My Review of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

The Lochness Monsta

Well-Known Member
I like it, but I would have rather kept Snow White's Scary Adventure and got a Sleeping Beauty ride w/ a dragon. Since it's basically just a dark ride that goes outside sometimes.
 

oogie boogie man

Well-Known Member
I've never notice the swinging on Dwarves. Do you have to get on with a certain type of person? Someone whose hefty??? I remember the early test footage for Mine Train. The vehicles were swinging back and force.
 

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
Couldn't have said it better myself

Thank you. Another point to bring up is that with the Fast Pass allocation to the ride, it really puts at the bottom of the barrel in terms of priority to get on. Disney runs a 1:1 between FP+ and stand-by when nobody is using FP+, but the more people are using the FP+ line, the higher the ratio of FP+ to stand-by is. It cruises around 4:1 when the reservations are picked clean... so 7D usually runs around 4:1. When more people are using them than expected it can get up to 30:1... AKA the rule is drain FP+ as quickly as possible before you worry about stand-by.

Since everyone makes sure to grab every available FP+ for 7D and they allocate many reservations for it, you can imagine that not only is the capacity poor, but very few people are actually allowed on stand-by per hour. Hence the long lines and the lines that move at a snail's pace.
 

Kate F

Well-Known Member
Have ridden this ride twice now and still don’t get the hype. Probably the most overrated on property. Granted, I haven’t ridden it at night yet, so that might make it a bit more enjoyable. Otherwise, no problem skipping it on future visits.
 

Trackmaster

Well-Known Member
Have ridden this ride twice now and still don’t get the hype. Probably the most overrated on property. Granted, I haven’t ridden it at night yet, so that might make it a bit more enjoyable. Otherwise, no problem skipping it on future visits.

Its not a night ride really. You're riding it for the dark ride aspect. I think that the theming and the music are awesome, and the coaster part isn't too special. If you want extreme thrills, its not the ride for you.
 

Moka

Well-Known Member
Granted, I haven’t ridden it at night yet, so that might make it a bit more enjoyable.
I’ve only ever ridden it at night, 2 times. Because we save it for last as to not waste time waiting for it during the day. Even then I personally don’t see myself waiting often for the ride, only on rare occasions when I have real patience to wait for it. Normally it’s a skip for us as well.
 

Brummyboy92

Active Member
Recently had an opportunity to ride this last week, only waited around 25 minutes so got pretty lucky.

Like most on here, I agree that the ride looks beautiful, and fits in with it's surroundings really well. The ride is a lot tamer than I expected, however I appreciate I am not the target demographic & I would have loved it as a young child. The only criticism, and it's hardly a criticism, is that I expected it to swing a lot more, I did not get the feeling we were swinging/tilting at all.

Good addition overall though, and I would be happy to see something on a similar scale as this built in Paris as almost all the coasters there are geared towards adults.
 
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Tegan pilots a chicken

Sharpie Queen 💜
Premium Member
7D is the one ride we ALWAYS get a FP for because we enjoy riding during the day as well as at night. But night time is easy. On our last visit two weeks ago we got on it twice in a row just by waiting for the crowds to get ready for the fireworks.

And we really, really enjoy 7DMT a lot. It’s just thrilling enough without being too much. We aren’t big on coasters, so we love this one.
 

No Name

Well-Known Member
The ride fits the tone of the park to a tee, looks nice from the outside, has a good queue, looks nice on the ride, and has a great show scene area. That’s why it’s so unfortunate that it’s so short. Because if it were a thousand feet longer it would really be a solid attraction.
 

Magicart87

No Refunds!
Premium Member
The reviews are seemingly unanimous. Short, needs another darkride scene or two and a greater thrill element. But the general consensus on the functionality and design of the coaster cars hasn't been brought up.

Does anyone think the swaying vehicle design was a hindrance to the full potential of the ride experience? I've often wondered what could have been had the coaster vehicle been designed differently. Or if that feature actually contributed to the overall experience; better or worse.

Did they add anything to your riding experience? I've often wondered how Imagineering views this feature and if the results are what they intended. My review: The sway didn't add much and possibly made the experience worse.
 
