Earlier this week, I told you about the rides that appear in all six of Disney's castle theme parks across the world. Today, let's look at the popular Disney rides that missed that standard by one park.
Let's start with an attraction that once was present at all six Disney castle parks. You can find some version of Orbitron spinners now in five of Disney's theme parks, after Tokyo Disneyland closed its old-school Star Jets in 2017. The aerial carousel operates as Orbitron at Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland. The Disneyland installation is called Astro Orbitor, while Magic Kingdom's is called Astro Orbiter - fueling the eternal frustration of any copy editor working the theme park beat. Shanghai Disneyland has its Jet Packs, with a minimalist look compared with the other aerial carousels.
Disney does have a couple of other rides that appear in five of its castle parks under the same name. You can find It's a Small World in every Disney castle park except Shanghai Disneyland. And you can find Peter Pan's Flight in all the parks, save Hong Kong Disneyland. In fact, you now can find Peter Pan ride in two parks at the Tokyo Disney Resort, with the new Peter Pan's Adventure at Tokyo DisneySea.
Five Disney castle parks also feature heritage railroads, though not all make a "Grand Circle Tour" around their park. Tokyo Disneyland's Western River Railroad travels around the park's Rivers of America in Westernland and Critter Country and Jungle Cruise in Adventureland. Of the rest, only the Disneyland and Disneyland Paris railroads offer the Grand Canyon diorama.
Explorers can climb elaborately decorated treehouses in five Disney castle parks, with the Swiss Family Treehouse at Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland, La Cabane des Robinson at Disneyland Paris, and the Adventureland Treehouse in Disneyland. At Hong Kong Disneyland, Tarzan's Treehouse stands on an island accessible by rafts, much like the Tom Sawyer Island play areas in Anaheim and Tokyo.
Winnie the Pooh also gets plenty of love in the Disney castle parks. But one Pooh's rides is not like the others. The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh appears in four Disney theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, Hong Kong Disneyland, and Shanghai Disneyland. But at Tokyo Disneyland, Pooh gets an upgrade with Pooh's Hunny Hunt, a trackless dark ride with a much higher budget - and guest ratings - than its siblings around the world.
Speaking of outliers, let's talk about what might be Disney Parks' most successful theme park IP - Pirates of the Caribbean. That attraction appears in various forms at five Disney castle parks, including the Disneyland original, a truncated version at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, a Tokyo Disneyland installation that blends the Disneyland ride with Magic Kingdom's unload station, and a Disneyland Paris installation that flips the narrative while retaining most of the ride's components. But in Shanghai, Disney reinvented Pirates with Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, which features new ride technology and special effects with a story inspired by the film series.
Space Mountain also has one significant outlier among its installations and is about to get a second. The indoor roller coaster appears at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Disneyland, and Hong Kong Disneyland. But the Paris installation (now operating as Hyperspace Mountain - a Star Wars overlay that has appeared in Anaheim and Hong Kong) is a launched Vekoma coaster with three inversions. Tokyo Disneyland has torn down its original Space Mountain and is building a new version of the attraction with an entirely new design. That one is expected to open in 2027.
Disney also featured mine train roller coasters in five of its castle parks. You can ride Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disneyland, Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Paris, with the Paris installation featuring a unique installation on the islands in the middle of its Frontierland Rivers of the Far West. At Hong Kong Disneyland, the mine train is called Big Grizzly Mountain Runaway Mine Cars and features - spoiler alert! - Audio-Animatronic bears as well as a track switch that enables the cars to run backward for one section.
Since we are now stretching the definition of five-park Disney attractions, let us consider Disney's famous haunted houses. The Haunted Mansion greets aspiring ghosts at Disneyland, the Magic Kingdom and Tokyo Disneyland - with an annual Haunted Mansion Holiday overlay appearing in Anaheim and Tokyo. The same ride, with a slightly different story and much different final "graveyard" scenes, appears in Paris as Phantom Manor. And Disney embraces a completely different storyline with Hong Kong's Mystic Manor, which includes a couple of nods to motifs in the Haunted Mansion as it tells a story from Disney Parks' Society of Explorers and Adventurers IP using a trackless dark ride system - and no stretching rooms.
Looking beyond the castle parks, you can find Mickey's Philharmagic at five Disney theme park resorts around the world. While the 4D movie plays in the castle parks in Orlando, Paris, Tokyo, and Hong Kong, the show plays across the esplanade at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim.
Similarly, Star Tours has played at five Disney theme park resorts, but Walt Disney World's installation plays at Disney's Hollywood Studios rather than Magic Kingdom. Star Tours - The Adventure Continues now plays at Disneyland, Disneyland Paris, and Tokyo Disneyland. But Hong Kong Disneyland switched the motion base theater's theme from Star Wars to Marvel 2017, where it now plays as Iron Man Experience.
Curious about which Disney ride features most often at non-castle parks? The Twilight Zone Tower of Tower welcomes guests at Disney's Hollywood Studios and the soon-to-be-renamed Disney Adventure World at Disneyland Paris. The ride also used to run at Disney California Adventure before it was rethemed to Marvel to become Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! A non-Twilight Zone version (with a Society of Explorers and Adventurers theme) called Tower of Terror also runs at Tokyo DisneySea. A fifth Disney drop tower - and the first for a castle park - is in development for Hong Kong Disneyland, where it will be themed to Spider-Man and the Avengers.
Between now and the end of the year, I am planning a closer look at a few of these five-park attractions - Pirates, Mansion, Thunder, the railroads, and Small World - presenting my rankings across the chain for each. Stay tuned!
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