First Impressions of Walt Disney World’s #ToyStoryLand: Playful Immersive Fun

ORLANDO, FL–If you’ve ever watched the Toy Stories movies and wished you could come to life with Andy’s awesome collection of lovable toys, Toy Story Land in Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Walt Disney World) is your chance to become an “honorary toy”, shrunk down to toy-sized dimensions. Make sure to check out our #BulletinFromGoogle channel too where we’ll be posting Bulletin stories live from Toy Story Land.

Slinky Dog Dash is integral to the design of Toy Story Land

Disney Parks experiences have always demonstrated attention to detail and Toy Story Land builds on that tradition with immersive detail everywhere you look, from the massive Andy footprints in the concrete to the creative ways benches are built, with massive popsicle sticks and dominoes, or in the Woody’s Lunch Box quick serve restaurant wheels of Babybel cheese. Toy Story Land makes the immersive detail an attraction in itself (immersion that Pandora – the World of Avatar takes to a new level).

Green Army Men (with their distinctive feet) march through Toy Story Land

Inevitably though the attention (and long lines) always swing to the newest attractions – and in Toy Story Land there are two new attractions (plus an expanded Toy Story Mania! ride system and queue). Here are our first impressions of all three:

Slinky Dog Dash

A benefit of an event like this is the ability to get multiple chances to ride an attraction with no line-up. Slinky Dog Dash is the perfect family roller coaster – enough of a coaster to be fun for everyone but just not scary enough to be a perfect first real coaster for young riders (or grown-up riders who normally avoid coasters). It’s also a longer ride than The Barnstormer in Magic Kingdom, with Slinky Dog Dash snaking through the length of Toy Story Land.

The coaster has two launches – the second creating the illusion of Slinky Dog being stretched and released – with hills and curves that should create many more smiles than terrified tears. And the coaster is incredibly smooth – not only because it’s brand new but because I suspect there were design decisions made to balance family fun with thrilling fun.

With each new Disney attraction the queue is becoming an extension of the ride – so I recommend complementing your FastPass+ planning with experiencing the queue (at least once). The first time through the queue will pass a lot faster than you expect if you focus on on all of the detail in the queue. Disney also just launched a new app, Play Disney Parks (more on that here), that gamifies the Parks and queue experience. In the case of Slinky Dog Dash, the queue tells the backstory of the coaster, which was a toy Andy built from a kit.

If you get a chance ride right at the back. Like most roller coasters, the experience at the back is the best.

Alien Swirling Saucers

If you’ve been to Disney California Adventure Park and taken Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree for a spin, then you’ve ridden Alien Swirling Saucers. Both are terrific, fun, small footprint rides that swing you around tea cup style (but not quite so spin-intense). If you are riding single, sit all the way to one side for extra swing.

Toy Story Mania!

The consistently popular Toy Story Mania! blends into Toy Story Land with a new entrance, expanded queue and more capacity (a third full track). If you haven’t ridden Toy Story Mania! before it combines video games with a dark-ish ride system. If you’ve ridden before and wonder how the highest scores crack 500,000 then read the cheats and tips before riding. The queue gets a significant upgrade to live up to the theming expectations set by the rest of Toy Story Land and Mr. Potato Head makes a glorious return.

Beyond the attractions there is detail and theming everywhere you look, from Woody’s Lunch Box (quick serve restaurant) to the toy shops inside toys.

And ever present beyond the construction fences, and very visible (for now) from Slinky Dog Dash is Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge which will adjoin Toy Story Land when opened in 2019.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at the edge of Toy Story Land