The Best Ride at Every Disney World Theme Park
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When Disney World opened in 1972, it was home to exactly one theme park. The Magic Kingdom was a beefed up take on the original Disneyland, with many of the same attractions and themed areas spread throughout a much larger park with a bigger castle at its center. The plan was always for Disney World to be much more than a theme park, though, and although Walt Disney’s attempt at utopian urban design never came to fruition, his company’s Florida resort grew rapidly throughout the late 20th century. In time Disney World’s collection of theme parks grew to four. EPCOT opened in 1982 as a sort of permanent World’s Fair, with rides about the history of science and technology, exhibits about exciting new tech, and a cluster of pavilions that exposed guests to the cultures of various foreign countries. Disney’s Hollywood Studios followed in 1989 under its original name, Disney-MGM Studios; it was the first entire theme park build around the idea of a backstage studio tour. Finally, Disney’s Animal Kingdom first welcomed guests in 1998, with a wildlife / safari theme that has remained largely untouched in the years since. (Disney World is also home to two water parks, which we won’t discuss today.) All four parks have seen updates and refinements over the decades, with EPCOT and Hollywood Studios undergoing tremendous change since opening in the ‘80s, but one thing has held true for them all along the way: they’re a lot of fun. Disney remains the industry standard for theme park rides, and all four parks at Disney World feature some of the best rides you’ll find anywhere in the world. Yes, some beloved classics have gone away, sometimes to be replaced by greatly inferior experiences that only make the pain of losing them even worse; Disney is still more than capable of knocking it out of the park with new attractions, though, as proven by Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which opened in Hollywood Studios in 2019 and just barely missed making this list. The parks are ever-changing, but the true classics endure, and that’s what we’re looking at today. Here’s a guide to the absolute best ride at each Disney World park—the one ride in each park that you absolutely have to experience before your trip comes to an end. And we’ll start with the original, the classic that started it all: The Magic Kingdom.
The Best Ride at the Magic Kingdom: The Haunted Mansion
It pains me to say this, as a kid who grew up in Florida and feels a strong tie to Disney World, but Haunted Mansion is the only ride at both Disneyland and Magic Kingdom where the Florida version is better—and just barely.
Florida’s gets the nod for a couple of reasons. First off, it has an interactive queue full of whimsical games and gadgets. This is deeply controversial among some Disney fans, of course—these additions are relatively new, and every single change Disney makes will upset somebody. They have the same darkly comic sensibility of many of the gags found inside the ride, though, and anything that gets guests to interact with their surroundings instead of their phones is a good idea, in my book.
Secondly, this Haunted Mansion features every part of the original (except for the recent return of the long-lost Hatbox Ghost), and more. The stormy hallway you walk through in Anaheim, with the framed portraits that turn demonic when lightning strikes, is incorporated into the ride itself. There’s also an entirely original room that resembles an M.C. Escher print, with staircases winding in all directions, and spectral footprints that defy gravity.
The kicker, though, is that this version of the Haunted Mansion exists year-round. You will always hear the original Ghost Host, tour the original dinner party with the creepy organ music and dueling portraits, and wind up in the original graveyard as “Grim Grinning Ghosts” blasts through the room. Disneyland turns its unique spook show into a Nightmare Before Christmas tie-in for almost a full third of the year. As fun as that version is, it pales in comparison to the Disney original. (Seriously, if you only plan one visit to any Disney park in your entire life—basically, if you’re my wife’s family when she was young—do not go to Disneyland between September and January. You’ll miss out on the real Haunted Mansion experience, one of the most perfect pieces of art ever made by this company.)
Haunted Mansion is not just one of the best theme park rides ever designed, but a beloved piece of American pop culture, and even though it wasn’t the first, Magic Kingdom’s version of it is the best.
The Best Ride at EPCOT: Spaceship Earth
