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12. Universal Studios Florida

Image: Sam Howzit, Flickr (license)

Ride Count: 14

When Universal announced plans to bring a copy of their world-famous Studio Tour to Florida, Disney stepped in and committed to opening their own movie-themed park as a pre-emptive strike. Disney’s Hollywood Studios even stole Universal’s bread-and-butter Studio Tram Tour! Ultimately, Universal decided to let Disney take the concept and instead split the components of the Hollywood Studio Tour into separate, standalone attractions, creating Lost Legends: Kongfrontation, JAWS, T2 3-D, and Back to the Future: The Ride.

Universal Studios Florida may be one of the fastest-growing theme parks in the world right now, ambitiously and aggressively updating and replacing its original lineup of attractions with barely a nod to nostalgia. The moment a ride’s source material becomes outdated or a bigger box office hit becomes known, the park will cannibalize even classics to make room for the hottest current stars.

Still fresh from the opening of themed lands dedicated to The Simpsons (2013) and Harry Potter (2014), and the lukewarm opening of the forgettable Race Through New York Starring Jimmy Fallon (2016), the park opened the admittedly abysmal Fast & Furious: Supercharged – yet another screen-based simulator – seemingly cementing a downhill trajectory...

What’s next? Insiders assure fans that the park's two latest openings are merely the tail end of an era that's mercifully over, and that all of the rest of the projects on Universal's docket are industry-changing, high-quality, and (phew) not reliant on screens. That sounds good to us. As for what's next for the park specifically? Plans for a Super Nintendo World are indeed possible (though we know the bulk of Nintendo plans were shifted to Universal's announced third Orlando park) with Pokemon or Dreamworks replacing the dated Woody Woodpecker's Kidzone instead... 

11. Universal Studios Singapore

Image: Universal

Ride count: 16

The most easily overlooked of Universal's parks is also one of its most unique. Universal Studios Singapore opened in 2010, skillfully blending the "Universal Studios" concept with the "Islands of Adventure" layout, creating an unusual park that features movie-set style lands dedicated to New York and Hollywood and immersive themed fantasy lands, all situated around a lagoon.

So while your adventure begins on the streets of a photo-realistic Hollywood, circumnavigating the lagoon, you'll pass through Sci-Fi City (themed to Battlestar Galactica and Transformers), Ancient Egypt (an entire themed land dedicated to The Mummy and featuring one of our Seven Ancient Wonders of the Theme Park World), The Lost World (Jurassic Park), Far Far Away (modeled after the fairytale kingdom from Shrek) and Madagascar. While the unusual collection of intellectual properties doesn't initially seem to have as much appeal or longevity as the original Islands of Adventure, it's a unique twist on Universal's design concepts.

What's next? In a surprise announcement in 2019, Universal and Resorts World Sentosa agreed to an unexpected expansion of the landlocked park that will provide it with a Super Nintendo World of its own, plus replacing the Madagascar-themed land with a Despicable Me one. (Evidence that the Islands of Adventure layout really relies on tried-and-true timeless stories, and that plugging in flavor-of-the-week movies will make this park costly to keep relevant.)

10. Shanghai Disneyland

Image: Disney

Ride Count: 16

Disney’s sixth Magic-Kingdom-style park on Earth opened in 2016. What frenzied fans most eagerly studied was the park’s seeming reinvention of the expected Disney Parks standards, as Shanghai Disneyland did away with tropes like Adventureland, Frontierland, and Main Street entirely, shuffled the park’s tried-and-true layout, and dispensed with many standard rides as we explored in our In-Depth: Shanghai Disneyland walkthrough.

So even if the park features only opened with 13 rides, it’s worth noting that each was unique, if not in concept than in execution. A stylistically-boosted Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue, an epic-sized Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for Sunken Treasure, and the long-rumored Soaring Over the Horizon all premiered at the park.

Then, Space Mountain was entirely replaced with TRON: Light Cycle Power Run; the enormous Storybook Castle became home to a dark ride called Voyage to the Crystal Grotto, and the Adventureland replacement (with its own S.E.A. style mythology), features a rapids ride through the towering Mount Apu Taku, including a finale encounter with a massive, menacing reptile guardian we listed in our must-read countdown of the best animatronics on Earth.

