8. Hong Kong Disneyland
Ride Count: 19
When Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005, it was the third of three under-built parks (and the only “Castle Park”) constructed in the waning days of Michael Eisner’s tenure. Fittingly, Hong Kong Disneyland opened as by far the smallest Disneyland-style park on Earth both in scale and scope. For instance, its Fantasyland contained just one dark ride – The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh – versus Disneyland’s six and Magic Kingdom’s four.
Of the park’s 11 opening day rides, only 2 (the Jungle River Cruise and Space Mountain) could even remotely rank as “headliners” with another 2 dark rides (Pooh and Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters) rounding out the park’s significant ride offerings. Piecemeal additions – like “it’s a small world” and Autopia – came online in the park’s first half-decade, but clearly, like all of Disney’s early-2000s parks, Hong Kong would need a major reinvestment campaign to stay afloat.
In 2010, the park launched an exception growth spurt, opening three brand-new mini-lands over three years. Grizzly Gulch, Toy Story Land, and Mystic Point together created an unprecedented “outer loop” beyond the park’s Railroad. Altogether, the three lands netted the park 2 original E-Tickets (Big Grizzly Mountain Mine Cars and the Modern Marvel: Mystic Manor), plus Toy Story Land’s inevitable three family flat rides.
The park’s expansion continued in 2016 with the opening of the Iron Man Experience (Disney’s first-ever Marvel-themed ride; an evolution of Star Tours‘ simulator ride system) and subsequently, the conversion of Buzz Lightyear’s dark ride into the Ant-Man and the Wasp: Nano Battle blaster. (One day, a full-on Avengers E-Ticket would theoretically finish the area and officially annex it from Tomorrowland as a standalone Stark Expo.)
What’s next? Especially with the much newer and flashier Shanghai Disneyland looming, Disney and the Hong Kong government agreed on a $1.4 billion rebuild that included a brand new castle and – coming soon – a full-on Frozen land, expected to contain a near-copy of EPCOT’s Modern Marvel: Frozen Ever After and a Frozen redux of the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train that’ll boost the park’s ride count to 19.
7. Disney California Adventure
Ride count: 19
When Disney’s California Adventure opened in 2001, it was supposed to be a the expansion to turn the once-solo Disneyland into a 21st century Disneyland Resort. Unfortunately, California Adventure was a park built on a flawed foundation, serving as an irreverent, odd, comical spoof of the Golden State. “Too much California, not enough Disney,” the park featured practically no characters, nothing for families, and only one ride of true “Disney caliber” – the Lost Legend: Soarin’ Over California.
As our epic Disney California Adventure: Part I and Part II exploration revealed, a cumulative $2 billion in enhancements brought the park not just new rides, but a new underlying philosophy, making the once-regrettable second gate as historic, reverent, and vibrant as Disneyland next door. (Even if – in the years since its grand 2012 “Re-Opening,” the park has weirdly pivoted away from the California theme it worked so hard to install… it hasn’t an IP-free major attraction since its opening day!)
At least by the numbers, California Adventure offers about twice as many rides as EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, or Animal Kingdom. Though perhaps accidentally, it’s a healthy mix of headliners (with a fairly robust – and unique – E-Ticket collection) and “filler” (thanks to the family rides of Pixar Pier and Cars Land, plus family dark rides themed to Monsters Inc., Little Mermaid, Cars, and Toy Story.)
In 2018, Disney squashed ‘a bug’s land,’ exterminating its four family flat rides and instantly dropping California Adventure from number 4 to number 7 on this list. The 2021 opening of its replacement – Avengers Campus – brought just one new ride (WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure), representing a net loss for the park, and cementing it in seventh.
What’s next? As has become the new norm, Avengers Campus was opened unfinished. At the 2019 D23 Expo, then-Chairman of Parks Bob Chapek showed two versions of the land’s concept art, the latter of which added a massive, white showbuilding looming beyond the land. That Avengers ride – believed to be a “U-Ticket” on par with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance –was promised to be coming… eventually.
Of course, COVID-19 saw Disney enter a new wave of project cancellations. While the Avengers ride was never formally axed, no earth moved on the last of California Adventure’s expansion pads, leading many to assume that the ride had been written off. Then, at the 2022 D23 Expo, Disney surprisingly recommitted to an Avengers ride for the park, but shifted the ride system from the proposed U-Ticket thrill to a “family” ride leaning into the MCU’s Multiverse era. We wouldn’t expect it to open before 2025.
6. Parc Disneyland (Paris)
Ride Count: 21
When Disneyland Paris opened in 1992, its Parc Disneyland was pretty quickly recognized as the most beautiful and detailed Disneyland-style park on Earth. The park was carefully crafted to give the inherently American concept of Disneyland a European spin that the French would accept, smartly blending style and substance to create something familiar, but more fantastical. Put in simple terms, Disneyland Paris’ castle park somehow has the charm and coziness of Disneyland, the size and grandeur of Magic Kingdom, and the storytelling and detail of DisneySea.
When the Parisian park borrowed from American classics, it did something unusual… it reinvented them! As we saw in our hand-drawn HERE & THERE ride layout collection, the stories you think you know were given an entirely unique European spin to fit into the beautiful and storied park, forming spectacular new rides like Phantom Manor and Space Mountain: De la Terre á la Lune. That makes almost all of Disneyland Paris’ rides – even the ones you think you know – fresh experiences.
Despite its glowing international acclaim, Paris’ Disneyland is in a constant state of catch-up as it tries to recoup the finances that continue to bleed from the undervalued and overbuilt park. The 2002 opening of Walt Disney Studios only strained the resort more. Thankfully, a multi-year effort to beautify the park and restore it to its grand origin is in effect, and in the meantime, the park finally swapped its Lost Legend: STAR TOURS for the upgraded version other parks debuted years earlier. Still, as focus remains on the Studios park for its multi-year rebuild, expect still more overlays and entertainment offerings as the main draws for Parc Disneyland.
What’s next? Nothing known at this time.
5. Universal Studios Japan
Ride Count: 22
Exploring the park map for Universal’s Japanese park is like a looking into some alternate reality version of Universal Studios Florida. The park’s first three lands – Production Central, New York, and San Francisco – are nearly exact carbon-copies of Universal Studios Florida… except for the rides they contain. Where American fans would expect Race Through New York, they’ll instead find Terminator 2: 3-D. The Revenge of the Mummy facade in Japan houses The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man; Back to the Future: The Ride didn’t become The Simpsons Ride, but Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem.
In this unique Universal park, JAWS is still around… and is neighbors with Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey; a Jurassic Park land (complete with a B&M flying roller coaster) stands where Diagon Alley is in Florida; the original concept Space Fantasy – The Ride stands as one of Universal’s best family rides ever; and Woody Woodpecker’s kids’ area is replaced with Sesame Street, Hello Kitty, and the Peanuts! It’s in that oversized children’s area that this park runs up its ride count (making it all the more peculiar that Universal Studios Florida doesn’t have much in the way of a family area).
Universal Studios Japan was the first park in Universal’s chain to debut its copy of the much-anticipated Super Nintendo World – a Wizarding-World-rivaling “Living Land,” leveraging Universal’s brilliant licensing of Mario and company. It added two new rides to the park’s count, propelling Universal Studios Japan over Disneyland Paris.
What’s next? With the success of Mario’s half of Super Nintendo World proven, earth is already moving on the second half of the land – a Donkey Kong-themed jungle outpost that will bring with it a unique family roller coaster attraction just like in Orlando and Hollywood.