Good morning RunDisney All-Stars! Welcome to this week's edition of Sundays are for Disney (SAFD). We're going back to the parks for this week's question along with a quick straw poll at the end. For the main question this week, let's rank the Disney World parks. How do you rank the parks and what are the deciding factors? Have the walls coming down in Epcot or its relatively new rides made a difference in where you rank it? Let's hear what makes your favorite park special to you.
The straw poll: March Madness is rapidly approaching and I was thinking that it would be fun to run a tournament of our own. My initial idea was to have a couple of SAFD weeks where we listed our top 4 attractions in each park, maybe 2 parks/SAFD to minimize the number of weeks spent "prepping". I would take that info and create a 16 attraction bracket that we would vote on each week during March Madness to determine our ultimate attraction. Does that sound like running around World Showcase or past the water treatment plant and rhino house to you? I don't want to do something extended like that if people aren't interested.
SAFD:
My Disney World park rankings are:
- Magic Kingdom
- Epcot
- Animal Kingdom
- Hollywood Studios
I'm not a thrill ride person, so that heavily impacts my rankings. For me, MK is where the magic is. It's quintessential Disney and I love the park setup, the milder rides like HM and PotC, the character parades and just the general feel of the park. I can be perfectly happy going to MK to just walk around and soak in the ambience without setting foot on a ride.
Epcot has slipped back past AK to number 2 on my list now that the walls are coming down. World Showcase has always been a favorite with its food and shopping and now I feel I can venture back to the front of the park again. I am a little disappointed that they chose to remove my beloved Fountain of Nations for, what? A park area? I like the Moana water feature, but struggle to see what the new area outside of Connections really adds. Ah, well, it's still 2nd.
Animal Kingdom is great, but not great enough to be higher up on the list. I love the original aspects of the park (well, maybe not the dinosaur area so much), Kilimanjaro Safaris is always a delight, but Avatar has never felt like Disney to me. It's a beautiful addition, no doubt, but there's no draw to it for me. It'll be interesting to see what they do with the dinosaur area moving forward.
Hollywood Studios has just never spoken to me. I hoped that might change with Galaxy's Edge, as im a huge Star Wars fan. Alas, as much as I enjoy GE, it hasn't moved the needle on the park overall. Plus, maybe it's just me or bad timing, but it doesn't seem like characters are out roaming Batuu with nearly the frequency that they used to. Disappointing. Toy Story with its Midway Mania is a fun little area, too, but overall DHS is a distant 4th on my list.