DisneyQuest Tips & Review
DisneyQuest is an indoor interactive theme park at Walt Disney World. This post offers some tips & tricks for visiting, and takes a look at it to help you determine if it’s worth your time and money. If you’re planning a 2017 Walt Disney World vacation, you can tentatively include DisneyQuest in your itinerary as its closure has been delayed twice. Now, the question is whether you should include it in your plans, and we’ll answer that in this post.
Before we go further, a bit of background is in order. At the outset, I referred to DisneyQuest as an indoor interactive theme park. Those are Disney’s words, not mine. I’m not nearly that fluent in flowery marketingspeak. I sat in front of a blank screen for about 10 minutes trying to succinctly categorize DisneyQuest in the opening, all to no avail.
January 30, 2017 UPDATE: DisneyQuest will be closing July 3, 2017 to make way for the NBA Experience, which will presumably open sometime in (likely late) 2018. The NBA Experience will be a one-of-a-kind basketball-themed attraction featuring a variety of interactive and hands-on activities putting guests of all ages right in the middle of NBA game action. While precise attractions within the NBA Experience are not yet known, it will offer immersive NBA video productions, numerous interactive experiences, a restaurant, and a retail store.
As for DisneyQuest, enjoy it while you can! Even in its current state, it’s definitely more than an arcade, but calling it an “indoor interactive theme park” frankly makes it sound way cooler than it actually is. The best tagline I can come up with for it is “Next Generation Arcade, Circa 1998.” That may seem sardonic, but in this case, I’m being entirely serious.
This tagline ultimately cuts to the crux of the problem with DisneyQuest: aside from updates here and there, the overall feeling is that it’s stuck in the late 1990s. If Disney were to advertise DisneyQuest, it would only be fitting to hire the Dell Dude, and implore people, “dude, get yourself to DisneyQuest.”
Despite this, is DisneyQuest worth a visit? Well, that depends…
Technology moves quickly, and a lot has changed in the world of interactivity since then. In fairness, not all of these games date back to 1998, but a good number do, and I believe the newest addition is still over a decade old. Even that is an eternity in the world of gaming.
Surprisingly, though, I felt it wasn’t the games that made DisneyQuest feel dated so much as the overall environment and ambiance. The color schemes are totally 1990s, the design style is incredibly tired, and the lighting feels distinctly like one of those roller rinks that is teetering on the precipice of closure after seeing its glory years slip away ages ago. The atmosphere is dark and dreary, making it feel like an old arcade and not what I would expect from a Disney offering.
The experience of going into DisneyQuest reminded me of when I went back to a mall I frequented as a kid–that every store left by the early 2000s (you know, the kind that got scammed by Steve & Barry’s)–and seeing that it’s virtually the same as I remember. Unfortunately, memory tends to color things positively, but in flesh, after seeing that, I came to the realization that 90s styles have not aged well.
In this sense, DisneyQuest is undoubtedly a product of the 1990s. It was developed and built before gaming had truly been embraced by all facets of culture and had gone mainstream, at a time when arcades were widely considered kids’ folly, and an addiction of anti-social adults.
Why the assumption was made that these demographics would prefer dim places is beyond me (and why Disney would follow along with this is even more perplexing), but this being the predominant style of the era can be borne out today in the obsolete arcades that remain from the 1990s.
It may seem like I am devoting an inordinate number of words to such a trivial thing, but I do not think it’s trivial in the least. In fact, I view this as the main problem with DisneyQuest. I think this is really disappointing, as I assume renovating the inside to make it feel more lively would be a relatively cheap fix as compared to developing new games. This is something I do not see discussed much in the “DisneyQuest is stale” conversation, and to me it is the easiest way to modernize DisneyQuest. If it simply were brighter, lighter, and cleaner (in terms of design, not actual cleanliness), I think DisneyQuest would be a lot more popular. As is, DisneyQuest is not a place where I’d want to spend much time simply because the atmosphere is so depressing.
As for the games themselves, I found them to be surprisingly fun. Perhaps I went in with low expectations after hearing so many negative things about DisneyQuest, but I enjoyed the substantive experiences of most games. The graphics were not exactly on the bleeding edge, but they were not so bad as to bother me at all. I will concede that this is a ‘your mileage may vary’ situation. I found all of the graphics of the ‘big’ attractions/games to be on par with Mission: Space, which is perfectly passable by my standards. I’m not sure whether I’m the norm here. I suspect younger audiences or hardcore gamers might balk at the graphics.
