Is This the Best Disney Ride in the World!? This is a Must-Read For Disney Fans

Disney has created so many fantastic rides and attractions at their theme parks around the world over the past seven decades since Disneyland first opened in Anaheim, California.

There are many contenders for the best Disney rides in the world. There are the classics and the favorites at my “home park” and then there are new rides I have ridden for the first time. I just flew halfway around the world to one of the last Disney Parks I hadn't visited to ride one of Disney's highest-rated rides. At Mickey Visit, we work hard to bring you the most helpful Disney news and planning reviews.

READ MORE – These 10 Disney Rides Have Changed Dramatically Since Their Opening

Is This the Best Disney Ride in the World?!

Calling any Disney ride in the world the “best” is difficult because every guest has their own rubric for what makes a ride stand out for them. Some need laughs, others thrill, and others heart. Some want to enjoy the classics that they grew up on and others are looking for the most cutting edge technology that pushes the limit.

You can have favorites for different reasons. I often find myself splitting attractions into the classics bucket and the new generation of rides bucket. Nothing beats Pirates of the Caribbean and Haunted Mansion for classics or Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Indiana Jones Adventure among newer rides.

There are maybe 5 to 10 different rides around the world that any person could claim as the best ride in their own grading and have an argument that makes sense for why they are ranking that ride in that way.

Last week, I flew halfway around the world to Hong Kong Disneyland for the kickoff of their 20th Anniversary celebration and, almost more importantly, to experience a ride that many have called one of the best Disney rides in the world. I am, of course, talking about Mystic Manor.

This ride is the park's version of the Haunted Mansion that was created when Imagineers set out to design an attraction that brought a similar ride experience to the park without using ghosts as the focal point. The Chinese have a more reverential view of ghosts, and they are not scary in that culture.

The resulting attraction replaces the Haunted Mansion in Hong Kong Disneyland's lineup but delivers a slightly different, more adventurous tone. The final product feels like a combination of a Disney classic and a new generation attraction. It is as if the ride was designed by Walt Disney's original Imagineers, with the technology available today. The resulting ride is an instant classic that utilizes cutting-edge technology. This ride immediately jumped high up in my list of the best Disney rides in the world, and maybe even to the very top.

The ride is set inside a Victorian Mansion in the middle of the Mystic Point mini-land that features this attraction, a shop, and a beautiful semi-buffet restaurant.

READ MORE – 11 Unwritten Rules of the Disney Parks You Really Need to Follow

Mystic Manor is One of Disney's Best Rides

Turning to the story of the ride, Lord Henry Mystic and his monkey companion, Albert, have scoured the globe for rare and magical artifacts to collect and showcase in their home.

In the pre-show, Lord Mystic welcomes guests with an old-school projector presentation of what riders can expect. Albert is already causing problems in this presentation, foreshadowing the upcoming ride experience.

Guests are invited to tour his museum in a special ride car, but are told to be aware of a magical music box that can bring inanimate objects to life. His mischievous monkey, Albert, doesn't heed this warning and, of course, touches the box. As is the case in many of the best attractions, something goes terribly wrong, and the contents of the entire mansion begin to come to life.

Your cart twists and dances its way through different scenes of the attraction, encountering artifacts and paintings that animate in different ways.

The ride takes you through an Egyptian Tomb with a sarcophagus, a room with enchanted tribal tikis, an area with Greco-Roman statues, volcanic eruptions, Arctic expeditions, and a Chinese jade dragon.

A full suit of armor, a tile mosaic of Medusa, a huge plant, and a large cannon are other items that animate in playful and creative ways.

The energy in the attraction heightens with each scene being slightly more intense. The ride cars are targeted with darts from the tiki gods and Albert gets caught in the fire. In the final room, a tornado of sorts begins to pull the house apart. Then, just like that the ride gets tied up with a neat bow, saved just in the nick of time.

Though something has gone “wrong” with the animated items, you never quite feel like you are in danger. The feeling of the attraction is more of wonderment. By the finale of the ride, Albert the monkey is able to handle closing the music box himself, just before Lord Mystic pops back into the scene. This isn't a scenario where only the powerful sorcerer can step in and save the day in the style of the great Yensid helping Mickey Mouse as the Sorcerer's Apprentice.

