Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
| Seven Dwarfs Mine Train | |
|---|---|
| Park | Magic Kingdom |
| Land / area | Fantasyland |
| Type | Steel family roller coaster |
| Opened | May 28, 2014 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering |
| Height req. | 38 in (97 cm) |
| Status | Operating |
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a steel family roller coaster in Fantasyland at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Florida. Themed to Walt Disney's 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, it combines outdoor coaster track with an indoor dark ride scene inside the dwarfs' diamond mine, and its trains are mounted on pivoting cradles so the individual mine cars sway from side to side as they travel. It opened on May 28, 2014, as the final major component of the New Fantasyland expansion.
History
Disney announced a major expansion and reworking of Magic Kingdom's Fantasyland in 2009, with a revised plan unveiled in 2011 that placed a Snow White-themed mine train at the center of the new area. The coaster was built on land formerly occupied by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Submarine Voyage, which had closed in 1994, and construction rose in the middle of the expansion site while the surrounding areas opened in phases from 2012 onward.
Because the ride stood at the physical center of New Fantasyland, its forested hill was visible long before the attraction itself was finished. The coaster, manufactured by Vekoma, was the last element of the expansion to open, following soft openings in the week before its official dedication on May 28, 2014. It replaced much of the park's earlier Snow White presence: Snow White's Scary Adventures, the Fantasyland dark ride, had closed in 2012 to make way for a princess greeting location, leaving the Mine Train as the film's main attraction in the park.
Experience
The queue descends into the mine workings, where interactive elements let waiting guests sort gems by matching shapes and colors, play a gem-washing sluice game and spin barrels that project images of the dwarfs onto the ceiling. The line then passes the dwarfs' cottage before reaching the loading area.
Trains of five cars, each car seating four riders in two rows, leave the station and climb an outdoor lift hill. The first part of the ride runs outside, curving around the hill with views across Fantasyland and reaching a top speed of about 34 mph (55 km/h), with the cars rocking gently through the turns. The train then slows and enters the mine, where Audio-Animatronic figures of Doc, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, Bashful, Sneezy and Dopey work a glittering seam of jewels while singing "Heigh-Ho"; the figures use projected faces, a technique developed for the attraction to give the characters more expressive movement.
After a second lift and a drop of about 39 feet (12 m), the train slows beside the dwarfs' cottage for a final scene: Snow White dances with the dwarfs inside while the Evil Queen, disguised as an old hag, peers in at the window holding a basket of apples. The ride lasts roughly two and a half minutes over about 2,000 feet (610 m) of track. With a height requirement of 38 inches (97 cm), among the lowest for a Disney coaster, it is often a child's first roller coaster. Several figures in the attraction were adapted from the earlier Snow White's Scary Adventures ride.
Other versions
A second Seven Dwarfs Mine Train opened with Shanghai Disneyland on June 16, 2016, with a near-identical layout and Mandarin-language show scenes.