Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World

My kids and I noticed that Walt Disney World had unexpectedly offered Fastpass+ for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train early Sunday morning.  I quickly booked some FP+ so we could ride with no waiting.  We arrived to find the sign still announcing the May 28th opening date.

The Exterior

Here’s the entrance area.  The ride is located across from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and offers a Fastpass+ entrance on the left and a Stand By entrance on the right.  The queue line spills out along the fence.

If you are using the DAS card or require a child swap because you little one isn’t 38″, the Cast Member at the Fastpass Entrance can assist you as well as those tapping their armbands for entry.

Rules!  There’s always rules.  Sit down, keep those dangling objects hanging from your torso in the ride and be sure you’re taller than Dopey to be able to ride.

Before we walk the queue line, lets take a walk around the ride.  I know, I know, you want to ride.  Just hold on there a few minutes.  I have a bunch of high quality photos to post before they get buried in yet another memory card.

The closer trees are real, the far ones are Disney magic.

The should offer a special tour that allows one to walk the ride path, it’s really well done!

Another outside shot.

The track is really curvy and wavy to take advantage of it’s special cars.

There’s many details that point to a working mine.

This is the biggest drop of the ride, which really isn’t much, but still a lot of fun.

 The Queue Line

We rode the Mine Train by using Fastpass+ first.  The queue area for Fastpass+ users is really short and you’ll only see the Dwarfs House, but you could see that as you exit as well.

There’s a number of immature trees that will eventually grow to become nice shade areas.

This is the Dwarf’s House, not to be confused with the Dwarf House which serves Chick-fil-a sandwiches.  This one only serves a nice photographic moment.  Don’t bother taking the photo as you enter with people passing.  You’ll get a better shot as you exit.

After passing the Dwarf’s House, you’ll enter the cave for the final area of the queue.

This part is kind of confusing. There’s two little holding areas for what reason?  They tell you to go to 1 or 2 and then the grouper goes back and forth choosing people.  Seems kind of silly to me and more work than the grouper really needs to do.

You then step up the the boarding area.  The cave is really well done.  They spend a LOT of money on the look of the experience.  Most theme parks would just plop down a roller coaster like Barnstormer or Primeval Whirl with little or no actual theming, but they went all out for this attraction.

In case you need to dig your way out in the event of a mine collapse…

Looking back at all the folks who didn’t schedule that FP+  :-P

I know you want to ride this thing, but just hold your horses there fine reader!  We have a second side of the queue to explore.  They call this Stand By.  This is where all the theme park guests go that don’t know that Disney offers a free ride queueing service that one can actually book from home!

We followed someone named Big Red.  Seemed wise to follow her because she has a tough name.  We had lined up for the ride right before it came back online.  It’s common that rides go down a lot during Test and Adjust which is also commonly known as a “Soft opening.”There are a good number of large fans in the queue

After zig zagging through the beautifully appointed forest and whistling while birds land on your shoulder, you find this gem sorting area and a great deal of shade!

On our first time through the line we barely played with the interactive games, but the second time around we waited to see how long the queue would actually take when it was spilling out into Fantasyland.  We played each game.  Here’s the gem sorting.  You just pull the gem into the right spot and it goes, “Bling.”

Children really seemed to enjoy this game.

Only a few steps away is a second Interactive area.  This one allows you to waive your hand under the water to create music.  I told my son that a lot of people will stick their heads in their to cool off and a guy did it minutes later.  Clairvoyance is a gift that I learned from years of using my Magic 8 Ball.  There’s a water fountain in the queue just after the game to keep kids from wanting to drink this water.

The third and final game is the barrel spin. 

The goal is to spin these things as fast as possible to see if they will come flying off and smack the guy storing his trash in the wall in the head.

Jordyn seemed to enjoy this little amusement.

Sorry, but you can’t take these gems into Mickey’s Philharmagic.

When you spin the barrels the dwarfs appear and disappear from the ceiling.  They are like angel dwarfs looking over your shoulder.  Every time a child spins a barrel a dwarf gets his wings!

The dwarfs have left their supplies inside the wall.

The tourists thought they should leave their treasures too.The details are prevalent even on the queue line floor.

It’s time to board!  Are you ready?The Ride

Can you tell he’s happy to finally board the ride?   I’d like to make a not about the seats before we leave the station.  The seats are contoured for smaller dimensions.  If you are a larger person, you might find the seats a bit painful.  If you are a taller person, you’ll find that the leg room may be a bit tight as well.

And we’re off.  The cars for this ride are very unique.  They actually swing back and forth in the curves, which gives the ride a little added thrill for little ones.

There’s a lot of debate on the old interweb as to whether or not this is an “E-Ticket” attraction. It seems that many guests were expecting another Expedition Everest or Rock N Roller Coaster.  I don’t think it was ever Disney’s desire to build a huge thrill ride here.  It’s intended to be a fun little coaster that parents can enjoy with their young child and it really hits a home run in that department.

You get some nice views of Fantasyland from the ride.

I’ve ridden the coaster 6 times already and I’ve always heard people squealing with excitement.

The curves and the zig zags are the best part of the experience.

 

After some time with a drop and a few curves we’re given a chance to see all Seven Dwarfs hard at work.  Well, 6 are working and one is sleeping.

I didn’t even ask her to duck!

They call him Dopey, but look at all the cash he’s raking in with this new ride!

I set my ISO really high on my Nikon D5200 and set the aperature to take the photo as fast as possible to get these shots.  They may be a bit grainy, but they tell the story better than all the blurry ones I got early on.

The dark ride portion is stunning.  The gems really pop and the faces of the dwarfs are really realistic.  Well done!

After seeing Doc, we climb a hill for our last bit of thrill.  It’s a bit odd because they are singing Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, but they have already gone to work.  Oh well, most kids would never think of stuff like that.

A few more little thrills before we get to the end.

At the end of the ride on the right, you’ll see the backside of the Dwarfs house. Inside are Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs dancing around.  The effect is much nicer at night than the bright sunshine.

Daytime using Nikon D5200

Nighttime using my Galaxy S5 phone.  Details are much more vivid at night.  Snow and Dopey weren’t dancing last night though.

 

The ending is pretty cool with the old Hag waiting at the door.  However, if you aren’t in one of the first rows, you may miss her entirely.  On my first ride I was in the middle and didn’t notice her.  On my second ride I was in the front and she startled me .

We then pull back into the station.

My thoughts:

It’s an extremely detailed attraction that combines dark ride and roller coaster elements very well.  The swinging effect is a lot of fun, especially for young kids.  The ride is rated for 38″ riders, so it’s obvious that Disney was trying to reach the younger crowd.  As a thrill ride it’s between Barnstormer Goofy and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, but exceeds both in detail.  I think it’s a fun ride that shouldn’t be missed.

USE Fasptass+ and ride it at NIGHT for the best experience.  If you wish to experience the queue, either go there right before closing.  I would NOT go there at Rope Drop.  Not only is the experience a pain in the neck, the wait times are the longest they experience all day.  There’s usually a drop around 10:30 or 11:00am to a regular wait of about an hour throughout the day (provided the ride doesn’t break down or weather doesn’t affect operation).

Here’s an on-ride POV video I made: