Soarin' Across America

Soarin' Across America: attraction at EPCOT, Walt Disney World — live wait times, operating status, and planning data on MouseHub.

Wait time history

Historical wait patterns for Soarin' Across America accrete daily as MouseHub records waits every 15 minutes. Charts appear here once enough history exists.

Visitor sentiment

4.8· 9,654 Google ratings

Visitors say this ride offers an immersive flying experience over global landmarks, enhanced by stunning visuals, motion, and various scents. They also highlight that it's a relaxing and gentle ride, suitable for all ages and sizes, with no big drops or sudden movements. Guests mention that the queue times are often short, especially in the evening, and that the ride is worth any wait.

Summarized with Gemini · Report summary

The MouseHub take

Soarin' Across America flies inside The Land pavilion at EPCOT, where a Soarin' attraction has run since May 5, 2005. This version opened on May 26, 2026 as a limited-time film for the country's 250th birthday, so the globe-hopping footage is gone and the flight now crosses the United States. You sit on an open-air bench, the row lifts off the floor, and a 180-degree, 80-foot IMAX digital projection dome fills your view with more than a dozen locations, among them the New England coastline, New York Harbor, and Grand Canyon West. Scents drift through the theater to match the screen, and Bruce Broughton's new arrangement of Jerry Goldsmith's Soarin' themes carries it.

The ride system stays gentle. Benches tilt and sway, nothing drops, and both grandparents and grade-schoolers come off it fine, which makes this one of the few EPCOT headliners a whole party can ride together. The standby line runs indoors, so it doubles as a break from a July afternoon. Two things dull it. Riders on the side sections watch the screen from an angle and see tall subjects bend, and anyone uneasy about heights spends the first minute wishing the bench would come back down.

At a glance

Best for
Multi-generation groups who want one EPCOT headliner everybody can ride together, and anyone who wants to catch the 250th anniversary film before it goes.
Skip if
Heights make you uneasy, or you came to EPCOT for the rides that actually move fast.
Ride type
Hang-glider flight simulator under an IMAX projection dome
Intensity
Gentle. The bench lifts off the floor and tilts with the film, with open space underfoot, no drops and no fast motion.

The good

  • The whole film is new for America's 250th
    This version opened on May 26, 2026 and flies more than a dozen American locations, among them the New England coastline, New York Harbor, and Grand Canyon West. If your last Soarin' was the around-the-world film, everything on screen has changed.
  • Patrick Warburton still runs the safety briefing
    Warburton reprises Chief Flight Attendant Patrick in the pre-flight video for this version, the same deadpan spiel that has opened Soarin' since the California original. It sets a better tone than a standard safety notice.
  • The scents are still part of the show
    Disney kept the scent effects, and they still cue off what is on screen. Riders tend to remember them longer than they remember the motion.
  • Broughton rearranged the Goldsmith themes
    Bruce Broughton wrote a new arrangement of Jerry Goldsmith's original Soarin' themes for this film. The melody is the one longtime riders know, scored again for a different set of landscapes.
  • The line waits indoors, out of the heat
    The standby queue runs through the pavilion with air conditioning the whole way. On a Florida afternoon the wait itself becomes the break.
  • Nothing drops and nothing throws you around
    The benches tilt, bank, and sway with the film. Disney calls it graceful motion, and riders who will not go near a coaster generally handle this one.
  • Forty inches gets most school-age kids on
    Guests 40 inches (102 cm) or taller may ride. The bench seats a row of people side by side, so a family boards together instead of splitting up.

The bad

  • Side sections watch the screen at an angle
    Concourse A and Concourse C sit off to the side of a curved screen, and tall subjects bend from those seats. It is the complaint riders raise most often about where they ended up.
  • The lower rows look at dangling feet
    Riders below the top row look up into the shoes and legs of the bench above them. Small thing, hard to unsee once you have noticed it.
  • The hallway to the theater drags
    The standby line ends in a long, plain corridor before the boarding concourse. Riders describe it as sterile, and it is the stretch where a posted wait starts to feel longer than it is.
  • The lift unnerves riders who dislike heights
    Once the benches leave the floor there is open space under your feet for the length of the film. Riders with a fear of heights report a rough first minute even though the ride never drops.

Veteran tips

  • Ask for Concourse B, row one
    Cast members assign concourses and rows at the theater doors. Riders who ask for Concourse B, row one, get the center of the screen with nobody overhead, and the request usually costs you one extra cycle at most.
  • Spend a second-group Multi Pass here
    Soarin' sits in EPCOT's second Lightning Lane Multi Pass group, so it does not compete with Frozen Ever After, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, or Test Track for your one first-group pick. Book it with two other second-group selections.
  • Put backless shoes in the basket
    The benches leave your feet hanging in open air. Flip-flops and backless sandals go in the storage basket under the seat before the row lifts.
  • Rider Switch covers kids under forty inches
    Children under 40 inches cannot board, and service animals are not permitted on this attraction. Rider Switch handles both: one group rides while the other waits, then they swap, with up to two people riding in the second group.
  • Wheelchair and ECV users transfer to the bench
    The attraction is listed as Must Transfer from Wheelchair/ECV, so riders move from the device to the bench at the loading platform. Video captioning is available if you need it.
  • Ride it before the limited run ends
    Disney is running An American Journey as a limited-time flight tied to the 250th celebration and has not published an end date. Treat it as time-sensitive instead of something to save for the next trip.

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

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