Category: Article

Disney/Universal ride counts…

As of March 1, 2026…

In the past, it was well-known that the two Disneyland Resort parks (Disneyland and Disney California Adventure) had about as many attractions as all four Walt Disney World parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney Hollywood Studios and Disney’s Animal Kingdom). I was curious how things stand today with so many ride closures at Walt Disney World. I was also curious to see where Universal Epic Universe stands in the mix, since the overwhelming opinion I read online is that this new park has far too few rides.

I will dive into this more later, but for now, I refer only to rides with a vehicle you get in that moves — such as a roller coaster, or even a motion simulator. Later, I may do a follow-up post about non-ride attractions such as stage shows, parades and fireworks.

I also did not count double-rides, such as the two Dumbos at Magic Kingdom (it is the same ride, just increased capacity). I also wonder if I should count two-track rides when they are even slightly different – such as the two tracks of Matterhorn Bobsleds (quite different) or Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain (slightly different though in opposite directions). Universal’s Stardust Racers also has two tracks, but I have not checked to see how different they are. Should these be counted? I think probably, since someone who likes coasters would want to ride both tracks. But for now, that is not included in the totals.

Please let me know if I missed any. I will place the ride data at the end of this article.

Here is my quick count, from most to least actual “rides”:

  • Disneyland – 36
  • Magic Kingdom – 22
  • Disney California Adventure – 18
  • Islands of Adventure – 18
  • Universal Studios Florida – 13
  • Epcot – 12
  • Epic Univesse – 11
  • Disney Hollywood Studios – 9
  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom – 6

Looking at resorts, this breaks down to:

  • Disneyland Resort – 54
  • Walt Disney World – 49
  • Universal Orlando Resort – 42

Yes, Virginia, you could ride more things at the two small parks in Disneyland than all The Walt Disney World parks, or at all three Universal Orlando parks.

Some of you (mostly fans of Disneyland) are aware of this.

For the rest of you, if you like rides, would you consider visiting Disneyland instead of Walt Disney World?

More to come, including a breakdown (and verification) of these numbers…

NOTE: For the pedantic/OCD types out there, some of the names in this list are not the official names. For example, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is just listed as Smugglers Run. I am happy to correct them if you bring them to my attention. (And I see at least one that has changed names since the name I was familiar with, so I need to fix that one at some point, too.)

Rides at Disneyland

  1. Alice in Wonderland
  2. Astro Orbiter
  3. Autopia
  4. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
  5. Buzz Lightyear
  6. Car Toon Spin
  7. Casey Jr. Circus Train
  8. Davy Crocket Canoes
  9. Disneyland Railroad
  10. Dumbo
  11. Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
  12. Gadget’s Go Coaster
  13. Haunted Mansion
  14. Indiana Jones Adventure
  15. It’s a Small World
  16. Jungle Cruise
  17. King Arthurs Carousel
  18. Mad Tea Party
  19. Main Street Vehicles
  20. Mark Twain Riverboat
  21. Matterhorn Bobsleds (x2)
  22. Monorail
  23. Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
  24. Peter Pan’s Flight
  25. Pinnocchio’s Daring Journey
  26. Pirates of Caribbean
  27. Rise of the Resistance
  28. Runaway Railway
  29. Sailing SHip Columbia
  30. Smuggler’s Run
  31. Snow White’s Happy Time Adventure
  32. Space Mountain
  33. Star Tours
  34. Storybookland Canal Boats
  35. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
  36. Winnie the Pooh

Rides at The Magic Kingdom

  1. Astro Orbitor
  2. Barnstormer
  3. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
  4. Buzz Lightyear
  5. Carousel
  6. Disney World Railroad
  7. Dumbo (x2)
  8. Haunted Mansion
  9. It’s a Small World
  10. Jungle Cruise
  11. Mad Tea Party
  12. Magic Carpets
  13. Peoplemover
  14. Peter Pan’s Flight
  15. Pirates of the Caribbean
  16. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
  17. Space Mountain (x2)
  18. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
  19. Tomorrowland Speedway
  20. TRON Lightcycle Run
  21. Under the Sea
  22. Winnie the Pooh

Rides at Disney California Adventure

  1. Critter Carousel
  2. Emotional Whirlwind
  3. Golden Zephyr
  4. Goofy’s Sky School
  5. Grizzly River Run
  6. Incredicoaster
  7. Jumpin’ Jellyfish
  8. Junkyard Jamboree
  9. Littler Mermaid
  10. Luigi’s Rollikin’ Roadsters
  11. Midway Mania
  12. Mission: Breakout
  13. Monsters Inc
  14. Pal-A-Round
  15. Radiator Springs Racers
  16. Silly Symphony
  17. Soarin’
  18. Web Slingers

