A brief moment of fun for the little ones in the family
Poor cute-little-green-guys. Most people that come to Toy Story Land rush to Slinky Dog Dash or try to get the high score in Toy Story Mania. Guests completely forget that there is a third attraction inside this cute area, featuring your favorite characters from Alien Pizza Planet. Yeah, we are talking about Alien Swirling Saucers, a “spinning” ride with loud music and lots of visuals which is actually pretty great for young children.
As you have probably noticed, we wrote it as… “spinning”. We are not lying, by the way. If you look at this ride from afar, you might mistake it for something like Mad Tea Party in Magic Kingdom or Storm Force Accelatron in Islands of Adventure, which are two typical teacups rides.
The main difference in Swirling Saucers is that you actually never spin. You board a vehicle for two guests, connected by metal bars to an alien figure in front which guides you through a set track. The ride begins, and you quickly notice that your vehicle is mostly thrown to the sides, giving you that feeling like you're being whipped around. The movements are never too aggressive to make you feel uncomfortable, but just watch out so you don’t squeeze your fellow guests… or your own child. Ouch.
Since you never spin, this also means that you are always looking forward. The good news about this? Guests hardly feel dizzy or get any headaches when coming here, which is not often the case when they ride a traditional teacups ride.
What about the bad news? I’d say that this ride could use more interactive elements. Look at Storm Force Accelatron in Islands of Adventure, which lets you turn a valve in the middle of your vehicle and decide if you want to spin even faster. Why not add something like this to Alien Swirling Saucers? It would be great if we could decide how often - and how hard - we are tossed around. For now, though, everything here is automatic. Your vehicle follows a course built like an “8” and everything ends after just 95 seconds. Yeah, this is also a very brief ride, which can be disappointing to many guests.
I do like that the visuals are pretty good. Alien Swirling Saucers is built to make it look like you are inside a giant claw machine. There are a bunch of figures of our favorite aliens from Toy Story, a lot of blinking lights and music that resembles an old time Arcade. I just wish we had more time to appreciate them since the ride wraps up so quickly.
Will Kids enjoy it?
Most of them will probably enjoy it. I'd say Alien Swirling Saucers is perfect for the little ones, especially those between 2 and 6 years old. Just remember that there is actually a height requirement here of 32 inches. It also helps that queues for this ride are usually rather short, even more so when compared to Toy Story Mania and Slinky Dog Dash. Expect to stay in the queue for around 10 minutes.
Teenagers will probably think that this one is a little boring and over way, way too fast. They will probably have a better time with Toy Story Mania and exploring Galaxy’s Edge, which is just past Toy Story land.
