You might think one Disney park is much like another with the same elements replicated – if sometimes in slightly different orders – from park to park. And while this can sometimes hold true, there are some attractions that are entirely unique, only found in a single park. There are, in fact, too many unique elements to include in one list, but we’ve rounded up our favorites for your enjoyment.
1. Matterhorn Bobsleds, Disneyland
Matterhorn Mountain© Disney
The Matterhorn Mountain rises high above Disneyland in California, dwarfing even the castle. It’s a park landmark and a Walt Disney original, modeled after the real Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps. Located at the boundary between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, the peak of the Matterhorn offers stunning park views… if you can focus on them while zooming down the mountain in a bobsled. Two tracks twist their way down the mountain, one on the Tomorrowland side and one on the Fantasyland side.
When it was completed in 1959 it was the first tubular steel continuous track roller coaster built — and it’s the only version of the ride you’ll find in any Disney park, though a duplicate was originally planned to be part of Disneyland Paris. If you’re after a similar ride experience, try Disney World: Space Mountain‘s track was based on the Matterhorn’s design and Expedition Everest has similar theming.
2. Radiator Springs Racers, Disney California Adventure
Radiator Springs Racers© Disney
Though a rather recent addition to DCA, Radiator Springs Racers‘ dramatic car tail fin-styled mountain ridge has made a big change to the park’s landscape. Whether you enjoyed the Cars movies or not, chances are you’ll enjoy this ride, which takes you on a leisurely outdoor tour around Radiator Springs before zipping through the city streets and sending you racing with another car of riders. Which one of you cross the finish line first? It’s up to chance (or maybe your racing spirit).
With an estimated construction cost of $200 million, Radiator Springs Racers is the priciest attraction at Disneyland Resort — and one of the most expensive theme park attractions in the world. We can confirm that the end result is a blast… so long as you can put up with the quickly gone fast passes and the two hour standby wait times.
3. Kilimanjaro Safaris, Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Kilimanjaro Safari© Disney
Walt Disney’s earliest ideas for the Jungle Cruise included the use of live animals, but as live animals couldn’t be counted on to perform for visitors they were replaced with animatronics. But something of Disney’s original vision of a wild animal ride did find its way into Kilimanjaro Safaris which opened in 1998 with Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
This safari tour takes you on a 20-minute trip through the 110-acre Harambe Wildlife Reserve where you have a chance to see 34 different species of African wildlife — and just like an actual African safari, there are no fences to obstruct your view. As Disney himself originally feared, the wild animals aren’t always obliging for viewers, but this just means that each ride is unique, with different animals to see. It’s a must ride for Disney World park-goers!
4. Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress, Magic Kingdom
Carousel of Progress© Disney
This Walt Disney original was showcased at the 1964 World’s Fair, alongside It’s a Small World, the PeopleMover, and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Sponsored by GE, Carousel of Progress is an early example of audio-animatronics featuring four scenes of a family marveling at the wonders of technology, with each scene representing a different era. Viewers sit in a theater which rotates to move them from one set of animatronics to the next.
After the fair closed in 1965, Disney moved the ride to Disneyland, where it operated from 1967 to 1973, when it was moved to Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Opened in 1975, this is the only ride in the whole of Disney World that Walt himself worked on, and it makes for a great nostalgia trip for long-time Disney fans.
5. Spaceship Earth, Epcot
Spaceship Earth© Disney
The most recognizable building in Epcot, Spaceship Earth is housed inside the 18-story geodesic sphere that visitors encounter when they first enter the park. But once you step inside, you get to take a journey — well, a dark ride journey, at least — through time, watching important breakthroughs in the history of communication.
It might sound dull, but it really isn’t — with elaborately dressed scenes with audio-animatronic characters narrate your trip from the dawn of man all the way into the future… and all in a trip that takes only 15 minutes. How’s that for time travel?
6. CinéMagique, Walt Disney Studios
Rather like the Great Movie Ride in Florida’s Hollywood Studios, CinéMagique takes viewers through the history of cinema… but in its own unique way. While the film starts rolling, showing you moments from early cinema, an audience member’s phone rings — as he chats, the characters on the screen are frustrated by the interruption and, with a puff of smoke, he’s transported from the stage to the screen. From here forward, the audience member (now played by Martin Short) jumps from film clip to film clip. As he goes, he risks certain death to recover his cell phone (we’ve all been there) and even manages to win the affections of the leading lady.
If you visit the Paris parks, this unique show – you won’t find its like anywhere else – is definitely worth checking out.
7. Star Tours, Disneyland Paris
Star Tours© Disney
I know what you’re thinking: Star Tours is everywhere, isn’t it? But the Paris park is the last place you’ll find the original version of Star Tours, featuring hapless pilot Rex (voiced by Paul Reubens). Though the updated Star Tours: The Adventure Continues found at other parks features big improvements in ride technology – with 3D images and a mix-and-match story that makes each ride unique – it replaces Rex with C3PO…. and while we love C3PO, it’s hard not to miss poor, bumbling Rex.
Even though it shows its age, the original Star Tours is still a great experience – and a classic Disney attraction you can’t find anywhere else.
8. Mystic Manor, Hong Kong Disneyland
Mystic Manor© Disney
Mystic Manor ostensibly fills the role of a Haunted Mansion at Hong Kong Disneyland… even though it differs greatly from the mansions present in other parks. For a start, Mystic Manor isn’t haunted: you won’t find a single ghost here, but you will find plenty of supernatural occurrences. Mystic Manor is the home of Lord Henry Mystic who is a member of the Society of Explorers and Adventurers, an academic society of legendary explorers and adventurers.
The manor is a trackless dark ride — technology also used in Tokyo Disneyland’s Pooh’s Hunny Hunt — in which cars move independently instead of on a track, which makes every ride a bit different. As you tour the manor to examine the many artifacts Lord Mystic has collected over the years, his monkey, Albert, opens an enchanted music box. Don’t expect scares here, but there’s plenty of Disney magic as paintings, instruments, suits of armor, and other household items come to life with audio-animatronics and digital projections.
9. Journey to the Center of the Earth,Tokyo DisneySea
Journey to the Center of the Earth© Disney
Disney’s international parks take a lot of cues from Jules Verne that you won’t find at domestic parks (though the ballroom in Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion is home to the organ Captain Nemo uses in Disney’s version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea). In Disneyland Paris you’ll find Space Mountain: Mission 2, a version of Space Mountain that takes its cues from Verne’s From the Earth to the Moon, while Tokyo DisneySea’s Mysterious Island area features rides based on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Aboard this ride, you hop into a steam-powered car which sends you through a tunnel down to the center of the Earth. Expect to see a world unlike any you’ve encountered before… not all of which is entirely hospitable.
10. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, Tokyo Disneyland
Pooh’s Hunny Hunt
Though the Pooh rides at most Disney parks are conventional dark rides, sending you winding down a fixed track past painted sets, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt isn’t the hum-drum trip through the Hundred Acre Woods you might expect. Instead, Tokyo’s take on Pooh features a unique trackless system that sends riders on a unique path each time they ride, meaning no two rides are alike. Riders sit in cars stylized like honey pots which move through Hundred Acre Woods scenes — some of which will be familiar to those who have ridden other versions of the ride — with the random pathing allowing you to see and interact with different set elements each time you visit. Cars will move to music and even sometimes dance together.
The end result is one of Disney’s most unusual attractions, and it’s always worth a visit whether you’re brand new to the ride or you’ve ridden it a hundred times… something that’s confirmed by the ride’s always-long queues.
