Queue Review - Toy Story Midway Mania

Disney California Adventures - Toy Story Midway Mania



The theme of the queue matches perfectly with the area, Paradise Pier, and with the ride itself.  It's a carnival game at a boardwalk.  This is also a horrible line.  It's like they're trying to upset me.  Outdoor snaking switchbacks with chains, ugh.  And Mr. Potato head is amusing once, for about thirty seconds.

Disney's Hollywood Studios - Toy Story Midway Mania



Much more like it.  So well designed you ignore that it doesn't make any sense.  We start out with the facade, which is designed like the Pixar campus.  As soon as you enter the building there's an over-sized wall of a kid's room, but then you're shuffled through normal doors through a cramped hallway into a room filled with oversized toys and games.  This room leads to a transition to another area with a half-carnival, half-kid's bedroom theme and a walkway that goes up and down.

It looks like a couple of converted soundstages, which is exactly what it is.

Tokyo DisneySea - Toy Story Mania



Tokyo DisneySea commits more fully to the child's bedroom theme.  The first queue area improves on some of Hollywood Studio's bare walls and has a higher ceiling, but I think I prefer the actual "stuff" of the the Hollywood version.  There is more of a sense that you're in a child's bedroom rather than just in a pile of oversized toy props.

The real advantage comes in the loading area, which I couldn't find great footage of:



Hollywood Studios had a mish-mash of concepts and some clunky architecture.  At DisneySea we have a giant door that leads us into a full-blown set of a child's bedroom.  At Hollywood we have the sense that we're walking around giant toys, but at DisneySea there's more of a feeling that we've become toy-sized.