If you want to get a Disney Parks fan thinking, ask them which ride is their favorite and why… But if you want to get a Disney Parks fan dreaming, ask them which rides are on their bucket lists. After all, unless you’re lucky enough to have made it to all twelve Disney theme parks on Earth, every Imagineering fan should have a “bucket list” of must-see rides and attractions; the experiences they daydream (and sometimes, YouTube) about. And while everyone’s Imagineering “bucket list” is unique, we wanted to get you started with 16 must-see masterpieces that’ll jump start your wish list.
Don’t misunderstand: there are plenty of rides that are so definitively Disney, it’s hard to imagine a (Disney) world without them. But our goal today wasn’t to select the “best,” the “biggest,” the “coolest,” the “most classic” or even our “favorites,” but to choose the far-flung, one-of-a-kind, historic-or-modern masterpieces that are… well… rare; aspirational; sought-after; goals! So don’t feel bad if you haven’t gotten close to completing this list yet. Instead, add our “bucket list” picks to your list of rides worth daydreaming about… and maybe one day, booking a flight for.
How many of our “bucket list” attractions have you experienced firsthand? Which Disney Parks attractions top your “bucket list?” Which parks do you daydream of visiting, and what do you think will be your first stop when you finally get there? There are plenty to choose from, and absolutely no wrong answers!
16. Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
Location: Magic Kingdom
Most of our readers have probably checked this one off of their Disney Parks list. In fact, you may even be tired of it. But on behalf of Disney Parks fans who don’t frequent Orlando’s Walt Disney World Resort, please know just how lucky you are to have enjoyed this ultra-classic Imagineering marvel straight from the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair.
Walt is known to have called the Carousel of Progress his personal favorite attraction, and it’s easy to see why. It expertly merges his love of technology and progress with the incredible (and then cutting edge) humanoid Audio-Animatronics figures Imagineering had pioneered. Add in a dash of his favorite songwriting duo, the Sherman Brothers, and voila! As a matter of fact, we chronicled the classic tale of this fan favorite in its own standalone feature, Modern Marvels: Carousel of Progress – a must-read for Disney Parks history buffs.
Could Carousel of Progress use a little reconfiguring a quarter-century out from its last update? Oh yeah. (And we propose a heck of an idea in that in-depth feature…) But this is holy ground for Disney Parks fans, and whether you’ve seen it in New York, Anaheim, or Orlando, you’ve seen a Walt Disney original face-to-face. And before you ask, yes, the Modern Marvel: The Enchanted Tiki Room would fit nicely in this spot, too… but remember, we’re talking “bucket lists.” And since three variations of the Tiki Room exist around the world, it’s a little less aspirational than Carousel, which is currently a Florida exclusive.
15. Pooh’s Hunny Hunt
Location: Tokyo Disneyland
For most Disney Parks aficianados, Tokyo Disney Resort tops the list of daydream destinations… And for a sizable portion of that crowd, there’s one particular ride at Tokyo Disneyland that feels like a must-see, first-stop kind of experience: Pooh’s Hunny Hunt. Casual tourists to Disney World or Disneyland might not get the big deal… After all, both U.S. resorts feature Winnie the Pooh ride-through dark rides presented in “traditional” Fantasyland style. But Tokyo’s ride is much, much more.
In fact, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt was the first ride to use Disney’s LPS (local positioning system) ride style, wherein multiple vehicles enter a dark ride together, passing from room to room with no track in sight. In Pooh’s case, trackless “hunny pots” set off into the storybook pages of the Hundred Acre Wood. But through the brilliance of this 21st century ride system, those hunny pots can then split up, diverge down different paths, spin, reverse, bounce, and even dance around one another in near-miss synchronization. It all comes to a head in Pooh’s “Heffalumps and Woozles” nightmare where two total chaos ensues, intermixing batches of vehicles as they dance to and fro, pulling away to experience side encounters and even do-si-do’ing with a hunny pot full of woozles!