To me, video game graphics hit their stride with the Sega Dreamcast, and every improvement since then has been a serious case of diminishing returns and largely superfluous. I am fine with my video games looking like slight caricatures of real life, rather than being indistinguishable from real life. To me, a game’s experience is not defined by the graphics on display. That’s probably another topic for another day, though.
As for the offerings at DisneyQuest, it’s laid out on five floors inside what is essentially a big box building. These floors are divided into various zones, including the Create, Explore, Score, and Replay zones. The main games and interactive experiences are located in each of these zones. Additionally, there are “unlocked” arcade video games, pinball machines, and other random stuff all over the place. Many of these arcade games are actually new (or at least newer).
Now, let’s take a quick look at what I consider to be some of the highlights:
Pirates of the Caribbean – Battle for Buccaneer Gold was my favorite attraction; in this, you stand on the deck of a pirate ship and use cannons to shoot other ships while collecting their games. It has all of the hallmarks of a great attraction: pirates, cannons, and gold. Good times.
CyberSpace Mountain is basically a precursor to Sum of All Thrills in Epcot. Exact same idea, except this has Bill Nye, so it is infinitely better.
Virtual Jungle Cruise had a lot of potential, but I was visiting DisneyQuest by myself (you know, to complete the anti-social gamer stereotype) and it is impossible to go this attraction alone. I found myself perpetually stuck in various corners until the ride mercifully ended.
Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters was a game that should have been right in my wheelhouse as I am an Astro Blasters enthusiast (I have considered going pro, but I’m keeping my amateur status for the Olympics), but the thing barely worked. This is bumper cars with cannons that shoot balls recycled from the closed play areas McDonald’s used to have. Fun in theory, disappointing in actuality.
Invasion! An ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter is a game based loosely on the defunct Magic Kingdom attraction, but it seemed to mostly share a name without the old attraction, and a premise involving aliens. The idea here is that you’re in a virtual spaceship and have to destroy enemy aliens and save colonizing humans. Think Apocalypse Now meets Alien, but a video game. (Yeah, that probably makes no sense. Whatever.)
I did each of these attractions and some others once apiece (Astro Blasters twice to determine if the first failed ride was a fluke–it wasn’t), and then moved on to the arcade games. If you want a precise list of everything in DisneyQuest, check out this synopsis. I actually spent a decent amount of time playing the newer games in the arcade. It was a rainy day, and I didn’t want to walk back to Buena Vista Palace (where I was staying) in that.
During my visit, the place was dead. Again, this was a rainy day (which is supposedly the busiest time for DisneyQuest) during a moderately busy time of year. I showed up a couple of hours after DisneyQuest opened, and literally everything I did was a walk-on. Perhaps it is busier in summer or during the holidays, but there were maybe ~20 other people there when I visited.
You can glean a lot from the above and probably deduce whether it’s worth it for you from that, but I thought I’d add a bit more, because the question of whether it’s ‘worth it’ to do DisneyQuest isn’t quite as straightforward as it might seem.
For starters, the unequivocal “not worth it” situation: you have to purchase individual DisneyQuest tickets at the ticket window there. At $40+ for kids and nearly $50 for adults, there is no way on earth it’s worth it. That’s half the price of theme park admission, for approximately 5% as much fun. Frankly, I would probably complain to Guest Relations if I knew nothing, went to DisneyQuest because it’s marketed as an “indoor interactive theme park”, and paid those prices.
If you have Walt Disney World tickets with the “Water Park Fun & More” option (and as I say in our Tips for Buying Walt Disney World post, I think this is an excellent add-on), the answer is not nearly as clear cut. Personally, I think Typhoon Lagoon is the absolute best use of those add-on credits, with Blizzard Beach being the second best use. However, you can probably do both water parks and still have credits for DisneyQuest. At that point, it becomes a question not of dollar cost, but of time cost. If it’s your first visit to Walt Disney World, I would say that it is not worth the time. Walt Disney World is an expansive place, and time is your most precious resource. There are better uses of it. If you have been multiple times and are looking for something new to try, it might be worth a few hours if you will be visiting Downtown Disney, or if your party consists of the right demographics.
What are the right demographics? My suspicion is that DisneyQuest will appeal most to nostalgic adults in their 30s or young children. I suspect it would not appeal to tech-jaded teens and pre-teens who expect the bleeding edge (my hunch is that they would not be as forgiving of the graphics as I am, but this is merely speculation).
