A Review of the Toy Story Midway Mania Ride at Hollywood Studios in Disney World

Toy Story Midway Mania is one of the newest additions to the Disney World's Hollywood Studios theme park, located in Orlando, Florida. Hollywood Studios was formerly known as MGM Studios until last year.

I went to Hollywood Studios in the first week of August 2008. In doing so, I made two big mistakes. First off, school had not started back in most states, so that park was absolutely packed. Secondly, south Florida is a sweltering place to be in August. I will never again go back down to Disney World during the summer. It was too hot and too crowded.

Since this ride was new and the park was busy, the sign above the entrance said there would be a 90 minute wait. During the busiest summer times, an hour or more wait is pretty much the standard, so we got in line with everyone else. Two hours later, we actually got on the ride. After the first hour, I was ready to just push my way back through the line and leave the building. By the end of the second hour, there was no way anything about the ride was going to impress me enough to justify the two hours I had just spent in line waiting for it. I tell you this now because it has probably jaded my view of this ride.

Toy Story Midway Mania is a 'shooting gallery' ride where you sit in a little car and use a mounted 'gun' to shoot targets. At the end of the ride, it'll show your score versus the person sitting with you, plus it has a high score list on display at the beginning and end of the ride. My score was barely a third of the high score.

You ride four people to a car, with two in front and two in back. The track rotates you around and aims you at different screens where you have to shoot various objects for points. Your gun works by pulling a little rope on the back end of it, and what shoots out depends on the screen. Sometimes you are throwing balls at fall-down targets, other times it is darts at balloons. You never actually fire bullets or kill anything, because this is Disney.

This ride last several minutes, which is kind of nice, but it is pretty repetitive. You just move and shoot, then move and shoot some more. Although the screens and projectiles change, you are still just pulling a little rope over and over without much variation to the gameplay. There is some skill involved, but not a whole lot. I found it all to be repetitive and overly simple.

I also have to wonder about the durability of the ride. For several long moments while we waited in line, the line was not moving at all. My wife and I wondered if they were doing some kind of maintenance. On our car, the ropes for the guns were already showing signs of stress, and this ride was only a couple of months old. I would much rather it had a trigger mechanism or even a button to push.

One thing I haven't yet mentioned was that this ride was in 3D. Before you get on, you are given some 3D glasses to wear. I found the 3D part of the game to be pretty cool because you'll have stuff flying at you while you shoot. If something comes right at your face, you'll feel a quick blast of air. I thought that was a really neat touch that'll catch you off guard if you are not expecting it.

In the end, although Toy Story Midway Mania lasts for several minutes and requires some interactivity, I didn't think it was worth the wait. In fact, the only way I'd ever go back into it was if there was no line and I could walk right in. I found it to be more geared toward little kids than everyone else. Over at the Magic Kingdom park, they have a Buzz Lightyear shooting game that I think is far superior.