Rides at Universal Islands of Adventure

  1. Accelatron
  2. Bilge-Rat Barges
  3. Caro-Seuss-el
  4. Cat in the Hat
  5. Dr. Doom’s Fearfall
  6. Forbidden Journey
  7. Hagrid’s Motorbike
  8. Hippogriff
  9. Hogwarts Express
  10. Incredible Hulk
  11. One Fish, Two Fish
  12. Pteranodon Flyers
  13. Ripsaw Falls
  14. River Adventure
  15. Skull Island
  16. Spider-Man
  17. Trolley Train
  18. VelociCoaster

Rides at Universal Studios Florida

  1. E.T.
  2. Escape from Gringotts
  3. Fast and Furious
  4. Hogwarts Express
  5. Men in Black
  6. Minon Blast
  7. Minon Mayhem
  8. Race Through NY
  9. Revenge of the Mummy
  10. Simpsons Ride
  11. Transformers
  12. Trollercoaster
  13. Twirl ‘n’ Hurl

Rides at Epcot

  1. Cosmic Rewind
  2. Friendship Boats
  3. Frozen Ever After
  4. Gran Fiesta Tour
  5. Journey into Imagination
  6. Living with the Land
  7. Mission: Space
  8. Ratatoullie
  9. Soarin’
  10. Spaceship Earth
  11. Test Track
  12. The Seas

Rides at Universal Epic Universe

  1. Battle at the Ministry
  2. Constellation Carousel
  3. Curse of the Werewolf
  4. Dragon Racer’s Rally
  5. Fyre Drill
  6. Hiccup’s Wing Gliders
  7. Mario Kart
  8. Mine-Cart Madness
  9. Monsters Unchained
  10. Stardust Racers (x2)
  11. Yoshi’s Adventure

Rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

  1. Alien Swirling Saucers
  2. Rise of the Resistence
  3. Rock n Rollercoaster
  4. Runaway Railway
  5. Slinky Dog Dash
  6. Smugglers Run
  7. Star Tours
  8. Tower of Terror
  9. Toy Story Mania

What did I miss? Please let me know in the comments.

Theme parks are cheap…

”It seems like only yesterday” that SeaWorld Orlando became the first park out there to break the $50 admission price. Today, we’d “kill” for a chance to buy tickets at that low, low price.

But, theme parks are still cheap — compared to basically any other expense you have on the same trip.

In Orlando, you can still find “dirt cheap” hotels, but if you are visiting Disneyland in California, finding a hotel below $100/night near the park is rare (if it even exists at all in 2025). Thus, buying a five day pass to a big theme park is usually cheaper per-day (admission cost) than spending all those nights in a hotel.

And the hotel likely doesn’t have a single rollercoaster or stage show.

The high cost of these vacations is still from things like lodging and food. Food is especially annoying. I can get a cup of coffee down the road at Douglas Cafe in Des Moines for under three bucks. I can buy two strong margaritas for ten bucks down the road at a local bar. At a theme park, a good mixed drink is more than $16 (maybe more in 2025).

I believe it is easy to spend more on food and drinks inside a theme park in a day than the admission costs.

Yet, we seem to focus on the high cost of theme park tickets.

Perspective.

Did Disneyland solve its Annual Pass problem?

Although I visited Disneyland in the 70s as a kid, I did not become a “regular” visitor until 1995. I began traveling for a new job and purchased an annual pass so I could visit Disneyland every time work sent me to California. I remained an annual pass holder fairly consistently until 2010, when finances made me focus on food and shelter rather than Pirates and Mansions. (To be more accurate, I did miss visiting in 2006 due to a job layoff, but 1995 to 2009 had a number of visits.)

Back in those days, Disney still had an “off season” where crowd levels were so low you could walk right up to the boats on Pirates of the Caribbean, or hop on Indiana Jones over and over. Those times were always my favorite times to visit.

When I was able to return to the park in 2017, things had changed. Disney no longer had an off season, and the parks seemed to have crowds that previously would have only been seen around major holidays like Spring Break or Christmas.

Many claimed annual pass holders were to blame. The Internet echo chamber said that Disneyland had one million pass holders, though I do not know if Disney ever released any official count. It was clear, though, that the modern Instagram-YouTube-Social Media generation was using the park like it had never been used before. A souvenir popcorn bucket would go on sale, and social media would spread this news and the park would see an influx of people rushing to buy as many as they could — often to resell later that day on eBay. Much of the vibe of the park had changed.

And then Covid happened…

When Disneyland re-opened after the Covid closure, annual passes were gone. Eventually, the new Magic Key system would replace them, though trying to buy one was almost impossible — only a limited amount would be sold, and they would sell out almost immediately. One would think that the new $1,649 Inspire Key would be enough to curtail demand, but even this pass seemed to be unavailable the times I checked.

Until recently.

The other night, I happened to catch some random YouTube suggested video discussing that all the passes were for sale again, and had no sold out. The hosts suggested this was due to no one wanting them.

This could be the case. Or, Disney could have finally “fixed” its annual pass problem.

The fix is in…

My first Disneyland annual pass was probably around $169, and every year the price would increase. But, if you took two weeklong trips a year (one at the start of the pass, one at the end of the pass) it was still cheaper than buying tickets at the gate. I always sprung for the highest pass with parking and PhotoPass and whatever else it offered.