In terms of tickets, the final group would be Annual Passholders whose pass includes admission to DisneyQuest. For this group, a one-time visit to DisneyQuest just to see what the place is about makes sense, as it only costs time, and that time presumably isn’t quite as limited/valuable as the average guest.
Overall, as someone who falls into that final ticket-holding group, I am glad I made a visit to DisneyQuest before it closed just to see it for myself. While I was pleasantly surprised by (some of) the games being more enjoyable than I expected, this actually made me irritated because it made me realize a big part of the “fix” for DisneyQuest is much easier than I had previously thought. Irrespective of that, if you are still thinking of going after reading this, it is worth pointing out that this is not Disney at its finest. So long as you go in with appropriate expectations, it is possible to enjoy the experience, but it’s also pretty easy to see why DisneyQuest will be replaced in the near future. Clearly, its time has come and gone.
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YOUR THOUGHTS…
Have you visited DisneyQuest? What did you think of it? Will you try to make a visit before it closes? Have any other thoughts or questions—please share in the comments below!
Great review, and while I love Disney quest Personally and always have way more fun there than I expect , I completely agree that it’s the dingy, dark atmosphere that has made Disney Quest so unappealing to most visitors. I also agree that it would be an easy and inexpensive fix, to keep the fun arcade idea, brighten the place and perhaps add some much needed windows. I seriously dislike the idea of NBA themed attraction. ESPN is Disney’s biggest money loser. Isn’t this throwing good money after bad? I question Iger’s connection to Disney fans and to Walt’s initial vision of a place where parents and children could have fun together through the magic of imagination). I’m hoping that if they have to close Disney quest they can come up with an actual Disney themed, intergenerationally appealing use for the space. Where are the imagineers?
ESPN isn’t a money loser for Disney at all. The issue with ESPN is that it isn’t seeing the rapid growth it once was, when it was Disney’s greatest profit center.
Otherwise, totally agree with everything you’re saying.
I love Disney Quest (so do my kids). We were crushed when we left on Christmas night, knowing that would be the last time, we’d ever visit.
Now, we’re excited that it’s still there and we get another round. My wife secretly celebrated the idea of it closing, but now her premature celebrations are in vain.
We love the Pirates ride, which employs Toy Story Midway Mania style dynamics and we love playing 4 player pacman – It get’s competitive.
So happy it’s still there.
We are planning an August trip to WDW and I have a video game arcade loving set of kiddos. They could spend an entire day in Dave & Buster’s…I cannot. I want to take them to DisneyQuest since we have WWPFM but how much time should I devote to it? Could we say hit up Typhoon Lagoon in the morning for 5 or 6 hours and then pop on over in the late afternoon for a few hours or do I need a full day at Typhoon Lagoon and a full day for DisneyQuest? Trying to figure out where to allocate our time. We come to WDW every three years alternating with Disneyland and Universal Orlando for a yearly trip. We have been to WDW a few times consequentially and I did bring my kiddos here when they were one and four (almost two and five though) but they could only play toddler games so we spent all our time on one floor. Thanks for the advice!
Depends on the kids age. 4 or 5 hours if its not crowded. Daytime weekdays are the best bet.
My husband and I are in our sixties; we have been to both Disneyland and WDW many, many times. I personally am not into video games and, because of this reason, I have no interest whatsoever in visiting any place that takes up precious Disney time! But my children loved them as does my spouse. That said, we did visit DisneyQuest twice, both times with a free ticket that was included in our package. Our first time there, it appeared pretty cool. It was crowded and our first experience was something virtual where you wore a helmut and used an imaginary sword or lazer to defend yourself. During the entire experience, I kept reminding myself to make big, sweeping movements in order to be successful in ‘the game’. When the game finished, I took my helmut off and was so disoriented, I had to sit in a corner and breathe deeply in order not to get sick! My husband went off and played a few other games while I tried to recuperate. Bad experience for me. A few years later, we decided to try it again. This time we found the place to look inviting, but it was crowded. Most all the experiences were filled with kids who stayed and stayed on the game for long periods of time. When we were able to get ‘in’, we went into a photo booth type experience in a closed room that stunk so bad like stale air. It was so bad, we didn’t stay in the room. We waited in line so long for that and then had to leave because it was so stagnant in there. I found the layout extremely confusing. We couldn’t find our way from floor to floor. Seriously, what is the big deal about this place? Because we couldn’t get near anything to actually experience it, we never went back again feeling it was a huge waste of our time. We tried it twice, were not impressed at all, and I will be happy to see it gone with a new experience in it’s place.
