Today we are opening our annual reader vote to determine the world's best theme park.
Based on your nominations, we have 12 semi-finalists for your consideration. They represent six different companies across three continents. Universal's Islands of Adventure is the defending champion for this Theme Park Insider Award, but this year's slate includes multiple former winners of the honor.
While today's vote is for Best Theme Park, it is not too late to submit your nominations in the final two categories for our 2024 Theme Park Insider Awards. Just follow these links to submit your picks:
Your rankings in those categories will determine what rides and shows we recommend in 2025 on our Theme Park Visitors Guides, so the more locations you list on our rankings, the better those recommendations will be! I will announced the winners in all categories on ThemeParkInsider.com on January 1.
And if you have not yet voted in the final-round vote for the Best New Attraction of 2024 award, you can do that here: Voting now open for the Best New Attraction of 2024.
Now, on to the vote for Best Park. As always, campaigning is welcomed, and encouraged, in the comments.
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With the addition of Fantasy Springs my jealousy of DisneySea continues to grow lol.
@Jack H -- I agree. Fantasy Springs is enough to move DisneySea to #1 (if it wasn't there before). I think the international travel requirement may make it tough to achieve that ranking on a domestic Theme Park site, however. Most people voting probably haven't been.
Universal Studios Florida ... Because of all the new E-ticket attractions Comcast has added to the park.
I'm a bit surprised Europa Park wasn't able to crack this list. While it doesn't quite have the level of immersion of Efteling or Phantasialand, it has numerous well-themed attractions and some incredible thrill rides. I threw my vote to the O.G. (Disneyland), because outside of Europa Park there isn't a theme park in the world that can match the total number of attractions and different experiences within a single gate.
I think Phantasialand is getting close some of the most immersive lands and attractions in the world, but the total number of attractions falls well short of older, more popular parks.
@Russell- once the current expansion is done at MK it will be closer, which is exciting for me. I've always hated that MK, which is bigger, had so much less than DL to do. By my count DL has about 12-13 "major" attractions, while MK currently has 8-9, but between Cars and Villains it should get about 12 and finally start to differentiate itself from DL rather than just being a lesser version.
For me personally, Phantasialand is the best park in the world. Even though it's a bit on the small side, the park is intricately themed throughout, and they offer a good variety of high quality rides with very little filler outside of some flat rides. The other parks that round out my top five include (in no particular order) Europa Park, Holiday World, PortAventura Park, and Silver Dollar City.
Tokyo DisneySea had a ridiculous reputation to live up to prior to our first visit there after years of reading glowing reviews here and in other pockets of theme park discussion.
And somehow it exceeded even those lofty expectations.
The scale and ambition of the park aren't able to be captured in photos or even the best of detailed reviews. It managed to surprise and delight us, despite literal years of research and anticipation.
And we still have numerous things left to experience because of rehab schedules and unfavorable lotteries, but now that Fantasy Springs is there as well, there's a ton more to explore. And it's hard to imagine voting for any other theme park in the near future.
Tokyo DisneySea was fantastic when I visited it several years ago, and according to the news it has only gotten better.
IOA and USF are my favorite destination(s) if I'm by myself or hitting the parks with my son,
BUT
For sheer relaxing enjoyment with my wife, the Magic Kingdom is my hands down favorite for the rides we can both enjoy together.
Having been to Tokyo DisneySea for two full days (in 2016 and 2019) and Tokyo Disneyland for one full day (in 2019), I can say that I preferred Tokyo Disneyland to DisneySea and that it was my favorite thing I ever visited.
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Epic Universal......