Tokyo DisneySea – Toy Story Mania!

Toyville Trolley Park

Toy Story Mania! is an indoor interactive dark ride that uses 3D projection and special effects. It brings guests through several carnival games that are highly entertaining and engaging.

This is the key attraction at Toyville Trolley Park – an old fashioned, Coney Island style, amusement park that’s tucked at Broadway and Park Avenue, American Waterfront.

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Fastpass queue overflow 2

As the most popular attraction at Tokyo DisneySea, Toy Story Mania! usually has a wait time of 120-180 minutes. The record was 400+ minutes during the ride’s grand opening period.

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Fastpass queue overflow

These are some photos taken during the park’s early minutes into opening. The line spills over to Broadway and starts from the Venice section of Mediterranean Harbor.

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Lines and lines

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Lines and lines 3

Madness. Madness. And it’s an ordinary weekday.

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Lines and lines 2

Well, it gave me an opportunity to walk around the outdoor queue.

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Fastpass queue 2

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Fastpass queue

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Fastpass Machine 2

Cast members are stationed at some Fastpass machines to help speed up the process.

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Fastpass Machine

The Fastpass machines have a similar shape like those used at Tower of Terror, but with an antique silver finish.

Toy Story Mania - Morning Fastpass Madness - Ticketing Time Board

After all that craziness from the park entrance, I managed to get Fastpasses with a return time between 1:55PM to 2:55PM. As I walked out of the area with the machines, the return time jumped by ten minutes. It’s selling fast!

Fast forward to the afternoon…

It was raining, but we’re back at Toyville Trolley Park for Toy Story Mania!

Toy Story Mania - Fastpasses

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Guests walk through a heavily themed queue through Andy’s Room that’s briming with larger-than-life toys from the past. Colourful toys everywhere, some showing a bit of wear from long hours of play time.

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

The Fastpass Only! path makes you feel like a (somewhat guilty) VIP in this ride. You know, the other line barely moves.

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

See that open box in the distance? That’s the Carnival Games play set getting unpacked. It’s the game which we’re all going to be “part of”.

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Buzz Lightyear isn’t as prominently featured in the ride as the rest of the characters, probably to keep with the old school feel of the attraction. He’s still in the ride, just not as much as Woody’s Roundup Gang.

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Step right up to the Carny Cannon!

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Cute illustrations of Toy Story characters in a Japanese miniature art style.

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

A shot of the Standby line that’s moving at an excruciatingly slow pace. The wait time was 3 hours, so we skipped this ride on our first day.

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

While the queue area is very interesting, I’m not sure how I’d feel if I had to stay in this place for more than 2 hours.

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

Another look at the area we just went past.

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

The “play set” comes with 3D glasses. This is just where guests pick them up, but I adore the the whole toy box treatment here.

Toy Story Mania - The Queue

The 3D glasses collection point is right after the spot where both Standby and Fastpass lines merge. After collecting glasses, the path leads to the loading area. It reminds me of Toy Story Land in Hong Kong Disneyland at night, with the lights and all.

Toy Story Mania - Loading Area

Toy Story Mania - Loading Area

We’ve just walked through a giant door to get to the loading area.

Toy Story Mania - Loading Area

Here comes the ride vehicles! Each vehicle sits 2 guests on each side, back facing each other. Apparently these are called “trams” and they go through the ride in groups of two (carrying a total of 8 guests).

Toy Story Mania - Loading Area

Toy Story Mania - Loading Area

Loading is very efficient, thanks to a dedicated unload platform.

Toy Story Mania - on-ride photos

Notice the two cannons at each side of the ride vehicle? These are pull-string cannons used to participate in the games!

We boarded our ride vehicle and waited for loading checks. The moment that’s done, our vehicle moved under “Andy’s Bed” and into the famed Automated Shooting Gallery set up by our dear friends from Toy Story.

Toy Story Mania - on-ride photos

Toy Story Mania is essentially “arcade games”, presented in 3D with special effects, in moving vehicles. However, it is incredibly pieced together into a seamless experience.

The first stage was just a tutorial, with Jessie and Woody holding up targets. We then learned how to use the cannons – just pull and release. A pie flew onto the “screen” which really, with clarity of the 3D projections, hardly seemed like one.

The visuals also look incredibly detailed and smooth, which is amazing for real-time rendered graphics.

Toy Story Mania - on-ride photos

Then it began. The insane and rapid triggering of the pull-string cannons which went on for a few minutes, with just mere seconds of breaks in between. Ride vehicles would then dance around this room filled with carnival “stalls”, pushing guests to the next stage. As soon as the Toy Story characters introduced themselves and their games, the crazy action-packed gameplay begins.

Toy Story Mania - on-ride photos

The game stages are all very elaborately designed and have a LOT of (secrets) targets. It’s a shooting frenzy, as if Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters was sped up 10 times. The “4D” effects were also well integrated. We had off-screen lighting, water splashes and balloon pops simulated. I also particularly enjoyed the sound effects and music used, which greatly reminded me of the films.

Toy Story Mania - Loading Area

The entire ride lasted minutes but we had an amazing time. In fact, the ride felt longer than I thought it would be – which is great, considering the hours of waiting involved for guests in Standby line. It’s amazingly fun, so there’s this heavy feeling when the ride finally ends and we had to leave. I guess that’s why thousands of guests don’t mind waiting for 2-3 hours just for minutes of this experience.

