Top Nine Disney World Thrill Rides

This summer, you want to feel the wind in your hair as you accelerate at maximum velocity.

You may be visiting Walt Disney World with your family, but you want to feel alive during your trip.

So, you want Disney to hit the gas and hurtle you down the tracks as fast as possible.

Here are the best nine thrill rides at Walt Disney World.

9. Avatar Flight of Passage

I’m listing only nine thrill rides today in honor of the closure of Test Track, which would have earned high placement on this list.

Alas, the Test Track that we know and love goes away soon.

Disney will replace it with Test Track 3.0, which I’m confident will earn a spot the next time I do this list.

For now, we must focus on what’s available at Disney, which sadly rules out Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith as well.

I’m writing this piece for summer visitors, and that roller coaster won’t return until late July.

Thankfully, we still have plenty of excellent suggestions, including Avatar Flight of Passage.

Cast Members proudly describe this attraction as “Soarin’ on Steroids,” and it’s a surprisingly intense encounter.

You’re trying to tame a Banshee throughout the ride experience, and your alien lizard bird has a mind of its own.

So, you’ll soar high and fly low, at one point coming into close proximity with a Na’vi/Banshee-swallowing space whale.

There’s a lot in play here, and it’s all fully immersive.

8. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run

Still, nothing on Avatar Flight of Passage gets my blood flowing as much as pulling a heist on the Millennium Falcon.

On this ride, Disney encourages you to commit felonies by stealing some Coaxium that…doesn’t belong to you.

Hey, they put the smuggler part of the ride right there in the name, and it’s always a rush.

You and five of your closest friends and/or complete strangers must come together to pull off a job on an alien planet.

You gotta shoot, steer, and engineer your way through multiple environments.

If you do everything right, you’ll snag an illicit payload and feel like a member of the Ocean’s 11 crew.

7. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Here’s a ride so thrilling that it has become an odd footnote in medical science journals.

The Magic Kingdom version of this roller coaster developed a reputation as a way to pass a kidney stone.

I realize that sounds implausible, but a team of researchers tested the idea a few years ago.

Sure enough, “the wildest ride in the wilderness” is so aggressive that it’ll trigger a medical miracle! Oh, and the ride’s a lot of fun, too.

6. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

The fascinating part of thrill rides is that they come in all shapes, sizes, and durations.

For example, you’ll spend most of a ride on Twilight Zone Tower of Terror relishing the atmospheric setting.

The zero-gravity aspect only lasts about 45 seconds on average, but it’s unforgettable.

I suspect most people would agree that those tantalizing few seconds feel much longer in that time seemingly stops during the bounces.

There’s a totality to this unpredictable movement that causes the outside world to vanish while it’s happening.

5. Slinky Dog Dash

Speaking of shorter rides, critics dismiss Slinky Dog Dash for its length.

Disney used fewer roller coaster tracks than normal for an E-ticket attraction.

That was an intentional decision because Imagineers planned a detailed theme, a roller coaster that exists in a child’s imagination.

In the story, Andy has won a roller coaster construction set at Pizza Planet.

As a kid, he’s not gonna follow the rules in building the thing, and that’s why it’s a bit unpredictable.

Still, the genius of the ride stems from its presentation of Slinky toy physics. It’s a sensation unlike any other roller coaster in the world.

Also, for fans of bunny hops, this is Disney’s best ride, a plus in thrill ride rankings.

4. Space Mountain

As I often discuss with Space Mountain, the actual top speed of this ride stuns people who don’t know this piece of trivia.

Space Mountain never exceeds 28 miles per hour, which seems impossible for such a storied roller coaster.

The trick stems from Imagineering genius, as Space Mountain works as an exercise in sensory deprivation.

Since you cannot see anything, everything you experience feels intense. It’s unexpected and surprising.

Human senses prepare us to anticipate what happens next. When we lack that, we’re vulnerable and more suggestible.

Space Mountain manipulates our emotional state to persuade us into believing that we’re going much faster.

This ride is iconic for a reason, and it’s one of Disney’s smartest attraction designs ever.

3. Tron Lightcycle / Run

Several of Disney’s newer attractions face the same complaint, and it’s one I’ve already mentioned.

Fans claim they want longer rides, whether that’s true or not.

So, Slinky Dog Dash, Tron Lightcycle / Run, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train often face criticism regarding their duration.

However, those complaints miss the point. Disney packs a wallop in a short period of time.

On Tron, you zoom down the tracks on a unique ride cart, one that mimics the Lightcycles from the Tron film franchise.

You’ll feel like a futuristic motorcyclist spinning out of control as you try to win a race.

As a reminder, people in the Tron films who lose these races, derez, which is to say they explode and disintegrate. You don’t want that.

For this reason, Tron has what I consider the second-highest stakes of any Disney thrill ride, and it adds to the rush.

2. Expedition Everest

However, the ride with the highest stakes is Expedition Everest.

On Tron, you’d just lose and disintegrate quickly. When things break wrong on Expedition Everest, you’re Yeti food for a week.

Neither of those options is ideal, but I’ll take quick rather than slow. I suspect most of you agree with me, too.

On Expedition Everest, Imagineers have done a masterful job in building tension.

You start on a simple journey up the mountain, only to discover broken tracks stopping your forward progress.

Then, you notice the creature that has broken them and, well, becoming Yeti food is suddenly a VERY real concern.

So, you throw the vehicle into reverse and enter a darkened cave, hoping that you’ll find your way out before the Yeti discovers you.

Alas, you’re not quite that fortunate, but you do survive, leaving the Yeti irritable and hangry. This one’s a blast.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

Finally, we have one of Disney’s most immersive rides ever, the world’s first “storytelling coaster.”

That’s a fancy Imagineering term for riding a roller coaster that controls your point-of-view.

By adopting this approach, Disney can tell a story wherein the Guardians of the Galaxy square off against a Celestial.

You find yourself along for the ride for…reasons. It’s admittedly a bit contrived, but the thrill itself is outrageous.

Disney provides a random soundtrack song that’s one of several options, each of which gives the experience a different vibe.

Ultimately, the same essential beats play out no matter what you’re hearing.

A giant wall-sized Celestial threatens you, and your vehicle eventually spirals out of control toward a planet.

That visual is unlike anything I’ve ever seen during a theme park attraction, and I think about it often.

Overall, Cosmic Rewind does the impossible in that it tells an excellent story while making your heart race from start to finish.

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Feature Photo: Disney