But Magic Keys were different. The post-Covid park reservation system meant the pass no longer let you pop in to the park randomly after work. You had to plan ahead, and reserve your visit–if you could. Some days would be unavailable. And, the Keys had limits to how many days you could reserve in advance.

This is what made me not consider a Magic Key, even if I could have bought one. My trips used to be 8-day trips (like, Tuesday through Tuesday) and at the time, the most days you could reserve on any Key level was less than that.

BUT, this and a few other changes may be allowing the park to open up Key sales without restrictions. Here’s a few reasons why:

  1. The new Magic Keys have blackout dates–even the $1649 one.
  2. “A Magic Key pass does not guarantee park entry, even on dates when a pass is not blocked.”–clearly stated on the terms of the new passes.
  3. Park visits must be reserved in advance. During busy times, reservations may be unavailable. If you hear about that new popcorn bucket, you may not be able to run down and buy one unless you had already scheduled that day in advance.
  4. Only the $1649 pass includes parking. At the $1249 level, you get a 50% discount on parking, and at $849 you get 25% off parking. Now that parking has increased to $35, that means even at the $1249 Key level you are paying $17.50 each time you visit Disneyland in a case, and more for the lower passes with less discounts.

SIDE NOTE: If 15,000 pass holders showed up on the same day, each paying 50% of parking fees, Disneyland makes over a quarter of a million dollars.

As we’ve seen with all the price increases over the decades annual passes were sold, prices never kept the crowds away. Even today, with the highest prices ever, the park can still get packed.

But, maybe not due to Magic Keys. Disney can now “turn off” admission any time the park is too busy, and folks who might have gone to the parks a dozen times in a month may be unable to do so due to reservations being unavailable. And, maybe they don’t want to pay $23 to pop in to the park just to buy a new popcorn bucket.

This is the Internet, and this is just random speculation.

We’ll see if these Magic Keys are still for sale next month.

Until then…

Not knowing is more fun.

In the early days of the public Internet, even before the World Wide Web, I felt very plugged in to what was going on with Disney theme parks. I followed usenet newsgroups like alt.disney.disneyland and rec.arts.disneyparks. I was on the GEnie online service hanging out in the Destination Florida RoundTable (which also featured a Disneyland area for some reason). Folks routinely posted about their recent visit to the parks. It was because of discussions there about the building of the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland that I made a goal to return to Disneyland once that ride opened. I had not been there since Space Mountain/Big Thunder were new.

Over the 1990s, fan sites, web message forums and all kinds of new resources replaced the old newsgroups and pay services. If something was known, it was shared. I felt completely plugged in, and on top of every tidbit happening—from the change of a cup size or altering of paper napkins, to more major things like ride refurbishments.

It was a great time. But now I have regrets.

I became disconnected, though not because I wanted to be. I had financial struggles for nearly a decade. If I couldn’t go, I didn’t need to follow a dozen websites daily to see the latest news about Disneyland of Walt Disney World.

In those years, money was so tight I took no vacations. I had no home phone, no cell phone and no home internet. The only contact I had with cybespace was through an iPad or taking my laptop down to a place with free WiFi.

I was only able to return to Disneyland thanks to a friend offering me free lodging in his vacation home, and after getting a different job that had slightly higher pay.

That trip, my friends, was probably the best Disney trip I’ve ever had since my first ones as a kid in the 1970s. I was aware that Cars Land had been added but did not know any details. One of my local SoCal friends, Steve (R.I.P.), escorted me through Disney California Adventure park where I saw the new entrance area and many other changes since my last visit in 2009. He walked me past the main Cars Land entrance, distracting me with details on the other side. He wanted me to walk through the backside arch in to the land and see the “mountain range.”

We did.

Cars Land (2017)

And it was epic.

Riding Radiator Springs Racers spoiler-free was also an absolute pleasure. I had read no reviews, seen no ride through videos, or even read comments about it.

Best. Ride. Ever.

Because of that, I continued to try to avoid spoilers. This made the Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout a fantastic new experience when that ride opened.

The magic was back.

I have not had a Disney annual pass since the pre-Covid era. I did, however, taken advantage of a low cost (“three months free”) passes to Universal Studios Orlando, which turned out to be a gateway back in to regular theme park trips — just not to Disney.

And since I had not been following Universal at all, ever, I did not even know there was a new mega King Kong ride there. I remember walking from Jurassic Park and seeing this “mountain” looming in the distance. “What is that!?” I thought.

Reign of Kong: Skull Island (2017)

Approaching it that first time was thrilling.

Between the time I started writing this article, many months ago, and the time I finish it today, I have become a bit more plugged in with Universal Orlando — watching YouTube video “news” about the park from time to time. But, no where near the level of plugged-in-ness I was in the 1990s-2000s with Disney.

And I think I prefer it like this.

If you ever feel burnt out or jaded, try unplugging for awhile. It might just give your next visit a boost!

Until then…