Slinky Dog Dash coaster trains arrive at Walt Disney World

August 30, 2017, 8:53 AM · The Walt Disney World Resort has announced the arrival of the coaster trains for its upcoming Slinky Dog Dash roller coaster in Toy Story Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

The Mack Rides family coaster will put riders on the back of Slinky Dog as he rides over a model coaster track that Andy has built in his backyard, according to Disney's backstory for the ride. Appropriately, the trains are decorated with a Slinky Dog front, with passenger seats taking the place of the Slinky. Let's hear from two of the ride's creators:

Toy Story Land will open next summer, on the site of the old Backstage Tour at the park. The 11-acre land also will include the Alien Swirling Saucers spinner ride. Other new attractions coming to the park include Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway, which is replacing the now-closed Great Movie Ride, and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge, the new Star Wars land that will open in 2019.

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Replies (24)

August 30, 2017 at 11:07 AM · Honestly, can Disney not make a mistake here? This is truly the first of many great steps towards solidifying the resort as the greatest creation man has ever seen. Nothing the world comes up with can compare to Disney and what they are doing over the next five years in Orlando. A coaster that mimics a slinky?? Wow. Just Wow. Talk about swinging for the fences folks.
August 30, 2017 at 12:04 PM · If TH was back, he might be offended by your remarks Barry.

I too am underwhelmed by this expansion, but I think it has a place. Every park needs somewhere for the kiddies to run around and a few smaller rides to suck up the crowds. Toy Story remains one of Disney's most popular animated franchises, and expanding beyond TSMM was a good decision. However, anyone expecting this to be trip-worthy (meaning guests from outside Florida plan an out of sequence trip because of this one new development), is mistaken. With Galaxy's Edge opening the following year, Toy Story Land will not even register as a microscopic foreshock to the coming 9.9 magnitude earthquake coming in 2019.

August 30, 2017 at 12:22 PM · My Sentiments exactly Russell. This is a cute placeholder but a snoozer in the end. Disney's meager attempt to hold back the rabid until Star Wars can make this a proper park again. I have big expectations for Hollywood Studios but I assure you Toy Story Land is not it.
August 30, 2017 at 12:49 PM · I think this has potential to be a nice place for families in a park that traditionally just had rides for the teenage crowd and left toddlers and tweens with nothing to ride. The new Mickey & Minnie ride in development that is replacing the Great Movie Ride is also showing how this park is changing to be more family oriented.

Disney knows they don't have to hit homeruns every time. Sometimes a bunt single is good enough for the win.

August 30, 2017 at 12:49 PM · Offering 2 new rides is nothing much to be excited about. They should have added at least 2 additional flat rides and another dark ride. The combined 4 Disney World parks have less flat rides and classic Fantasyland style dark rides than Disneyland Resort in 2 parks. There's also no announcement with what they will do with MuppetVision 3D. Just close it or turn it into a preview showcase with Path of the Jedi. With that area turning into Grand Avenue, the discarded Golden Dreams should make an appearance there. DHS is the best of both worlds and still short on things to do. It's the Calif Adven Park.
August 30, 2017 at 12:59 PM · I think you might be underestimating how popular this attraction will be . Seven Dwarves Mine train is also pretty much a short family coaster and it has a 2+ hour wait all the time. People LOVE Toy story and in a park as starved for rides as DHS is it will command longneck lines. I agree that it won't come near Star Wars but I am proceeding cautiously with Star Wars. I think Galaxy's Edge will be beautiful and immersive but from the looks of the construction the Millenium Falcon ride looks like another centrifuge simulator like Mission Space that people REALLY dislike. I think their main attraction is going to have to be Shanghai Pirates level quality for Galaxy's Edge to live up to hype...
August 30, 2017 at 1:52 PM · Still disappointed it's Toy Story again. Pixar has so many great movies that aren't represented in WDW. Now we get besides Buzz Lightyear, Toys Story Mania a kiddy coaster and a flat ride.
None of these will help put the pressure from Star Wars land that will get to crowded because of that. But probably the Disney Company has a paywall option in the making that will have you enjoy Star Wars without the shoulder to shoulder madness it supposedly is going to be.
August 30, 2017 at 2:39 PM · While Toy Story Land probably should have had a bit more to it, what DHS is getting is still a much needed addition. Not only will this increase the total ride count of the park, it will also fill in for the lack of family-friendly rides currently present. No, it isn't something to plan a special trip for, but I have a feeling that the coaster is going to be far more fun than most are expecting.
August 30, 2017 at 2:48 PM · For me it's a good move by Disney. I love Pixar far more than Star Wars and Toy Story is the top of the Pixar tree in popularity and commercially. An immersive Toy Story Land including Midway Mania and Slinky Dog coaster seems pretty good to me. Not everybody is obsessed by Star Wars and Disney has a finite budget which Star Wars will take up the majority of. I think it also provides a really good contrast between the two lands and will be ideal for families, which is what it was all about in the beginning.
August 30, 2017 at 2:51 PM · Toy story was released in what, 1995. A great movie at the time, yes. But here we are 20 years later with a couple of mediocre attractions based upon it.

