The Best Disney Rides Around The World
Disney parks have a self-styled reputation as “the happiest place on Earth,” but it’s not all mice and sunshine! The crowds are huge, the lines are long, and the food will burn a hole in your wallet — but you’ll still leave with a smile on your face and a skip in your step, all the same! After all, isn’t it worth a little fuss to experience pure magic in motion?
1. Pirates of the Caribbean (Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Disneyland Paris, Tokyo Disneyland, Shanghai Disneyland)
Film buffs will need no introduction to Pirates of the Caribbean: there was a smash-hit movie franchise based on this very ride! It’s a chilling boat experience that’s sure to shiver a few timbers, so keep younger kids close.
The ride became an immersive tour, but the concept started out as a walkthrough waxworks museum. Later on, the ride designers followed where the winds were blowing when some of its animatronics exhibits such as It’s a Small World grew in popularity.
Ride-movie synergy
The animatronic version was so popular that Disney’s “Imagineers” introduced it to many parks across the world. Fans even demanded a version for Florida, which they got, albeit in a slightly abridged form.
Just as the ride inspired the movies, the reverse is also true. Once the film franchise had captured people’s imaginations, the rides took elements of the movies aboard to keep them fresh. You can even spot characters from the films among the animatronics if you look closely!
2. Haunted Mansion (Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland)
If you’re looking for a frighteningly fun time, the Haunted Mansion is on most Disney visitors’ to-do lists. But is it as scary as you’d think? Well, the janitors certainly thought so!
They requested the lights be left on for their cleaning because the atmosphere was so spooky, which led to Imagineers implementing a motion-sensor feature that turned out the lights on visitors. Imagineer Rolly Crump said that afterwards, a janitor’s broom was found abandoned on the scene!
Secret elevator
Imagineers use another clever trick in the stretching portrait room, which is actually done by guiding guests into a secret elevator to create an optical illusion! There’s one genuinely macabre feature to the ride, though.
Apparently, some grieving visitors have been known to secretly scatter ashes on the ride. In 2018 a custodian told the Wall Street Journal of their California and Florida attractions, “The Haunted Mansion probably has so much human ashes in it that it’s not even funny.”