Before Rise of the Resistance opened, trackless rides were a bit of a mystery to me. What did it mean for a ride to be trackless, and more importantly would it really matter to the experience if a ride was trackless or not?
After riding Rise of the Resistance, however, I couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t wait for the next attraction that would use this amazing ride technology.
Enter Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
While this ride has caused controversy from the beginning with Walt Disney World regulars, as it replaced the much-loved Great Movie Ride, it has now become one of our favorite rides of any Disney World park. It’s innovative, it’s colorful, it’s family-friendly, but most of all, it’s just fun.
Love ’em or hate ’em, being dropped into the world of the new Mickey Mouse cartoons is nothing short of pure fun. Your family will be singing the new original song, “Nothing Can Stop Us Now”, all day long. You’ll be contemplating waiting in that 100 minute line just as soon as you exit the Chinese Theater.
There is also no height restriction, making this the first trackless ride at Disney World that the entire family can enjoy together!
Of course then you’ll get distracted by the amazing merchandise kiosk at the exit. It has some of the best ride merch we’ve seen in a long time.
Location
The ride is, of course, located in the center of Hollywood Studios inside the Chinese Theater. The new neon sign for the ride is the first thing you’ll notice as you make your way down the streets of Hollywood.
Even in the bright Florida sunshine, the adorable animated sign is easily seen and recognized from the front gate. As you approach the theater, you have the typical FastPass+ and Stand-By queues available. No boarding groups or Stand-By only rules for this ride! As of this posting, daily wait times have been averaging around 100 minutes, but reported times have been less than 60 minutes.
Because this is a brand new ride with brand new technology, FastPass+ will be hard to come by outside of the 60 day mark. You may find it necessary to wait in the Stand-By line. We’d recommend waiting for this one, especially if you can’t make it to the parks very often!
Inside The Queue and Ride
The inside of the theater appears mostly unchanged from the Great Movie Ride queue. There are a few new Mickey shorts posters, and some brand new Hidden Mickeys to find. However, the experience starts a good ways into the queue. At one point you’ll be ushered into a small theater with a maybe 40 or so other people. Here you’ll watch the original short “Perfect Picnic”, which will end with a very explosive ending, so much that the theater screen right in front of you will be torn open for you to walk through!
After another short wait, you’ll be seated in one of four train cars behind the engine. From here, the story truly begins!
While we won’t give away much of the ride itself here, we will say that it’s some of the best use of projections we’ve seen in a Disney ride. It’s also a great use of the trackless ride system we’ve already seen in Rise of the Resistance.
The clever ways that each of these technologies are used make this an A-List, can’t-miss attraction the next time you’re in Hollywood Studios.
And bring the family because everyone will love it!
