Toy Story Mania Ride in Toy Story Land

Posted by Mike

Apr 12, 2020 12:51 PM

Let’s step into Andy’s backyard and explore Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In our Toy Story Mania ride guide, we’ll help you plan your visit to Toy Story Land and help you dash your way through Andy’s backyard.

Opening Date	May 31, 2008
Height Requirement	None
Type	Spinning, 3D shooter
FastPass+	Yes, Tier 2
Extra Magic Hours	Yes, evening
Ride Length	8 min

Toy Story Mania Ride Location

Toy Story Mania is located on the east end of Toy Story Land, near the entrance to the land. While the attraction opened a decade before Toy Story Land, Imagineers worked on swapping the entrance from one side of the building to the other side to make sure it’s accessible from within Toy Story Land.

Toy Story Mania walking path from Toy Story Land entrance

If you haven’t visited Disney’s Hollywood Studios since Toy Story Land opened, you’ll want to know that the Toy Story Mania entrance is not where it use to be. If you’re walking into Toy Story Land from the regular entrance near the large Woody figure, you’ll find the entrance to Toy Story Mania immediately to your left. If you’re coming from Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, you’ll want to make sure you keep Slinky Dog Dash on your left as you walk towards the giant Midway Games box.

Now, this box isn’t the entrance, but it’s the biggest landmark to let you know that you’re close. The actual entrance is to the left of this giant box and is made out of cardboard.

Rex and Jesse welcome you to the midway, where you’ll soon be competing for the highest score of the vehicle, hour, day, and month!

Toy Story Mania Queue

As has been the case with all of the Toy Story Land attractions so far, a portion of the queue is outdoors for Toy Story Mania. Thankfully, the queue can be routed to be entirely under cover so the nearly daily afternoon storms don’t interrupt playtime.

Remember the giant Midway Games toy box? That’s the first part of the outdoor queue and only fills up during the busiest of times.

One of the most beneficial changes to Toy Story Mania since it opened was the addition of a third track back in 2016. This has helped meet not only the high demand of the day, but the seemingly increasing demand as the attraction became part of the larger Toy Story Land themed area.

Inside the queue, you can expect to see more of the same type of oversized theming that we saw at Slinky Dog Dash and Alien Swirling Saucers. There is no doubt that the theming of Toy Story Land is cohesive everywhere you look. We’ll also see the expansion of that cohesive theming with the addition of Roundup Rodeo BBQ.

The best element to the Toy Story Mania queue is the Mr. Potato Head audio-animatronic in the standby line. Mr. Potato Head interacts with guests as they pass by, cracking jokes and passing time!

FastPass+

Toy Story Mania has FastPass+. By using FastPass+, you’ll skip the majority of the queue, and typically wait 10-20 minutes. As noted above, you’ll also miss the Mr. Potato Head audio-animatronic. While there is no denying that this is a fun element to have while in standby, it’s probably not a “must-do” in terms of choosing standby over FastPass+ specifically to see him.

With the FastPass+ tier changes in early 2020, Toy Story Mania moved down to a tier two attraction. Unlike Slinky Dog Dash, we aren’t going to be too hard-pressed to require you to get a FastPass+. While the waits can get long for Toy Story Mania, the queue is fun, and if the waits are below 45 minutes, the line moves well. We’ll have more about wait times in a bit.

That said, when looking at the other tier two FastPass+ options at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Toy Story Mania looks pretty good if you don’t plan on rope dropping Toy Story Land. If it’s available, we’d select a Toy Story Mania FastPass+ over the likes of Tower of Terror or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and head to Sunset Blvd early in the day to avoid long afternoon waits. FastPass+ selections often require a dissertation, but the short of it for Toy Story Mania is that it’s probably a top pick for tier two selections.

Grouping and Seating

Each car can fit two adults, with lap seating available for infants and very young children. While there is no height requirement, children must be able to sit up on their own and fit safely behind the lap bar. There are no pouches for valuables, but bags can safely go at your feet. Your party will be split into groups of two, and Cast Members will typically try to fill the car completely with single riders if they’re available. There is no single rider line.

Toy Story Mania Wait Times

While Toy Story Mania isn’t the most popular attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it is one of the few attractions at the park without a height requirement which makes it popular with young families. In terms of waits, you’ll find that Toy Story Mania is right in the middle of Toy Story Land attractions, pulling in an average wait of just over 60 minutes.

With the vast majority of guests rope dropping Slinky Dog Dash in Toy Story Land, Toy Story Mania is essentially a walk-on in the first hour of the day, with waits below our cut off of 45 minute wait possible in the first two hours of the day. During the middle of the day, waits will exceed an hour, tapering off after dinner. Our standby advice allows for low waits in the first and last 2 hours of the day.

Toy Story Mania Ride Review

Toy Story Mania is a really fun shooter, akin to Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin in Magic Kingdom. Instead of the physical sets in Buzz, Toy Story Mania has 3D screens that provide for a high re-ridability. Because of the scoring system and displays at the end of the attraction, each ride is fun and competitive no matter how many times you’ve been on!

Story

As the backstory for the attraction goes, Andy has laid out the Toy Story Mania attraction as a playset in his room. Guests play through 5 fast-paced games as they try to score as many points as possible!

Hamm & Eggs
Fire hardboiled eggs at targets in the barnyard.
Rex & Trixie’s Dino Darts
Launch darts and pop balloons in front of a prehistoric volcano.
Green Army Men Shoot Camp
Aim your baseballs at dinner plates at the firing range.
Buzz Lightyear’s Flying Tossers
Toss rings and catch some aliens.
Woody’s Rootin’ Tootin’ Shootin’ Gallery
Shoot suction-cup-tipped darts at targets inspired by the “Woody’s Roundup” TV show.

Ride

With a ride vehicle that puts two groups of two guests back-to-back, you’ll twist and turn through the midway set ups during the 8 minute ride as you try to score as many points as possible.

Disney’s official wording notes that guests who are prone to motion sickness shouldn’t ride, and we find that the ride can be disorientating as the cars spin and sometimes whip from scene to scene.

As we said earlier, we’re fans of the ride given how competitive and, therefore, re-ridable it is. Pull-string cannons are the “shooters” of choice here, and you should make sure that you let the string retract after each shot a little bit to queue up another shot.

With each round lasting about 30-seconds, this is a high-paced attraction that is fun for the whole family!