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Djsfantasi

Well-Known Member
The reviews are seemingly unanimous. Short, needs another darkride scene or two and a greater thrill element. But the general consensus on the functionality and design of the coaster cars hasn't been brought up.

Does anyone think the swaying vehicle design was a hindrance to the full potential of the ride experience? I've often wondered what could have been had the coaster vehicle been designed differently. Or if that feature actually contributed to the overall experience; better or worse.

Did they add anything to your riding experience? I've often wondered how Imagineering views this feature and if the results are what they intended. My review: The sway didn't add much and possibly made the experience worse.

The coaster design interacts with the track design. My feeling is when Imagineering decided to cut the track short, they adversely affected the experience. The vehicles need an extended drop on a curve to maximize the experience. Some of the other drops would benefit from additional height. Otherwise the momentum and turns are insufficient to swing the individual vehicles.
 

Brad Bishop

Well-Known Member
The reviews are seemingly unanimous. Short, needs another darkride scene or two and a greater thrill element. But the general consensus on the functionality and design of the coaster cars hasn't been brought up.

Does anyone think the swaying vehicle design was a hindrance to the full potential of the ride experience? I've often wondered what could have been had the coaster vehicle been designed differently. Or if that feature actually contributed to the overall experience; better or worse.

Did they add anything to your riding experience? I've often wondered how Imagineering views this feature and if the results are what they intended. My review: The sway didn't add much and possibly made the experience worse.

The swaying design was a good idea on a napkin. The problem is that your track should lean in on the curves, and it does, and because of that the swaying really doesn't add anything to the ride. In fact, it sort of takes away from it because it makes the cars more complicated and smaller than they need to be. Normal cars would be better than the swaying cars. The good thing is that they could replace the trains with normal, themed trains and no one would notice outside of the increased room.

I was so excited for the New Fantasyland and what we got from it, granted, better than what was there, I suppose (20K Leagues landfill + the grotto) it was still disappointing. To me the best thing that NF brought was the whole Enchanted Tales w/ Belle. That was something different. Everything else felt like more of the same (Dumbo - it's a better Dumbo -it's still Dumbo) and a "phone it in" Little Mermaid with a gimped Mine Train. Now the MK is stuck with it.

Again, it's better than what was there. Think about what that statement, alone, says about the expansion.
 

*Cinderelly*

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
Seven Dwarfs is what it is and I definitely don't believe it was designed to be another Big Thunder Mountain. It is a decent ride and fun, but certainly way too short. I give it a whirl each vacation, but it is not something where I need to ride it several times.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
The reviews are seemingly unanimous. Short, needs another darkride scene or two and a greater thrill element. But the general consensus on the functionality and design of the coaster cars hasn't been brought up.

Does anyone think the swaying vehicle design was a hindrance to the full potential of the ride experience? I've often wondered what could have been had the coaster vehicle been designed differently. Or if that feature actually contributed to the overall experience; better or worse.

Did they add anything to your riding experience? I've often wondered how Imagineering views this feature and if the results are what they intended. My review: The sway didn't add much and possibly made the experience worse.
The swinging cars do make Dwarf the smoothest coasterlet I've ve ever been on.

Apart from that unintended side effect the swinging cars idea should maybe never have progressed the concept phase. Because, as has been observed, coaster tracks tend to have banked curves.

The swinging could still have worked if the cars could've been made less stiff and heavy. A design they couldn't pull off. The cars only swing marginally beyond natural bank curves. I've tried swinging the cars like a swing but the movement is minimal and requires great effort.

Rotating cars rather than swinging works wonders on coasters though. Maybe next time...
 

Magicart87

No Refunds!
Premium Member
The swinging cars do make Dwarf the smoothest coasterlet I've ve ever been on.

Apart from that unintended side effect the swinging cars idea should maybe never have progressed the concept phase. Because, as has been observed, coaster tracks tend to have banked curves.

The swinging could still have worked if the cars could've been made less stiff and heavy. A design they couldn't pull off. The cars only swing marginally beyond natural bank curves. I've tried swinging the cars like a swing but the movement is minimal and requires great effort.

