My girlfriend and I visited Disney Quest recently in Orlando, FL. I’ve wanted to visit this place for years after hearing that it’s one of the best arcades within a thousand miles from where I live. We’ve seen a decline in arcades since the 90s. I believe this is because of the powerful home consoles we now have that rival the power of arcade machines.
So does Disney Quest bring back that old fun feeling of arcades? Somewhat. Read on for my full review.
The Land of Games
DisneyQuest has a good amount of games available across its five floors. I saw around 4 air hockey machines, 6 Skee-Ball lanes, 6 to 8 pinball machines, dozens of driving games (such as Star Wars Pod Racer and Mario Kart GP), Guitar Hero and dozens of classic games like Pacman and Frogger.
Flamin’ Finger is the most frustrating game of all time.
Besides arcade units, Disney Quest offers many virtual reality experiences, such as water rafting, Aladdin’s magic carpet ride, ride your own virtual roller coaster and more.
There are also interactive rides. Two of the most popular are Buzz Lightyear and Pirates. In Buzz Lightyear, you team up with a partner inside a vehicle that resembles a tall bumper car. One of you is the driver, the other controls the cannon. You shoot at other players to score points. It’s a fun experience, similar to bumper cars itself.
In Pirates, you team up with a group of people on a virtual pirate ship. While one of you steers, the rest of you control the cannons. Your goal is to capture gold from other pirate ships.
Not Quite Magical
All of this sounds cool but there are some problems. The virtual reality machines are outdated with graphics from the Nintendo 64 era. Although they can be somewhat interesting, especially to the younger crowds, the overall effect seems a bit cheesy.
You’d get more of an immersive experience by playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 with a surround sound system in the dark. I respect these machines for the roles they played in their time, but if I’m paying $40 in today’s world then it seems to be a poor value for me.
The driving games are one of the best parts of the arcade. Unfortunately, these can be hard to get any time on. There were no staff to make sure kids didn’t hog the machines and there were so many people there that you’d have to wait 10 minutes for one game regardless if the machines were shared correctly. Some of the popular games, like the 8-player Nascar racing, even had a queue setup to wait in.
The Guitar Hero machines are fun but it’s no different from playing at home — with the exception that you can actually hear your music when playing at home. Everything was so loud at Disney Quest that I could barely hear “Rock you like a hurricane!”
If you love retro games then this is a good place for you. Disney Quest has them scattered throughout, as well as having a whole floor dedicated to them. I smiled when I saw Karate Champ, a game I haven’t seen in many years. You could easily spend hours up here playing it up classic style.
When I visited, all the machines were in good working condition, which is quite rare in many arcades. I’ve gotten used to seeing at least one broken machine in today’s arcades, but everything was working fine at Disney Quest.
Yay or Nay?
Overall, I feel Disney Quest is a good place to visit once if you’re a gamer, but I don’t plan to ever go back. I went later at night and got a 50% discount (since they were closing in a few hours) so for $20, it was worth it for me and gave me enough time to experience most of what it has to offer.
Kudos to Disney for keeping the arcade scene alive, but the experience is missing the magic.
I give Disney Quest 6 out of 10 zips. 
Image Attributions: Banner, Flamin’ Finger, Dig Dug, Buzz Lightyear
