Theme park tourists who love Disney theme parks hear the criticisms all the time. Your friends tease you about your perennial trips to Disney, wondering why you don’t go to Las Vegas or the beach or somewhere more “normal.” These conversations are rarely substantive since your friends have pre-judged your behavior. What if you could flip the script, though? What are the attractions at Disney that would cause any “normal” person to fall in love with the parks? Here are seven of the best attractions to sell your friends on Disney.
Avatar Flight of Passage
Image: DisneyWhat are the preconceived notions that Disney haters have about the parks? One is that all of the rides are old and stale. Outsiders have heard about Space Mountain and It’s a Small World literally their entire lives. It triggers a perception that a Disney theme park is a place where time stands still.
Disproving this philosophy takes four minutes, well two hours and four minutes if you factor in the wait to ride Avatar Flight of Passage. It frequently has a two-hour wait for the simple reason that it’s a brilliant form of escapism. Augmented reality is still a nascent technology, but Disney already seems to have mastered the premise with this exploration of the world of Pandora. Your friends won’t believe how life-like this fictional place seems thanks to the genius of Imagineering.
Expedition Everest
Image: DisneyDisney doesn’t do adult thrill rides, right? You’re well aware of this particular criticism. You’ve heard it from many people over the years. These Disney neophytes believe that Mad Tea Party is the roughest ride at Walt Disney World.
Feel free to play up this falsehood as you travel to Expedition Everest. Nod your head politely, indicating that the other member of your party is totally right. You might even want to take them on something calm like Na’Vi River Journey first to convince them that Disney’s full of genteel rides.
Once your guest boards Expedition Everest and rides up the Forbidden Mountain, you’ve got them right where you want them. Around the moment when they see the train tracks up ahead, feel free to start laughing hysterically at their impending danger. That sucker *ahem* close friend is about to get shot backward into the darkness, and they’ll be going roughly 50 miles an hour when it happens. After the ride is over, rub their nose in the fact that they thought Disney didn’t have any thrill rides worthy of adrenaline junkies. Your companion deserves the teasing.
Haunted Mansion
Image: DisneySome amusement parks have scary haunted houses while others have silly ones. Your Disney-hating friend will expect one or the other when you take them to Disneyland/Magic Kingdom. Since they probably think of Disney as a children’s park, my guess is that they’ll expect a silly haunted house.
Once your guest boards the Doom Buggy, they won’t be prepared for what comes next. After all, they’ve underestimated Imagineers, expecting these cast members to pick or the other. At Disney, all ideas are possible, and Haunted Mansion embodies this notion.
During this journey through the supernatural realm, your friend will laugh at times. Then, their mood will quickly change to abject fear when an ominous bride’s backstory is revealed. Just when they’re ready to believe that Disney’s all about darkness, a raucous ride through a cemetery will change their tune. Specifically, the tune is Grim Grinning Ghosts, and it will leave your companion feeling confused but euphoric.
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Image: DisneyWhen you take a skeptic to Disney’s Animal Kingdom, their first fear will involve their sense of smell. Everyone knows that zoos stink because the natural habitats of animals are odiferous. Once they enter the park, they’ll already feel impressed that Disney’s done the impossible by somehow counteracting this stench.
Once you take your guest on Kilimanjaro Safaris, they’ll feel blown away by the depth and scope of Disney’s triumph. It’s a theme park that shares the same space with a zoo, and this ride exemplifies the duality of the two concepts. Your friend won’t believe their eyes as they travel past the homes of countless species, each of which is so used to the vehicles by this point that they may not even acknowledge humans.
Soarin’
Image: DisneyEvery human being dreams of flying. People look to the sky and watch with envy as birds conquer a dimension that eludes mankind. No critic would ever expect a Disney theme park to be the place that provides the closest sensation to the power of flight.
The moment that your friend gets swept into the air by a glorified erector set, they’ll realize that Imagineering is capable of wish fulfillment. Thanks to the ginormous IMAX screen and its accompanying visuals, the Disney hater will feel something that’s otherwise impossible. They’ll believe that they’re flying past some of the greatest landmarks in the world. It’s a hypnotic journey that will seduce even the most ardent of Disney doubters.
Splash Mountain
Image: DisneyThis choice is a sneaky way to prove the point that Disney is awesome. Most of the population is familiar with Splash Mountain, at least partially because of the Flash Mountain news items over the years. And the social media images of choreographed ride photos.
You can easily subvert the expectations of anyone who has never ridden Splash Mountain before. Simply point out that it’s a log flume ride. First-timers will assume that it’s a generic cookie attraction similar to anything that they’d find at their closest amusement park. Then, they’ll board Splash Mountain and realize that they’ve never experienced anything like the 10 minute journey toward and through the Laughing Place. The power of theming will persuade them that Disney can take even the most basic of concepts and make it special.
Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Image: DisneyThis attraction is similar to Splash Mountain in that it sounds like a standard ride. Even casual amusement park visitors are familiar with drop tower rides, the ones that take a person up to great heights and then pull the floor out from under them. What your companion won’t realize until they’ve ridden Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is that it’s a dark ride, too.
After a few seconds inside of the Hollywood Tower, your friend will start to understand that Disney’s version of the drop tower is different. They’ll see ghoulish cast members in hotel staff outfits, and they’ll notice the dusty remnants of a formerly great hotel. Once they board the haunted elevator, they’ll learn that every visit to the Hollywood Hotel is mesmerizing and insanely intense. The best part about this introduction is that you can take them back on the ride, and they’ll have an entirely different elevator plummet than the first time. Your associate won’t believe that a simple drop tower ride has so much depth and variety.
Have you used any other Disney rides to help your friends fall in love with Disney? Please leave your stories in the comments!
