It is a pretty rare occurrence when Disneyland California Gets a NEW ride. The Park is pretty timeless and visiting here is more of a trip down memory lane, steeped with nostalgia. In an industry that is led by change and pioneering, it’s reassuring that a park like Disneyland can get by just by keeping the magical classics up to date. However, the 100-year anniversary of the Company was always going to illicit something big and a whole new Ride being added to Disneyland is a big deal.
In this Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway Ride Review, we take a look at the newest ride to open up at the park. An ode to Micky Mouse the one who started it all. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway takes riders into the Cartoon world on a Trackless Flat ride that is anything but ordinary. We took a ride on the New attraction to let you know if the Runaway Railway is worth the queue or a big letdown!
- Location – Disneyland Park – Mickeys Toontown
- Type – Trackless Dark Ride
- Duration – 5:30+ Mins
- Height Restriction – Any Height
- Average Queue time – 45 mins – 90 Mins
- Genie+ Lightning Lane – No
- Individual Lightning Lane – Yes
- Single Rider – No
- Additional Info – Enter the Cartoon World of Mickey Mouse
Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway Ride Review
- Thrill Rating
- Fun
- Smoothness and Comfort
- Uniqueness and Theming
- Value For Time
What is Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
We found this a little bit of an odd Ride to Review, as after all, it’s a bit underwhelming in terms of Scope, although at least that is how it feels. New Rides do not come along all that often at Disneyland. Things can often seem a little set in their ways. A Huge part of the Charm of Disneyland is Nostalgia…Disneyland is pretty perfect and not much needs to change to keep us coming back. If we just ignore Galaxy’s Edge and Anything over at California Adventure, the Last time We got a New Ride at Disneyland was Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters way back in 2005!
So when new Rides do come along, like the addition of Galaxy’s Edge, we kind of expect them to be Spectacular! and we don’t really feel Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway falls into that category, at least not from the outset.
However, we have to remember, that this is Disneyland, it’s not a Six Flags or Cedar Fair Park, Not every ride can or should be a high-thrill, world-first thrill ride, Disney is for all, and sometimes a ride needs to be for everyone and that’s the way we looked at Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, a genuine wholesome Disney classic in the making.
However, Disney has done something seriously impressive with this ride. They have kept the traditional concepts of good old-fashioned imagineering, family values, and great storytelling and mashed them up with some ultra-modern tech to create a ride that is fun for the whole family, but completely mindblowing in the way it is delivered.
A lot of this incredible tech will be lost on a lot of the audience, certainly, the younger ones, but the tricks, techniques, and technology used here by Disney to transport you right into the heart of a cartoon is pretty amazing, and they have not relied on anything as crass as VR, this is proper old school dark-ride tech brought right up to date as only Disney can!
The Perfect ride to celebrate the Disney 100 Celebrations. Let’s look at what you can expect and how they did it! But First…
What Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is NOT!
With a name like Runaway Railway, our minds were instantly drawn to Runaway Mine Train Coasters. While the Park already has the excellent Big Thunder Mountain and does not really need another Mine Train, we still half expected the ride to be of this ilk. It most certainly is not. If you are heading here expecting a coaster or thrill ride of any kind you will be sorely disappointed. This is a Fun for the WHOLE family Dark Ride.
Ride Queue and pre-show
The Rides Premise is you are all heading to the Cinema to Catch the Latest Mickey Movie, Perfect Picnic. You Enter the Ride via the Movie Theater’s facade and pass through a catoonified Theatre Lobby. Movie Poster, Popcorn, Hotdogs, everything you would expect. It’s quite fun and a pretty decent way to use up the Queue time.
Eventually, after passing through the various parts of the Cinema, you get to the Screening. Everyone enters the auditorium and the Movie Starts to play. Here Mickey and Minnie, along with Pluto are going on Picnic, and not just any Picnic…A Perfect one, although we think Pluto and everyone who has to hear that song, may disagree.
Anyway, after trundling along in their car happy as daisies, the Boot flies open and it crosses a Railroad, out come Pluto and the Picnic Basket, and a Pie lands in the Smokestack of a Train being driven by Goofy. This then explodes and blows a hole in the Cinema Screen, opening a gateway from our world into the Cartoon. This is done quite literally, with a large hole ripped through the screen, a quick dialogue with the present cast member, and the worst idea of all time is formulated, and we are all heading into the cartoon to have a ride on the Goofy’s Train…you know, the one that just exploded…
Beat the Queue on Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
As things stand, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is only available as an Individual lighting lane for $15 per person. That’s quite a hit for a family of 4 or 5! It’s that or you can stand in line upward of 45-60 mins! Toontown is not even open to guests with Early Entry Access.
There are two ways to avoid this without paying, and neither is great for families with little kids, You know; the target audience of the ride!
The first is Rope Drop. This is not always the best idea with little ones as dragging them out of bed at 6:30 am can be a recipe for a disaster of a day. It could be they are bouncing off the walls and raring to go having not slept a wink, but even then…this tirdness will catch up with them. However, if you decide to go for it, the first few arrivals at the Ride basically walk on, You can then get on with your day and try and sneak in a few more rides with short queues in that first golden hour.