Tokyo Disneyland actually has a trio of high-tech dark rides that can only be found at the Japanese park (made of Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, Monsters Inc. Ride & Go Seek, and the Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast), but Hunny Hunt is almost certainly the park’s signature ride. And as its typical multi-hour waits will demonstrate, it’s popularity hasn’t waned in two decades… for good reason.
14. Fantasmic!
Location: Disneyland Park
For modern Disney Parks enthusiasts, nighttime spectaculars are so ingrained in parks’ DNA, it’s difficult to imagine a time without them. Yet for all the high-tech, accessorized, precisely-plotted shows developed to jerk tears from the eyes of onlookers, there’s perhaps none that’s met the high water mark of Disneyland’s Fantasmic.
There’s something about the show that just can’t be put into words… the lights of New Orleans Square flickering out as the evergreens of Tom Sawyer Island begin to glow… That distant whistle in the air… The crescendo as Mickey himself appears, slowly, steadily stumbling across his control of light, sound, fire, and water… The show is practically abstract, set only in the boundless realm of imagination as music, magic, heroes, and villains clash, culminating in a battle with a 60-foot Audio-Animatronic dragon and then, one of the most heart-wrenching musical finales in any Disney product of any kind, ever.
It’s a show that cannot be cloned, despite half-hearted efforts at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and DisneySea. Fantasmic is a work of art. And even if fans largely seem to agree that a 2019 “upgrade” (swapping a few key scenes and adding projection mapping) added more distraction than clarity, the fact remains that this show must be seen to be believed.
13. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
Location: Disney California Adventure
Pretty much the opposite of Carousel of Progress in every measurable way stands Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! And while you may count yourself among the crowd who objectively recognizes that the Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was a better fit for Disney California Adventure in the long run, not even the fiercest critic of the superhero takeover would ride it arms crossed and pouting.
The truth of the matter is that, in transforming the park’s lost Hollywood Tower Hotel into the conspicuously art-deco-influenced Collector’s Warehouse, Disney Imagineers did something you really have to see to believe. By repurposing the strengths of the park’s (admittedly) value-engineered drop ride, Imagineers managed to rewrite the rules that Tower of Terror had laid. Riders launch into a bounding, bouncing, laugh-out-loud adventure that’s filled with ‘70s rock music, screens, and Marvel’s fourth-wall-breaking “irreverent” super hero team.
You don’t have to love the look of an industrial prison of pipes and satellite dishes looming over the park’s picturesque Buena Vista Street and Hollywood Land to acknowledge that Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! is a contrived-but-creative project. Will it still seem like a good decision in ten or twenty years when the super hero hype has died down and Guardians has been rebooted? Probably not. But luckily, with a few screen swaps, the ride can change to whatever hero is next. And frankly, that was probably the plan all along. In any case, Guardians is a ride that every fan should have on their bucket list…
12. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
Location: Disneyland Park
For better or worse, Disneyland is hallowed ground. Sure, sure, Walt himself stepped there… But more to the point, Disneyland is a locals’ park. It caters largely to Southern Californian audiences who visit with their grandparents, who visited with their grandparents, etc. To some extent, that makes change a much more difficult battle in California than it is in Florida (despite Disney World fans’ earnest attempts to protect classics). In Disneyland, the result is a Fantasyland with all (yes, all) of its Opening Day Originals still represented.
Yes, Disneyland still features its version of the Lost Legend: Snow White’s Scary Adventures that Magic Kingdom dumped for a meet-and-greet. It also has dark rides themed to Pinocchio and Alice in Wonderland, plus the original “it’s a small world” and, of course, Peter Pan’s Flight… But the perfect representation of the park’s commitment to classics is Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. An absolutely absurd attraction connected to an obscure character from the 1940s, the dark ride reads to modern audiences as an original IP concocted just for the parks.
Frankly, we explored the full story of the fan-favorite in a standalone feature dedicated to Walt Disney World’s closed version of the classic – the Lost Legend: Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride – but for Imagineering fans, this seemingly simple Fantasyland favorite is an absolutely must-see.
