Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Review and Planning Info
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway opened on: March 4, 2020.
Pull up a list of all Disney’s Hollywood Studios attraction planning reviews here. These reviews will be updated throughout the month as things evolve. The main points should remain the same.
Location: You’ll find the entrance in the same spot as The Great Movie Ride, the attraction that the Railway replaced.
That’s it at the end of Hollywood Boulevard inside the Chinese Theater.
You’ll typically enter an extended, outdoor queue first, before arriving at the main building.
Extra Magic Hours: When Disney offers them, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway should be included in morning or evening Extra Magic Hours. It does not currently participate because Hollywood Studios has never added Extra Magic Hours during the ride’s short tenure.
Ride Length: Five minutes.
Type: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway uses a trackless ride system unlike any other that you’ll find at Walt Disney World. I don’t want to spoil too much, but what might appear to be a train isn’t always a train.
Similar to:
Walt Disney World doesn’t offer anything that really resembles the Runaway Railway ride system. It would be sort of like if Big Thunder Mountain Railroad were trackless, much slower, not a roller coaster, and entirely indoors, with screens throughout the ride. It would be somewhat comparable to Pooh’s Hunny Hunt at Tokyo Disneyland or the Antarctica: Empire of the Penguin ride at SeaWorld. Even on Disney’s own attraction page, they call it a “first-of-its-kind ride.”
Requirements: None. This is a rare ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios that doesn’t carry a height requirement.
Scary Factor: Low. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is meant to be zany fun, which means things occasionally become a little precarious. The ride moves so quickly through each cartoon scene that once something exciting happens, serenity quickly returns. The fact that Disney did not assign the ride a height requirement is a good indication that it should be okay for just about anyone.
What to Expect:
You can watch a full run-through of the queue, pre-show, and ride above, or on YouTube, here.
Guests first walk through the winding queue inside the Chinese Theater, passing by digital posters of movie spoofs featuring Mickey and the gang.
Next, guests head into a small room and watch a short clip that both introduces the animation style and a little bit of the story that follows.
After something unexpected happens, guests are able to continue into the loading area and board their runaway train with Goofy as the engineer. That’s rarely a good sign. From there, the train moves quickly through about ten different scenes, each of which seamlessly blends physical sets and screen-based technology. The ride moves so quickly, and there’s so much to see, that it’s virtually impossible to have much of an idea about what’s happening. One thing is for sure. It’s a fun experience.
According to Disney:
Burst into Mickey and Minnie’s World
The darling duo are taking a leisurely drive to a picnic in their sporty roadster—with Engineer Goofy’s train following merrily along. Plot twist—you get to go, too! Climb aboard a runaway railway and embark on a whirlwind ride through a world where the rules of physics don’t apply. Prepare for unexpected twists, slapstick gags and mind-boggling transformations at every turn, as Mickey and Minnie try to save the day.
There’s no telling where this train is heading! This is an adventure for Mickey and Minnie fans of all ages.
Where to Sit: It’s potentially not too important. And just because you start in the front row, doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll end there. If anything, I prefer to start the ride a little further back from the front. The large engine blocks some of the view up ahead. You may also experience different effects depending on which row you’re assigned, which makes a second go-around even more fun.
FastPass+: Yes, when Disney offered FastPass+, it was in Tier One, along with Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and Slinky Dog Dash. Any of those FastPass+ would save you 60 to 100+ minutes in line. Officially, I had the Runaway Railway as the second-highest priority in Tier One, behind Slinky Dog Dash. At least part of the queue for Runaway Railway is indoors, which is more pleasant than Slinky’s entirely-outdoor queue. Waits for Runaway Railway are also typically higher than Smugglers Run, which makes it a higher priority than the space simulator. With Disney not currently offering FastPass+ for any attraction, we’ll have to see how things look when/if the service returns.
What You Miss Using FastPass+ or an Alternate Entrance: You’ll bypass all of the outdoor queue, which is a good thing. You’ll also miss some of the beautiful interior of the Chinese Theater. That’s more of a shame. All guests watch the pre-show before experiencing the ride.
Total Average Experience Time with FastPass+: 15 minutes.
4th FastPass+ Availability: When Disney offered FastPass+, guests exhausted the supply of all Tier One selections well in advance of a given date. The only opportunity to secure Runaway Railway as a 4th or subsequent FastPass+ would be to luck into someone else’s cancellation/change of plans, which was rare.
Expect to Wait with FastPass+ Available:
Expect to Wait with no FastPass+ Available and Capacity Caps in Place:
It’s impossible to say until we see what the Studios looks like upon reopening. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was only open for a couple of weeks before the Parks closed for about four months. Hopefully, with capacity caps and no FastPass+, waits will be reasonable. But we’re also likely looking at capacity reductions that will cause waits to remain long. Exactly how long remains to be seen.
When to Go: It’s best to visit first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Unfortunately, you could say the same thing about several other attractions at the Studios. That includes Slinky Dog Dash and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. We’ll examine wait times and see if there are any other openings during the day.
Rating: 9/10
Josh’s Take: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is an accessible, fun ride for guests of just about any age. My only real complaint is that there’s so much happening around you that it’s never particularly clear what is actually going on. Fortunately, the muddled plot and scene jumps don’t really detract from the fun of the experience. You may just find that your head is spinning faster than the ride vehicle as you try to take it all in. This is the sort of ride where you’ll notice fun new things every time you ride. In places, the animation style is not to my particular tastes. But that’s show business.
Oh boy, 45 years old and looking forward to it as a kid of ten.
Tall Praise, a 9 out of 10. However, I am still annoyed that this is all we got for the removal of The Great Movie Ride! Sorry, but shortchanged is my take!