2023 Awards: Best of Disney World Attractions

As 2023 draws to a close, we have lots of data to review, and lots of recommendations to make for those of you considering 2024 Walt Disney World vacations. Over the past few days, I’ve been reviewing results from our post-visit surveys that we received this year, and helping you interpret what they should mean for your next vacation. Today we’re going over all of the satisfaction data from our attraction surveys. Which park has the highest-scoring attractions? Which attractions are the best overall? Or with a specific age group?

This serves as your obligatory reminder that the accuracy of these results fully depends on the number of people that are willing to fill out post-visit surveys after their Walt Disney World vacations. Make sure to submit your thoughts after your WDW vacations so that we can continue providing meaningful insights!

Overall Attraction Satisfaction

Which attractions have the highest satisfaction overall, across all parks and age categories? We have almost 187,000 unique attraction ratings to work with, so we can get a pretty good idea. Each of these responses rates an attraction on a scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied). I can average all of the responses to get an overall rating for each attraction. Using that methodology, the winners for 2023 are:

1. Avatar Flight of Passage – 4.77
2. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – 4.73
3. Mickey’s “Boo to You” Halloween Parade – 4.71
4. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – 4.69
5. Star Wars Launch Bay: Meet Chewbacca – 4.67

Our top 5 includes three attractions, one special party parade, and one character greet. I’m personally glad to see Cosmic Rewind on this list. Flight of Passage and Rise of the Resistance are expected, but Cosmic Rewind has more detractors (I get it, it’s difficult for those that struggle with motion sickness). In my opinion it’s more repeatable thanks to the changing soundtracks, and it’s just a lot of fun. It’s one attraction that I seek out frequently – even when I’m mostly in different parks for the day. I’ve popped over to EPCOT for just this attraction multiple times. It scores major points with me for being much more reliable than Rise of the Resistance. Very little unexpected downtime, which means it’s much less frustrating to experience than Rise.

The “Boo To You” parade during Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party got rave reviews this year. In 2022, it didn’t feel like the “full” parade was back in full swing. But this year it was firing on all cylinders.

An interesting fifth spot thanks to meeting Chewbacca. Major props here go to Chewbacca because there are so many character meet-and-greets across property, and this one beats them all. Nothing beats hugs from Chewbacca, and despite the language barrier, he’s a lot of fun to talk to.

Parks with Highest Attraction Satisfaction

1. Hollywood Studios – 4.34 (4.32 last year)
2. Animal Kingdom – 4.23 (4.15 last year)
3. Magic Kingdom – 4.12 (4.06 last year)
4. EPCOT – 4.04 (4.01 last year)

If we take all of the surveys from each park and average them all together, we can get idea of just how impressive the attraction slate is for each park as a whole. And we have SO many surveys that none of the confidence intervals overlap for any of these parks. This is statistically a reliable ranking.

Hollywood Studios should be no surprise in the top spot. It’s got 2 out of the top 5 attractions, and many other popular and high-satisfaction attractions too. But you’ll “pay” for that popularity with high wait times unless you go into your Studios day with a solid strategy.

Animal Kingdom may come as a surprise in 2nd place, but its satisfaction scores have been buoyed by the closure of low-rating attractions like Primeval Whirl and KiteTails (RIP). For the low-rated attractions that do still exist (looking at you, TriceraTop Spin), not many people choose to ride them, and so they don’t get scored. Then you’ve got attractions like Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, and Kilimanjaro Safaris that are the big draws and get big scores. In fact, Animal Kingdom is the most-improved compared to last year. It’s my favorite park, and I want all of you to love it too!

Magic Kingdom and EPCOT fall to the bottom of our list, mostly due to a significant number of attractions that haven’t seen any love in a while (Imagination Pavilion) or have wait times that are too long for what you get (Barnstormer, Magic Carpets).

Full Rankings For Each Park

If you want to plan your upcoming WDW vacation around attractions that rate highly overall, here are the full results for each of the four theme parks. Remember that you can click on any image to open it in full size.

Hollywood Studios

I don’t think that there are any major surprises here. The obvious “loser” is Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, followed by Alien Swirling Saucers, and potentially Disney Junior Play and Dance. Character meet and greets fall in the middle of the pack, other than Chewbacca who rises (with the Resistance?) above the rest. Can we also mention – just between friends – how Savi’s Workshop, a wildly expensive in-park experience, comes in 3rd place? It’s incredible to me that it’s perceived as such a satisfying “attraction” even at the high prices it commands. Disney’s doing something right there.

Animal Kingdom

Last year, the Animal Kingdom rankings separated out into some nice groupings of “great”, “good” and “not so good”. But things have really smoothed out this year. Interestingly, if you’re just interested in trying attractions that rate 4 (out of 5) or higher, you have 20 options at Animal Kingdom including a lot of live entertainment. That’s almost as many 4-or-higher options as you’ll find at Hollywood Studios (which has 22).

Magic Kingdom

Out of the top 10 attractions in the Magic Kingdom for 2023, you have three parades (two of which are generally only available during parties), two fireworks shows (Christmas and Happily Ever After, which deserves its spot), the Castle itself, three “rides” and meeting Mickey. If that’s isn’t a classic and telling mix, I don’t know what is. And the three top attractions are Big Thunder, Seven Dwarfs, and TRON. Those spread you all throughout the park and, unfortunately, force you to deal with virtual queues and/or Individual Lightning Lane.