11. Space Mountain (Disneyland Paris)
Location: Disneyland Paris
Really, Disneyland Paris as a whole is a must-see that should make your bucket list. But if we were to select just one attraction in the park that you ought to pay special attention to, it’s the French version of Space Mountain. It’s true that Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain (the original) differs from all that follow (which all are basically clones – Anaheim, Tokyo, and Hong Kong). But Disneyland Paris didn’t just reinvent Space Mountain; it rewrote the entire land that surrounds it.
In fitting with the French park’s need to cater to European audiences (who would have little interest in a Space Age Tomorrowland inspired by America’s mid-century race to the moon), Disneyland Paris opted for Discoveryland; a rich, golden, romantic, 19th century vision of tomorrow based on the books of H.G. Wells and Jules Verne. In fact, the park’s Space Mountain was literally themed to a novel by the latter – From the Earth to the Moon, telling of Victorian explorers who construct the Columbiad Cannon to be launched to the moon.
Okay, yet again, we dedicated an entire Lost Legend: Space Mountain – De la Terre a la Lune to the subject, hopefully convincing you that the 1995 ride was one of Disney’s best ever. Be sure to make the jump to that feature for the full story. Though the ride has (first) lost its literary basis and (second) been given a Star Wars overlay, Paris’ Space Mountain is still a sensation. Imagine: a Space Mountain where you board outdoors, are launched out of a cannon, and invert three times to a synchronized on-ride audio score… Phew!
10. Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure
Location: Shanghai Disneyland
When Shanghai Disneyland opened in 2016, the park took Disney Parks fans by surprise. First of all, Imagineers had used the mainland Chinese park to rewrite the rules set by Disneyland over sixty years earlier. The tried-and-true layout shared by all Disneyland-style parks prior had been scrambled, edited, and reimagined. No Main Street. No Adventureland. No Frontierland. But even moreso, the park purposefully excluded any anchor attractions you’d find in America. No Space Mountain. No Big Thunder Mountain. No Haunted Mansion. No Pirates of the Caribbean… well… kind of.
In place of the traditional Pirates, Shanghai debuted a brand new E-Ticket in a stand-alone Pirates-themed land called Treasure Cove. And Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure isn’t your grandfather’s seafaring adventure, nor is it Walt’s. Instead, it’s a high-energy, technologically-jam-packed, multi-media experience based on the Pirates film franchise. The scale of the ride is, frankly, incomprehensible. This is another one where even well-circulated videos just can’t quite capture the experience, as the ride blurs the lines between sets and screens; the physical world and the fantasy one.
Pirates isn’t the only must-see, “bucket list” worthy ride at Shanghai Disneyland, but the other notable attraction – the Modern Marvel: TRON Lightcycle Power Run – is en route to Magic Kingdom as we speak… So in terms of “bucket lists,” Battle for Sunken Treasure is the one to keep atop your daydreaming and, for many Imagineering fans, may be worth the flight to Shanghai alone.
9. Radiator Springs Racers
Location: Disney California Adventure
The anchor attraction of the billion-dollar rebirth of Disney California Adventure, the Modern Marvel: Radiator Springs Racers is a whole lot more than just an E-Ticket. The ride was practically an Imagineering showcase. You have to remember that Cars Land was really the first of Disney’s attempts to apply the Wizarding World formula of “living lands,” and Racers was the company’s first staggering E-Ticket after a decade of pretty piecemeal projects.
To that end, Radiator Springs Racers is a triumph. It not only includes some of the best Audio-Animatronics on Earth, but is set within one of the most beautiful “natural” wonders of the theme park world – the staggering Cadillac Range and Ornament Valley. Now California Adventure’s signature attraction, the ride has never been duplicated elsewhere and it’s difficult to imagine that ever happening… it’s just too perfect for the park; too at home at California Adventure; too grand and expensive to ever be worth pursuing post-COVID.
