#46 - Star Tours Queue

Category: Queue
Category Rank: 2

Park: Hollywood Studios
Park Rank: 4

Most of the time, you would consider the wait in line the worst part of the amusement park.  One of the improvements for parks has been to make the queues much more engaging and interactive.  You can see this in the rides in the new Fantasyland, including the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Ariel's Undersea Adventure.  You can also see it in Epcot's Test Track.

While an interactive queue makes it exciting, it doesn't make it nostalgic.  A queue has to capture something special, something for which you would want to take a multitude of pictures for the memories, in order to be nostalgic.

This severely limits the number of queues that could appear on this list.  Unless you happen to be one of those amateur photographers who needs to take a picture of everything.  In which case, your list is probably all queues, because where else do you get that much time of doing nothing that you can take endless pictures.

There are only two queues that I identify within WDW that are worth being listed here, and our first is another ride that had its queue dramatically improved when the ride was updated.  When we first visited WDW, we rode on the 2D version of Star Tours, and I remember being extremely underwhelmed.  This was, after all, the Star Wars ride in all of Disney World, and it seemed like barely more than a slow ride.  While our next visit was during the refurbishment process, when we experienced it after it opened, it was a night and day difference.  The ride's motion improved, its graphics improved, it added 3D, and it added the interactive storyline.

It also made the queue improved as well.  It isn't a long queue (Star Tours loads a lot of people really quickly).  So, there is an outdoor area in the Endor forest, underneath the legs of an AT-AT walker (not realistic, as the AT-ATs were seen on Hoth, but details details).  Upon entering, you see a gigantic flight display showing different destinations and their current statuses, while interspersed with commercials for different flight destinations.  All of which with the semi-robotic tones that travel companies and flight attendants bring.  Meanwhile, commentary is provided by C-3PO and R2D2, who sits on a Star Tours vessel.

There is an additional room with a wise-cracking droid providing security scanning, and then pre-boarding, there is a humorous flight instruction video.  Again, nothing that complex.  But, the designers did a great job making all the components look realistic and lifelike.

Now consider that last sentence for a second.  The designers of the queue succeeded where the filmmakers of the last 3 movies failed.  The prequels were filled with overbearing obnoxious caricatures totally reliant on CGI.  There was nothing realistic and lifelike about them at all.  The Star Tours queue actually created a more nostalgic Star Wars artifact than the movies did.  This is incredible to consider, and is the primary reason why this is on the list.  While the ride is better than the queue, the queue does become a favorite of Star Wars fans everywhere.

I'll interject one thing about queues here, as again, I think it takes something truly special about a queue to get itself on a top nostalgic item list.  This is the only category out of all the items that Disney would lose to a competitor... at least for the top queue.  While we haven't seen Disney's top queue on this list yet, it would actually lose out to queue for Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, which takes you into Hogwarts itself, and contains the talking portraits, the house cup vials, the sorting hat, and much more.  It, and other areas within Hogsmeade, are the only areas where you can say Universal creates nostalgia.  Harry Potter, like Star Wars, offers a franchise to set a queue in, and that makes a big difference.

With our next item, we have our first mode of transportation on the list, connecting Magic Kingdom to the Polynesian and Grand Floridian Resorts.  And no... its not THAT one... that's much higher.

#30 - Toy Story Midway Mania Queue

Category: Queues
Category Rank: 1

Park: Hollywood Studios
Park Rank: 3

We earlier discussed the idea of queues being nostalgic, so we won't go into too much more detail on why we would select a queue for this list.  The top queue at WDW in terms of nostalgia is the Toy Story Mania queue, and for good reason.  It actually provides two levels of nostalgia, being both for the Toy Story series, as well as your own childhood.  Unless you had a very depraved childhood, in which case you are probably wondering what the heck is going on here.

Toy Story Mania is notorious for having a long line.  They have traditionally taken quite a few Fast Pass riders, so there can be large stretches where you seemingly just stand there.  Plus, the way they fill up the carts gives an extra advantage to small parties, as they will occasionally jump you ahead of some 30 or 40 guests right up near the loading area.  Given the overall popularity, and the fact that each tram has room for 8 participants (two side-by-side, two sides to a cart, two carts to a tram), wait times get very long.

So, it is a good thing that there is something worth looking at in the queue.

The queue snakes through essentially one large room, before getting to a hallway that leads to the loading area.  In that room, the walls and ceiling is often covered with board games, including Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Scrabble, and more.  Plus, there are several other props in the area, including a chain of Barrel-o-Monkeys across the top, a set of dominos ready for tipping, and random playing cards, game pieces and crayons.  There is also some of the "supporting" structure for the ceiling, which is constructed from tinkertoys, and a large viewfinder wheel with images from Disneyland.

At the very end of the queue is a lincoln log building where you can pick up your 3d glasses.  In recent years, they have added some more pieces, like an etch-a-sketch guessing game, as well as Mr. Spell.  The top item in the queue, however, is the interactive Mr. Potato Head at the far end.  He will tell jokes and sing songs while "interacting" with the audience (it is not the same type of interaction as the performers in the Laugh Floor).

Toy Story Mania itself is obviously one of the top attractions in all of WDW... maybe even the top ride period.  However, counting as a thrill attraction, it is not eligible for the list.  But the queue for the line certainly qualifies, and probably leads the list for the queue with the most pictures taken at WDW.

It also has a pretty lofty ranking on this list, being in the top half (though barely).  A lot of that speaks to the power of the Toy Story brand.  I don't think it is too much of an exaggeration to talk about Toy Story being the most important movie for the recent buildup of the Disney brand--even more so than the renaissance movies Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, and the Lion King.  Toy Story was the movie that launched the Pixar juggernaut, has been parlayed into two excellent sequels spanning over 15 years, and seems equally as cherished by young kids and old, boys and girls.  Plus there is something a bit more down-to-earth and childhood endearing to a story about toys rather than another story about princesses, that I predict ten years from now, Toy Story will be much more popular than Frozen.

Don't get me wrong; those 4 renaissance movies were very important to Disney, as the brand had gotten stale going back to the glory days of Mickey and Snow White/Cinderella.  But, Toy Story took Disney into a whole new direction.  It seems incredible to me that they haven't expanded the Pixar area within Hollywood Studios to include more.  But for now, the queue's ranking on this list reflects in part the importance of that franchise.

We are ready for another "restaurant".  This one, much like Ghirardelli, is known more for being a corporate sponsorship handing out free samples, but it is a must-do for our family every time we go.