Toy Story Land is a themed land at Walt Disney World’s Hollywood Studios theme park. In this post, we’ll provide a complete overview of the land, including its rides, restaurants, characters, and the three times of day you should visit Toy Story Land!
Location, Map, and What’s Included
Toy Story Land is a land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios park. The land is located in the southwest corner of the park. But since you aren’t a Cub Scout and this isn’t a class for Compass merit badge, if you’re entering the park through the main entrance, Toy Story Land is all the way at the rear and to the right.
There are two entrances to Toy Story Land. The main entrance is near Toy Story Mania. To get to it from the hub of the park (in front of the Chinese Theatre), you can walk through the giant gate to the right and turn left immediately. Walk past Voyage of the Little Mermaid and Walt Disney Presents…, and turn right (map of this coming below).
Through this gate, turn left to head toward Toy Story Land
The other entrance connects the land to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge (aka Star Wars Land). The path connecting the two lands starts near Droid Depot in Galaxy’s Edge and ends near Alien Swirling Saucers in Toy Story Land.
You cannot access Toy Story Land from Sunset Boulevard, the street ending at Tower of Terror. You’ll have to walk back to the hub of the park.
If you’re here looking for information on going straight to Toy Story Land to start your day, you need to read our post on rope drop strategy at Hollywood Studios.
Maps of Toy Story Land
The below gallery of images (use the arrows to scroll) contains a map of Hollywood Studios with the path to Toy Story Land highlighted, a zoomed in look at Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and a simple map of the land:
The land includes three rides, around 3 character greetings, a quick service restaurant, a table service restaurant, a few small shops, and a few bits of streetmosphere entertainment.
Toy Story Land Theme
The story behind Toy Story Land is that you’ve been shrunk to the size of a toy and now find yourself in Andy’s backyard. More or less, the scale is that you’ve been shrunk to about the size of a Green Army Man.
The Disney imagineers did a great job creating Andy’s Backyard around you, and you’ll see details throughout that remind you of just how small you’ve become. Some international Disney parks have similar Toy Story Lands, but none is done to the detail of this one.
Before we get to discussing the details of the land, let’s talk quickly about where it fits into your day.
When to Visit Toy Story Land
Generally, we recommend making three visits to Toy Story Land as part of a day at Hollywood Studios. You’ll visit once very early to knock some rides out. At this point, you shouldn’t be spending too much time “taking it in.”
In the afternoon, when you have a bit more free time, go ahead and walk through the land again, taking in the details. This is also a good time to grab a snack at Woody’s Lunch Box (we recommend using Mobile Order, and we recommend ordering early).
Finally, the land is definitely worth a visit after sunset. The evening lights transform the land, making it one of the most beautiful areas in the park.
The land has limited shade and virtually no indoor space. In case rain is forecasted, you’ll want to avoid getting stuck in Toy Story Land (the front of the park, with its many stores is much better during rain).
Toy Story Land Rides
Let’s get into the details, starting with the rides of Toy Story Land. We’ll briefly describe each ride before explaining how it fits into your day. You may also want to read the following posts:
Slinky Dog Dash
Slinky Dog Dash is the most popular ride in Toy Story Land and one of the most popular at Walt Disney World resort. The backstory for the ride is that Andy has combined his Slinky Dog toy with a “Dash & Dodge Mega Coaster Kit” to form “Slinky Dog Dash” in his backyard. In my younger days, I could frequently be found on social media lamenting the fact that we have no indication as to why Andy hated the “Dodge” component of the name so much.
Slinky Dog Dash is a good ride, particularly at night, when it offers some of the best views in Disney World. It’s more than a kiddie coaster but less than some of Disney World’s roller coasters. It offers an incredibly smooth ride, great views, and some unexpected moments.
The ride looks like plastic (which is “on theme” I suppose). The queue is also filled with details from the Toy Story franchise and from toys and games that didn’t feature in the franchise.
Slinky Dog Dash has a height requirement of 38 inches / 97 centimeters. The Lightning Lane for Slinky Dog Dash also books pretty quickly to start the day.
