The attraction is worth riding more than once. You can have a slightly different experience depending on where you sit. I recommend sitting in row three.
Courtesy Disneyland, Kirsten Acuna/Insider
I love finding the best seat to sit on a ride. Runaway Railway has a boarding area with eight rows. Guests load into one of the train’s four cars, each with two rows, seen above.
Though Runaway Railway starts off as a unified train, the cars break off early into the ride and each one individually goes on a magnetic path, zooming through multiple rooms.
Schwartz said the attraction was designed so guests have a different experience from every car on the attraction. While every car heads to the same rooms, I noticed some cars get to spend more time in certain rooms than others.
After my first attempt on the ride on Wednesday in row seven, I had a mission: Find the car that stays in Daisy Duck’s room the longest. In the latter half of the ride, the four cars spill into a dance studio where Daisy has the cars move harmoniously before turning the room into a dance party with a fun conga melody.
Depending on what car you’re in, you either experience the conga bit for two seconds before you’re whisked away to the next room or get to groove to the beat for several seconds longer. On Wednesday, I rode rows seven, one, and eight, in that order. My first two tries were the first vehicles out of that space.
So I returned Thursday to the attraction to ride the final two cars in rows three and five. Of course, my objective wasn’t solely to be the last car out of Daisy’s room. I also wanted to determine if one car delivered a better overall ride experience.
I rode rows five and three, in that order. It took until my last ride to get the conga time I desperately sought.
During my five rides, I also made a few observations.
The train car you start in may not come back to the station by the ride’s end in the same spot. Every car except for the fourth one shifts places by the ride’s end. (The fourth car, to my understanding, is ADA accessible, and can break away to a separate loading dock.)
If you start in car one, you wind up being close to the train’s caboose (car three) when you approach the ride’s exit. If you start in car two, you’ll become the first car. Train car three becomes the second.
Shaver-Moskowitz told me he enjoys the front row because you get to see and spend more time with Goofy in the conductor’s seat. I was in agreement until returning to the attraction on Thursday. Though you start near Goofy in train car one, by the ride’s end, you’re far away from him in the back of the ride.
Row three is definitively the best place to sit on Runaway Railway. Not only do you get the most time in Daisy’s dance studio, but you’re the first car to enter most rooms front and center. Additionally, by the ride’s end, you’re directly in back of Goofy and get to see him up close as he gives a brief monologue that’s exclusive to Disneyland’s version of the attraction.
I recommend aiming for row one if you want to see Goofy or rows three through six if you want to spend more time in Daisy’s room.
