Overqueue - The Magic of Disney Animation

The Overambitious Overflow Queues of Walt Disney World - The Magic of Disney Animation



This is an odd area.  The video above only shows a portion of the queue, and the only thing the line is for is the preshow "Drawn to Animation" with Mushu, which can (and usually is) bypassed to go straight into the building proper.  This is also the site of the only time I've snapped at a Disney employee - for interrupting me to let me know it's an Eddie Murphy soundalike, not the real Eddie Murphy. 

But the history of this queue area is also the history of Disney Hollywood Studios.

When the park opened in 1989 as Disney-MGM Studios, it consisted of a two-hour long Backstage Studio Tour and the Great Movie Ride.  Period.

The Backstage Studio Tour began with a tram ride, and the queue for the trams still exists today as the queue area for the Magic of Disney Animation.  By 1991 the tour was split into two attractions, the tram ride and the walking tour.  In 1996 the entrance of the tram tour, renamed the Studio Backlot Tour, was moved to its final location, where it died a slow death a piece at a time, closing without fanfare in 2014.

The area continued to be used for the Magic of Disney Animation Tour, which began with a preshow "Return to Neverland" with Walter Cronkite and Robin Williams and continued as a walking tour of a (sometimes) operating animation studio.  The studio parts left, and gradually the tour became an exhibit, with a drawing class and interactive computer terminals.  The expansive queue area outside was used for meet & greets, and as of this writing the entire inside area is one animation class and a series of meet & greets.

The queue area currently is mostly roped off, which is a shame as it has some interesting features, such as framed prints, remnants of an Atlantis meet & greet, and animator's hands in cement.

And that's it for overflow queues.  Were there any I missed?

Overque - Stitch's Great Escape

The Overambitious Overflow Queues of Walt Disney World - Stitch's Great Escape

First, let's orient ourselves.  We're walking back towards the Hub from Tomorrowland.  Monsters Inc Laugh Floor is on the left.



Stitch's Great Escape is to the right.  Keep walking, and past the entrance to Stitch are the Fast Pass machines [snicker].  Keep walking a little bit more, just before the stupid Fred Flintstone rocks, behind and to the left of the Fast Pass area, there is a small area with a roped loop.  Usually, this area is roped off, and it's hard to see any of it.  The rocks block off the view from the bridge, a wall blocks it off from Cosmic Rays.  You can see a little bit of it from the Peoplemover as it passes above it and when it emerges after making the final loop after the Laugh Floor.

Before Stitch, this area was originally Mission to Mars.  It had two theaters, each with separate exits.  This was originally one of those exits.  I've seen employees wheel carts out of that area, so there may be some storage back there as well.

Overque - Dinosaur

The Overambitious Overflow Queues of Walt Disney World  - Dinosaur

As you walk up towards the show building, there are some loopy paths to the right with some dinosaur statues.  Couldn't find any video, so I'll pass you on to Parkeology, where I got this from.

Overqueue - Journey into Imagination With Figment

The Overambitious Overflow Queues of Walt Disney World - Journey into Imagination With Figment

About the saddest thing I've ever seen was a cast member standing outside Journey into Imagination telling guests that it was temporarily closed, especially since the only people there were trying to find the restroom after Captain Eo.

Not much of an overflow queue, but to the left just as you enter, there is another room with a roped queue circling a display of  the video camera helmet from Honey, I Shrunk the Audience.



I just found out that the rounded area at the front of the queue is the original giant turntable from the first, superior incarnation of the ride.  I like this queue a lot, but maybe that's just in contrast to the ride itself.

Overqueue - Muppet Vision 3D

The Overambitious Overflow Queues of Walt Disney World - Muppet Vision 3D

This new series is going to take a look at parts of Disney World that (for the most part) aren't off limits, but are rarely seen.  First, here's what we're not talking about.

Many popular rides get lines longer than their queues during busy times.  For most of these rides, the solution is to put up temporary rope switchbacks outside.  Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, and It's a Small World regularly do this.

We're also not talking about rides that just have a queue way too long.  The Seas With Nemo and Friends comes to mind.  Aside from New Year's Eve, this one has always been a walk-on for me, and making my way through the queue takes almost as long as the ride itself.  However, you get to see the entire queue.

The subjects of the series have themed overflow queues that are not part of the regular queue, and for the majority of these, the demand for such queues has been a titch overestimated.

The first one is an exception, as it is a part of a popular attraction and is actually used from time to time.  This is the overflow queue of Muppet Vision 3D in Hollywood Studios.  This is a simple switchback that snakes along the side of the building to the right of the entrance.