Every Disney theme park in the world is majestic. Even the ones that absorb online criticism only do so for an unfair reason. The only true comparison for a Disney theme park is another Disney theme park. With all due respect to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, nothing else is on the level of Disney. Period. That’s why the “worst” Disney park is a misnomer. It’s also why the BEST Disney theme park is such a momentous title. Several gates around the world are worthy of the title, but which one deserves it the most? Here is my ranking of the best individual Disney parks in the world.
7. Tokyo Disneyland
Image: DisneyThe cruel aspect of creating this particular list is that I must exclude a few parks. Hong Kong Disneyland and both parts of Disneyland Paris merited consideration from overseas. Two American parks, Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Disney California Adventure, aren’t quite there at the moment, but they should be night and day better soon.
In perusing the possibilities, I settled on two theme parks that had multiple gates worthy of selection. Those parks are Tokyo Disney Resort and Walt Disney World. The first three entries on this list all come from these two campuses, and they claim two of the top three spots as well.
Image: DisneyTokyo Disneyland merits placement due to its high volume of quality attractions. It has Japanese versions of American staples like Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Splash Mountain. In terms of sheer volume, it’s every bit as good as Disneyland and Magic Kingdom in this regard. It also features some distinctive attractions such as Pooh’s Hunny Hut and Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek.
The Oriental Land Company has done a masterful job in building a park that’s on a par with the greatest theme parks in the world. They’ve managed to carve out their own niche, too. This will become clear later in the article.
6. Epcot
Image: DisneyWalt Disney’s triumph at the 1964 New York World’s Fair led him to one conclusion. He believed that the world needed a permanent place to assemble. He dreamt of a permanent World’s Fair, a place where people could collaborate and share their cultural identities with people from other countries. It was a noble idea that everyone wishes Uncle Walt could have turned into a reality.
In the wake of his tragic death, Imagineers re-examined the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. They sought to bring at least portions of his idea to life. In at least one area, they succeeded beyond all reasonable expectations. The World Showcase is a hallmark achievement in unity and cultural respect. Its gradual turn to revolving exhibitions has further crystallized that idea of a cultural melting pot, complete with great food and alcohol.
The stunning part of Epcot is that the World Showcase is only half the park. The front end, Future World, has several innovative attractions that simulate flight (Soarin’ Around the World), car safety (Test Track), and interplanetary travel (Mission: Space). In that way, it honors Walt Disney’s other vision for Epcot, a learning environment where people can share big ideas about the physics of our world. Epcot isn’t quite the place Disney wanted, but it’s an extremely good facsimile that makes people happy each day.
5. Animal Kingdom
Image: DisneyDeciding where to slot Animal Kingdom is one of the most difficult parts in assembling this list. It doesn’t have the societal significance of the four parks ranked ahead of it. In a key way, however, Animal Kingdom might be the most impressive design feat of anything listed here.
This park is a zoo by any reasonable measure. It has thousands of animals living onsite and, to them, you are the visitor in their home. While Animal Kingdom is accurately named, that title somehow doesn’t entail everything that you can do at the park. Several of its attractions are among the finest at Walt Disney World, and it also hosts THE most impressive themed land in the world right now. I’m speaking of Pandora – The World of Avatar, which was reason enough to consider Animal Kingdom for higher placement. Alas, the statue of the next four parks is extremely difficult to beat.
4. Disneyland
Image: DisneySeriously, if the Happiest Place on Earth is only ranked fourth, you KNOW the top three is tough to crack. Disneyland is where it all began, the place where Walt Disney purchased 160 acres of orange groves and turned them into a new form of entertainment, an entire amusement park predicated on intellectual properties. He evolved popular characters from his own movies into the subjects for spectacular rides. It had never been done or even tried before, and cynics loudly wondered if Uncle Walt had thrown away his vast fortune on a foolish endeavor.
More than 60 years later, this statement seems laughable. Disneyland is an established and iconic part of pop culture. Despite its age, Imagineers have still found ways, big and small, to improve its overall quality. The biggest example is Star Wars Land: Galaxy’s Edge, which will immediately become THE most important themed land in the world when it debuts.
