Alien Swirling Saucers
| Alien Swirling Saucers | |
|---|---|
| Park | Disney's Hollywood Studios |
| Land / area | Toy Story Land |
| Type | Spinning whip ride |
| Opened | June 30, 2018 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Duration | About 1 minute 30 seconds |
| Height req. | 32 in (81 cm) |
| Status | Operating |
Alien Swirling Saucers is a spinning ride in Toy Story Land at Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World. Opened on June 30, 2018, with the rest of the land, it carries guests in toy rockets pulled by the flying saucers of the little green Aliens from Pixar's Toy Story films. The ride has a height requirement of 32 inches (81 cm).
History
The attraction was announced at the D23 Expo on August 15, 2015, as one of two new rides for the planned Toy Story Land, alongside the Slinky Dog Dash coaster. Unlike the coaster, whose layout changed during development, the saucers ride reached opening day largely as announced. It opened, after a soft opening the previous day, on June 30, 2018.
In September 2026 the ride was updated with new music and a disc jockey character, Lilypad, introduced in connection with Toy Story 5, and presented under the name Alien Swirling Saucers: Lilypad's Jams. The ride system and vehicles were unchanged.
Experience
In the land's story, the attraction is a playset Andy won at Pizza Planet and has set up in his backyard. Guests board a rocket vehicle attached behind an Alien's flying saucer. Two ride areas operate side by side under a canopy topped by a large claw — the Aliens' object of devotion in the films — and by figures of the Aliens themselves.
The ride system is a whip ride rather than a simple spinner. Each saucer travels around a circuit of interlocking turntables, and as it passes from one turntable to the next the rocket behind it swings outward, producing a side-to-side whipping motion quite different from the steady rotation of a teacup ride. A full cycle lasts about a minute and a half and is accompanied by electronic versions of music from the Toy Story films, played loudly enough that the music is a recognised part of the ride's character.
Ride system
Alien Swirling Saucers uses the same ride system as Mater's Junkyard Jamboree in Cars Land at Disney California Adventure, which opened in 2012, and the same system was later used for The Happy Ride with Baymax at Tokyo Disneyland. In each case the vehicles, scenery and characters are entirely different, but the underlying turntable mechanism and the whipping motion it produces are shared. A version of the concept also appears as Woody's Roundup at Shanghai Disneyland.