Finally the day came that we were looking forward to for so many months. It was the day we were finally seeing Toy Story Land with our very own eyes.
If you’ve been reading Disney Solution for awhile, then you will know that I was following the construction and news updates along the way. Seriously, I was that excited for this new land to open up. Who wouldn’t be? It’s Toy Story!
But, of course, even the most amazing places and things have some room for improvement. And Toy Story Land is no exception.
Hot Hot Hot
The entire area is basically all concrete, so holey moley is it HOT. I’d compare it to Dinoland USA in Animal Kingdom. There are fans throughout the mostly covered queues, but it’s still hot. In fact, the only air conditioned portion of the land is in Toy Story Mania.
So many Guests complain about how many Gift Shops there are in Walt Disney World, but this is one area that does not have one. When I get too hot, these shops provide much needed shade and air conditioning to help cool me down before going back out to bear the Florida heat. Don’t tell Disney, but I kinda missed having another gift shop to step into. 🙂
Have plenty of water on hand!
I was just thankful I had my water bottle to carry around with me. We asked for LOTS of free ice water from the Quick Service Restaurants, so we filled them up often. I was so grateful to have water on hand whenever we needed it. And believe me…we NEEDED it.
Woody’s Lunch Box
We didn’t eat any of the meals, so I can’t comment on those. But, we did decide to have some snacks, mainly because I was dying to try out the brand new Raspberry Lunch Box Tart. They just looked so darn cute!
We were silly enough to be there during the lunch rush. But, this also gave me the opportunity to try out the Mobile Ordering on the My Disney Experience App, since Woody’s Lunch Box is a participating restaurant.
Mobile ordering is the way to go!
I ordered 2 ice cream floats, 2 Mystic Portal Punches, and the Raspberry Lunch Box Tart. They were all in our hands within 5 minutes! No lie! My parents went through the regular queue and they were still waiting for their food after we finished our snacks.
The Food
I personally ate the Mystic Portal Punch and the Raspberry Lunch Box Tart.
While some compare it to a pop-tart, I’d say it is more like a really good pastry, which I enjoyed. I’m not good at describing food, but if you like soft, flaky desserts and the taste of raspberry, you will love this. I will definitely be getting this one again.
I shared some with my family and they all had the same reaction.
I’m not much of a Powerade fan, but the Mystic Portal Punch hit the spot on a HOT Florida day. Since it was mixed with other flavors, I enjoyed it a lot more than the bottled Powerade. This got a thumbs up from me!
The downside?
The one downside to Woody’s Lunch Box (ok, maybe 2 things) is the limited menu and lack of shade and adequate seating. We were lucky that a family saw us looking around and offered their table to us as they were leaving, but many Guests weren’t as lucky.
The limited menu creates some problems for those of us who do not eat meat. I know that Disney is very accommodating to all dietary needs, but when it’s really busy, I feel awful holding them up by asking a bunch of questions. I tend to go off the regular menu or move on to another Restaurant.
Basically, my only food option here is the Grilled Three Cheese Sandwich, which comes with Tomato Basil Soup and either potato barrels (tater tots) or Vegetable Macaroni Salad.
I do really enjoy the Vegetable Macaroni Salad, which I’m pretty sure is the same salad they serve with the pizza in PizzeRizzo. But, the thought of having soup and all that dairy on an extremely hot day was not appealing to me.
I realize that it’s a small area, and most likely has a small kitchen, but I would love to see some additional vegetarian and vegan options added to the regular menu.
The Amazing Parts of Toy Story Land
From the moment that you walk in, you are completely immersed into a land of toys and fun. Everything is large, bright, and completely adorable. And I am 100% for it!
As you can imagine, Fastpasses for Toy Story Mania, Alien Swirling Saucers, and Slinky Dog Dash are hard to come by. Although I was on the computer the second my Fastpass window opened up, the only Fastpass I could find for the week I was in Walt Disney World was for Toy Story Mania.
