15. Disney Adventure World
Ride Count: 13
When Walt Disney Studios Park opened next to Disneyland Paris in 2002, the second gate represented a staggering new low for Disney, even in an era infamous for its cost-cutting, cancellations, and closures. We took a walk through the creatively-starved park in its own must-read Declassified Disasters: Walt Disney Studios Park feature, but in short, the outright embarrassing offering contained only three rides.
Piecemeal additions since included a copy of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a Toy Story Land of off-the-shelf flat rides, a Toon Studio of off-the-shelf flat rides, and the “pièce de résistance,” the Modern Marvel: Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. It was all needed, and all more-to-do, but certainly none of it would make Walt Disney Studios a destination park.
The plan to change that was made clear in 2018 when Disney CEO Bob Iger stood with French President Emmanuel Macron to reveal a €2 billion reimagining for the languishing second gate. Over eight years, Walt Disney Studios would be grafted onto, rearranged, and generally transformed until its 2026 reintroduced with a new name – “Disney Adventure World.” The big “gets” would be a copy of California’s Avengers Campus (transforming the opening day Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster into an Avengers mission), and a copy of Hong Kong’s World of Frozen.
Of course, name changes and placemaking and infrastructure aside, a cynic might also point out that at the end of the day, the much-touted decade-long transformation resulted in two more flat rides (in perhaps the only Disney Park that arguably had enough already), a copy of California’s Web Slingers, and a copy of EPCOT’s Frozen Ever After… Not exactly a staggering use of €2 billion… Ultimately, Disney Adventure World’s ride count surged past that of Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Florida… but the parks’ E-Ticket counts are a whole different story, and it’s probably fair to say that the Florida park’s ride quality is much, much higher on average than its Paris sister.
What’s next? Two rides ultimately destined for Adventure World weren’t quite ready for the park’s official “re-opening” in March 2026. The first is the Wilderness Explorer Sky Swings – a simple yoyo swings flat ride nominally themed to Pixar’s Up, set to join the art nouveau promenade of the new “Adventure Way” land.
The other (and more significant) is a flume ride themed to the 1995 film The Lion King, anchoring a mini-land themed to the film. It seems unlikely that the ride could be ready before 2029. The good news is that when it opens, Disney Adventure World will have a genuine, from-scratch, E-Ticket dark ride that no other park on Earth has…! Will that be enough to turn Paris’ second gate into a must-visit for Disney Parks travelers? We’ll have to wait to find out…
14. 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.
13. 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… In the meantime, 2026’s Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift gives Universal Studios Hollywood a genuine thrill coaster. The West Coast version of “Velocicoaster,” this Intamin multi-launch ride uses the Hollywood park’s mountaintop location to its benefit, diving and twisting along the rocky cliffs of L.A.
What’s next? Nothing known at this time.
12. Universal Studios Florida
Ride Count: 13
Universal Studios Florida opened in 1990 – the peak of the “studio park” era. But since its Walt Disney World competitor had stolen Universal’s tried-and-true Hollywood M.O. of being an actual studio with a behind-the-scenes tour as the park’s main draw, Universal’s plans for Florida diverged. Instead, Universal essentially split the components of its Hollywood-based Studio Tour into standalone rides.
Unfortunately for the nostalgic, Universal spent much of the 2000s purging its Studio park of throwback films, closing that original class of Lost Legends: Kongfrontation, JAWS, T2 3-D, Back to the Future: The Ride, and Earthquake one by one, ushering in a new class of rides based on… well… whatever’s hot at the time.
Some – like Revenge of the Mummy and The Simpsons Ride – have pretty good staying power, even outlasting the classics they replaced. Others – like Fast & Furious: Supercharged and Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon – feel designed to be disposable, easily swapped out as new stars emerge, and unlikely to survive the decade.
There’s really no question that the park’s most sought-after experience is its exclusive second half of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Diagon Alley – which contains both the Escape from Gringotts E-Ticket and the unique Hogwarts Express – to our count, the only ride on Earth that travels between two separately-gated theme parks. (And certainly on our list, the only ride that adds to two park’s ride counts, with each one-way trip offering a different show experience.)
In summer 2024, the parks’ long-stagnant kids’ area (which languished for decades with Woody Woodpecker, Curious George, and Fievel as its character anchors) got a refresh by way of DreamWorks Animation. That restored the land’s only ride – formerly, Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster – to the park’s ride count as the Trolls-stylized Trollercoaster.
What’s next? Universal fans bid a fond farewell to the Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit coaster in 2025. The unique ride with a vertical lift and choose-your-own-onboard-soundtrack had never been the hit Universal hoped. In its place will open another Fast & Furious: Hollywood Drift. Even though it’ll share a name (and likely, a manufacturer in Intamin) with its sister in the real Hollywood, the Florida version will, by necessity, be an entirely different layout.
Also as in Hollywood, when the Fast & Furious coaster opens, Universal will finally put the embarrassing Fast & Furious: Supercharged attraction out of its misery. Unfortunately, Florida’s version was a standalone experience (versus being just another vignette on the Studio Tour), so that’ll cause the park’s ride count to stay steady. But it’ll certainly be a better representation of the Fast & Furious franchise (and a bigger draw for the park) than Supercharged was.
11. Universal Studios Singapore
Ride count: 17
The most easily overlooked of Universal’s parks is also one of its most unique. Universal Studios Singapore opened in 2010 – Universal’s first post-Islands-of-Adventure park. Not coincidentally, the park uses the “Islands” layout of lands situated around a lagoon… but it uses the “Studios” mindset, populating those “islands” not with timeless, literary stories, but with “set” style recreations of real cities intermingling with lands based on hit Universal and DreamWorks movies.
So while your adventure begins on the streets of a film-ready Hollywood, circumnavigating the lagoon, you’ll pass through Sci-Fi City (broadly incorporation the styles of Battlestar Galactica and Transformers), Ancient Egypt (an entire themed land dedicated 1999’s The Mummy and featuring one of our Seven Ancient Wonders of the Theme Park World), The Lost World (Jurassic Park and Waterworld), Far Far Away (modeled after the fairytale kingdom from Shrek) and – formerly – a land themed to Dreamworks’ Madagascar.
It’s another interesting “multiverse” reflection of what Islands of Adventure might’ve looked like if it was built even five years later, when basing lands on timeless, intergenerational, licensed comics, picture books, novels, and myths would’ve seemed an outrageous choice over proven, IP-based, blockbuster movie-themed lands.
Of course, the downfall of that model is evident, too. In 2022, the Singapore park shuttered an entire land themed to the DreamWorks film Madagascar, which turned out to not be quite timeless and intergenerational enough for a permanent theme park. Its replacement? A Minion Land, adding three rides back into the lineup (a net +1 versus Madagascar) and thus propelling this park unusually high on the list… even if it’s lineup overall is flat-ride heavy and fairly insignificant in the global scheme of Universal Parks.
What’s next? Universal neither owns nor operates the Singapore park (which is instead part of the Resorts World Sentosa operation). It’s also fairly landlocked and built in a tight urban resort district. That explains why Potter never came. But Universal has committed to bringing its other licensed headliner, Super Nintendo World, to the park. It’s unclear where exactly it’ll fit in the complex, or what attractions it’ll contain, but if it’s a compact version as in Hollywood, we can expect at least the Mario Kart: Bowsers Challenge ride.