16. Universal Epic Universe
Ride Count: 11
For years, the detective work of Alicia Stella at Orlando Park Stop provided glimpses into the park that would be Universal Epic Universe accurate down to the last detail, double-confirmed by the aerial photography of theme park enigma Bioreconstruct. It wasn’t until January 2024 that Universal itself finally fessed up to the biggest and worst-kept of its worst-kept secrets: in 2025, we’ll see the park’s celestial portals powered on, whisking guests away into five fantastic worlds.
Epic Universe will be made of Celestial Park, Super Nintendo World, Dark Universe, The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic, and How To Train Your Dragon: Isle of Berk. Is it any surprise that Epic Universe is heralded as the next big thing? Indeed, we’ve even cast it as the project that might actually change the gravity in Orlando in Universal’s favor. Given that, it might be surprising to hear that it actually will have fewer rides than even the smallest Universal park – the actual movie studio in Hollywood.
Still, Epic Universe is going to come in swinging. To start, it’ll feature no less than five substantial E-Ticket attractions – four of which have never been seen before. More to the point, it’ll be the first Disney or Universal park designed after the “Islands” model (used at Islands of Adventure, Universal Studios Singapore, and Universal Studios Beijing). A major project of the “A.P.” era (that is, After Potter), Epic Universe promises an entire theme park of master-planned, cinematic “Living Lands” to rival Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley in immersion. And of course, the park will be backed with gee whiz technologies and gotta-see-it appeal that Universal hopes will help this park steal a day away from Disney World’s low-ride-count gates.
Sure, the weight of three new hotels and an entire “South Complex” might be a lot to foist onto the shoulders of just 11 rides… but given rumors of “Phase II” expansions are already flying, Universal seems to think that this fantastic combination of IPs, stellar technology, and intergenerational, immersive worlds will cement their status as the must-watch leaders and shapers of the industry…
15. Universal Studios Hollywood
Ride Count: 12
Universal Studios’ original park in Hollywood traces its theme park roots to the 1960s. But for the bulk of its history, the Los Angeles park has been unique among “studio” themed parks for, y’know, actually being a real studio. Universal’s Californian campus is, first and foremost, a real working production facility that, over the years, began to add shows, demonstrations, and rides to augment its world-famous, tram-led Studio Tour.
Even with additions like Jurassic Park: The Ride, Revenge of the Mummy, TRANSFORMERS: The Ride, and Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem, the hour-long Studio Tour remained the reason to visit. Aboard trams, guests still glide past real, historic and modern movie sets, may see actual live productions, and interact with increasingly-technological, “behind-the-scenes” staged encounters with earthquakes, floods, King Kong, Jaws, and more.
The only thing that could’ve dethroned the Studio Tour as the park’s signature draw had to be the 2016 opening of a West Coast copy of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, complete with Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and the family Flight of the Hippogriff coaster. In 2019, the Lost Legend: Jurassic Park: The Ride made an even swap for the trendier Jurassic World.
The 2020 pandemic put off the opening of a very adorable family dark ride themed to Illumination’s The Secret Life of Pets, which finally opened in 2021.
Then, in 2023, the park officially launched its long-awaited Super Nintendo World. Though the version in Hollywood lacks the slow-moving Yoshi ride that the Osaka and Orlando versions feature (instead including only the Mario Kart dark ride), it’s rumored that the land will still grow…
What’s next? Universal has undertaken great effort to reformat its compact property in the Hollywood Hills into a full-fledged theme park. Certainly the Wizarding World and Super Nintendo World serve as centerpieces of that effort. But the next entry may be the wildest yet. Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift is meant to equip the California park with an equivalent of Orlando’s VelociCoaster – a multi-launch, technological thrill ride that’ll blast riders along the park’s iconic mountainside, dipping, twisting, and rotating as it goes.
14. EPCOT
Ride Count: 12
EPCOT is unique among the theme parks on this list for the grand (and not-so-grand) transformative periods it’s undergone. Disney’s hopes of running an interactive, educational, immersive, permanent World’s Fair sponsored by corporations and anchored by monumental pavilions sharing knowledge and culture has… well… it’s seen its ups and downs.
It’s almost hard to believe that at EPCOT’s classic height of the late ’80s, its Future World realm was anchored by nine pavilions, each focused on an area of science and industry – energy, health, transportation, imagination, agriculture, oceans, communication, innovation, and humanity’s collective future. Thanks to a ’90s effort to increase the park’s cool factor, nearly all have been replaced… either by more modern, semi-scientific, technological thrill rides that are far more brawn than brains (rides like Soarin’, Test Track, and Mission: SPACE) or by piecemeal character injections into once-unified pavilions.
It wasn’t until 2019 that Disney finally announced what had long been dreamed of: a master-planned, all-at-once reimagining of the park.
Aesthetically, the new EPCOT will be sleek and modern, but will embrace the park’s inherent retro ’80s foundation (instead of trying to bury it like so many ’90s projects did). For example, the whole project is embodied by a neo-retro logo, and the return of unified pavilion iconography.
Substantially, the multi-phase reimagining will, of course, hinge on Disney intellectual properties (once forbidden from the park) as Ratatouille, Moana, Coco, and Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy superheroes make themselves as home. It’s part of the reason we spent a whole Special Feature wondering aloud if the age of the “Disney+ Park” means that no park really stands for anything uniquely its own, each merely a differently-decorated (but ultimately, interchangeable) place for Disney’s high-earning franchises to come to life.
In any case, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure added to the park’s ride count without any subtraction, while Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind restores the pavilion lost by the closing of Universe of Energy in 2017.
What’s next? Though EPCOT’s multi-billion-dollar, multi-year reimagining has seen seismic shifts to the park’s layout, aesthetic, and ride lineup, fans saw much more on the horizon. Disney had officially confirmed a Celebration pavilion and a Mary Poppins ride, and had heavily hinted at a re-theme of the ride in the Mexico pavilion (using Pixar’s Coco) and a long-awaited reimagining of the Imagination pavilion.
Much to fans’ surprise, though, Disney announced that when the “Celebration Gardens” opened in winter 2023, that was that, and the EPCOT transformation was officially deemed complete. So at least for now, it looks like EPCOT’s ride count is locked in for the foreseeable future.
13. Universal Studios Beijing
Ride Count: 13
Universal Studios Beijing opened in 2021 – unfortunately, during China’s slow return post-COVID. As a result, the park didn’t exactly explode onto the scene. However, it’s interesting to see Universal’s first Chinese park as a sort of embodiment of all they’ve learned, owned, licensed, and acquired during the “Content Wars.”
Though its opening land is “Hollywood,” the park quickly diverges into a “best of” collection of IP-focused “Living Lands” positioned around a lagoon. (In other words, Universal Studios Beijing gives us a glimpse at what Islands of Adventure would probably look like if it were designed today.) In the typical IP obsession of the 2020s, the lands are themed to Transformers, Jurassic World, Kung Fu Panda, Waterworld, Harry Potter, and Despicable Me, most anchored by a copy of a well-known ride from the U.S. parks.
But even if those lands represent a natural capstone to Universal’s evolution toward its most reliable theme park properties (and indeed, contain quite a few clones of rides you already know), it’s also got some stellar, standout attractions built-in. That includes both the “Kung Fu Panda: Journey of the Dragon Warrior” (a rare, slow-moving, boat-based dark ride in Universal’s portfolio) and the jaw-dropping “Jurassic World Adventure” using the iconic SCOOP ride system, but pairing it with physical sets and some of the greatest animatronics on Earth.