What’s next? The recently-opened Toy Story Land added a net three rides to the park's count (but, like all Toy Story Lands, the rides are "cheap and cheerful," adding simple family flat ride capacity rather than anything revolutionary or headlining). That leaves Zootopia the next big project in the pipeline. Like Disney's other IP-influenced lands, Zootopia will likely contain one E-Ticket anchor supported by shops, restaurants, meet-and-greets, and other accessory family elements.

9. Universal’s Islands of Adventure

Image: Universal

Ride Count: 17

Universal’s gutsy attempt to take on Disney produced Universal’s Islands of Adventure, a fantasy wonderland conceived by, designed by, and built by a team of Imagineers fed up with Disney’s cost-cutting ways. (You can read that incredible, almost-unbelievable story in its own feature, Lost Legends: The Lost Continent.) The result is a no-corners-cut theme park meeting and even exceeding Disney’s standards, with immersive themed lands constructed around a great lagoon.

Set among its lushly-themed lands, Islands of Adventure is home to some of the most sought after rides on Earth, from the Incredible Hulk Coaster to Jurassic Park River Adventure, Cat in the Hat, Dudley Do-Right’s Ripsaw Falls, and the king of all Modern Marvels: The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man.

Naturally, the opening of the original Wizarding World of Harry Potter (featuring Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, Flight of the Hippogriff, and a repurposed Dragon Challenge) really put the park on most vacationers’ maps, but even aside from Potter’s dominance, the park is a must-see.

In 2016, the park opened the would-be follow-up to next door Universal Studios’ Lost Legend: Kongfrontation, and while Skull Island: Reign of Kong may have been met with lukewarm reception, at least it showed Comcast’s continued commitment to investing big in the resort.

What’s next? While Kong’s arrival wrapped up the ongoing projects we’d already known about, Universal announced another in summer 2017: the intertwined B&M coasters that make up Dragon Challenge would close to be replaced with a new, immersive Harry Potter family coaster. The loss of the Hungarian Horntail and Chinese Fireball lowered the park's lineup by two, though the opening of Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure at least recoupoed one. It'll be made up for by the addition of a second coaster (details still under wraps) coming to Jurassic Park.

There's at least one other place in the park fans predict (and hope) we’ll see movement: Illumination Entertainment’s in-production animated family films of The Grinch and The Cat in the Hat movies may serve as the perfect impetus to add a long-delayed Grinch family ride and redesign the Cat in the Hat dark ride in Seuss Landing.

8. Hong Kong Disneyland

Image: Disney

Ride Count: 17

When Hong Kong Disneyland opened in 2005, it was the last of Eisner’s under-built parks, and unfortunately instantly became the smallest Magic-Kingdom-style park on Earth in terms of both size and lineup. For example, its Fantasyland featured only one dark ride compared to Disneyland’s six or Magic Kingdom’s four.

A massive growth spurt opened three brand new mini-lands at once, creating an outer ring around the park’s berm featuring two original E-Tickets (including the unfathomable Modern Marvel: Mystic Manor) and a Toy Story Land. “It’s a small world” and Autopia joined, too. But the first indication that Disney was not giving up on the tiny park came with the 2016 opening of The Iron Man Experience, borrowing the technology from STAR TOURS, which also served as Disney’s first ever Marvel attraction.

What’s next? While Iron Man Experience was a step in the right direction, Hong Kong’s government financiers demanded that Disney do more to make the still-small park competitive against the much newer and much larger Shanghai Disneyland. Disney’s answer is a $1.4 billion rebuild that’s due to include three new components:

  • Frozen themed expansion of the park's miniscule Fantasyland
  • The annexing of Iron Man Experience's corner of Tomorrowland into a new Marvel land, which will also absorb the existing Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters to create an Ant-Man dark ride.
  • Most unbelievably, an expansion of the castle, replacing the copy of Disneyland's tiny Sleeping Beauty Castle that the park opened with.

We'll stay tuned to how this once-underbuilt underdog evolves and grows, but count on some exciting developments as the park grows into its own to become a truly unique destination.