Thought it was great when it first opened, went with various friends but had the plus option with my girlfriend’s son who was 14 for a week. He wanted to go every night and we had a lot of fun. Just the elevator ride when you first walked in was great. But like all things, even Pleasure Island it got old and people stopped going there. They really needed to upgrade the games and rides but they didn’t want to spend the money. I agree $50.00 to get in is ridiculous and would not pay it., but I will have fond memories of it.
My husband and I visited Disney for the first time this May, we had some down time and went to DQ to check it out, my first impression was exactly as you described with the dark, dimly lit building; as a matter of fact we got a cupcake while we were there and got in an argument because I wanted to sit where I could actually see what I was eating! Lol I walked around for a while before I gave up! Ha. The games were fun and I wish something more exciting and versitale than an NBA attraction was replacing it
We have gone almost every time we have been to Disney in the last 10 years, always included in our package though, never would pay full price. The last time we went to DQ, was 2013 and really only for Cyber Space Mountain and to kill time on a rainy day. (BTW, CSM is WAY better than Sum of all Thrills, that ride was seriously the lamest and not worth the 30 minute wait). Waits were about 10-20 minutes for all rides, but the arcade games were packed. I think its crazy that you have to pay to get in then pay for your ride video, song, drawing etc. Outdated and not too sad to see it go, but not really looking forward to NBA Experience either. My daughter who is now 17 will miss it for nostalgic purposes but I think that’s about it.
Yeah, I wish something were being added with more widespread appeal, but hopefully the NBA Experience will at least be “current.”
Glad you wrote this. I’ve really been going back and forth on this. We will have about 2 hours to spend in DD between AK closing and having to head to Ohana for dinner.
We have a party of 6 and 4 comp tickets, so I would have to spend $80 something dollars for 6 of us to play for 2 hours or so. Probably should just take in the sights of DD instead. Thanks for the article.
Astro Blasters was my favorite part! It definitely requires a partner, though. It would be hard to do alone.
I went to Disneyquest twice, once around 2000 and then again in 2013. I also got it free with the package coupons. Agree almost completely with your assessment. The first trip I thought some of the stuff was amazing, especially Pirates and Space Mountain. Pirate’s was especially amazing and I guess a precursor to Midway Mania. i think if they put that somewhere in Adventureland it would still do well. The team aspect is also cool.
Buzz’s Astroblasters must’ve been newer so it was better. The waits for those back then were over 45 minutes. The second time two years ago it was less than 10,
Both times we also went the evening of the first day we were down there. We didn’t want to pay for a park for only an evening, so it was a good option for 3 hours.
I went once with a free coupon just to check it out, but I would never spend $50 on something I wasn’t impressed with. Yeah, the 90’s nostalgia was fun to begin with, but then it just got depressing like you said. Pretty much agree with you on everything. I’m not up in arms about it closing, but I probably won’t go to the NBA experience either.
So depressed it is going I fit into that thirty something crowd and my 6 old loves this kind of stuff. We are going to Disney in mid October so I will try and soak in all the memories when I go this time again. I love the old arcade games section it allowed me to show my son what the old games are all about and he is still at an age where he thinks I am smart. Its too bad they didn’t try and update it instead of scrap it. Its been the kick off to our trips for years now. We always hit Downtown Disney first then Disney Quest before our big first day in the parks.
I remember going to both the Chicago and Orlando DisneyQuests a few times in the 90’s and thinking it was pretty cool. You could play the Star Wars special edition arcade game (sit down version, very new and cool at the time) all the way through by using the unlimited play. And it was needed; that Death Star II level was merciless!
I was sad to hear when the closing was announced, but after reading your review, that may have been the wrong reaction. Having not been back in many years, your pictures look like they could have been taken from the days I was there. New carpeting, paint, and lighting really could have served that place well. Maybe something like a Tron Legacy theme? It would have been a cheap and quick fix too.
Firmly a product of the mid-late 90’s.
Virtual Reality was supposed to transform everything and we’d all be sitting in our living rooms wearing heavy googles and even working in Virtual 3D offices.
DQ was test bed for Disney to not be left behind on this trend that never happened.
“DQ was test bed for Disney to not be left behind on this trend that never happened.”
^Are you saying that was explicitly the idea behind DisneyQuest–a place for WDI to test and refine concepts that might end up in the parks? I would not be surprised at all to learn that. That would be pretty brilliant, actually. Do smaller scale tests there–and charge guests for it. Sort of win-win…or it would have been, had VR been a big thing, and had DisneyQuest been regularly updated as it should have been.