Our hint? If you manage to check this one off your bucket list, enter Cars Land via the park’s Pacific Wharf. The view of Radiator Springs Racers from that vantage point has been known to make even the most stalwart Disney non-believers get a little misty… Talk about needing to be seen to be believed!
8. AVATAR Flight of Passage
Location: Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Speaking of non-believers, let’s be honest: you can try to deny it, but you did not have high hopes for Pandora: The World of Avatar when the land was announced. In fact, many Disney fans (perhaps yourself included…) spent quite a few spent years crossing their fingers that persistent rumors of the project’s cancelation would be true. However, Pandora did come to be… and its staggering centerpiece attraction is often considered one of the best modern attractions on Earth, period.
Yep, despite the hurdles inherent in adapting an IP that folks just weren’t that excited about, Disney Imagineers managed to craft a one-of-a-kind, emotional, and outright masterpiece attraction that took the world by storm. Flight of Passage “pairs” guests with a native Na’vi avatar as it completes the culture’s right of passage: flying on the back of a dragon-like Ikran through the floating mountains and glowing forests of the moon. The result is a ride that isn’t just a thrill or an emotional whirlwind; it sticks with you like all great Disney attractions should.
Even years after opening, Flight of Passage remains among the most sought-after Disney Parks experiences on Earth, garnering substantial waits… and massive reactions. So like Guardians of the Galaxy, you don’t have to love this IP or even necessarily agree with its place in Disney Parks to recognize that this one-of-a-kind ride is one that you absolutely have to experience for yourself.
7. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Location: Disney’s Hollywood Studios
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is a star in its own right. Seriously. Generations of Florida Disney fans will tell you in no uncertain terms that the Hollywood Studios anchor-turned-icon is unbeatable. They may be right. Disney’s three spin-off rides (in Anaheim, Paris, and Tokyo, with various themes overlaid) are fun and all, but they don’t hold a candle to this beacon of cinematic wonder. A masterpiece of storytelling, embedded technology, and a surprisingly authentic thrill, the ride is practically legendary. In fact, I (pun intended) checked into the complete story of the Hollywood Tower Hotel and its legendary thrill ride in an exclusive deep dive feature – hopefully, a must-read for Imagineering fans.
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is a ride you probably think you know through images, videos, or those spin-offs around the world. But as you stand at the end of Sunset Blvd. and gaze at the looming, decrepid, scorched remains of a genuine Tinseltown legend, you can’t help but feel your heartrate increase. It’s a living, breathing icon of Imagineering that you just can’t ignore. And frankly, it’s one you simply need to experience in person. Some say that Orlando’s Tower of Terror is the living embodiment and peak of Disney’s fabled ’90s “Ride the Movies” era. But even if that’s true, it’s one side of the coin that’s shared by its West Coast cinematic counterpart…
6. Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye
Location: Disneyland
The Modern Marvel: Indiana Jones Adventure is one of the most mysterious attractions on Earth. Located exclusively at Disneyland (with a sister attraction at the even-more-hard-to-reach Tokyo DisneySea), the dark ride was famously the first of Disney’s limited uses of the Enhanced Motion Vehicle technology… but it’s the scale and story of this E-Ticket that elevate the experience to something no video can capture.
It begins with the quarter-mile queue to even reach the ride, traveling through the sunken ruins of the Lost River Delta’s Temple of the Forbidden Eye, where ancient murals, carvings, and a whole decipherable language tell the story of a lost god whose promise of otherworldly gifts ends in disaster for those foolhardy enough to gaze into his decaying eyes. Upon boarding, riders face three locked doors – one of each of Mara’s gifts – before one unlocks, ushering them into a trap. The ride races through collapsing caverns dealing with snakes, spiders, and some booby traps you just have to see for yourself, all centered on a massive central room where a forty-foot tall state of the decaying god overlooks a rickety suspension bridge…
Look: Indiana Jones Adventure is the icon of the “Ride the Movies” era of the ‘90s. It’s quite literally a blockbuster. All of Disneyland’s Adventureland is absorbed into its 1940s time frame, and the ride literally casts a spell over the whole park. Once you’ve seen Indiana Jones Adventure for yourself, it’s frankly a bit disappointing to step into any other Adventureland… it just feels like something big is missing. Please, please put this one on your list.
5. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Location: Disneyland Park and Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Going forward, there’s really no discussion about Imagineering, Disney Parks, or superb rides that won’t include Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. The undisputed anchor of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge at both Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the massive, mega attraction is so complex, so astounding, and so intricate, we offer that it really exists in a realm beyond even the most ambitious E-Tickets. We’ve taken to calling it an ultra-E-Ticket, or U-Ticket; an entirely new category of attraction.
Rise of the Resistance is a modern masterpiece, mixing every tool in Imagineering’s toolbox from the last sixty years into one attraction with three ride systems and then some. It’s not an exaggeration to suppose that the ride may be the most technologically advanced on Earth today. Even more, it’s deeply tied to the mythology of Star Wars and the “living land” of Batuu; a case study of everything Imagineering fans crave.
Given that Rise of the Resistance exists on two coasts, the trouble isn’t even getting to it; it’s getting on it. The ride is very, very, very temperamental. Its exceeding low capacity (the result of its complexity, frequent breakdowns, and pauses in operations) make the most sought-after attraction on the planet so fragile, its demand far outweighs its supply on a daily basis. Even if fans don’t like to hear it, Disney’s solution – Boarding Groups – works, at the inevitable cost of keeping many people in the park from getting on board on any given day. To say that this ride is worthy of your bucket list is so obvious, it doesn’t even need mentioned. But we did anyway.
4. Pirates of the Caribbean
Location: Disneyland Park
Almost incomprehensibly located just a few hundred feet from Rise of the Resistance exists what many call the best classic dark ride on Earth. By any measure, Walt’s original, Disneyland-exclusive Pirates of the Caribbean is a masterpiece. Clocking in at nearly twenty minutes, the marvelous attraction is the definition of a must-see. It was also the last attraction Walt himself personally directed… even if he died six months before its completion and opening.
In fact, a heartwarming story has it that, when the ride opened, the press interviewed Walt’s daughters Diane and Sharon, saying “Isn’t it such a shame that your father didn’t get the chance to see it?” to which the daughters replied “but he did see it.” In other words, Walt knew the ride like the back of his hand. That’s why it’s often considered his magnum opus.
While its sisters in Orlando, Tokyo, and Paris certainly have their own artistry, most are about half as long. So while the Internet will forever be embattled in (fruitless) debates about “Disneyland vs. Disney World,” you’d be hard pressed to find anyone – even the most fervent Disney World defender – who’d bother arguing that Orlando’s Pirates would come out on top. Pirates is, far and away, one of the Disneyland Exclusives That Should Make Disney World Fans Jealous. In other words, don’t let your allegiance to your home resort prevent you from putting Disneyland’s Pirates atop your bucket list… It is quite literally Imagineering 101 for any would-be Disney designers or theme park history buffs.
3. Journey to the Center of the Earth
Location: Tokyo DisneySea
For many Disney Parks fans, it may very well be that the notion of a “bucket list” of must-ride attractions started because of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Opened alongside Tokyo DisneySea in 2001, the ride was unlike anything Disney fans had seen before… especially because they literally could hardly see it thanks to low-quality video at the time mixed with the ride’s darkness. Only in the last decade have videos really been able to capture accurate glimpses of the ride armchair Imagineers have been dreaming of… but even those videos just can’t capture how cool this headlining ride is.
Famously built into DisneySea’s iconic, 189-foot tall Mount Prometheus icon and the staggering Mysterious Island land themed to Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo, the ride was set up to be an anchor. But once you mix in its literary backstory (practically unheard of in the IP-obsessed U.S. parks) and its iconic encounter with one of the most incredible Audio-Animatronics on Earth, you arrived at a ride that simply would not exist stateside… or frankly, anywhere but Tokyo.
