All aboard the Disney Train in Taiwan! Celebrating Disney’s 100th anniversary, the first Disney themed train in Taiwan runs daily between Taipei, Hualien, Taichung, Kaohsiung and Chiayi plus many other stops.
With 8 themed carriages (including a karaoke car!) plus drinks, activities and food included, this is one of the best value ways to get around Taiwan with lots of Disney-themed fun along the way.
We rode the Taiwan Formosa Express Disney themed train from Taichung to Taipei one night and enjoyed ‘free beers’, Disney gifts and a bento box (‘bian diang’) dinner as part of our ticket price.
And amazingly, it only cost a little bit more than the unusual standard TRA rail-fare.
From what to expect on board and whether it is more ‘dismal’ than ‘Disney’, here is our guide / review of Taiwan’s Disney themed train, the Taiwan’s Formosa Disney Express.
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How much does Taiwan’s Disney train cost?
As of October 2024, prices for the Taiwan Disney Train start from NT$550 (around £13 or $17 USD) per person, but like normal trains, it depends on the distance you are traveling.
We traveled from Taichung to Taipei one Sunday evening aboard the Disney Express and it cost $690 each (around $22 USD or £16.50).
Given the normal local Tze-Chiang express train between Taichung and Taipei costs $NT375 per person, the Disney Train is such good value given you get food, drinks, free gifts, activities and karaoke! It had a lot more leg space too and was much quieter!
Check your Taiwan Railway Formosa Express Disney Themed Train Ticket prices with Klook here >
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Where does the Taiwan Disney Train / Formosa Express Disney train go?
This is a round-the-island loop train, consisting of around 8 themed carriages which stops at over 20 different Taiwan cities and towns every day.
The interiors also have lots of nods to Taiwanese tradition like xiao long bao and Taiwan night market nods.
There are two themed trains, one that goes clockwise around the island (the eastern mainline) and another train that goes anti-clockwise (the western mainline).
The Taiwan Disney eastern mainline train departs Taipei daily at 6.22am and returns at 7.29pm.
The western mainline train departs Taipei at 8.10am and returns at 9.44pm.
Key Taiwan cities included as part of the Disney train include Kaohsiung, Taichung, Tainan, Chiayi and Hsinchu.
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Our experience aboard Taiwan’s Disney train
We boarded the Disney / Mickey Mouse Taiwan Railway Formosa Express at Taichung Station.
We booked our Disney Taiwan train tickets via Klook and our tickets arrived via email – they are accessed via a special link sent to your email address.
The tickets are only available to fully view around two hours before – so don’t worry if you still can’t see them a few hours before.
To get through the ticket gates, just show your Disney passes on your phone – then look out on the train station departure boards for your allotted departure time.
It will likely say ‘special’ against the train on the station screens. Because riding the Disney train is special!
A member of TRA / Disney staff greeted us on the platform and showed us to our seat – we were seated in the ‘Frozen’ carriage (as in the movie, not because the air-con was too high)!
We were carrying a big suitcase and backpack and luckily, there was loads of luggage space aboard the Disney train, both on racks plus dedicated luggage areas.
There were several themed seating carriages including Peter Pan and Dumbo, plus later on, we’ll talk about the Disney themed activity carriages like the Lilo & Stitch karaoke carriage!!!
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Food and drink on the Disney train
After shortly getting on board, we were given a bento box and fruit box with a small Disney gift & bag. The Bento box had rice, chicken, crab, cabbage plus soy sauce.
To be honest, the main food wasn’t to our taste and not as good as the TRA bento boxes you get in the station – also be careful as we found a chicken bone in one of our bentos. The fruit cup was much more to our liking.
Drinks are served by a separate cart that comes around immediately after the dining cart.
The free beers are served in a coffee cup and are poured from cans – alas they don’t give you a full can so this is no booze cruise. To get any more drinks later on, you need to head to the Chip N Dale themed dining car a few carriages back.
Soft drinks, tea and coffee are available all day on the Disney train but the free beer is only available from dinner time onwards (from 5pm on the western train and 6.30pm on the eastern train).
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We managed three beers over our 2 hour + Taiwan Disney train journey and wouldn’t want any more than that given how rocky the train is when walking between carriages!
Dinner is served with a free Disney gift – a small canvas zip bag (toiletry bag sized) with some iron-on Disney character patches.
We got the Chipmunks and a Mickey Mouse embroidered transfers – a member of staff in the Mickey Mouse carriage will iron these on for you!
We traveled on a Sunday night and our carriage was fairly quiet but others were a lot fuller – regular cleaning carts pass through too to take your empty plates.
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Disney Train Taiwan themed carriages
As well as several themed seating cars (we spotted Frozen and Peter Pan), there are several Disney themed dining and activity carriages including:
The Mickey Mouse Carriage
This is probably the best theme carriage of them all – even the floor had Mickey Mouse on it.
The carriage was full of plush red seats and had several games and activities.
The activity schedule in this carriage changes depending on the day / time you travel – so for us, it was the ironing of our Disney stickers onto our gift bags, but in the mornings for instance, they do Taiwan tea tasting.
Other days you can make floating flower displays or do Henna painting. The full activity time-table can be seen in the poster below.
Love cute cartoon characters? Check out our guide to Bugcat Capoo House and Foam Cat Cafe (both in Taichung), or the Bugcat Capoo themed 7-Eleven in Taipei
The Disney Karaoke Lilo & Stitch Carriage
Yes, you read that right – the Taiwan Disney Train / Formosa Express has its own karaoke car!
This was popular with young and old – kids and families descended here to sing songs and it was very much a fun place!
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Chip N Dale Dining Carriage
The other themed carriage was the Chipmunk dining carriage – this is where you come to get your free drinks and top-ups after the initial dining cart has come around.
Here, you can also pick up a Disney ink stamp trail – grab your map and start your adventure in the dining carriage.
Grab four ink stamps, plus spot several hidden Mickeys motifs along the way (take photos on your phone). You can then redeem them in the dining carriage for a Disney themed prize.
We aren’t sure what the prize was as we couldn’t find all the ink stamps – and before you ask, we’d only had two small cups of beer by that stage!
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Taiwan Disney Train final thoughts
Overall, we really enjoyed our time aboard the Disney train – our 2.5 hour journey from Taichung to Taipei flew by and the train was much quieter than the normal local train.
We loved the novelty of the experience and it was very good value for money (and cost not that much more than the normal train).
We were surprised how quiet Taiwan’s Disney train was on our Sunday night trip. If this was in Japan, it would be rammed.
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Other things to know about the Disney Train in Taiwan >
- There is no smoking aboard.
- Each carriage has toilets and the carriages consist of 360 degree seats – one on the left and two together on the right.
- There are no luggage restrictions and ample space for backpacks and suitcases.
- There are no Disney characters / people in suits onboard – but the staff were lovely!
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