April 7, 2019

Disney World’s newest attraction: Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy

This post was in partnership with Walt Disney World| As always, all thoughts and opinions are 100% my own.

“Okay. Here we go. Focus. Speed. I am speed. One winner, 42 losers. I eat losers for breakfast. Breakfast. Wait, maybe I should have had breakfast.” –AMEN Lightning McQueen, how many of us mamas realize it’s 12pm before we’ve even eaten anything that’s not coffee or left over oatmeal from the kids?!

I literally have the entire Cars Movie memorized. 3 Cars (the movie) loving boys later and I can recite the entire movie while whipping up dinner, and breastfeeding a baby. My family and I are HUGE Disney fans and visit basically weekly, so when we found out that Hollywood Studios was coming out with a high-octane, first of its kind Cars show, we were all about it. I made a mistake by telling my boys about it before the premier because they asked about it day after day “is it time to watch the Cars show yet” “can I see the real Lightning McQueen today?” . So when the day finally came to take the boys, they were beyond excited.

I had the amazing opportunity to partner with Disney World to experience the new Lightning McQueen Racing Academy to share with all my readers and followers about this VROOM-VROOM, KA-CHOW filled show!

Where is it located:

Located in the beautiful Hollywood Studios, right off Sunset Blvd, next to Rock ‘n’ Rollercoaster. Funny thing about this location: Before it was The Racing Academy, it was just an empty spot in the cut, that I used to sneak away to nurse Laila.

I drew a little pink line to show you how exactly you get there from the entrance of the park, assuming you are going straight there!

What should I expect:

Walking in: Get ready to dance!

When you first walk up to the courtyard, just outside sunset showcase you’ll be greeted by a an energized DJ and Dance crew! The DJ is there to get the kids, you the adults (I was jamming out) to Cars inspired music and games. The boy’s jumped right in on the fun!!

Also you’ll quickly notice real life size Cars characters; Cruz Ramirez, and DJ, which you can take the kids to see and take pictures with. I however have a zillion kids, and is trying the #liveinthemoment lifestyle (haha that’s hard when you’re a blogger) and totally forgot to get a picture of the kids with them. But i’ll update this post in the next week or two when we go back!

Wait time: Never longer than 15 minutes.

Because it’s a continuous show, that runs every 15 minutes, you will never wait longer than 15 minutes. If you want a spot in the front, I’d recommend getting as close to the front of the gate as possible. But we sat in the middle row and had a wonderful view still.

Ages/resrictions: Anyone can watch it!

Because it’s a show, not a ride, it is okay for anyone to watch! If you’re concerned about noise level for your little ones, I brought my 6 month old and it was not loud at all!

The actual show: Kid’s LOVED it.

As soon as we walked in, we were blown away with the set up. But at the same time, we were not surprised because c’mon it’s Disney. They do the most with EVERYTHING. Talk about attention to detail, they nail it. We immediately sat down on the car-shop-garage-like metal benches (again, attention to detail) and played a trivia game on the wrap around screen. The boys loved answering the question because we lived for this movie. Once the show started, we were all just so into it, including my big-kid husband.

And here are some more photos. There are just SO many photo opportunities out in the Cars courtyard!

Had to throw this one in there because how often is it that you can take a picture on an empty Sunset Blvd?

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope you and your family are able to enjoy the new Lightning McQueen Racing academy at Hollywood Studios, because Now more than ever is the time to experience the magic of Disney.