The best rides at Walt Disney World, ranked

How the lists were combined

Each list is first re-ranked among the rides it covers, so a list that puts fireworks ninth does not push a ride down. A full ranking places every ride, and a ride’s position becomes its percentile in that list.

A shorter “best of” list says nothing about the rides it leaves out, except that its author put them below the cut. So being absent from a top-15 list counts as the middle of the places below fifteenth, not as last. The ride’s score is the average of its positions across all 7 lists, and the lowest score ranks first.

Where the lists disagree

• Test Track is 15th of 49 at Ziggy Knows Disney and 38th of 48 at Steps to Magic.
• Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover is 11th of 49 at MouseHacking and 30th of 45 at Disney Tourist Blog.
• Living with the Land is 9th of 48 at Steps to Magic and 25th of 45 at Disney Tourist Blog.
• Soarin' Across America is 8th of 49 at Ziggy Knows Disney and 26th of 49 at MouseHacking.
• Slinky Dog Dash is 7th of 49 at MouseHacking and 24th of 48 at Steps to Magic.

The widest gaps between a ride’s best and worst placing on the four full rankings, among the top 25. A wide gap is usually taste — dark rides and classics split critics more than thrill rides do.

The best rides for small children

With no height requirement: Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Spaceship Earth.

At 38 inches or under: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (38″), Slinky Dog Dash (38″), Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (38″), Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (38″), Kali River Rapids (38″). Big Thunder Mountain dropped to 38 inches when it reopened in May 2026. The height checker lists every ride a child can go on.

What the rankings could not know

• Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster reopened starring the Muppets on 26 May 2026. Most lists ranked the Aerosmith version; the track, launch and inversions are the same.
• Big Thunder Mountain reopened on 3 May 2026 with new track and a lower height requirement. Every full list was written while it was closed or before.
• Soarin’ is counted once: lists that name Soarin’ Around the World are counted for Soarin’ Across America, the same ride with a different film.
• DINOSAUR gave its last rides on 1 February 2026, ahead of the Tropical Americas rebuild, and is left out where a list still carried it.