Welcome to Mickey Madness 2025!

Quick, what’s the best thing about the month of March?

Please don’t answer Spring Break or warm weather or the like.

Sports fans know the truth. The correct answer is March Madness, the time when college basketball reaches a fever pitch.

This year, MickeyBlog will play along, but we’ll do it our way.

I’d like to introduce you to our first-ever Mickey Madness!

We’re running a tournament to decide the best Walt Disney World attraction.

The stakes in 2025 are instantly high, as some of these attractions will only get to play once.

In fact, one of them may be gone before you ever read this! No pressure, right?

Let’s take a look at the Mickey Madness brackets for 2025!

About Seeding the 64 Attractions…

I’ll start by saying that seeding this tournament proved to be one of the most challenging things I’ve ever done at MickeyBlog.

At one point, my wife, who assisted me in this endeavor, wound up telling me I was big, loud wrong about something.

I told her the same thing, and it turned out that…she was right, and I was wrong. Eep! That’s gonna leave a mark.

Seeding a tournament like this requires an innate understanding of how brackets work, and I forgot something basic.

I wish I could say that was the only time this happened, but…HA! I freakin’ wish!

Even starting this endeavor proved difficult, as we intensely debated what should qualify.

Ultimately, we settled on all 51 rides at Walt Disney World, deciding that anything that moves is worthy of this tournament.

Then, we added 12 show-based attractions and one other experience that made me sentimental. But we’ll get to that.

Here’s the full 64-attraction bracket you should study as you mentally evaluate what an idiot I am.

Don’t worry! My wife beat you to the punch last Saturday.

PS: I’d suggest that you open the file in a new window or download it to your phone. Then, you can view it at full size. It’s easier to read that way.

The One and Two Seeds

Oddly, choosing the one seeds proved to be one of the easiest parts of the brackets.

We settled on a simple format where Disney’s top new rides are the one-seeds.

Meanwhile, the most iconic Disney attractions are the two seeds.

So, that leaves us with the following one seeds listed in order:

• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
• Avatar Flight of Passage
• Tron Lightcycle / Run

You may quibble a bit with Tron and maybe even Cosmic Rewind, but I think most people would view Rise of the Resistance as the top seed overall.

On the two seed line, here are the iconic attractions:

• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Haunted Mansion
• Space Mountain
• “it’s a small world”

Real talk: I know It’s a Small World is overseeded, but it fit the motif here better than anything else.

When people think about Disney theme parks, that’s on the shortlist for first ride mentioned, which matters here.

Overall, we agonized over every single seed in this tournament, but It’s a Small World had to go in the top eight.

I felt strongly about that, and I even used the proper attraction name for once, as I find it annoying to add the quotes and lower case letters.

We’re getting all fancy for Mickey Madness!

The Significance of Seeding

When people like ESPN’s Joe Lunardi discuss their projected brackets, they typically stop at the top four seeds.

The presumption is that one of the top 16 entries will win the tournament, which is correct more than 90 percent of the time.

I’ve structured these brackets the same way, which causes short-term problems but long-term surprises.

I’ll go ahead and tell you that the first round will be incredibly chalky, the sports term for almost all the favorites winning.

However, things get interesting in round two, and we were surprised by the results of our first March Madness outcome.

If I’d changed a single seeding debate, Space Mountain vs. Haunted Mansion, we would have flipped several outcomes.

That’s the same reason why you’ll be setting aflame to your March Madness bracket in a matter of days.

The matchups determine the outcomes, with some being favorable to higher seed.

In other instances, like one that plays out in Mickey Madness, the higher seed faces a matchup nightmare the ride cannot overcome.

The Three and Four Seeds

But I feel pretty comfortable that the three and four seeds reflect every other top ride at Disney World. Here are the three seeds:

• Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• Jungle Cruise
• Frozen Ever After

And these are the four seeds:

• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Slinky Dog Dash
• Spaceship Earth
• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Personally, I felt like we underseeded Tiana by a bit, and my wife strongly championed Spaceship Earth.

I view the building as more significant than the ride itself, at least to most people. It’s my all-time favorite attraction.

Still, I would have dropped it at least two seeds lower if I’d done these brackets alone.

Jungle Cruise was the iconic ride that fell to a third seed because it’s not as instantly recognizable as It’s a Small World.

But that’s like asking which baseball player is greater between Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. (It’s Mickey Mantle.)

