Pixar Pal-A-Round - Swinging

Description And Comments

Higher than the Matterhorn attraction at Disneyland Park, this whopper of a Ferris wheel tops out at 160 feet. Absolutely spectacular in appearance, with an enormous Mickey head in the middle of its wheel, Pixar Pal-A-Round 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 the wheel, in addition to rotating around it. Because it feels like your bucket has become detached 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. Pixar Pal-A-Round 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 Pixar Pal-A-Round rotates for a single 2-minute revolution. The Fun Wheel rotates so slowly that the wonderful rising and falling sensations of the garden-variety Ferris wheel are completely absent. For our money, Pixar Pal-A-Round 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 version, 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.

Pixar Pal-A-Round - Swinging Wait Times

This chart shows you roughly how long you'll wait for Pixar Pal-A-Round - Swinging when you visit on a day with a given Disney California Adventure Park Crowd Level. The blue bars represent the average "peak" wait time (that is, how long the line will be 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 Pixar Pal-A-Round - Swinging Wait Times.

Special Comments

The world's largest chicken coop; may induce motion sickness. This attraction was previously known as Sun Wheel (until 2008) and Mickey's Fun Wheel (until 2018) and has experienced cosmetic changes with each iteration.

Special Needs

• Must Transfer To Standard Wheelchair

Other Attractions in Pixar Pier

• Incredicoaster
• Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind
• Jessie's Critter Carousel
• Pixar Pal-A-Round - Non Swinging
• Toy Story Midway Mania!

Touring Plans with Pixar Pal-A-Round - Swinging

• Disney California Adventure One-Day Plan for Adults
• Disney California Adventure Late Arrival One-Day Plan for Adults

What is a Touring Plan?