I think that distinction helps to illustrate the feeling of the ride. Things are out of control, but our monkey friend is still able to shut it all down. You are never quite in fear or in complete thrill. Mystic Manor delivers a wondrous experience of marveling at the different items within the ride, without saying you are in danger from this horror house that is going to attack you. I like that they drew the line there. In the ride, you're both an observer and in the middle of the action.

The ride is brought to life by the music throughout the queue, in the pre-show, and on the ride. Danny Elfman, the composer famous for Nightmare Before Christmas and other great film scores, created a fantastic score for this ride that heightens all of the feelings that I described above. The music brings in the wonder and, at times, a little bit of fear.

The ride system itself is a trackless ride car, but it is the best version of this technology that I have seen anywhere in the world. The cars here are far smaller than any of the other trackless ride systems that I have seen in use. The smaller car allows for far more mobility and the feeling of intimacy with the show scenes. It allows the ride to feel more like a traditional Fantasyland Dark Ride.

Compare this to Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway which is a wonderful attraction that I love to ride, but one that would have been improved if the ride was more compact. In that ride, the cars are very wide and require large clear-cut ride car paths through the show buildings. Imagine if the cars were small enough there to be pulled in around the tornado in that scene rather than just cruise by it.

All of the creatives who worked on this project were clearly very passionate about the attraction. There are so many little details in the queue and ride that honor other attractions. One that stood out to me were the busts from the Haunted Mansion that follow you with their gaze as you ride past them. There are also other great, deeper Disney Parks cuts.

The ride is connected into the Society of Explorers and Adventurers (S.E.A.). This is a niche Easter Egg storyline that connects classic attractions from the parks around the world. Lord Henry Mystic is a key member of the Society. Harrison Hightower III from Tokyo DisneySea’s Tower of Terror and Barnabas T. Bullion from Big Thunder Mountain. These characters all appear in photos in the queue. Another aspect of this is that Bullion is based on Disney Legend Imagineer Tony Baxter who designed Big Thunder Mountain and Hightower is based on Disney Legend Imagineer Joe Rohde. This hidden continuity connects these rides and rewards curious Disney fans who dig into the attraction.

This ride was created during a period when the Disney Parks were firing on all cylinders – much like the period I hope we are headed into right now. Disney Imagineers were enabled by great executives to push the envelope to develop great attractions.

This ride was part of a great succession of attractions that opened when Tom Staggs was Chairman of Disney Parks, including Cars Land at Disney California Adventure, the Ratatouille ride for Disneyland Paris, and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom. Staggs deserves credit for pushing Imagineers to deliver the best quality work possible and allowing Imagineers to run with big ideas like Mystic Manor.

Mystic Manor is the last major Disney attraction built without relying on an existing franchise. Since this ride opened in 2013, all other new rides have been based on existing Disney franchises to guarantee a built in audience.

Even if Disney continues to go in the franchise properties direction, there are lessons to learn from how Mystic Manor was created.

A great recent example is what Disney Legend Joe Rohde was able to do with Pandora – The World of Avatar at Animal Kingdom. He used the Avatar world as a way in to tell a story of conservation and natural beauty. The land and attractions feel fresh and highly immersive. The main Avatar Flight of Passage attraction doesn't retell the story of the movie, but creates a fresh new experience connected to the most interesting thing you could do in that world. I hope that the upcoming Avatar ride at Disney California Adventure follows the same approach.

Though the new rides coming to Disneyland and new rides for Disney World are all tied to big Disney stories, Mystic Manor can still serve as a reminder of what's possible when the creative team is given the space to push the boundaries.

So, is Mystic Manor the best Disney ride in the world? My trip halfway around the world to see Mystic Manor reminded me why I fell in love with Disney parks in the first place. Imagineering creates real magic when technology and storytelling come together just right. With its combination of great story and use of technology, Mystic Manor is easily one of the top best Disney rides in the world and in the top five on my list.

Be sure to join our Mickey Visit newsletter below for a future list of those overall top attractions around the world and more discussion on how I rank and compare all of these rides using those categories I mentioned above.

READ MORE – It’s Long Overdue for Disney World To Fix Animal Kingdom’s Big Problem 

Don't Miss the Latest Disney News

Don't miss the latest Disneyland and Disney World news from Mickey Visit. Join the FREE Mickey Visit newsletter that over 100k readers receive every single week. Mickey Visit is here to help you save money and experience more during your Disney and Universal vacation. See the Mickey Visit guide to Disneyland and the Mickey Visit guide to Disney World for tips.