The newly opened Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Orlando is home to two new rides. The first being the land’s signature roller coaster, Slinky Dog Dash, and the second Alien Swirling Saucers. These two attractions join the previously existing Toy Story Mania, which received a new entrance and queue in order to tie it into the land.
Alien Swirling Saucers is a spinning ride, but not along the lines of a teacup ride. If you’re sensitive to these type of rides, you may want to sit this one out – but I will tell you, it’s not as spinny as the Mad Tea Party over in Magic Kingdom. That one always leaves me wishing I never had that foot-long chili dog at Casey’s Corner before riding.
Like all Disney rides, there’s a story to be told. In the case of Alien Swirling Saucers, Andy, the human from the Toy Story movie, won a playset when he was scarfing down a few slices at Pizza Planet. When he got home, he put the thing together and is looking for a few of us “toys” to jump in one of the flying saucers and have the aliens take us for an out-of-this-world spin around the galaxy.
We board our flying saucer with our alien driver in a car ahead of us. The music starts up and our carriage spins and changes direction as we go back and forth between two ride platforms as techno versions of Toy Story music plays overhead.
If all this sounds familiar, chances are you’ve visited Disneyland in California. Over in Cars Land you’ll find the exact same ride, themed differently, of course, called Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. Instead of being towed around and spun by aliens, the Disneyland version has us being towed and spun around by Tow Mater, the tow truck from the Cars film franchise.
Check out videos from both rides below to see how they’re similar and be sure to let me know your thoughts on Alien Swirling Saucers in the comments.