Bring headphones for noise-sensitive kids
    Arcade speakers and shouting carry in an enclosed room. Over-ear headphones make the lab usable for a kid who otherwise can't stay in it.
  • Wheelchair and ECV users stay seated
    Disney's accessibility notes list the lab as May Remain in Wheelchair or ECV, so there's no transfer to plan around.

MouseHub editorial, written from visitor reports and official Disney sources. Last reviewed .

Sources