There is an interesting break right at the above/below 4.0 rating. If you knew absolutely nothing about the Magic Kingdom, you could plan your day just by starting with everything above that break!

EPCOT

Well, maybe 2024 will be EPCOT’s year? I swear I deduct at least half a point from every attraction just because those dang construction walls make everything so hard to get to, and a bunch of them recently came down. So that’s something. EPCOT isn’t all about the rides, though. And you do yourself a disservice if you avoid all of the other exploring and entertainment. Of the top 20 attractions here, only 4 are rides. Make sure you take your time to enjoy the atmosphere at EPCOT and learn a few things while you’re there.

Best Attractions by Age Group

The makeup of your travelling party heavily impacts what your group will enjoy, and so it’s more important to understand what specific age groups enjoy than to just go with overall winners! As a note – these lists specifically avoid seasonal offerings so that they’re easier to digest and apply for everyone.

Preschool

1. Meet Dashing Disney Pals – 4.90
2. Festival of Fantasy – 4.82
3. The Boneyard – 4.81
4. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique – 4.76
5. Meet Mickey at Town Square Theater – 4.75

Compared to last year, we have some big shifts! Princesses (Anna/Elsa, Tiana, Cinderella) are out of the top 5! Minnie, Daisy, and Mickey are in. But otherwise we’re still pretty similar to last year – characters and playing in rocks. Plus some pampering. That checks out. 4 out of the top 5 here are in Magic Kingdom. In fact, unlike the overall results, Magic Kingdom has the highest overall attraction satisfaction rating of any park with this age group. Take those preschoolers to Magic Kingdom!

Grade School

1. Journey of Water, Inspired by Moana – 4.78
2. TIE! Fantasmic! and Droid Depot – 4.72
3. Star Wars Launch Bay: Meet Chewbacca – 4.69
4. Meet Anna and Elsa at Royal Sommerhaus – 4.68

Another group of kids, another bunch of shake-ups. In fact, the only repeat from last year’s list is Droid Depot. But, interestingly, the overall theme didn’t change. If you needed any hints or recommendations about which park to bring your grade schooler to, here’s the kick in the pants you need – it’s Hollywood Studios. Which, as a parent, can be a bit of a chore. There is a lot to strategize in Hollywood Studios so your kids don’t end up in miserable hours-long lines. But 3 out of their top 5 attractions are there. The other two are in EPCOT, so that should be your second park. How quickly they grow out of Magic Kingdom!

Teenage

1. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – 4.95
2. Avatar Flight of Passage – 4.86
3. TIE! Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Expedition Everest – 4.83
4. Savi’s Workshop – 4.82

Overall, teens get a bad rap for being hard to please. But they have some of the highest ratings of any age group at the top of the list! They know what they like, and will rate it accordingly. Of course, there are a lot of attractions that they love to hate too. Teenagers see the least year-over-year turnover of the non-adult crowd, since 4 out of their top 5 are repeats from last year. Rock’n’Roller Coaster is the only one to drop out, and Expedition Everest earns a spot instead.

Young Adult

1. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – 4.93
2. Avatar Flight of Passage – 4.90
3. Savi’s Workshop – 4.85
4. TIE! Expedition Everest and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – 4.81

Young adults fall between those teen years and the ripe old age of 30 (she says sarcastically, feeling like a pretty young adult still). We see a lot of repeats from the teen crowd, and an exact repeat of the top 5 for this group from last year – just with some reshuffling. Interestingly, the big winner here is Savi’s Workshop, which went from 5th place to 3rd place, even with big price increases in the past year!

Over Thirty

1. TIE! – Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Avatar Flight of Passage, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – 4.82
2. Expedition Everest – 4.72
3. Kilimanjaro Safaris – 4.71

A big tie for the top three, and then after that, no other attraction is even close for the over 30 crowd! Prepare to arrive early or buy some individual lightning lanes if you’re in this age group. You’re also the most likely to love Animal Kingdom, where you’ll find 3 of the top 5 for this crew. Okay, yes. These are my people.

Senior

1. Mariachi Cobre – 4.84
2. Voices of Liberty – 4.80
3. TIE! Kilimanjaro Safaris and Festival of the Lion King – 4.75
4. Avatar Flight of Passage – 4.74

Okay, the seniors are a chill crowd. I see you. I may not fit in with the seniors age-wise, but I’m digging their collective choices here. This list of attractions makes me think senior adults are all about appreciating journeys and perspective. Catch some truly talented musical acts in the World Showcase, or spend your time exploring Animal Kingdom. Perfection.

What Does This Mean For You?

1. Everyone has different opinions and preferences. My favorite attractions won’t be the same as yours, but breaking things down into age groups gets us a little closer.
2. When planning your WDW vacation, use things like attractions lists and satisfaction scores to help you decide how much time to spend in each park so that you give your party the best chance to have an enjoyable trip.
3. If we want to generalize, prioritize characters for preschoolers, thrill for teens, and relaxing journeys for seniors. And if you’re a party of just adults, go for the headliners.

Did any of the 2023 winners surprise you? Would you have ranked anything differently? Is there an attraction you’re most looking forward to experiencing in 2024? Let me know in the comments!