You are correct in assuming this, Tom; I recently read The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, a computer science/design professor from Carnegie Mellon who spent his sabbatical working for Disney Imagineering on a “virtual reality” experience known to us as Aladdin’s Flying Carpets at DQ. This originally premiered at Innoventions in EPCOT as a preview of a coming attraction – though not necessarily specified where. I believe Jeff Kurtti specifically mentions this attraction in Since The World Began, too.
I believe the plan was for Disney to build DisneyQuests in various cities across the country, but that didn’t work out due to low attendance and high costs. Apparently they opened one in Chicago, but closed in down in 2001.
I’ve been the last three times I’ve been to Disney on Parks and more ticket. Its not a bad way to spend a few hours on an off day…as long as its not full of kids of various tour groups from south of the equator. I think your piece hit the nail on the head. The games are dated but fun. Yet, the atmosphere is sucks much of the life out of the place. It begins as soon as you enter the elevator on the bottom floor and exit into a darkened, black-lit, dank carpet “arena.” Other than that, we enjoyed the games, especially the plethora of pinball machines. Thanks for the photo. It is far from outstanding entertainment, and definitely not worth 50 dollars. However, I have a hard time picturing the NBA Experience as an improvement and I am a fan of the NBA.
If there was a tour group of kids in there when I went, I would have walked right back out. I can barely handle tour groups (and I mean in general, not any particular ethnicity) in a huge park, let alone a single building that’s basically an overgrown Chuck-E-Cheese.
I have only been to this end of Downtown Disney once (when I saw the circus years ago) or twice. I normally go to the Marketplace side but tend not to stay very long since there is so much elsewhere that needs to be done. As far as I am concerned, DisneyQuest is off the beaten track.
So, thanks Tom for spending your $50 and telling me that I am not missing anything. I’m sure Sarah was glad she was not there to endure this visit. I know that when I stay at a Value Resort, I can visit an arcade – I never do but I walk by them and never see anyone in them.
I am not sure why people would want to come all the way to WDW and spend their time in what seems to be primarily an arcade with a small number of other interactive games of some sort.
I want to make one thing abundantly clear: I did NOT spend $50 to go here. I have an Annual Pass that includes it. I don’t want readers to lose respect for me thinking I’d waste my money like that! 😉
Thought for sure you were trolling and this was going to be one word “No”.
Interesting perspective on the depressing atmosphere. I can totally see that now, but when I went the first time (over 10 years ago) I loved it because it reminded me of Club Disney (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Club_Disney) which opened near me briefly when I was growing up in Denver. It was clearly nostalgia based, but I loved that it reminded me of that little piece of Disney I could get so close to home. It definitely hasn’t had the updates it deserves. Or deserved.
I took my nieces to Orlando in June of 2013. We had Premier Passes so decided to spend a day off at DisneyQuest. Much to my chagrin the 10 year old absolutely loved it! We did a lot of awesome things on our trip but DQ was her favorite! The nice thing was that her and her sister ran around there for a few hours while I saw catching up with Florida friends.
I think the appeal to kids is all of the free games. It speaks to some part of them to not have to pay for the arcade games.
The idea of playing arcade games without having to pay for them doesn’t just speak to kids–it speaks to me, too! I spent waaaay too much time playing this Terminator shooting game.
If I were a local, I would probably visit DQ with some regularity just to play the arcade games. Still, it is far from my favorite thing at Walt Disney World. Very, very far. 😉
Hey Tom, we’re going in October with my 6 yr old daughter. Are all the games inside free? How much extra money will I need to bring other than the price of our admission? That’s what I’m looking to find out and the guy on the phone from Disney couldn’t tell me. Thanks!!
I’ve been to DisneyQuest a few times, and never paid. I’m not sure if it still comes with the package of coupons you get when booking through Disney (I think with the Dining Plan?), but that’s the only way I have done it. I usually spend an afternoon at Downtown Disney on my trips, and liked to go to DisneyQuest to kill a bit of time before dinner reservations or going to see La Nouba. Sad to see it go because I thought it was pretty fun, but I understand why. I definitely think it was lacking in a lot of ways you mentioned, buy Cyber Space Mountain was awesome. When I went on a trip in high school with the music department, me and two of my friends went o CSM. With there being 3 of us, we couldn’t all ride at once, but I got to watch the expressions of my friends while they rode (which was hilarious). Good times for sure. And I never got to do the Astro Blasters because it was down when I went. It will definitely be weird to not see it anymore!