If you really want to dig into the ride that some call Disney’s best ever, we dedicated an entire Modern Marvels: Journey to the Center of the Earth feature to the ride’s legends, lore, and experience… But suffice it to say that even two decades after its debut, this ride remains a must-see, elevating the incomparable DisneySea to a Mecca for Imagineering fans the world over.
2. Disneyland Railroad (Grand Circle Tour)
Hey, not every aspirational activity on your “bucket list” needs to be the theme park equivalent of a sky-dive. For folks who grow up east of the Mississippi (or in Europe), it’s all too easy to write off Disneyland as a “smaller” Disney World. Of course, neither the California resort’s ride count nor its E-Ticket count bare that out. Quite the contrary, we’ve hopefuly proven that Disneyland is worth visiting even for Disney World regulars, and not just because of the standard “Walt walked there” arguments.
But in this case at least, we can’t help but be a bit nostalgic. You can have ridden the Railroad at Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland a thousand times each… but there’s just something about the Disneyland Railroad. Literally born of Walt’s lifelong love of trains, the Disneyland Railroad is perhaps the most iconic Opening Day Attraction in any Disney Park. It is pure, unadulterated Disneyland. From Main Street to Liberty Square to Fantasyland to Tomorrowland, every segment is a joy, up to and including a few suprises along the way.
Put simply, it feels like every Disney Parks fan – no matter their allegiances – ought to have the Disneyland Railroad at the top of their bucket list. The Grand Circle Tour is as classic as it comes… if you can resist hopping off for beignets and mint juleps.
1. Mystic Manor
Location: Hong Kong Disneyland
Of course, we have to top off our list with one last Modern Marvel: Mystic Manor. Though we may use the word “masterpiece” a lot in this list, we mean it every time… but usually for different reasons. Mystic Manor is a masterpiece for all of the reasons of the rest of the rides that made our “bucket list,” and more. The music! The mansion! The mayhem! The monkey! From start to finish, this incredible dark ride appears to have been precisely, surgically engineered to leave Imagineering fans drooling.
I mean, a sort of modern “spiritual sequel” to the Haunted Mansion, Mystic Manor is deeply tied into the continent-spanning, fan-service mythos of the secret society, S.E.A., and fittingly creates a globe-trotting adventure brought to life by some of the world’s most incredible Audio-Animatronics and Disney’s cutting edge trackless ride system. Phew. Yes, an absolute icon of Imagineering, Mystic Manor is as close to an original, timeless classic as Imagineering has come in the 21st century… and given the other attractions we rank among The Best Rides of the Century (So Far), that’s saying something.
Do we want to see Mystic Manor built in Disney California Adventure’s Grizzly Peak, or Magic Kingdom’s Adventureland? Uh, yes. But frankly, part of the ride’s otherworldly draw is its rarity; the fact that it’s the (arguably, only) irrefutable anchor attraction at a far-flung Disney Park. Mystic Manor’s purpose was to put Hong Kong Disneyland on the map; to ensure that it wasn’t a “flyover park” wedged between Shanghai and Tokyo. Mission accomplished.
Dreams…
Naturally, those selections just scratch the surface of must-see, bucket list Disney Parks masterpieces… Our runners up might include the Enchanted Tiki Room (Disneyland), Spaceship Earth (EPCOT), Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage (Tokyo DisneySea), Phantom Manor (Disneyland Paris), Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (Disney’s Hollywood Studios), Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek (Tokyo Disneyland), the Dragon’s Dungeon (Disneyland Paris), TEST TRACK (EPCOT), Splash Mountain (Tokyo Disneyland), Tower of Terror (Tokyo DisneySea), and many, many more.
Now you tell us – which Disney Parks attractions top your “bucket list?” Which parks do you daydream of visiting, and what do you think will be your first stop when you finally get there?
