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3. Magic Kingdom

Image: DisneyI suspect that most people who have visited all of them would agree on the top four themed gates at Disney resorts. The question is the order, and I won’t lie. I vacillated a LOT about where to put each selection. I must confess that I had a reasonable argument to put Magic Kingdom at the top of the list. After all, it’s the most trafficked theme park in the world. People go there because it’s wonderful, a haven for Disney fanatics.

At Magic Kingdom, you’ll find iconic attractions like Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Space Mountain, plus rarer ones like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Discussing the rides at Magic Kingdom almost misses the point, though. It’s the entire experience that matters. When you’re walking down Main Street, U.S.A., you feel like you’re in a place with limitless possibilities. It’s the most open-ended of all Disney gates, one where no single itinerary is right or wrong. Magic Kingdom is a place where 20 million people go each year to feel better about life…and they do. The only knock on the place is that it hasn’t expanded much in the 21st century save for evolving Fantasyland into New Fantasyland.

2. Shanghai Disneyland Park

Image: DisneyEarlier, I credited Animal Kingdom for having the most impressive themed land in the world right now. Shanghai Disneyland Park is that same scenario expanded to an entire gate. For the first time ever, Disney had a virtually unlimited budget and no spatial constraints. They could build the most modern and technologically remarkable park ever, and they did.

Shanghai Disneyland is THE place to visit for theme park tourists who want to see the current limits of Imagineering. The attractions here are the ultimate versions of established, beloved concepts. The Pirates of the Caribbean that you know gets elevated into Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, Soarin’ over California becomes Soarin’ over the Horizon, and Space Mountain gets passed over in favor of TRON Lightcycle Power Run.

Image: DisneyImagineers weren’t afraid to throw out established premises in favor of the new and exciting, sometimes even revolutionary. It’s fair to say that Shanghai Disneyland Park is so great that its presence forced park planners at Hong Kong Disneyland to renovate and upgrade. While I understand people who believe it’s too new to rank ahead of Magic Kingdom and Disneyland, my thought process here is simple. If guests could visit any of the three parks tomorrow, I suspect that the one they know the least, the one with such intriguing rides, is the place they would choose to visit. That’s Shanghai Disneyland Park.

1. Tokyo DisneySea

Image: DisneyWhat does a park have to offer to hold a viable claim as the best themed Disney gate in the world? That’s the question I’ve pondered for the past several days. Upon consideration, my belief is that the best gate must embody all of Disney’s ideals, but it should stand out for different reasons as well. Out of all the places listed here, I believe that Tokyo DisneySea best matches these criteria.

The second gate at Tokyo Disney Resort, it’s the masterpiece of The Oriental Land Company. The theme here is aquatic, and the seven ports all reinforce this notion. The places have names like Mysterious Island and Mermaid Lagoon, and the rides fit the premises. Mysterious Island is home to Journey to the Center of the Earth, a film franchise whose sequel was entitled…The Mysterious Island. Meanwhile, Mermaid Island is where all of the characters from The Little Mermaid hang out.

Image: DisneyYou’ll find everything from Venetian Gondolas to the Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Crystal Skull here, although the latter ride is NOT based on the Indiana Jones movie with a similar name. Instead, it’s similar to the Disneyland ride. Other noteworthy attractions range from a heart-pumping roller coaster, Raging Spirits, to a genteel knockoff of It’s a Small World called Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage.

At Tokyo DisneySea, each piece fits into a larger puzzle. The totality of the park is that much better than the sum of its parts due to this elegant kind of meta-theming. The Oriental Land Company isn’t ready to rest on its laurels, either. They recently announced a $2.3 billion expansion. It will add an eighth port by 2022, providing yet another reason why Tokyo DisneySea is the best of the best out of all theme parks in the world. Against brutally tough competition, it still stands out as greatness personified in the theme park industry.

 
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