What’s the WORST park in Disney World?
Disney World
Everyone probably has a different opinion, depending on personal preference and experience. But when you put thousands of those opinions together, you can get a pretty clear picture of which park most people put in the last-place slot. So we went to Yelp to find the answer!
Disney World has four theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom, and EPCOT. There are also two water parks, tons of hotels, and a shopping and dining district called Disney Springs, but we’re just talking about those four theme parks right now.
Magic Kingdom is the most iconic park — it was the first Disney theme park in Florida, it’s home to Cinderella Castle, and there are lots of classic rides like Dumbo, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom
Animal Kingdom is where you’ll find Pandora: The World of Avatar, the Kilimanjaro Safaris ride, and some fun shows like Festival of the Lion King and Feathered Friends in Flight. It’s a great option if you want a more chill, relaxing day.
Animal Kingdom
EPCOT is known for seasonal festivals, which bring lots of great food to the booths around the park. It also has World Showcase, with 11 pavilions that represent different countries around the world. Plus, you can ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which is a really awesome roller coaster.
EPCOT
A lot of visitors say that their favorite park is Hollywood Studios, since that’s where you’ll find Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Toy Story Land, and most of the biggest roller coasters in Disney World.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Hollywood Studios’ popularity is why we were SHOCKED to find out that this is actually the WORST-reviewed ride in Disney World on Yelp!
WORST: Disney’s Hollywood Studios — 3.7 Stars
Of all the four theme parks, Hollywood Studios had the LOWEST rating, with 3.7 stars. Some of the reasons why people ranked it this low were high wait times, rides that break down frequently, and big crowds.
©Yelp
Tom said, “Early admission day today on a Saturday at the Hollywood studio [sic] and the top four rides are broken down. It’s getting to be an old circumstance now as this happens continuously at the Disney parks.” We agree that it’s definitely a bummer when you arrive at a park on time only to find that several of the rides are unavailable.
Rise of the Resistance Entrance
Phil said that Hollywood Studios is “the worst Disney park. It’s tiny and always overcrowded. The rides are limited only having and [sic] small handful in the park, and they are often broke.” Hollywood Studios rides tend to have very long lines, as there are fewer options in the park and lots of them are popular. Some of these popular rides — like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — are definitely prone to breaking down frequently.
Rise of the Resistance
For that reason, we recommend purchasing Genie+ at Hollywood Studios. Being able to skip the lines in this park is HUGE when there are so many long wait times.
Slinky Dog Dash
Karla gave Hollywood Studios a 5-star review: “Haven’t been in YEARS. Came for my boyfriend’s milestone birthday because he’s a Star Wars nerd. Galaxy’s Edge is out-of-this-world! We were able to do everything we wanted to from specific rides to making light sabers and everything in between.”
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge
Planning ahead and prioritizing your must-do attractions is especially important at Hollywood Studios so that you’re able to spend your time wisely and not miss out on the best things.
Click here for a FULL GUIDE to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
3rd: Magic Kingdom — 3.9 Stars
The next-to-worst park according to Yelp is another surprise: Magic Kingdom with 3.9 stars. Magic Kingdom also had the most reviews of any of the parks, but not by much — it only had about 100 more reviews than EPCOT (which scored higher).
©Yelp
The reviews for Magic Kingdom were a mixed bag. Brian had a horrible experience, calling the park a “total scam.” His main complaints were that Genie+ costs extra and the TRON virtual queue is difficult to use. Before you visit Magic Kingdom, make sure to read up on virtual queues — some of them fill up FAST, and it can definitely be a surprise and a disappointment to miss your chance to ride one of those popular coasters.
TRON Lightcycle / Run
Randy visited Magic Kingdom for one hour and then left straight away. He said, “Traveled a long distance to find Space Mountain, Jungle Cruise, Pirates, and Haunted Mansion and People Mover all closed the day we arrived to the park.” Like Hollywood Studios, ride closures frequently plague Magic Kingdom. Usually, the closures only last a couple of hours, so make sure to keep checking the My Disney Experience app for updates! However, it’s not unheard of for some attractions to be closed all day.
Peter Pan’s Flight
Other guests love Magic Kingdom, especially for its nostalgia factor. Thomas said, “As an annual pass holder I am a frequent visitor to all of the Disney parks. Magic Kingdom was my first ever Disney experience so it will always be that special place.” Thomas also enjoyed the new TRON Lightcycle / Run coaster: “I had the chance to ride on TRON recently, and must say it was one of the best rides I’ve experienced out of all the parks.”
Magic Kingdom Entrance
Arelys also had a good experience at Magic Kingdom: “I had the chance to visit Magic Kingdom with my friend and it was an experience like no other! This huge park is stunningly beautiful, with the giant castle taking center stage as its main attraction. It’s so big that seeing everything in one day is nearly impossible. There are some thrilling roller coasters and countless other entertaining activities. The food throughout the park is really good too. But the highlight for me was the fireworks show at night – it’s absolutely the best and creates a unique experience you won’t forget.”
Magic Kingdom fireworks
The most important thing you can do to make your experience more like Thomas’ and Arelys’ is to plan ahead! Make a list of your priorities, learn about Genie+ and virtual queues, be at the park EARLY (before it opens), and make a Plan B in case any unavoidable issues (like ride closures) come up.
Click here to read our FULL GUIDE to Magic Kingdom.
2nd: Disney’s Animal Kingdom — 4.1 Stars
The second-highest-rated Disney World theme park is Animal Kingdom, with 4.1 stars!
