Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway will open SOON in Disneyland (on January 27th!). 

Runaway Railway

We’ve already shared a FIRST LOOK at the ride’s queue (which is incredibly detailed — seriously, you’ve GOT to see this folks!) and a peek at some of the MANY easter eggs throughout the queue and ride. But we just had to highlight one particular easter egg here!

Yes, there’s “your cheese” and “nacho cheese”…

Your Cheese, NACHO Cheese

…jokes about popular movies that have been given distinctly Disney spins…

Goofy Friday!

…and details that reference the very start of the Walt Disney Company (Laugh-O-Gram was Walt Disney’s first studio, started back in Kansas City, Missouri).

Cool!

But you’ll have to be a true Disney EXPERT to notice this next one! As you enter the city scene within Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in Disneyland, you’ll likely be overwhelmed by the sheer number of things in the room. But do yourself a favor and look closely for a sign for a shop called Kevin’s Aloha Shirts. Know what that’s a reference to?

Kevin’s Alohaha Shirts

Well, this sign is actually an homage to Disney Imagineer Kevin Rafferty. Rafferty helped to conceive and develop Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway!

In an interview with D23, Rafferty shared that he was VERY scared about being responsible for delivering Mickey’s first ride-through attraction. Rafferty said, “There have been lots of concepts over the years, but this is the one that stuck… and maybe that’s because it was meant to be. Mickey and Minnie are the hardest, because they have been everywhere and have done everything. So, what do you do with that?”

©Disney

He continued, “The attraction was inspired by technology that Imagineering had been developing for about 10 years through its scenic illusions group—and, of course, by the new Mickey shorts and the comedy, the cadence, the music, the art direction, and the edginess of those. We came up with the original story and theme song for that attraction. The moons were all in alignment for that. For 60-something years we’d been thinking about a Mickey ride, and now here it is. And I’m doing it? Talk about daunting! I’m proud of it. It’s a beautiful cherry on top of the amazing cake of my career.”

Rafferty retried back in 2021. He’s worked on MANY projects over the years including Cars Land, Toy Story Midway Mania!, Test Track, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, and so many more.

©Disney

Fun fact: Rafferty’s son — Kevin Rafferty, Jr. — also works for Disney! He has been in a variety of communications roles over the years and you’ll often find his posts on the official Disney Parks Blog.

So now you know the secret! Be sure to point it out to your friends during your next trip to Disneyland to show off what a Disney expert you are! And stay tuned for more Disney news.

See a whole BUNCH of easter eggs from Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway here!

Are you going to visit Disneyland soon? Tell us in the comments!
Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. We were invited by Disney to attend their media preview of Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway in Disneyland. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