"It's Mr. Toad's Wild Ride," that person said. "All the rest are attractions."
I've heard this joke before, but it got me thinking this time. Sure, Toad's called a ride, but what about all those "journey"s and "adventure"s in the names of Disney attractions? Shouldn't they count for something, too? And by the way, I'm not so certain that other Disney attractions don't use the word "ride," either. If only I had access to a database that listed the names of all active, open Walt Disney attractions around the world....
Hey, wait a minute! ;^)
So I whipped up a little SQL query and here are the results.
[Notes: I thought it a bit cheap to count one name several times because it appeared on the same attraction at multiple parks, so I didn't do that. That decision got tricky with the five Fantasyland carousels, each of which has a different name - even with different spellings of "carousel". But they're all identical go-around-in-a-circle with white horses under a festival tent behind the castle - so I counted them as the same "carousel." That said, "carousel" still tied for third place. An attraction could have two "names," as well, such as Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, which counted as both a "tour" and an "adventure." Finally, I stopped the list at three instances of the same name, to keep the post length reasonable.]
For what it's worth, Disney has four rides, not just one. And a whole slew of adventures, races, spins, and tours, as well. Here's the breakdown:
Adventures (10, including an entire park)
Disney California Adventure
Adventure Isle (Disneyland Paris)
Ellen's Energy Adventure (Epcot)
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure (Disney's Hollywood Studios)
Indiana Jones Adventure (Disneyland)
Snow White's Scary Adventures (Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland)
Star Tours: The Adventures Continue (Disneyland, Disney's Hollywood Studios)
The American Adventure (Epcot)
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure (Disney California Adventure)
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom)
Races (5)
Blowfish Balloon Race (Tokyo DisneySea)
Cars Race Rally (Walt Disney Studios Paris)
Grand Circuit Raceway (Tokyo Disneyland)
Radiator Springs Racers (Disney California Adventure)
RC Racer (Hong Kong Disneyland, Walt Disney Studios Paris)
Carousels (4)
Caravan Carousel (Tokyo DisneySea)
Carousel of Progress (Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom)
King Triton's Carousel (Disney California Adventure)
The five Fantasyland carousels (Counting them as one)
Coasters (4)
Crush's Coaster (Walt Disney Studios Paris)
Flounder's Flying Fish Coaster (Tokyo DisneySea)
Gadget's Go Coaster (Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland)
Rock n' Roller Coaster (Disney's Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney Studios Paris)
Spins (4)
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin (Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom)
Roger Rabbit's Car-Toon Spin (Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland)
Slinky Dog Spin (Hong Kong Disneyland, Walt Disney Studios Paris)
TriceraTop Spin (Disney's Animal Kingdom)
Rides (4)
Monsters Inc. Ride and Go Seek (Tokyo Disneyland)
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride (Disneyland)
StormRider (Tokyo DisneySea)
The Great Movie Ride (Disney's Hollywood Studios)
Journeys (3)
Journey Into the Imagination With Figment (Epcot)
Journey to the Center of the Earth (Tokyo DisneySea)
Pinocchio's Daring Journey (Disneyland, Tokyo Disneyland)
Mountains (3)
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris)
Space Mountain (Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris)
Splash Mountain (Disneyland, Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom, Tokyo Disneyland)
Tours (3)
Gran Fiesta Tour (Epcot)
Star Tours (Disneyland, Disney's Hollywood Studios, Tokyo Disneyland, Disneyland Paris)
Studio Backlot Tour (Disney's Hollywood Studios, Walt Disney Studios Paris)
Trails (3)
Discovery Island Trails (Disney's Animal Kingdom)
Pangani Forest Exploration Trail (Disney's Animal Kingdom)
Redwood Creek Challenge Trail (Disney California Adventure)
Trains (3)
Casey Jr. Circus Train (Disneyland, Disneyland Paris)
Heimlich's Chew Chew Train (Disney California Adventure)
Wildlife Express Train (Disney's Animal Kingdom)
So what's your favorite type of Disney, uh, experience?
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I believe "ride" means something that doesn't have additional special effects or storytelling narrative, whereas an "attraction" has it.
Most roller coasters, Main Street vehicles, carousels, spinners (dumbo, tea cups) are rides.
The remainder are attractions.
At Disney, its attention to detail makes them all attractions.
You can argue that Disney makes attractions while everyone else makes rides, but an argument will get you nowhere as you'll reach the same conclusion... an attraction can be considered a ride, but not all attractions are rides.
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