5. Universal Studios Florida (1990)

Universal Studios Florida is often held up as the example of a “studio park.” Why? Because it’s ruthless. In its relatively short lifetime, it retains just one of its Opening Day rides. The rest - Lost Legends: Kongfrontation, JAWS, Back to the Future - The Ride, and Earthquake - have all been toppled in favor of fresher, hotter IPs. Come hell or high water, Universal Studios Florida will have the most flavor-of-the-week brands… sometimes at the expense of quality or longevity.

Yet despite its seeming reliance and dedication to IP, the park has had (to our count) two IP-free rides. While neither reach the originality of, say, Universal Studios Japan’s Space Fantasy: The Ride, they’re worth remembering! In 2008, the park opened the hilariously-generic Disaster: A Major Motion Picture Starring You with its play-up of disaster films and its reuse of Earthquake’s special effects.

LAST IP-FREE HEADLINER: Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit (2006 - 15 years ago)

The most recent, though, would be 2009’s Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit, an unusual roller coaster where guests select their choice of on-board music with the conceit of filming a music video and crowd surfing maybe? Okay, it’s maybe not the park’s most classic or beloved ride, but hey, it’s original!

6. Disney’s Animal Kingdom (1999)

When it comes to IP-free attractions, Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a noteworthy park. Why? Because it’s famously home to the last IP-free attraction in the entirety of Walt Disney World to date. Like EPCOT, Animal Kingdom was a park largely conceived without IPs built in. A park defined by Imagineer Joe Rohde’s striving for accuracy and realism, the park’s few odes to Disney IP - Pocahontas, Tarzan, and The Lion King - were theatrical.

But the ride's most recent original anchor attraction was a doozy. In fact, it was the first new "peak" in Disney's mountain range in years... 

LAST IP-FREE HEADLINER: Expedition Everest (2006 - 15 years ago)

The crescendo of the park’s first decade must have been the 2006 addition of the Modern Marvel: Expedition Everest. The park’s first E-Ticket addition, Expedition Everest gave Walt Disney World a new iconic attraction and gave Animal Kingdom the first of its promised mythological creatures: the epic (and broken) Yeti. 

Like all Disney Parks, though, IP has been the name of the game in recent years, including some that mesh well (like AVATAR and The Lion King) and some that feel half-baked (like a short-lived UP takeover of the park’s bird show and Donald Duck and friends taking over Dinoland). Also like all Disney Parks, it looks like IPs are the path forward, too, with rumors of Indiana Jones and Zootopia swirling. So Expedition Everest seems likely to keep its title… at least for another decade or so. 

7. Universal’s Islands of Adventure

Conceptually, Universal’s Islands of Adventure is a one-of-a-kind park we’re unlikely to see emulated ever again. Born after the “Ride the Movies” era but before the IP Wars of today, it’s an IP park… without blockbuster IPs. Rather than stuffing a park with lands themed to flavor-of-the-week film franchises (Despicable Me, Transformers, and Jurassic World), Islands’ whole “thing” is that it’s about timeless, intergenerational stories (Dr. Seuss, Marvel comics, Sunday funnies, Harry Potter, and Jurassic Park). It’s more like a library than a video store.

Even if its IPs are different than any Universal Studios park before or since, each of its lands is still fueled by someone else’s intellectual property… except one.

LAST IP-FREE HEADLINER: The Flying Unicorn (2000)

We told the story of the Lost Legend: The Lost Continent in its own standalone feature, but this single, mythological land was of Universal’s own creation. Divided into three fantasy realms depicting three far-flung adventures, it likewise contained three anchor attractions: the Declassified Disaster: Poseidon’s Fury walkthrough, the Eighth Voyage of Sinbad stunt show, and the iconic Dueling Dragons intertwined inverted coaster (none of which remain today).

Even though Islands of Adventure was filled with cartoons, comic book characters, and the Cat in the Hat, early visitors quickly discovered that the park was surprisingly short on rides for families with young kids. Just in time for its first summer, the park debuted two low-cost additions: the X-Men themed Storm Force Accelatron teacup ride and the off-the-shelf Flying Unicorn roller coaster in Lost Continent. Like the rest of Merlinwood, the Flying Unicorn was absorbed into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in 2010, but the original 2000 version of the ride would still count as the park's most recent IP-free attraction.

8. Disney California Adventure

There’s no park that’s seen as complete a reimagining over such a relatively short lifetime as Disney California Adventure. When the park opened, it was widely criticized for not being "too much California, not enough Disney," lacking the kinds of characters, stories, and romanticism guests expected. Today, that pendulum has arguably swung in the opposite direction - "too much Disney, not enough California." Today, the park hosts beautifully-decorated lands that recall historic, idealized Californian places… but they're almost exclusively filled with Monsters Inc., The Incredibles, The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, Cars, Frozen, and Spider-Man.

Though Disney California Adventure is definitely Disney’s West Coast stronghold for Pixar and Marvel, there are plenty of IP-free attractions to choose from thanks to its relatively un-Disney start. When it opened in 2001 alone, the park offered among its highlights “off-the-shelf” carnival rides and coasters like California Screamin’, the Sun Wheel, the Maliboomer, and Mulholland Madness; the Grizzly River Run raft ride (curiously lacking characters, where the Country Bears would make such good sense); and the IP-free Declassified Disaster: Superstar Limo (unless you count appearances by C-List ABC stars as IP). At least its most beloved, of course, was the Lost Legend: Soarin’ Over California - the park’s one standout favorite.

The park’s early years and subsequent legendary rebirth stocked it IPs at a breakneck speed, from The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to “a bug’s land;” Turtle Talk with Crush to Toy Story Midway Mania; Cars Land, Goofy’s Sky School, Ariel’s Undersea Adventure, Mickey’s Fun Wheel; Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!, the Incredicoaster; Frozen: Live at the Hyperion, Mickey's Philharmagic, Avengers Campus … From E-Tickets to flat rides, characters were grafted onto everything… In fact, the only major, IP-free attraction left at the park is...

LAST IP-FREE HEADLINER: Soarin’ Over California (2001 - 20 years ago)

Soarin’. Like at EPCOT, its newer “Around the World” overlay was set in 2016 (weirdly but expectedly cancelling the “Over California’ version… at California Adventure) but we’d still consider it the same ride, meaning it’s been 20 years – literally the park’s entire life – since its last, major, IP-free attraction...