©Yelp
We’d say that Animal Kingdom is the chillest park in Disney World. It’s usually less crowded than the other parks, and the atmosphere is more relaxing.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Maggie gave the park a 5-star review: “We only checked out 2 Avatar rides and a water raft ride. Everything went as it should. We also enjoyed a nice meal at Tiffins. In about 5 hours, we saw what we wanted to see. That wasn’t too much of the park, but EPCOT was prioritized on this trip. I’ve always liked this park and I’d like to spend more time there in the future.”
Pandora
Codie agreed that Animal Kingdom is a great park: “I went as an adult last August and this past September and I have to say Animal Kingdom is hands down my favorite park! From the avatar rides and area, the amazing animal safari, and all the other wild things AK had to offer! I tend to find my favorite pins and souvenirs at this park as well! Also glad I got to see dynoland [sic] before it is no more! Can’t wait to see the transformation.”
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Even though it got pretty positive reviews for the most part, some reviewers still had negative things to say about the park. Davina said, “To say, it’s heartbreaking that it’s not the same is an understatement. Today, had to have been one of the worst days & money spent on a theme park. Animal Kingdom used to be our go to for a ‘not so fast pace’ a lively, be in the moment park.” Davina’s experience was a 4-hour wait on Avatar: Flight of Passage and a 2-hour wait on Navi River Journey, both of which are in Pandora: The World of Avatar.
End of the line for Flight of Passage
The rides in Pandora are some of the most popular in the park, and most people head straight there when the park opens. If you want to avoid the crowds at rope drop, you can purchase a Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage.
Click here to read our FULL GUIDE to Animal Kingdom.
BEST: EPCOT — 4.2 Stars
EPCOT won the best-rated Disney World park according to Yelp reviews! It had 4.2 stars with over 2,600 reviews.
©Yelp
So what is it that made EPCOT stand out to reviewers? Many people mentioned the seasonal festivals, which bring lots of tasty food and drinks, fun entertainment, and unique activities to the park.
2023 EPCOT Festival of the Holidays
Linda said, “Another thing that I remember about EPCOT was the different representations of countries. This was a favorite back then and was still amazing on our last visit.”
Morocco Pavilion
One of the complaints about EPCOT is that the park is very big, so it can take a long time (and a LOT of walking) to get all the way around World Showcase.
World Showcase
We recommend planning your Disney World vacation during a time when a festival is going on so that you can enjoy all of those offerings. And make sure you learn about the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind virtual queue before you visit so that you’re able to ride that coaster! Another option is to purchase an individual Lightning Lane instead.
Click here to read our FULL GUIDE to EPCOT.
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I pay almost no attention to YELP reviews because you are more likely to get the complainers than those who were satisfied with their experience. That can be true with any review site, but it seems to be especially so with YELP. My main issue with the Studios is that Voyage of the Little Mermaid has not come back, nor has it been replaced with an equivalent show. We are not thrill ride people so we our favorites run to things like Toy Story Midway Mania, The Muppets, Beauty and the Beast show, etc.
This doesn’t shock me at all. We had two days reserved at Hollywood Studios on our trip in August. We left on the first of those days as soon as park hopping was available, and changed our reservation for our 2nd and went to Epcot instead. The first of those days was also the only day we bought Genie+ which was absolutely useless. We rope-dropped Rise of the Resistance and made our first Lightning lane for Smugglers Run at 9am. Rise of the Resistance made me sick, then we went to Mickeys Run Away Railway, which made both my daughter and me ill, then wanted to do Tower of Terror, which was down the whole morning, so we never got to do that. We kept checking. We couldn’t make another lightning lane selection, because it hadn’t been two hours yet. We went to our Smugglers Run lightning lane only to find out the ride was down and they were moving guests entirely out of the area. You couldn’t even get in line in hopes that it would come back up soon. Our lightning lane was supposed to turn into a multiple experience one so we could use it for another ride, but it didn’t, so we still couldn’t make another selection, but couldn’t use the one we had. So we had already done all the rides that were available on Genie+ that we wanted to do and that weren’t closed down, so we couldn’t use genie+ anymore at that time, and couldn’t hop to another park for several hours. We went to the Frozen musical for something to do, got food for something to do, did Toy Story midway mania, and then had to wait for our Dining Reservation. Tower of terror never did come back online, our lightning lane never changed, and smugglers run never came back up. We went to guest relations and had them manually change the lightning lane to a multiple experiences lightning lane. We went to our dining reservation, checked for Tower of Terror, still down, and Smugglers run, still down, and headed to Epcot…but the multiple experiences lightning lane can ONLY be used in the park in which it originated, even though we had paid for the multiple park genie+, So we couldn’t use it in Epcot. So we paid a maximum amount for Genie+ and it was 2:00pm and we still hadn’t been able to use a single lightning lane. None of the Epcot selections were up to 2:00 until we had already park hopped, so we couldn’t select any of those once we were allowed to make another selection at 11:00, and all the rides we had wanted to use it for at Hollywood studios were down, or we had already ridden them. It was such a waste. We were only able to use lightning lane once that whole day, for Soarin’. We didn’t want to be stuck in Hollywood Studios again until we could park hop just to catch 2 rides, so we canceled our 2nd day there. There is really not much of a draw for us there. Not at all a shocker that other people feel the same way. The most popular rides have such massive lines that it’s not worth doing without a lightning lane, and since they also tend to go down a LOT, it’s a huge waste of time to stand in lines, and a huge waste of money to buy lightning lanes you may never get to use. It’s a lose lose situation. Why WOULDN’T it be the worst-rated?