PHOTOS - Crowds pack into Disney's Hollywood Studios for the opening of Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

Mar 04, 2020 in "Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway"

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Opening Day crowds at Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

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Posted: Wednesday March 4, 2020 7:54am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney's Hollywood Studios was once greeted with 4:30am arrivals as guests arrived to ride Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway opening today at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Opening Day crowds at Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

Parking opened around 4:30am, with security opening at 4:45am, and a steady flow of guests began filling the area at the main entrance.

Touch Points opened just before 6:45am, with guests immediately heading to the Chinese Theater where Cast, Crew and Imagineers who worked on the ride were waiting. The first guests entered the ride around 6:50am.

Opening Day crowds at Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

Lines quickly reached the three hour mark by 7am, and the line extended all the way through the park to Tower of Terror. By 8am, the wait was five hours.

Opening Day crowds at Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

As with the opening of Star Wars Galaxy's Edge, Cast Members were very well prepared and handled the situation exceptionally well.

Opening Day crowds at Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

By the afternoon, the standby wait had settled into a steady 2 hours.

Opening Day crowds at Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

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bmr15912 days ago

It seems that 2025 and 2026 are going to be used to do a lot of maintenance that's been desperately needed. With Epic pulling some of the crowds away (it'll certainly still be busy) and no new rides to advertise until 2027, it's a great time to do it!

wdwmagic2 days ago

Glad to see. It has be in absolutely awful condition for the past year, particularly the carpet. It was way beyond time.

gerarar2 days ago

Big thread bump – MMRR has been getting some love recently, via @Drew the Disney Dude Ride originally opened March 5, 2020, so its fifth anniversary is coming up in a few days.

TikibirdLandJul 26, 2021

A lot of talent represented in this call! Interesting to hear from those that worked on the project. Really wished they had shown concepts, sketches and tune snippets that were involved in their creative process.

DCBakerJul 25, 2021

Here's video of the event from the post above -

DCBakerJul 11, 2021

Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway: From Animation to Imagineering Ever wonder what it takes to turn a classic cartoon into an immersive experience at Walt Disney World Resort? Join Disney as we bring together Disney Television Animation and Walt Disney Imagineering to discuss the process of creating Mickey and friends’ first-ever ride-through attraction in Disney history, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. This history-making attraction features an original story based on the award-winning Mickey Mouse shorts and features favorite Disney cartoon characters Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck, Goofy, and Pluto. This panel includes Charita Carter (senior producer, Walt Disney Imagineering); Kevin Rafferty (retired Imagineer and executive creative director for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway); Paul Rudish (executive producer and supervising director, The Wonderful World of Disney); Christopher Willis (composer, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway Parks attraction); and Elsa Chang (character designer, The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse and Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway Parks attraction). Tune in as they discuss how they were able to combine the two worlds of animation and Imagineering and turn them into the “Perfect Picnic.” Start time: Jul 25, 2021 11:00 am (GMT-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) End time: Jul 25, 2021 12:00 pm (GMT-07:00) Pacific Time (US & Canada) https://www.eventeny.com/events/comicconhome-1456/?action=schedule-item&action_ops=7128

Andrew MJun 16, 2021

We were one of the lucky ones to experience the ride on Opening Day, the pre-show adds alot and that initial reveal after the explosion is fantastic. Glad it's back.

Jones14Jun 15, 2021

I don’t mind the differing views on Runaway Railway because for every moment any car misses, there’s another that they get to see instead, and (in my opinion), no car misses the meat of the experience. Missing the pre-show really put a damper, though, so I’m glad that’s back.

WondersOfLifeJun 15, 2021

That's terrible

CastAStoneJun 15, 2021

You do lol. But the first cars leave the room before the audio finishes in some scenes!

WondersOfLifeJun 15, 2021

I do say the same about Soarin. I disagree about journey into your imagination with figment, though. You get a great view of how bad that ride is from many angles.

Giss NericJun 15, 2021

This is such a great pre-show and it definitely adds to the overall experience of the ride. I forgot that this ride was just open for less than two weeks before the closures and nobody got to the see this pre-show until today.

CastAStoneJun 14, 2021

You could same the same about Soarin or Journey into Imagination with Figment or, depending on your perspective, any roller coaster. I don’t think it’s defending it to sort out what the variance in ride quality by seating is.

WondersOfLifeJun 14, 2021

Point being, I think it's ridiculous that any of you are defending a lazy slapped attraction with a "BuT WHicH ROw DiD yOu SIt In?" question. It shouldn't matter. Simple as that. The attraction is not that good as a result.