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Slinky Dog Dash in Toy Story Land in Disney’s Hollywood Studios



By Dave Shute

REVIEW: SLINKY DOG DASH IN TOY STORY LAND AT DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Slinky Dog Dash, one of two new rides in the new Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (my review of the other, Alien Swirling Saucers, is here), opened on June 30, 2018, and I had the chance to ride it that day and the next.

The ride is an open-air roller coaster that dominates Toy Story Land both visually and kinetically. If you are a coaster fan, it is delightful without being distinctive.

Rocketing up, around, and over Toy Story Land, with two different launch points, it provides a moderate amount of thrills that will make it appeal to a pretty wide range of folk–all but the coaster-phobic and those who need the promise of loops and inversions to justify getting out of bed in the morning. I have a light touch of motion sickness, but saw zero motion sickness symptoms. Those with moderate or worse motion sickness should avoid it.

For those familiar with Disney World, I’d mark it’s thrill level as somewhere between Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Big Thunder Mountain.

It’s not as smooth as Seven Dwarfs, nor as jarring as Big Thunder. Part of its thrill comes from it being in the open air, so that more so than most Disney coasters except Space Mountain, you can have the sense of your vehicle barely being controlled by its infrastructure.

The notion behind the ride—as in all of Toy Story Land—is that Slinky Dog Dash is a found toy from Andy’s Backyard. He assembled the ride from a toy roller coaster set—his designs are featured in the loading area—and then planted his Slinky Dog as his imagined ride vehicle.

It’s a cute concept, and the actual ride vehicles are quite darling:

The queue, rather than being much themed itself, is set in the more broadly themed concept of “Andy’s backyard.”

Perhaps as a result, it is largely un-protected from the sun (you will find roofs at the end, and scattered umbrellas along the way), and other than some fans, not conditioned.

If only Andy had played with miniature air conditioners…*

Our forebears called this type of environment “life,” yet in our softer age, it can feel pretty miserable. A parasol and some sort of portable personal fan are welcome accessories if you are unable to book a FastPass+, which I highly recommend. Until FastPass+ tiers here change, for those not afraid of coasters, Slinky Dog Dash is the highest priority FastPass+ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

I loved it. It has a friend in me.

Ride vehicles seat 20 in ten two-across rows. Each row has its own lap bar, meaning big and little folks can sit next to each other.

Kids need to be at least 38 inches tall to ride it at all, and over 7 to ride it unaccompanied by an older person.

Like the rest of Toy Story Land, Slinky Dog Dash gains additional visual appeal and fun after dark.

In particular, the passage of the vehicle changes the lighting of the track.

I timed multiple consecutive runs as Slinky Dog flew by over my head on the evening of Sunday July 1, and got an average of 65 seconds between vehicles, with a range of 49 to 94 seconds and a median time between vehicles of 61 seconds.

With vehicles filled to their 20 18 person capacity (thanks Ryan!), that’s around 1,000 people per hour, far fewer than the number of people who want to enjoy the ride, so expect long waits if you can’t score a FastPass+.

*These do exist; I have 1/87 scale air conditioners for my model trains…
 

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7 comments

1 Ryan { 07.05.18 at 2:40 pm }

Very through and helpful as always. But I think the trains actually have just 18 seats, so the capacity situation is even worse at about 990 riders per hour based on your timing. But hopefully they can get their efficiency up a bit because 65 seconds seems high.

2 Dave { 07.06.18 at 6:51 am }

Thanks Ryan–I had not paid enough attention to the one row in the last car…fixed now!

3 MyOhana { 07.07.18 at 6:01 pm }

You should change your information on Slinky Dog Dash. You said it was between 7 Dwarfs and Big Thunder. 7 Dwarfs is 34 mph and Big Thunder is 36 mph. We talked to a cast member at Slinky Dog Dash today as we were boarding and she informed us that Slinky Dog is 45mph. Much faster than the other two coasters. Especially since Everest is 50 mph. Though it isn’t as long as Big Thunder, it is definitely faster with bigger drops.

4 Dave { 07.08.18 at 8:45 am }

Hi, and thanks for writing! I did not say it was faster or slower, but rather compared the thrill level, which I stand by.

5 Karen Harwood { 06.06.19 at 6:05 pm }

I agree. I felt way more motion sickness on Slinky dog dash than seven dwarfs mine train and big thunder. Those two did not bother me at all. Also I thought the drops were larger on slinky dog.

6 Meghan { 08.28.18 at 1:20 pm }

I was looking for an updated itinerary for Hollywood Studios to include the new rides at Toy Story Land. Do you have one of those yet?

7 Dave { 08.30.18 at 8:15 am }

Hi Meghan, all of my longer itineraires have had them for a while now. See for example this and the second day here.

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