Therefore this attraction also gets my “Best Attraction in Tokyo DisneySea (and the World)” award.

Let’s take a look at the other mini attractions at Toyville Trolley Park. Carnival Corral and Toybox Playhouse.

Toyville Trolley Park - Carnival Corral

Carnival Corral is a mini play area with three stations.

Toyville Trolley Park - Carnival Corral

Blazin’ Buckaroo, a sort of “fastest running-on-the-spot” game.

Toyville Trolley Park - Carnival Corral

At Woody’s Wonder Wagon, puppets of Woody’s Roundup Gang come to live.

The last station is Manic Mirrors, which is basically a set of… funhouse mirrors.

Toyville Trolley Park

Mr. Potato Head performs at Toybox Playhouse. Unfortunately I’ve never been able to catch a show, but this is one of the most advanced animatronic figures in the world. Apart from exhibiting fluid movement (including its mouth), Mr. Potato Head can even remove his ear.

Toyville Trolley Park

Toyville Trolley Park

The rest of Toyville Trolley Park is beautiful at night.

Toyville Trolley Park

Only one small stall at Toyville Trolley Park – to the relief of many parents. But once they step into McDuck’s Department Store

Toyville Trolley Park

A map of the New York area at American Waterfront, showing other key attractions around the area.

Toyville Trolley Park

Some details at the benches and clock in the middle of the park. Toy Story characters are featured here, of course!

Toyville Trolley Park

Notice something about the clock’s face design?

Toyville Trolley Park

It’s a few hours before park closing, but the waiting time is still more than two hours.

Toyville Trolley Park

Toyville Trolley Park

But you know, guests are still entering the queue despite knowing that they will only get on the ride after the rest of the park closes.

Toyville Trolley Park

While yes, the wait time does drop towards the last hour of park opening, don’t put all your chances on that last minute ride. If the wait time is really long, the Standby line closes as early as two hours before park closing. Only guests with Fastpasses will be allowed in line.

Toyville Trolley Park

This is definitely one of the nicest “sub-lands” I’ve visited. I love the Toy Story series, and I think this ride is a great attraction. Toy Story Mania! should be built at Hong Kong Disneyland, since they have a Toy Story Land there (and there’s space, actually).

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed the three-part tour of American Waterfront. We’ll be going back to Tokyo Disneyland for the next set of entries!


An Introduction | Getting There and Around | Pocket Wi-Fi | Tips and Tricks

Tokyo DisneySea

Mediterranean Harbor | Mediterranean Harbor at night | Fortress Explorations
Magellan's | American Waterfront | Tower of Terror | Toy Story Mania!
Port Discovery | Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull
Lost River Delta & Raging Spirits | Sindbad's Storybook Voyage
Arabian Coast | Arabian Coast at night | Mermaid Lagoon
Mysterious Island | Journey to the Center of the Earth
Mysterious Island at night & 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Tokyo Disneyland

World Bazaar | World Bazaar at night | Adventureland | Pirates of the Caribbean
Westernland & Big Thunder Mountain Railroad | Splash Mountain
Haunted Mansion | Pooh's Hunny Hunt | Fantasyland | Fantasyland at night
Cinderella's Fairy Tale Hall | Toon Town | Roger Rabbit's Car Toon Spin
Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek | Star Tours: The Adventures Continue
Tomorrowland & Space Mountain | Happiness is Here Parade

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4 Responses to Tokyo DisneySea – Toy Story Mania!

  1. Allan September 11, 2013 at 1:24 pm #

    I think HK govt was against this ride because it sounded too much like Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. In any case, I think HK govt wants to avoid building rides that already exist in other Asian Disney parks. That’s why HKDL got the recently completed expansion areas and will get Marvel Land in 2017.

    It may still come in HKDL’s future, but I suspect WDI will have to retheme it to another property.

  2. Jessica August 27, 2016 at 6:33 am #

    Your series on Tokyo Disney Resort is fantastic, and even though it is now 3 years old, it is still probably the most helpful site I have seen on the net for getting a general overview of the park and understanding what each area offers. And your photos are amazing! I am planning my first trip to DisneySea and your blog entries remind me to “plan but not plan too much,” but rather allow time to slow down and take in the detailing and atmosphere. You are the only person to even mention little details like the theming in Toyville Trolley Park (Toybox Playhouse, etc), lockers at Raging Spirits, actual time needed to get through Tower of Terror, walk times between areas, or that the steamer route from Lost River diverts to American Waterfront during Med Harbour show times. Thank you for your thoroughness and for covering all the “ports” in equal detail!! Great job!

  3. Jessica September 18, 2018 at 5:41 pm #

    Great post! Im planning my trip too and was wondering what time did you queue for your fast pass to Toy Story? And how long did you queue for? And lastly, do you by any chance know what time the fast pass closed? Thank you so much!

    • Dejiki September 18, 2018 at 10:05 pm #

      It really varies, but I suggest be at the park gates 45-90 mins before it opens so that you can get in quickly and collect a Fastpass for the afternoon. Typically, within 1-2 hours of park opening, Fastpasses would have ran out.

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