This didn’t surprise me since Toy Story Mania was an existing ride. We love to ride it and compete against each other (or should I say my family tries to beat me, as I am still the reining champion 🙂 ) But, since this was the only Fastpass available, I grabbed it, even though I had every intention of still searching for the coveted Slink Dog Dash Fastpass. I never did find one, but that’s ok. We were still able to ride all 3 in one day, with minimal wait!
The day we were there, I had been checking wait times all day, and as you can imagine, Slinky Dog Dash was continuously lingering around that 1 hour wait time. So, it was such a crush to us when we saw that it had gone down due to mechanical problems.
My sister and I made the decision to walk back to Toy Story Land with our kids. If the ride were to miraculously open back up, we would be closer to the front of the line.
That was almost ruined when we talked to a very nice Cast Member (and I’m not just calling her that because we found out she student taught at 2 schools in my home town!) Without actually telling us what was going on, told us that some small issue had turned into a large problem and they had no idea if the ride would be back up at all that day.
Alien Swirling Saucers
I think other Guests had been hearing the same news and possibly left Toy Story Land, which is why, when we looked at My Disney Experience, Alien Swirling Saucers only had a 15 minute wait! We rushed to the queue and was on in no time. It was so cute and we had a great time!
It completely fits in with the family feeling of the Land. It’s not as intense of a whip, like other rides I’ve been on before, but it’s the perfect intensity for little ones who are just starting out on “Big Girl/Boy” rides.
After we got off the ride, we had noticed that Slinky Dog had been doing some test runs. Although we were warned ahead of time that testing does not necessarily mean that it will be back up soon, we couldn’t help but get excited. We made our way towards the queue with other excited Guests.
Maybe it’s because my family is not aggressive by nature, but what happened next could have completely soured our day. But, we decided to not let it ruin an otherwise, completely magical trip to Hollywood Studios.
Slinky Dog Dash
While waiting towards the entrance and deciding whether or not we should continue waiting or to move on to other things, Cast Members let us know that the ride was back up.
Although we were close to the front of the line, Guests pushed their way past us and knocked my sister and I, along with our 3 children, out of the line to get ahead of us.
We’re not sure exactly what Cast Members saw, if they saw anything at all, but we were told that if we wanted to ride, we had to head to the back of the line…which was now extended towards the end of the line of umbrellas, lining the fence of Slinky Dog Dash.
We debated whether it was worth it, but we decided to take our place in the back of the line. We didn’t know how long the wait would be, but we had been looking forward to the ride all week, so we begrudgingly went to the back of the line.
Looking at the App, the star (which indicates a ride is temporarily down) quickly turned into an 80 minute wait. We had gone from the head of the line to the end of an 80 minute line? UGH. But still, we stayed…
We were completely surprised that by the time we made it to where the queue actually starts forming underneath the displayed Wait Times, a Cast Member told us that our place in line was actually looking like a 25 minute wait!
We couldn’t believe it! Our excitement peaked up again. We were so excited looking at all there is to see in that queue that we didn’t even notice that we ended up on the ride in 20 minutes. And the best part was that same extremely nice Cast Member we were talking to earlier gave us the best seats on the ride. We had the last 3 rows of Slinky Dog!
Slinky Dog Dash was 100% worth the time that we spend in line. And even had it ended up being an 80 minute wait, I still think that we would have been just as happy. Again, the ride was perfect for the Land and an amazing starter coaster for those just starting out on bigger rides.
Even if you’re an adrenaline junkie like I am, I wholeheartedly think every second spent on Slinky Dog Dash is worth it. It truly is an amazing experience meant for the whole family, as proved by my family.
Now that we’ve been able to play in Andy’s backyard, we can’t wait to go back!
Have you been able to check out Toy Story Land yet? How does your experience differ from ours?
Yes, my son is taller than me now! Where is the time going?
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