Late last week Walt Disney World confirmed rumors that have been swirling around for about 6 months, both Toy Story Mania and Soarin’ will be receiving upgrades to hopefully reduce wait times. This is great news since both of these rides often have wait times over an hour long. The best way to ride these rides is to use the Fastpass+ system and reserve your ride time before your Disney vacation. As locals who seldom stay on property we can’t get Fastpasses as far in advance as other guests so we often miss riding these rides because there are no Fastpasses left when we plan our trips.
Soarin’
Soarin’ is a ride that takes you hangliding over California landmarks from the comfort of a moving row of seats in front of a concave movie screen. This popular attraction opened at Epcot in May of 2005 with 2 theaters that hold 87 passengers each. The riveting musical score by Jerry Goldsmith is the perfect soundtrack for your flight.
Disney announced last week that they will be adding a third theater, which in theory will cut down on wait times allowing 1/3 more people to ride at a time. It was also announced that the screens and projection systems will be updated during this time. The addition is slated to be completed in late 2016.
photos courtesy of Disney
Toy Story Mania
Toy Story Mania is a spinning, virtual video game ride that takes riders through carnival style games featuring all of their favorite Toy Story characters. This fun, family-favorite ride will be having its track expanded allowing for more riders to be on the ride at a time. We do not know exactly how that will work yet since Disney has only told us that much. This project should also be completed in late 2016.
Mom Maven’s Thought
I’m glad that Disney is investing in these two uber popular attractions. Sometimes we don’t need new attractions we just need our favorites to be better or have less of a wait. I am excited to see exactly what Disney toes with Toy Story Mania and with the timeline atunder 2 years, we won’t have to wait too long.
What are your thoughts? Are these rides “must-dos” on your Disney vacation? Is Disney doing the right thing by expanding them?
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