Opening with World of Frozen back in November 2023, Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs (WOSS) is the second attraction in the newly constructed land and also serves as the ride that is unique to HKDL’s World of Frozen. Located in the forest area of the land, this junior coaster is a fun ride that has you twisting and turning through the mountains of Arendelle. How does it stack up to the other Junior Coasters found in other Disney parks? Read my review to find out!

Background

Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs was actually not the first idea Walt Disney Imagineering had for an Oaken-themed attraction. It was originally supposed to be Wandering Oaken’s Dancing Sleighs, which based on the concept art looked either like Aquatopia in Tokyo DisneySea or Luigi’s Rollickin Roadsters in Disney California Adventure. But during the development process, they changed the concept for the ride to instead be a junior coaster. 

I initially thought from the concept art that the attraction was going to be similar to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train with its dark ride-esque show scenes. But after watching on–ride videos following the land’s debut, it was clear that this was just a very elaborately themed Chip and Dale’s Gadget Coaster, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Disney parks need a mix of attractions, and considering that the other two coasters in the park are geared more towards adults, HKDL really needed a smaller coaster that younger guests could ride and enjoy. So with tempered expectations, I took my first ride on the attraction last January during my one-day visit to the park on a stopover from New Zealand. 

And it’s safe to say it met my expectations to the T. 

The Story

The story, just like the rest of the land, revolves around the Summer Snow Day celebration happening in Arendelle. Summer Snow Day is the anniversary of the day Anna saves Elsa with an act of true love that thawed her frozen heart. As part of the occasion, Oaken decides to create a coaster in the mountain located at the back of his shop.

The ride is located in the “forest” side of World of Frozen. It’s the reason why the land isn’t called “Arendelle” because technically the land extends to the forest on the opposite side of Arendelle which you can access by walking over King Agnarr Bridge.  

In order to make sure the coaster is a success, Oaken bases the vehicle design on Kristoff’s sleigh and enlists Olaf and Sven’s help to power the coaster. This story element results in a pretty fun scene at the beginning of the ride, which I will get to in the next section.

But as I said in my Frozen Ever After review, I like that the entire land revolves around this one celebration. It adds a lot of layers of storytelling to the entire land and makes it feel more alive and purposeful. The separation of Arendelle from the forest also makes the land feel more expansive while also drawing you in to experience everything this land has to offer. So on that metric it is a total win in my book. 

Queue and Ride Vehicle

The queue is very well-themed and is probably on par with Frozen Ever After’s queue. The detailing and story building in the WOSS queue is a lot more intentional and adds a lot more to the overall placemaking than Frozen Ever After’s queue, but Frozen Ever After’s queue is a lot more grand. It’s for these reasons that they are tied in my eyes, with both of them being in the top 5 queues of the entire park.

The queue starts in Wandering Oaken’s shop in the movie before it quickly transitions to inside the mountain. In the mountain you’ll find Oaken’s sauna, and if you time it right, he goes up to the window of the sauna and draws things on the condensation. Afterwards you enter the load area where there is a desk that shows Oaken’s different ideas and iterations for how he was going to get the sleds up the mountain. If you look closely, one of the sketches actually made it into the ride. 

Ride Experience 

You then board your sleigh and turn a corner to find Olaf riding on top of Sven. Just like one of the sketches, Olaf has his carrot nose at the end of a stick. He dangles this in front of Sven, who then walks on a treadmill like contraption which causes the cars to go up the mountain.

After cresting over the peak, the coaster then goes into full swing. After a few twists and turns through different areas of the mountain, and gorgeous views of the land, you end up back at the loading station. It’s a thrilling, albeit incredibly short, ride down and through the mountain on the forest side of World of Frozen. 

Thoughts

The queue is probably the most interesting thing about Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs. It’s very detailed and has an amazing sense of place. Like I said, it’s one of the best queues in the park, up there with Iron Man Experience, Frozen Ever After, and Mystic Manor. I like how it starts in Oaken’s shop then transitions to the inside of the mountain, coupled with his sauna and the workstation that has some sketches showing how Oaken conceptualized the ride. So all in all, it’s a very fun queue line with some interesting thematic elements. 

The ride itself, however, just barely met my expectations. I initially thought the coaster was going to be like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, with some indoor, dark ride sections and maybe an innovative ride system like how the cars on Mine Train swing back and forth.

But then when I watched POVs and saw how short the experience actually was, I adjusted my expectations. I knew coming in that it was not going to be a long coaster ride and that, aside from the animatronic at the beginning (which was still very cute), it wouldn’t be that remarkable. 

So I rode it with that in mind and, while it did offer gorgeous vantage points of the land, and I can imagine that it looks even better at night, the ride itself was really just ok. It felt like the shortest coaster ever to me, even compared to things like Chip and Dale’s Gadget Coaster at Disneyland.

But I will also admit that, for its length and for a family coaster, it was more thrilling than it needed to be. The turns were sharp and the speed felt fast, so couple that with the beautiful theming of the mountain and you get a fun coaster that, as long as you go in with the right and reasonable expectations, should be fun.

It doesn’t pack a lot in the story department. Oaken wants to celebrate Summer Snow Day by building a coaster with sleighs and enlists Olaf and Sven’s help. There isn’t really any tension to the story, and its context is basically just Oaken wanting to have fun.

But honestly, as the secondary attraction in the land, it doesn’t really need a complex story. I’m just glad they still themed it to Summer Snow Day. Rides like these really only need simple stories, and what they did have in terms of story was far better than other junior coasters in the world. Integrating a why for a coaster will always be better than just building one as is without any explanation. 

But this ride does solve a problem HKDL has had for years. The three other “coasters” in the park (if you consider RC Racer a coaster) are all geared to older audiences. HKDL lacked a simple thrill coaster for younger guests. This ride fills a need that makes the park a lot more well-rounded. Not everything needs to be an explosive E-ticket. Theme parks need smaller attractions like this to offer variety to guests, and this definitely does that. 

Conclusion

If you temper your expectations and experience Wandering Oaken’s Sliding Sleighs for what it is rather than what it’s lacking, you’ll have a great experience. It doesn’t rank highly compared to the other attractions in the park, but it’s a welcome addition to the park and its lineup. I would say include it in your HKDL trip if the lines for it aren’t insanely long. 

Rating: 5.5/10

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