Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway Review

[Stu]

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

Wow, what a great ride this is, refreshingly taking you back to some good old fun and frolics in a colourful cartoon world.

I was invited by Disney to attend a media/press event for the opening of Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway at Disney Hollywood Studios. Prior to the opening we were shown around and got to ride Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway a couple of times.

If you want to avoid spoilers then please do not read beyond these first couple of paragraphs.

All I can really say is this ride is amazing, it puts you in to the cartoon world of Mickey and Minnie with some fantastic special effects. There is so much going on and a few surprises that you'll want to ride this several times.

this is my review... It does contain spoilers.

First off I'd like to give a shout out to the ride that had to give way to Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, The Great Movie Ride. I know a lot of people, me included, will be sad that The Great Movie Ride is no more, it was a great nostalgic ride through the iconic movies of the past but I do think it was time for a change.

I think Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway has arrived just at the right time, it is what the park needed, a sort of nod back to the origins of Disney.

Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is the first ride-through attraction in a Disney park
dedicated to Mickey and Minnie.

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway is located in the Chinese theatre at the end of Hollywood Boulevard. The theatre which has standby and Fastpass entrances keeps it's Chinese theatre feel and looks but now you'll find an elaborate large neon marquee which features blinking bulbs and animated neon depictions of Mickey and Minnie beckoning you into their wacky and wonderful cartoon world.

Once you enter the theatre you'll notice that not too much has changed from how it was with The Great Movie Ride. There are some switch backs in the queue line and the only real noticeable difference is that the walls have electronic movie posters depicting Mickey and Minnie cartoons.

After the first queue area you enter a second queue area where you wait until you are invited in to the next area. In this next holding area ‘the premiere’, there is a rail separating you from the large movie screen in front of you. Here you'll be watching a Mickey and Minnie cartoon when suddenly you'll hear a change in the music and then the screen that you are looking at explodes right in front of you. As the smoke starts to clear you can see the jagged edges of the screen jutting out towards you.

The rail drops and you are invited to walk through the hole in the screen, you are walking in to the cartoon and you enter the cartoon world of Mickey and Minnie.

Once through the screen you'll be called forward as your train arrives. The train is pulling 4 open carriages, each carriage has two bench seats that can accommodate 4 people each and has a lap bar that comes down. For those using a wheelchair it will be necessary to transfer from the wheelchair to the bench seat.

The train starts your journey in to the cartoon world of Mickey and Minnie with large screens and props. It doesn't take much imagination for you to be immersed in this wonderful cartoon world. Soon you see life sized Mickey and Minnie drive past in their car to the side of you before they stop and talk to Goofy who is now in front of you. Goofy is the driver of your train.

At this point there seems to be another problem and another explosion where the train and the carriages including the one you are in all separate and go in different directions. Here you are transported through some amazing scenes. The animation really engrosses you in this fantastic world.

At one point you are travelling through a desert and your carriage goes in to an area that has wrap around screens and suddenly you are heading towards a waterfall drop before splashing in the Ocean and entering a wonderful underwater world.

You travel through several different scenes, one particular fun scene is the dance studio where you meet Daisy a life sized animatronic, she starts to dance and your ride carriage moves and dances in time with Daisy's dance steps.

After a couple of whimsical scenes all the train carriages and the engine all come back together. When the carriages come back together they seem to come back in a different order. I was in the front carriage when the ride started but when it finished I was in the rear carriage.

Overall this is a fantastic ride for both adults and children, it’s not a thrill ride it’s just a honest fun ride that will appeal to all. you will need to ride it several times to take in all that is happening. They have packed a lot in to this ride.

Dedication ceremony.

Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse, hosted a spectacular gala premiere Tuesday night in honor of their new attraction, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, opening to the public Wednesday, March 4, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida. Flanked by their Disney pals – including Walt Disney World Resort President Josh D’Amaro – Mickey and Minnie welcomed guests to a musical celebration nearly a century in the making, punctuated by fireworks, dancing and, most of all … fun.

Ride Cam

Some of the Merchandise that will be available

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Stu. Great write up, well done.

We are looking forward to riding this in May. So much so with the choice of Star Wars and this we chose this one.

[akhurstf1]

Stu, thanks for the review. This sounds a brilliant ride.

Hollywood Studios has changed so much over the past few years and it's great to see Mickey finally get his own ride.

Disney seem to be making the most of trackless technology at the moment with ROTR and Ratatouille opening in the summer.

[HevaDuck]

Great review very excited to ride this in June we're spoilt for choice now in HS so many good rides will still miss the great movie ride though

[Mad Hatters]

Really looking forward to this. Great review.

[pvbmb01]

Thanks for a great review. So excited to try this ride xx

[disneypars]

Thanks for the great review. Looking forward to riding this in May.

[Gev]

Thanks Stu. It looks amazing and I am not jealous at all... xx

[Th1nkT1nk]

Love the look of this. I havent read the whole review as want to avoid spoilers, but the photos are great. Thanks. Lucky you being there

[SMAX]

I have added Stu's video to the first post