Image: DisneyFor now, Disneyland fans are thrilled with what they’ve got, which is a series of timeless attractions, many of which are copied throughout the world but trace their roots to the Happiest Place on Earth. The lone reason why Disneyland isn’t higher is its place. Disney could only afford those 160 acres, which has limited the potential expansion of the park.
3. Magic Kingdom
Image: DisneyI suspect that most people who have visited all of them would agree on the top four themed gates at Disney resorts. The question is the order, and I won’t lie. I vacillated a LOT about where to put each selection. I must confess that I had a reasonable argument to put Magic Kingdom at the top of the list. After all, it’s the most trafficked theme park in the world. People go there because it’s wonderful, a haven for Disney fanatics.
At Magic Kingdom, you’ll find iconic attractions like Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Space Mountain, plus rarer ones like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Discussing the rides at Magic Kingdom almost misses the point, though. It’s the entire experience that matters. When you’re walking down Main Street, U.S.A., you feel like you’re in a place with limitless possibilities. It’s the most open-ended of all Disney gates, one where no single itinerary is right or wrong. Magic Kingdom is a place where 20 million people go each year to feel better about life…and they do. The only knock on the place is that it hasn’t expanded much in the 21st century save for evolving Fantasyland into New Fantasyland.
2. Shanghai Disneyland Park
Image: DisneyEarlier, I credited Animal Kingdom for having the most impressive themed land in the world right now. Shanghai Disneyland Park is that same scenario expanded to an entire gate. For the first time ever, Disney had a virtually unlimited budget and no spatial constraints. They could build the most modern and technologically remarkable park ever, and they did.
Shanghai Disneyland is THE place to visit for theme park tourists who want to see the current limits of Imagineering. The attractions here are the ultimate versions of established, beloved concepts. The Pirates of the Caribbean that you know gets elevated into Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, Soarin’ over California becomes Soarin’ over the Horizon, and Space Mountain gets passed over in favor of TRON Lightcycle Power Run.
Image: DisneyImagineers weren’t afraid to throw out established premises in favor of the new and exciting, sometimes even revolutionary. It’s fair to say that Shanghai Disneyland Park is so great that its presence forced park planners at Hong Kong Disneyland to renovate and upgrade. While I understand people who believe it’s too new to rank ahead of Magic Kingdom and Disneyland, my thought process here is simple. If guests could visit any of the three parks tomorrow, I suspect that the one they know the least, the one with such intriguing rides, is the place they would choose to visit. That’s Shanghai Disneyland Park.
1. Tokyo DisneySea
Image: DisneyWhat does a park have to offer to hold a viable claim as the best themed Disney gate in the world? That’s the question I’ve pondered for the past several days. Upon consideration, my belief is that the best gate must embody all of Disney’s ideals, but it should stand out for different reasons as well. Out of all the places listed here, I believe that Tokyo DisneySea best matches these criteria.
The second gate at Tokyo Disney Resort, it’s the masterpiece of The Oriental Land Company. The theme here is aquatic, and the seven ports all reinforce this notion. The places have names like Mysterious Island and Mermaid Lagoon, and the rides fit the premises. Mysterious Island is home to Journey to the Center of the Earth, a film franchise whose sequel was entitled…The Mysterious Island. Meanwhile, Mermaid Island is where all of the characters from The Little Mermaid hang out.
Image: DisneyYou’ll find everything from Venetian Gondolas to the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull here, although the latter ride is NOT based on the Indiana Jones movie with a similar name. Instead, it’s similar to the Disneyland ride. Other noteworthy attractions range from a heart-pumping roller coaster, Raging Spirits, to a genteel knockoff of It’s a Small World called Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage.
At Tokyo DisneySea, each piece fits into a larger puzzle. The totality of the park is that much better than the sum of its parts due to this elegant kind of meta-theming. The Oriental Land Company isn’t ready to rest on its laurels, either. They recently announced a $2.3 billion expansion. It will add an eighth port by 2022, providing yet another reason why Tokyo DisneySea is the best of the best out of all theme parks in the world. Against brutally tough competition, it still stands out as greatness personified in the theme park industry.
