Which Are the Most Popular Rides at Each Disney Park?
When you visit a Disney theme park, you have your favorites.
Some rides are must-dos to the point that a visit feels incomplete without them.
I’m like this with Spaceship Earth at EPCOT, but this conversation isn’t about my preferences.
Instead, let’s talk about consensus opinions. Which are the most popular rides at each American Disney theme park?
At some parks, this exercise shouldn’t be challenging. With others, it’s a bare-knuckle brawl.
Disney California Adventure
As a reminder, Disney California Adventure (DCA) remains the newest Disney park in North America.
While Disney has built others internationally, its American lineup has stayed the same since 2001.
With 23 years in operations, DCA has already undergone multiple expansions, most notably Cars Land and Avengers Campus.
In fact, the San Fransokyo Square expansion is less than a year old.
So, the park improvements are plentiful here. Still, I suspect that Disney fans will agree on the most popular attraction here.
Obviously, the answer is Radiator Springs Racers, an attraction I would argue saved DCA as a whole.
The debate lies in what the other beloved ride is at DCA, and I could make an argument for several.
California Screamin’ was once the most popular thrill ride here, and the Incredicoaster is, if anything, better.
WEBSLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure lost a bit of momentum after its first year, but kids loooove to perform some actual web-slinging.
Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! has given the former Twilight Zone Tower of Terror building an entirely new identity.
Still, I maintain that the second-most popular attraction here is Soarin’ Around the World.
That statement is particularly accurate when Soarin’ Over California returns, something that happens annually.
While the new version of the ride encompasses more of the world, Californians prefer the original since it’s home turf.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Conversely, here’s a park where the consensus strikes me as clear.
While I’m on record as preferring Na’vi River Journey, mine is the decidedly minority opinion.
For the overwhelming majority of tourists, Avatar Flight of Passage embodies the best of Pandora – The World of Avatar.
This E-ticket attraction provides an aerial view of the fictional realm of Pandora, uncannily represented in all its digital splendor.
The artificial nature of Avatar Flight of Passage makes it the perfect bookend for the park’s other mega-attraction.
Obviously, I’m referring to Kilimanjaro Safaris, the attraction that exemplifies the heart and soul of Animal Kingdom as a theme park.
You take a safari through the natural habitats of countless animal species, thereby learning an invaluable environmental message about living in harmony.
While Avatar Flight of Passage is Animal Kingdom’s shiniest toy, Kilimanjaro Safaris remains the park’s true identity.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Okay, now the conversation just got serious.
While Hollywood Studios hosts the fewest attractions of any American Disney theme park, that’s a bit misleading.
I say this because Hollywood Studios operates a disproportionately large number of E-ticket attractions.
Picking favorites here is inordinately challenging, which is odd. Just a few years ago, the top two would have been clear.
People would have said Toy Story Mania! and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and that would have been the end of the discussion.
Today, Toy Story Mania! isn’t even in the conversation. That’s because of all the recent park expansions.
Since 2018, Disney has added Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Toy Story Land, and Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.
Picking the most popular two rides from that list is plenty challenging enough, much less factoring in the rest of the park.
Runaway Railway replaced the de facto number three attraction, The Great Movie Ride, and it’s an amazing triumph.
Still, I couldn’t in good conscience suggest that it’s better than Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, one of Disney’s best rides overall.
That ride is a given on this list, as fans mob the attraction each day.
So, the debate comes down to the second ride, and my shortlist includes Slinky Dog Dash, Runaway Railway, and Tower of Terror.
Call me a traditionalist, but I believe that Twilight Zone Tower of Terror remains the second-most popular attraction here.
I feel this way because Disney has incorporated digital effects on the Hollywood Tower Hotel that elevate its status.
This one’s close and up for debate, though. Should you feel otherwise, I’d understand.
Disneyland Park
As an FYI, I’m adopting a rule here wherein the most popular ride at one park isn’t eligible elsewhere.
So, that saves me from having the Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance debate.
Also, I’ll go ahead and skip a step here. I think we can all agree that Pirates of the Caribbean belongs on this list.
After all, the iconic ride proved so popular at Disneyland that Walt Disney World fans demanded their own version.
Florida fans provided this vocal outcry despite the fact that they lived in the area where many pirates had made their last stand.
That bit of theme park lore speaks volumes about the popularity of Pirates of the Caribbean, and it remains a vital part of Disneyland.
Picking another attraction here is rough, though. It’s a Small World and Haunted Mansion are every bit as iconic as Pirates.
You could argue the same for Jungle Cruise or Peter Pan’s Flight, both of which are still quite popular.
Then, we have Runaway Railway and the other Star Wars ride, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
I seriously considered all these options, but based on throughput and wait times, I narrowed my list to two candidates.
Those are Disneyland originals Matterhorn Bobsleds and Indiana Jones Adventure.
Clearly, they’re decidedly different attractions, and if I were picking based on historical significance, I’d take the Matterhorn.
Alas, this is a conversation about popularity, and in that category, I favor Indiana Jones Adventure as Disneyland’s second-most popular ride.
EPCOT
Here’s another park where I feel the answer is relatively straightforward.
With the recent closing of Test Track, the contenders at EPCOT are Soarin’ Around the World, Spaceship Earth, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
While I would never discredit any of those rides – they’re all among my favorites – there’s still a clear line of demarcation.
Standing in a tier all their own are Frozen Ever After and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.
There’s an energy about these rides that nothing else at the park can match.
Perhaps the explanation is that Frozen and Guardians of the Galaxy are among Disney’s most popular franchises right now.
Since the attractions honor those stories, fans have a seemingly endless appetite to ride them again and again.
Magic Kingdom
Finally, we have the most visited theme park on the planet, Magic Kingdom.
Given its sustained dominance, we may infer that many of its attractions are wildly popular.
Some of them are harder to quantify, though. For instance, it’s too soon to say what fans think of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
Similarly, since Tron Lightcycle / Run hasn’t offered a standby queue yet, it’s challenging to gauge overall popularity.
Still, I don’t see any need to overthink this one. There’s one attraction that’s synonymous with Magic Kingdom.
That’s the world’s first thrill ride alpha, Space Mountain.
Much of the reason Magic Kingdom stands apart is the presence of Space Mountain, which started the second wave of coaster wars.
Matterhorn Bobsleds had triggered the first theme park battle, with all new parks feeling the need to compete.
With Space Mountain, an escalation occurred as competitors realized Disney could use computers to perfect its tech.
As for the other ride, it’s proof that something can be exceptional without participating in the coaster wars.
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is half coaster and half dark ride. More importantly, it’s 100 percent fun.
For more than a decade now, fans have rushed to New Fantasyland first thing each day and kept the lines long until park closing.
This one’s the no-brainer at Magic Kingdom, as it is always in high demand.
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