Wild Mouse coasters used to be all the rage, but they nearly died out a few decades back. They have since made a huge resurgence with park owners realizing just how much fun they can pack into a tiny footprint with minimal costs! Goofy’s Sky School is Disney California Adventures’ very own Wild Mouse Coaster. Originally the Mulholland Madness, that theme was dropped during the site makeover and became Goofy’s very own ride.
Is this one of the Wild Mouse coasters that pack a huge amount of fun into a tiny package or a complete flop not worthy of your precious Park time? Find out in our Goofy’s Sky School Review.
- Location – Disney California Adventure – Paradise Gardens Park
- Type – Wild Mouse Coaster
- Duration – 1:45+ Mins
- Height Restriction – 42 In
- Average Queue time – 10 mins – 30 Mins
- Fastpass – Yes
- Single Rider – Yes
- Additional Info – Classic wild Mouse with a flying theme
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Thrill Rating
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Fun
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Uniqueness and Theming
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Smoothness And Comfort
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Value For Time
What is Goofy’s Sky School?
Goofy’s Sky School is a wild mouse coaster aimed at families and themed around learning to fly, Goofy Style. As you can imagine that is not the ordinary way you would learn to aviate!
The Coaster is the typical Wild mouse style, with small single carriages, and a wild and compact layout. Wild Mouse coasters were designed to pack a lot of fun into a very small space and that is exactly what Goofy’s Sky School Achieves. It is old ride tech and provides basic and simple fun bit the ride is far more than the sum of its parts and works well.
Queue And Theme
The Queue is a pretty bland experience but is usually quite short, as are most rides in this part of the park. The ride has Genie+ but really this is possibly a poor choice unless you have ridden everything else. You are much better using your Genie+ Windows on one of the top rides such as Radiator Springs Racers, Guardians of the Galaxy, or Soarin’.
The Theme is pretty fun, the concept of Goofy running a flight school works pretty well on its own but the ride coloration, sky blue helps with the feeling that a ride vehicle is actually a plane.
Single Rider
The other option for a shorter queue is the Single Rider. However, is the ride really worth this? Roller Coaster aficionados will love the single-rider line and this is a great opportunity to get on a Wild Mouse Coster, but most people are not that bothered about Roller coaster History.
As the Ride is primarily a family attraction, splitting your family up is not really a great choice.
Ride Experience
One thing about Wild Mouse coasters, is they are renowned for being a little unsafe. There have been more ride accidents on this type of ride than any other (this might just be an urban myth?) and true enough the first incarnation of this ride, the Mulholland Madness suffered three accidents in its early days (Not an urban Myth!) and ended up being closed while Disney made the ride safe!
This nagging feeling in your mind coupled with the erratic track layout coupled to the narrow gauge track with the cars precariously perched on top all give a general feeling of “this is going to end badly!” This is where a lot of the fun comes from and the whole “not quite safe” aspect of the ride is what makes these hits with us coaster fans even though they lack any real thrill element.
The ride starts off on the lift hill as Goofy teaches you the take-off. Goofy’s instructions come via large billboards that guide you through the art of flying…sort of. Once airborne and soaring through the (painted-on) sky, the ride hits a series of switchbacks all giving the general feeling of the ride is about to topple off.
You then enter a series of drops and turns as goofy teaches you to…well crash. The drops are all pretty mild but again the general rickityness of the ride makes them far more fun than they should be.
Overall
Goofy’s Sky School really is quite fun. Do not ride expecting big thrills and show-stopping ride tech. This is a simple and basic ride that uses old-school tricks to pack in far more fun and fear than a ride of this size, cost and tech level ever should.
It is no Disney Show-stopper unless one of those carriages really does fly off, but it’s a solid fun ride that kids will enjoy and still has enough even for coaster fans to have a giggle. Do not ride expecting fireworks and then you should really enjoy yourself!
Have Yor Say
Have you ridden Goofy’s Sky School? How did you find it? Did it feel unsafe or are we just wimps? Or maybe you found it even sketchier than we did? Or did the magic not run off at all and you just found it dull? However you found the ride let us know in the comment below, or if you have a question just fire away.