What Is the Best New Attraction of 2021?

November 28, 2021, 1:28 PM · What was the best new theme park ride or show to open this year? Starting tomorrow, you will have the opportunity to decide that.

First-round voting opens Monday morning for the Best New Attraction category in the 21st annual Theme Park Insider Awards. Subscribers to our free email newsletter will get an exclusive link to the ballot. If you are not already a subscriber, you can sign up now to get the link.

And don't worry if you missed Monday morning's email. We send the newsletter three times a week and include links to all active award votes each time.


Last year's winner: Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Disney's Hollywood Studios.

Want to read up on the candidates? Follow the links below for our coverage and reviews of each new attraction. In cases where multiple attractions opened at the same park and we covered them all in one story, only the first attraction is linked.

You may vote for one attraction on the official ballot. If no attraction gets more than 50% of the vote in the first round, up to 10 finalists will face off in a front-page vote on ThemeParkInsider.com in December to determine the winner. Last year's winner in this category, Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Walt Disney World's Disney's Hollywood Studios, did win more than 50% of the votes in the first round, so there was no final-round voting in this category last year.

Will history repeat in 2021? Perhaps. Again, to vote, please make sure that you have subscribed to our email newsletter. While the voting will happen through the newsletter, you are invited to campaign for your favorite in the comments below.

Thank you, as always, for being part of the Theme Park Insider community.

Replies (7)

November 29, 2021 at 2:30 AM

Surely nothing stands a chance against KiteTails?

November 29, 2021 at 11:34 AM

Or could have been written..

Do you agree Velocicoaster is the best new attraction yes/no ?

November 29, 2021 at 11:45 AM

Velocicoaster seems the best bet to me.

November 29, 2021 at 11:47 AM

It seems that themeparkinside really exhibits a structural hate for Puy du Fou ! ???? Why is that ? Is there stil not one single american who ever visited this "Best" park in the world ??
I do not understand a bit of it ...
I nominate : Le Monde Imaginaire de la Fontaine,
an interactive experience in splendid gardens , in their best "NO RIDES PARK" tradition.
https://www.puydufou.com/france/en/le-monde-imaginaire-de-la-fontaine?language_content_entity=en

November 29, 2021 at 1:55 PM

I knew I was going to miss something, and was just waiting for the angry response accusing me of ignoring something willfully when it was just plain me missing it.

And there it is. I am sorry about the omission. I really tried to get a pretty good list here. (Not that it likely would have mattered.)

FWIW, we have a Puy du Fou show in our top 10 worldwide. And I expect to see some shows from that park on the same list this year. That category is coming up Friday.

November 29, 2021 at 5:13 PM

I haven't received the mail yet...

November 30, 2021 at 4:08 AM

Also missing here is The Ride to Happiness - Plopsaland. It will not surpass VelociCoaster, but compared to the rest of the list, a definite top 5 attraction! Arguably the best new ride in Europe.

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