Okay, it may have taken me a while, but you my readers asked for it, so here it is- My official review of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Ride.

If I were to give the ride a grade based a traditional school grading scale, I would probably give it a B+.

As far as thrills go, it isn’t the most thrilling ride, but let’s be honest… the Magic Kingdom isn’t built on thrill rides, it’s built on family friendly rides.  So for a thrill seeker like me, I would have liked to see more thrills, but understanding the nature of the park, I’m okay with it.

Comfort of the ride cars.  Leading up to our trip I read a lot about folks who were very uncomfortable in the ride seats.  I am an overweight person, and my husband isn’t tiny either, and both of us fit okay in the cars.  They’re not built super large, but we both fit.

The ride length is adequate.  I think that its a pretty average length ride.  Definitely longer than Goofy’s Barnstormer!  I know that was another big complaint of people when it first opened was how long the ride was.  Over all the ride lasts just under 3 minutes.  I had a fastpass for the attraction and only rode it once during our trip.  The average wait time while we were there was between 90 minutes and 110 minutes.  I can see where people would be upset if they had waited 110 minutes to ride it and then it was under 3 minutes, however, you my readers know that it’s a long line because it’s brand new, and you know that you should get a fast pass for it 😉

For me what takes it from a C to a B+ is the extraordinary theming and innovation that the imagineers put into this ride.  The audio animatronic dwarfs that you see in the ride are INCREDIBLE, and the overall attention to detail is nothing short of amazing.

Things that I missed out on during this experience-

#1 Riding it during the daytime.  Our original fastpass was for early afternoon, however it was raining (one downside of this ride is that it’s shut down if it’s raining… imagine waiting in line 60+ minutes and having it shut down due to rain… blech).  Thankfully with the new fastpass system if you miss a fast pass due to the ride being closed you can come back later at any time and ride it.  Because of this we ended up riding it at night and I think we missed a lot of the cool details. (On the other hand you get a fantastic view of fantasyland from the ride and it’s BEAUTIFUL at night).

#2 While I’m thankful to have not waited in line for 90 minutes for this ride, We also missed out on the interactive que.  The Disney Imagineers went all out on the theming for this que and making it fun and entertaining while you wait.  There are several “games” that you can play while you wait, and you miss that if you’re in the fast pass line.  Some day after the newness has worn off I will take the time to wait in that line and play the games 🙂

Here is a youtube video of a POV of the ride.  The first half is a POV from the front of the train, the second half is the POV from the back of the train.

Overall I’m glad that we rode it.  I’m glad we had a fast pass for it, and I would definitely ride it again 🙂