If you don’t grab that Lightning Lane, Slinky Dog Dash will probably be a major part of your Hollywood Studios rope drop strategy, along with the rides of Galaxy’s Edge.
Toy Story Mania!
Toy Story Mania has been at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for many years, and it remains one of the best rides in the park. The carnival-game style dark / screen ride is super fun for the young and old alike.
Toy Story Mania has no height requirement, which makes it a very popular ride for families with small children.
Toy Story Mania isn’t too difficult a Lightning Lane to snag at Hollywood Studios, but if you have small kids you will want to keep a close eye on the times. If you can stay at the park until close, you’ll have a lot of flexibility for when you pick it.
Without Genie+, you’ll probably want to try to head here in the morning after 2-3 other rides.
Alien Swirling Saucers
Alien Swirling Saucers is a flat spinner ride. The ride system is identical to Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree in Disney California Adventure, but we found the covered environment to be much less enjoyable than Mater’s outdoor version.
The queue offers nothing notable, and as far as we can tell the entire backstory is “this is Andy’s toy.” Alien Swirling Saucers has a height requirement of 32 inches / 81 centimeters, making it a puzzling choice of carnival ride for a land geared primarily toward children.
These days, Alien Swirling Saucer Lightning Lanes aren’t too hard to come by. We typically still squeeze it into our morning, but it’s the lowest-priority Toy Story Land ride, and it regularly sees sub-60 minute waits.
Toy Story Land Restaurants
There are two restaurants in Toy Story Land—one quick service and one table service. Sadly, there’s no Pizza Planet (because Andy’s Backyard wouldn’t have a Pizza Planet).
Woody’s Lunch Box
Woody’s Lunch Box is Toy Story Land’s only restaurant. It’s an outdoor, quick service restaurant (you can read more about the quick service restaurants of Hollywood Studios here).
Woody’s Lunch Box is more of a “snack stand” than a full quick service restaurant, but it does have a few notable items, including the BBQ Brisket Melt, Lunch Box Tarts (like small pop tarts), and Totchos.
With its limited outdoor seating, Woody’s Lunch Box is more of a place to visit for a single item than the spot you’ll want to gather the entire family for lunch.
The restaurant is open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. It also has coffee (but no cold brew anymore, last I checked) in case you don’t want to go all the way back to Starbucks.
Roundup Rodeo BBQ
Roundup Rodeo BBQ is the newest table service restaurant at Hollywood Studios. It’s located at the main entrance to Toy Story Land, right next to the giant statue of Woody. The inside contains standard Toy Story Land design, and the prix fixe menu offers typical American BBQ cuisine.
It’s quite popular, so you’ll want to try to secure a reservation as soon as possible. The restaurant requires one table service credit when using a Disney Dining Plan.
Characters
Following the release of Toy Story 4, the character greetings were shaken up a bit. At the entrance to the land, either next to or across from the giant Woody, is Buzz Lightyear.
Alongside Toy Story Mania, between that ride entrance and Woody’s Lunch Box, is where you’ll usually find some combination of Woody, Jessie, and Bo Peep.
Entertainment
There are two pieces of streetmosphere entertainment in Toy Story Land, both starring the Green Army Men.
The Green Army Drum Corps involves the Green Army Men walking the land, playing drums. The Green Army Patrol involves the Green Army Men conducting an impromptu boot camp / training session with people in the land.
Shopping in Toy Story Land
Toy Story Land has no feature store. There are a few small shopping kiosks set up in the land, with the most permanent and prominent being across from Woody’s Lunch Box near Alien Swirling Saucers.
There’s also a small store inside the exit to Toy Story Mania, too. If you’re looking for Toy Story Merchandise, you’ll probably do better in the stores closer to the entrance of the park, and Beverly Sunset Boutique—on Sunset Boulevard—also carries Pixar merchandise.
Toy Story Land Restrooms
The Toy Story Land Restrooms are located in the back of the land, across from Alien Swirling Saucers and just outside the entrance to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
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