Description And Comments

Higher than the Matterhorn attraction at Disneyland Park, this whopper of a Ferris wheel tops out at 150 feet. Absolutely spectacular in appearance, with an enormous Mickey head in the middle of its wheel, Mickey's Fun Wheel offers stunning views in all directions. Unfortunately, however, the view is severely compromised by the steel mesh that completely encloses the passenger compartment. In essence, Disney has created the world's largest revolving chicken coop. As concerns the ride itself, some of the passenger buckets move laterally from side to side across Mickey's Fun Wheel in addition to rotating around with the wheel. Because it feels like your bucket has become unattached from the main structure, this lateral movement can be a little disconcerting if you aren't expecting it. If the movement proves too disconcerting, motion sickness bags are thoughtfully provided in each swinging car.

Touring Tips

Ferris wheels are the most slow loading of all cycle rides. Thus, we were very curious to see how the loading and unloading are engineered. Mickey's Fun Wheel has a platform that allows three compartments to be loaded at once. The lateral sliding buckets are loaded from the two outside platforms, while the stationary compartments are loaded from the middle platform. Loading the entire wheel takes about six and a half minutes, following which Mickey's Fun Wheel rotates so slowly that the wonderful rising and falling sensations of the garden-variety Ferris wheel are completely absent. For our money, Mickey's Fun Wheel is beautiful to behold but terribly boring to ride. If you decide to give it a whirl, ride the first hour the park is open or in the hour before the park closes.

The Swinging version usually has the longer wait of the two, with sometimes double the wait (hey, if you're going on a Ferris Wheel, you might as well do it right, right?). It has twice the capacity than the non-swinging versions, but the longer wait makes it load approximately even. loading of the two versions, but has only half the capacity (loads one car at a time instead of two). Also, be prepared during the busier season to double up with another small group if you are a group of 1, 2, or 3.

Mickey's Fun Wheel - Swinging Wait Times

This chart shows you roughly how long you'll wait for Mickey's Fun Wheel - Swinging when you visit on a day with a given Disney California Adventure Crowd Level. The blue bars represent the average "peak" wait time (that is, how long the line will at its busiest). The bottom and top black lines represent the range of peak wait times to expect (for you fellow nerds out there: it's the 5th percentile and 95th percentile of peak wait times). Please note that these are estimates, and for a better forecast for your travel dates, see Mickey's Fun Wheel - Swinging Wait Times.

Special Comments

The world's largest chicken coop; may induce motion sickness.

Special Needs

Other Attractions in Paradise Pier

Lands