The Lowest Seeds

Now, let’s glance at the lower seeds so that you’ll understand the challenges in seeding.

When I say that we included every attraction that moves, I mean that even Main Street Vehicles got thrown into the mix.

So do Liberty Square Riverboat, Walt Disney World Railroad, and the Wildlife Express Train.

Technically, they SHOULD be here, but let’s be real that they have zero chance whatsoever against the one seeds.

That’s why I was sensitive about ranking the 13-16 seeds. They’re cannon fodder for the bigger attractions.

Like, I’m as patriotic as the next person, but The Hall of Presidents isn’t going to beat It’s a Small World, much less Space Mountain.

Then, we have DINOSAUR, Tom Sawyer Island, It’s Tough to Be a Bug!, and Muppet*Vision 3D, but we don’t have Test Track.

These decisions bear some explanation. I wanted to give the dying attractions at least a chance this year.

Otherwise, they’ll never get a shot again. So, depending on when you read this, It’s Tough to Be a Bug! may already be gone.

I still included it due to the sentimentality, though. As for Test Track, we don’t know what the new ride will be like.

Since Test Track 2.0 isn’t just gone but has been gone for a while, I felt ridiculous including it.

If I had, Tom Sawyer Island probably wouldn’t have made the cut.

The other quirk here is that Dumbo the Flying Elephant is a full line higher than its twin, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin.

That’s simply because Dumbo has been at Disney World since 1971, while Aladdin didn’t come until 30 years later.

The Other Seeds

Folks, this is intended to be a fun, not too serious thing to do in celebration of March Madness.

Some of it is nigh impossible to rationalize. At one point, we were debating Kilimanjaro Safaris against the Barnstormer.

At that moment, I realized the absurdity of the exercise. How does one compare an animal tour to a children’s roller coaster?

Similarly, how should anyone pick between Toy Story Mania! and Country Bear Musical Jamboree?

When I faced these debates, I tended to go with the attraction I believe makes people the happiest.

Based on that criteria, you can understand how some upsets are certain to happen.

I doubt you’ll predict the winner either, but that’s not really the point here.

Just print out the brackets and decide which attraction would win for you! And please let MickeyBlog know your Final Four.

I’m genuinely curious, as I can tell you that my Final Four surprised *me*, and I’m the one who wrote it.

The seeding and the individual matchups in later rounds make a world of difference in the outcomes.

We’ll post the first round’s results tomorrow, but I’ll tell you right now that rounds two and three are when it gets really fun!

About the Brackets

You’ll notice that I had to abbreviate some of the longer attraction titles to fit into the brackets.

For the sake of clarity, here are the attractions according to their overall seeding from 1 to 64.

1. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
2. Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind
3. Avatar Flight of Passage
4. Tron Lightcycle / Run
5. Pirates of the Caribbean
6. Haunted Mansion
7. Space Mountain
8. “it’s a small world”
9. Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
10. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
11. Jungle Cruise
12. Frozen Ever After
13. Kilimanjaro Safaris
14. Slinky Dog Dash
15. Spaceship Earth
16. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
17. Soarin’ Around the World
18. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
19. Expedition Everest
20. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
21. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
22. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
23. Toy Story Mania!
24. Na’vi River Journey
25. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
26. Peter Pan’s Flight
27. Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
28. DINOSAUR
29. Mad Tea Party
30. For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
31. Mickey’s PhilharMagic
32. Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
33. Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid
34. Star Tours — The Adventures Continue!
35. The Seas with Nemo & Friends
36. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
37. Festival of the Lion King
38. Mission: SPACE
39. Gran Fiesta Tour Starring the Three Caballeros
40. Alien Swirling Saucers
41. Living with the Land
42. Country Bear Musical Jamboree
43. Muppet*Vision 3D
44. Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
45. Journey into Imagination with Figment
46. Journey of Water | Inspired by Moana
47. Enchanted Tales with Belle
48. Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular!
49. Turtle Talk with Crush
50. Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
51. Astro Orbiter
52. The Barnstormer
53. Dumbo the Flying Elephant
54. Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
55. It’s Tough to Be a Bug!
56. Tomorrowland Speedway
57. Magic Carpets of Aladdin
58. Walt Disney’s Enchanted TIki Room
59. The Hall of Presidents
60. Tom Sawyer Island
61. Walt Disney World Railroad
62. Liberty Square Riverboat
63. Wildlife Express Train
64. Main Street Vehicles

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Feature Photo: Disney