Rotating cars rather than swinging works wonders on coasters though. Maybe next time...

It's a novel way to create a banked sensation on flat track (would work great for a wild mouse) but for track that is already banked it has the opposite effect; keeping the individual car plum and making the overall experience less intense.

I agree with what was stated above, they should consider replacing it with regular coaster cars, both to allow for higher guest capacity seating, in theory, and to make the ride bank like a coaster should. It just bums me out thinking about the amount of time and money spent developing the vehicles, testing, etc only to find that the payoff wasn't worth it.

So many little things that could be improved to make the attraction that much better. It might be a D-ticket attraction but for me, it fell short on everything. Short on scenes. Short on thrills. But I definitely think a reworked coaster vehicle is needed!
 
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The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
It's a novel way to create a banked sensation on flat track (would work great for a wild mouse) but for track that is already banked it has the opposite effect; keeping the individual car plum and making the overall experience less intense.

I agree with what was stated above, they should consider replacing it with regular coaster cars, both to allow for higher guest capacity seating, in theory, and to make the ride bank like a coaster should. It just bums me out thinking about the amount of time and money spent developing the vehicles, testing, etc only to find that the payoff wasn't worth it.

So many little things that could be improved to make the attraction that much better. It might be a D-ticket attraction but for me, it fell short on everything. Short on scenes. Short on thrills. But I definitely think a reworked coaster vehicle is needed!
Dwarf is a bit like Kali. And Smugglers and Na'vi. There is a superb ride hidden in there somewhere, but they couldn't quite find it. That's what makes them frustrating to ride.

Dwarf was maybe doomed by its swinging cars gimmick as much as its budget cuts. They couldn't make the swinging fun but the idea sounded so nice they stuck with it. Even more so than the cuts, it raises a 'what if' question. What if the energy and funds and ideas had been invested in another concept? What if sooner along the process it had been understood that Dwarf could not rely on its gimmick, but needed show scenes or thrilling track for a satisfying experience?
 

Magicart87

No Refunds!
Premium Member
Reopening 20,000 Leagues with new effects on par with the DisneySea ride would have been a better use of money. Possibly cheaper too.

20K was a longer ride than Little Mermaid and Dwarfs combined.

I still hold out hope that 20K will comeback in some form or fashion in DAK. Would be a great anchor attraction for the land formerly called Dinorama. 20K was the better attraction of Fantasyland. New Fantasyland's Little Mermaid is embarrassingly bad and Dwarfs is just too short on thrills and scenes. Most of New Fantasyland is a wash. The bulk of the entire land is comprised mainly of "filler" theming with rides that lack substance. It's sad when the queues, facades and theming are better than the land's attractions. Snow White's Scary Adventure was leaps and bounds better than the coaster.
 

Brad Bishop

Well-Known Member
I still hold out hope that 20K will comeback in some form or fashion in DAK. Would be a great anchor attraction for the land formerly called Dinorama. 20K was the better attraction of Fantasyland. New Fantasyland's Little Mermaid is embarrassingly bad and Dwarfs is just too short on thrills and scenes. Most of New Fantasyland is a wash. The bulk of the entire land is comprised mainly of "filler" theming with rides that lack substance. It's sad when the queues, facades and theming are better than the land's attractions. Snow White's Scary Adventure was leaps and bounds better than the coaster.

Unfortunately, that's not likely to happen unless Disney comes out with a 20,000 Leagues blockbuster ($1B+ IP). They only know how to do four things now:
- live action remakes
- yet another Star Wars...
- yet another Marvel
- another can of animation. (to be fair, most animation sucks right now and it's all very formulaic - Disney used to do better, however).

Re: Swinging cars for 7DMT: The thing that really sucks is that this not working had already been figured out with inverted rides. The first inverted rides were swinging rides with a flat track (The Bat at Kings Island) and swinging cars and they placed too much stress on the track. That's how we ended up with fixed inverted rides (Batman at every Six Flags) with banked turns.

It's similar to how they originally did Luigi's at DCA: It was like the folks doing that had no idea of the whole floating saucers deal (failure) at Disneyland decades back. Nope. Let's just do it again...
 

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