We were recently lucky enough to visit the new Toy Story Land at Hollywood Studios that opened on June 30th 2018. Almost 3 years after the official announcement of plans to build this great addition to the Attraction world.
Creative Director Roger Gould sets up the park's story.
"So this is Andy's backyard. All the toys are together. He's been playing with everything from building blocks and Lincoln Logs to Tinker Toys and his coaster kit. He's put them all together with his favourite Woody's lunchbox and green army men, and he's having a blast."
As Gould – who oversees all Pixar-related projects in Disney's theme parks – further explains, guests enter this whimsical world as "honorary toys." For fans of Woody, Buzz, and all their plaything pals, this means not just interacting with their favourite characters, but being shrunk down to their size.
The expansion, which takes up 11 acres of Disney's Hollywood Studios park in Orlando, Florida, has been carefully crafted to make visitors feel about the same size as those aforementioned army men.
For accuracy's sake, this means larger toys like Woody and the gang tower over guests as they explore the park. The fan-favourite Woody, who stands at Toy Story Land's entrance, is 20 feet tall, while Slinky Dog serves as a roller-coaster vehicle seating 18 guests. Buzz, Jesse, and Rex also loom large, as does the iconic Pixar bouncy ball, which dwarfs fans. It is great to get a selfie picture and very popular.
Slinky Dog Dash is a great little coaster, and much more intense than we first expected. It’s definitely a notch or two more intense than the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and provides an unexpected amount of airtime. It’s hard to really call this one a “kiddie coaster,” but it’s still very family-friendly. Definitely one of our favourites.
Next we decided to check out Alien Swirling Saucers, where you’ll find Buzz Lightyear. The entrance had the two robot guards from Pizza Planet with the Pizza spears. Very cool. The first queue building is all about Star Command, you’ll also see Buzz’s original box on the top of the building. The Star Command section has large switches and interactive dials that keep you entertained, there’s even a water fountain that looks like large batteries. After that, you enter the Pizza Planet play set area, the Alien Swirling Saucers ride was supposedly bought at Pizza Planet, so there’s lots of pizza décor and alien fun. The ride system is very similar to Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree at Disney’s California Adventure, except Alien Swirling Saucer is mostly sheltered from the sun. Both rides sway back and forth around three loops in a figure eight pattern, but Alien Swirling Saucers has two tracks operating at the same time, so more people can ride every hour. There’s a left and right track. Now, we rode the ride in the daytime, but can tell there’s quite a bit of a light show that you will enjoy a night. With the dance party music beat, plenty of dance lights, and black light party hue in the ride, this ride is going to be great at night. But I can say the same with Slinky Dog Dash Roller Coaster, Toy Story Land in general is going to look really spectactular at night.
For the foodies Woody’s Lunch Box is the option at Toy Story Land and we found it very cool that the ordering windows are Tupperware containers. There are Babybel tables, life-sized cookies, carrots, and celery sticks. It looks like Andy’s lunch box just fell and all the contents conveniently makes for a great eatery. They will be serving breakfast and lunch and have special non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks in this location.
Overall we think it is a great place and going to be a big hit for children and adults.
