Review of the new Toy Story Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios. I was privileged enough to visit this new area yesterday before the land officially opens this weekend. We could not take any photos or recordings, but here is a written review if you are interested.
It was really nice exploring this new land with this special pass, as there maybe 100 people or so total walking around, so it was very relaxed and quite and you could really grasp it all in without fighting the crowds.
First off - the land is really nice. You really feel like you have been down-sized to the size of a toy and are walking around in Andy's backyard. I was a bit concerned when I saw the huge faux fence pictures from above that cover all the surrounding buildings...but I have to say, from ground level that really sells the whole shrunken feeling and looks really great. In my opinion now, these pretty much sell the whole complete immersive idea.
Unfortunately when our time slot came up to ride the Slinky-Dog Dash...storms had rolled in and there was too much lightning in the area so the coaster was shut down...but looking at the massive size of this coaster from the ground...its no kiddie coaster. it goes up quite high and has some really nice banked curves and dives. I would say form the look of it....one step up in intensity than the Dwarf coaster.
Toy Story Mania was open, but still using the old temp queue entrance. You can see the new entrance in the new land, it was just not being use. The new one looks to be 100% improvement from the old Pixar court theme.
Alien Spaceship Spin (I believe thats the name)...is already being called ASS for short...was a great theme. Very colorful. It had the feel of being on a dance floor. Color light flashing, a really good upbeat soundtrack, and the cast members running the rides are in a booth and act like a DJ at a dance club. Very fun and makes you smile. This is basically a clone of the Mater Barnyard ride at DCA (which I have also ridden), but this version seemed like it had stronger whips. I have to say I enjoyed this ride way more than I thought I would. It was really throwing may 200+ lb. weight around pretty good. Smaller kids will need an adult to ride with them to keep them from being flung out. Side note: found a hidden Mickey in the queue for this ride.
Woody's Lunchbox was open and serving food, but once again, bad timing on our part. The closed it right as we were walking up as they were doing some promotional video shoot there at that time. The food stand looks great and the menu also looks good.
There are also a few other food and gift carts around that were not open yet, but were themed with Little people toy vehicles and had the food truck feel to them. Very cute.
the rest of the land is also so well done. Benches made from old used stained Popsicle sticks, dominoes, toy train tracks. Over sized pencils, straws, books and hand written notes. Scotch tape holding stuff together, army guys, and toy story characters abound. There are large cootie ants, Tinker Toys, blocks, and other various toys everywhere. Nothing is made of 'normal' stuff. Fences are mostly made of Ken ex pieces.
One thing I have to say. The Alien area did break from the overall theme. The path lights were all small spaceships, while the rest of the land the lights are all over sized Christmas lights or hidden lights inside the Tinker Toy parts. I understand why and it does set this area as a separate section, but I would have liked to see it continue the whole 'made of toy parts' theme better.
One bonus. They haven't blocked off the Galaxy's Edge side of this land very well yet and you can really see a lot of the details and massive size of the Star Wars land being built very well from over here. I was told, some really good views from the coaster.
Thats it for now, enjoy.
It was really nice exploring this new land with this special pass, as there maybe 100 people or so total walking around, so it was very relaxed and quite and you could really grasp it all in without fighting the crowds.
First off - the land is really nice. You really feel like you have been down-sized to the size of a toy and are walking around in Andy's backyard. I was a bit concerned when I saw the huge faux fence pictures from above that cover all the surrounding buildings...but I have to say, from ground level that really sells the whole shrunken feeling and looks really great. In my opinion now, these pretty much sell the whole complete immersive idea.
Unfortunately when our time slot came up to ride the Slinky-Dog Dash...storms had rolled in and there was too much lightning in the area so the coaster was shut down...but looking at the massive size of this coaster from the ground...its no kiddie coaster. it goes up quite high and has some really nice banked curves and dives. I would say form the look of it....one step up in intensity than the Dwarf coaster.
Toy Story Mania was open, but still using the old temp queue entrance. You can see the new entrance in the new land, it was just not being use. The new one looks to be 100% improvement from the old Pixar court theme.
Alien Spaceship Spin (I believe thats the name)...is already being called ASS for short...was a great theme. Very colorful. It had the feel of being on a dance floor. Color light flashing, a really good upbeat soundtrack, and the cast members running the rides are in a booth and act like a DJ at a dance club. Very fun and makes you smile. This is basically a clone of the Mater Barnyard ride at DCA (which I have also ridden), but this version seemed like it had stronger whips. I have to say I enjoyed this ride way more than I thought I would. It was really throwing may 200+ lb. weight around pretty good. Smaller kids will need an adult to ride with them to keep them from being flung out. Side note: found a hidden Mickey in the queue for this ride.
Woody's Lunchbox was open and serving food, but once again, bad timing on our part. The closed it right as we were walking up as they were doing some promotional video shoot there at that time. The food stand looks great and the menu also looks good.
There are also a few other food and gift carts around that were not open yet, but were themed with Little people toy vehicles and had the food truck feel to them. Very cute.
the rest of the land is also so well done. Benches made from old used stained Popsicle sticks, dominoes, toy train tracks. Over sized pencils, straws, books and hand written notes. Scotch tape holding stuff together, army guys, and toy story characters abound. There are large cootie ants, Tinker Toys, blocks, and other various toys everywhere. Nothing is made of 'normal' stuff. Fences are mostly made of Ken ex pieces.
One thing I have to say. The Alien area did break from the overall theme. The path lights were all small spaceships, while the rest of the land the lights are all over sized Christmas lights or hidden lights inside the Tinker Toy parts. I understand why and it does set this area as a separate section, but I would have liked to see it continue the whole 'made of toy parts' theme better.
One bonus. They haven't blocked off the Galaxy's Edge side of this land very well yet and you can really see a lot of the details and massive size of the Star Wars land being built very well from over here. I was told, some really good views from the coaster.
Thats it for now, enjoy.
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