Too little, too late, as usual Disney.

August 30, 2017 at 2:59 PM · Getting sick of so many cheap roller coasters being built - enough is enough. Disney is more than just roller coasters.

How about some imagination for a proper attraction.

August 30, 2017 at 3:01 PM · Toy Story still continues to outstrip every other Pixar and Disney film (exc Frozen) for merchandise sales......which is a primary factor for Disney decision-making.
August 30, 2017 at 4:26 PM · Toy Story 4 comes out in 2019 unless it is delayed again, so in this case I think Disney is ahead of the game. And this coaster looks like a fine, whole-family addition to the park. No issues here. Besides, with the woefully low coaster count in Orlando, I'll take anything I can get!
August 31, 2017 at 5:10 AM · Yeah, this is going to be a verrrrrry popular ride. I expect FastPass+ to be near-impossible for non-resort guests and regular two hour or longer waits. People LOVE Toy Story and people LOVE family coasters, especially at DHS which is starved for kid-friendly attractions.
August 31, 2017 at 5:59 AM · Ok. I agree with the sentiments of most of you, but isn't this a step in the right direction? Especially for this park? One of the big obstacles that I have with some of the rides at Universal is that they are too intense for several members of my family, and I have to ride them alone or with only one or two others. This is a ride that I can probably get most of them to ride, and we can enjoy it as a group, so I'm looking forward to riding it!
August 31, 2017 at 8:23 AM · Doesn't Toy Story Land take up space that would otherwise go to the Star Wars Land expansion pad? Even though both SW projects are the same size at 14 acres, Disneyland's Star Wars Land has the forested build up from Critter Country and further expansion space just north of the project. Then there's the option of going further east into Toontown with rumors of the land's demise or perhaps change into something else like Frozen.

DHS' Star Wars Land appears locked in with Toy Story Land taking up the north side. There's no expansion pad further West with World Dr blocking it. There's no forested build up on the back side of Star Tours and MuppetVision. So how does their Star Wars Land expand with new attractions? Will they go beyond the Studio Dr road and into the undeveloped back side? I would think the new Star Wars hotel will go there. DHS is just a weird park and their layout is further restricted with bad design decisions.

August 31, 2017 at 9:08 AM · Star Wars Land can easily swallow up the Echo Lake section of the park if need be, and they can always re-route the road as they're doing in other parts of the compound. No space is restricted on the Lake Buena Vista property, they have an enormous amount of land.
August 31, 2017 at 9:46 AM · This will landlock Grand Avenue unless they change too. It'll confirm how badly designed the whole park is.
August 31, 2017 at 10:07 AM · The park isn't necessarily badly designed, an interesting departure from the classic hub and spoke for sure, but the way they're wedging in SW and Pixar and trying to make those areas self-contained, instead of flowing into adjacent areas, makes it a tough fit. Because the DHS property still contains remnants of what Disney tried to make into a working production studio, it's difficult to remake the park without doing some serious redesigning (not just razing building but altering critical infrastructure like water, sewer, and electricity). So Disney instead is taking the easy way out by plopping new developments into areas previously occupied by attractions.

I would argue that if not for ToT and TSMM, Disney probably would have been better off closing DHS completely for 2 years and do a complete gut and makeover of the property. However, the immense popularity of those 2 attractions is forcing Disney to keep DHS open despite its currect crippled status, and the SW and Toy Story areas are being wedged in.

Expanding into Echo Lake doesn't make any sense. If there's going to be any expansion of the currently defined SW land footprint, it would be into the Grand Avenue area and taking over the Muppets theater. If SW instead expands towards Echo Lake, you'll have the Grand Avenue development as an island in the middle of a sea of Star Wars as Anton noted. So, if SW were to take over Grand Avenue, why are they bothering this ridiculous re-theme?

August 31, 2017 at 3:14 PM · It's a tight fit, which hurts Star Wars Land. The Slinky Dog Dash coaster has such a vast footprint that I wonder why couldn't they just fit Toy Story Land into 6 acres and give Star Wars Land an addition 4 acres of expansion space. At minimum, Star Wars Land deserved a better transition between Toy Story Land and Grand Avenue. Instead of the more gradual transition at Disneyland, DHS will have a wall and not much of a transition at all. Worse is Star Tours could not be integrated into Star Wars Land. So what will happen to it? Maybe nothing. Just an awkward distance with Muppets in between. Doesn't make sense, but probably no one will care.
September 1, 2017 at 2:40 AM · It won't be any worse than having the whole park between Star Tours and Star Wars Land at Disneyland.
September 1, 2017 at 5:19 AM · Just get rid of the Muppets. Those evil talking socks must go!
September 1, 2017 at 6:51 AM · @ProfPlum; I thought CARS was Pixars big money maker for merchandise sales.
September 1, 2017 at 12:00 PM · Hey easy with that Muppets talk. Some of the dark ride ideas for that were really cool! Granted they didn't do anything with those ideas, but there is a new* pizza place :)
*renamed

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