If you miss that and the Queues build then the opportunities to get on without a queue dwindle. However, there is still an opportunity. Toontown closes down during the Fireworks Shows and then opens up again afterward. This gives you another window to rush the ride and get on as almost a walk-on.
After that, we do notice times dip as the night draws on. More and more families Tap-Out and leave the park making Toontown pretty quiet. However there is a reason for that, and forcing your kids to stay up late just to avoid a queue may not be the smartest plan.
Ride Technology
For such a quaint and basic Dark Ride, it’s kind of amazing the Tech that Disney has deployed to bring the ride to life. From the Moment the Movie Screen Bursts open in a cloud of smoke and the Hole to the Cartoon World magically appears before your eyes you know this is going to be special.
As the Train rolls into the station, It’s pretty large and it’s hard to see how the rides going to work. But the Rides uses Dinsey’s Proprietary Trackless Ride System. The Same System is used in Rise Of the Resistance and Guardians Of The Galaxy. This is not a cheap system and while it lacks some of the rises and falls of some of the other uses, it’s still a big move to utilize this as a dark ride only. It really shows the ambition they had for the ride.
The Train is made up of 4 carriages, each seating 2 rows of 4 people. As the train pulls away it breaks apart and each small carriage goes off on its own little adventure.
Other than this it’s pure imagineering. There is heavy use of color and lighting to make you really feel you are IN a cartoon. There is heavy use of 2-D Video screens but these are so integrated into the scenes that you really can’t tell what is 3-D and real and what is moving.
Ride Experience
As the train Leaves the Station we pick back up with Mickey and Minnie off on their Picnic, oblivious to the world he Drives straight into a Track switch and starts in motion the Runaway Train. The Trains carriages break apart into 4 separate sections which no begin their runaway journey.
If you were at the back of the train, and feeling aggrieved, you are now at the front of your own separate Ride Vehicle, with up to 8 passengers in a 2×4 layout.
The First section is somewhere akin to the Grand Canyon as Mickey and Minnie attempt to undo their blunder on horseback, this goes awry and they end up entangled in Lassoes. Next up is a theme park with Micky and Minnie now giving up on our plight and just having fun in a Balloon, until a Tornado hits the park! Here the Ride vehicles start to move around fairly violently as the scene transforms into a bit of a disaster.
The car is swept into the Tornado along with Mickey Minnie, and Pluto. After twirling around the Twister the Cars along with Mickey and Minnie are deposited on a beautiful tropical island where nothing can go wrong…Apart from a Volcanic eruption and being swept over a waterfall!
The Visual attempts to make you believe you are falling here are very poor, The ride system is just not capable of this but it’s still fun. We are now in an underwater realm, filled with musical fish and an angry Squid.
We are then flushed down a sewer pipe into a busy City Street with Pete doing a little work with a Jack Hammer. A quick Cameo from Donald and it’s into a Dance Studio where Daisy teaches us the Waltz, all 4 carriages now in synchronized harmony before things heat up into a Conga. As the beat speeds up we conga right out of the building and into a factory.
Here things get very exciting as we approach an industrial Smasher…inch by inch we are drawn closer to the crushing jaws of death! This really feels a bit more realistic than it looks and it is fairly intense, for a family ride of course. Just in the Nick of time Mickey and Minnie knock off the machine and save the day (We could argue they have caused all this in the first place so their celebrations are a little self-congratulatory.) The train now resembles as it passes through a moonlit park and we finally get to see Micky Minnie and Pluto enjoying their belated picnic overlooking the Fireworks at Disneyland Park.
Overall
Overall we really love the experience. We went in ready to judge it based on what it was, a classic family ride, and considering the rate of New Rides that hit Disneyland, we can accept this. However, the ride really was so much more. The Immersiveness of the Cartoon Realms is really well done. There is so much going on, from moving water, flowing fountains, twinkling stars, and loads of character cameos.
The seamless way the Mooving video images blend with the stati 3-D models just animates the real world in a way we have never really seen. Dark rides often transport you to another world, but that one is so vivid and alive that it really is like being inside a cartoon.
The Ride motion is pretty smooth all the way around. It really is a ride anyone could hop on with no issues. Even the more dramatic moments like the Conga or the Tornado are not in any way violent, they are just a bit more vigorous than the normal melodic movement.
It’s a ride that is far more than the sum of its parts, which are pretty significant anyway. It makes Mickey’s adventure really come alive and it’s not something that will come across in a YouTube Video.
We really think this ride will be pleasing audiences for many years to come It’s a real classic in the making, with just the one downside, it is a little prone to breaking down. A common theme with all of Disney’s Trackless Ride System Rides… hopefully they can get on top of that sometime soon!
Have Your Say
Enough of our Thoughts…What do you think? Is this a worthy addition to the park, something that will still attract queues in 10, 20, 50, or 100 years’ time? Or do you have a different take, overengineerd? Boring? A disappointing letdown? Whatever your thoughts we would love to hear from you. Just fire away in the comments.