7. Disney California Adventure

Image: Disney

Ride count: 19

When Disney’s California Adventure opened in 2001, it was supposed to be a fitting compliment to the original Disneyland just steps away, turning the once-solo park into a 21st century Disneyland Resort. The problem is, the park was flawed at its foundation, determined to spoof modern California with off-the-shelf carnival rides, modern pop music, cheap sets, and an “irreverent, MTV” attitude. At its opening, the park advertised parked tractors and tortilla tours as full-fledged attractions, offering only two real standout experiences. Disneyland’s intensely-loyal, generations-long visitors wasted no time before outright boycotting the park. We chronicled the in-depth story of the park’s flawed concept design and a woeful walkthrough in a standalone feature, Disaster Files: Disney’s California Adventure.

In any case, Disney righted the ship in 2007 by announcing an unprecedented $1.2 billion reconstruction that would shutter and re-theme each of the park’s districts and redesign them in the style of Disneyland’s: historic, reverent, immersive lands taking guests back in time to see idealized locales. Now, its lands were transformed into a 1920s Los Angeles, a 1950s High Sierras National Park, a 1910s seaside Victorian boardwalk. The "new" California Adventure included new lands, new rides, new shows, and a new identity.

Weirdly, just a few years after spending a billion dollars to create a new, Californian narrative for the park, Disney began slowly dismantling their own hard work in favor of making California Adventure the quintessential catch-all. In 2017, Disney closed the 1920s art deco Hollywood Tower Hotel (the Lost Legends: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror) to replace it with a futuristic sci-fi warehouse prison to house a new Marvel thrill ride. We chronicled the unbelievable story in its own in-depth feature. In 2018, the historic, Victorian Paradise Pier was transformed into Pixar Pier, oddly settling The Incredibles' 1960s architecture along the turn-of-the-century boardwalk. 

What's next? In yet another unexpected twist, in 2018 Disney closed "a bug's land" entirely, squashing its five family flat rides and instantly dropping California Adventure from number 4 to number 8 on this list. While the new Marvel super hero-themed land replacing it will include only a web-slinging "Spider-Man" themed ride first, a larger E-Ticket Avengers attraction to follow in a second phase.

 

6. Tokyo DisneySea

Image: Disney

Ride Count: 20

Tokyo DisneySea is a Mecca for Disney Parks fans… the sort of Bucket List locale that Imagineering fans feel they absolutely must see. That’s because the park is easily, far and away, the most beautiful theme park on Earth. Costing over $4 billion upon its opening in 2001, the park has to be seen to be believed. And tellingly, you could spend days there, ride nothing, and still feel your time was well spent.

But when it comes to rides, DisneySea has some of the best. Many of the park’s rides are originals, like Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. The park’s shining headliner earned its own in-depth entry here, Modern Marvels: Journey to the Center of the Earth. The ride is often called Disney’s best ride ever and the height of what Imagineering can do, featuring an unforgettable animatronic encounter that tops our must-read countdown of the best animatronics on Earth.

But here’s the best part… When DisneySea does borrow from American rides, it improves them. Indeed, Imagineers assigned to Tokyo must be in bliss, as there they overwhelmingly get to build the “Blue Sky” versions of their concepts with seemingly no budgetary restraints. In Tokyo, you'll find the fully-funded, no-corners-cut, big-budget, definitive versions of Indiana Jones Adventure, Toy Story Midway Mania, Soarin', and Tower of Terror (which dropped the Twilight Zone theme all together in favor of being the first ride to involve the mysterious, cross-continental continuity of the secret Society of Explorers and Adventurers).

What’s next? After the opening of their S.E.A.-influenced Soarin', the park's next expansion is on track to be its most ambitious ever: Fantasy Springs, a (vaguely-aquatic) storybook land themed to Disney animated films (an odd fit for the otherwise grounded park) that will feature attractions based on Peter Pan, Tangled, and Frozen. Each is expected to be represented by a one-of-a-kind dark ride, which will doubtlessly make DisneySea even more of a must-visit for Imagineering fans.

5. Universal Studios Japan

Image: Universal

Ride Count: 20

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 exact, identical carbon-copies of the Orlando parks... except for what 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; where Florida's park houses Terminator is instead the entrance to Hollywood Dream: The Ride, a B&M coaster that sails over the park's glassed-in entry.

In this unique Universal park, JAWS is still around and 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 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 just closed their Back to the Future: The Ride (the final version of the cult classic left), but instead of becoming home to The Simpsons Ride as the ones in California and Florida did, the Japanese version instead became Despicable Me: Minion Mayhem and a themed mini-land dedicated to the hit franchise.

What's next? Unknown.

 
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