Toy Story Mania was definitely an attraction I was really looking forward to during my trip since I had heard nothing but positives regarding the ride. This simply was because it combines three things I like- shooting dark rides, 3-D, and the fact that it’s based on one of the all-time best cartoons. However, this was also probably one of the hardest rides of the trip for me to ride thanks to the ride’s massive popularity. Thankfully on the last day of my trip I got the privilege to experience this incredible attraction and was blown away.
Nestled in the very back of the park in a new Pixar Studios section of the park, Toy Story Mania looks absolutely stunning and really captures the whole feel of the popular movies. While the exterior looks nice, it’s the interior queue line that really amazed me with the theming. All along the walls were a variety of games such as Candy Land, checkers, Chutes and Ladders, just to name a few. But the crowing achievement of the line is the gigantic Mr. Potato Head animatronic that interacts with the audience telling kid-friendly jokes and asking questions. Eventually I made it through the long line and boarded this unique attraction.
But before describing the attraction, I’m going to talk about the wait times for this. Due to the immense popularity of this type of ride (since essentially anyone can and will do it since it’s not intense and incredibly fun), lines were extremely long for this during my trip, with the shortest wait I ever saw was 50 minutes and that was with pretty much every other attraction being a walk-on. This is an attraction that I would suggest using a fastpass, but they run out within 2 hours after opening so they are extremely difficult to get. If you are lucky and do get one, you get the privilege of avoiding a 90-120 minute wait.
Once boarding the comfortable ride vehicles, the ride begins and travels to a variety of scenes that really capture the whole carnival midway theme of the attraction. First the ride begins with a nice little practice target section, which I thought was a great idea since it let me get aquainted with the spring action shooter since instead of pressing a button or trigger to shoot, I had to pull a string and how hard I pulled affected the speed and trajectory. Following the training area is the real ride, which was incredibly well done. Many carnival games such as the egg toss, ring toss, balloon pop, shooting, and an exciting bonus round were included. My personal favorite was the egg toss, but that’s really only by the smallest of margins since the entire attraction is a masterpiece in my attraction. Each game adds variety to the attraction and the whole ride is really addictive and entertaining. Also, regarding the bonus round, be prepared to pull incredibly fast and just mindlessly shoot down the targets since this the scene were the real points are accumulated. Also, regarding the 3-D effects the attraction uses, they were absolutely incredible and they really made the attraction feel totally immersive and it just added an extra dimension of fun and amazement to the attraction. Not only were 3-D effects utilized, but also 4-D effects such as water sprayers were included as well.
Toy Story Mania truly is a masterpiece and one of Disney’s best attractions, combining the charm of Toy Story with a multi-sensory ride experience jam-packed with a ton of addictive games. Never was there a dull point throughout the entire attraction, and not only that, but it also was a very long ride, which made it just that much better. The only real downfall is the ride’s immense popularity that causes those incredibly long waits, but even after my 65 minute wait for this attraction I came off very pleased and thought the ride was definitely worth the wait. Only bettered by Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania is the park’s second best attraction and certainly one of the best on the entire Walt Disney World resort, only trailing Men in Black for the best ride in its genre.
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