Disney World’s Best Roller Coasters

By Garrett Martin | October 15, 2025 | 9:30am

Photos courtesy of Getty Images

Theme Parks Lists Disney

Disney World doesn’t have an age limit. Some of its most famous rides might be perfect for all ages—like the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean and it’s a small world—but the four theme parks that make up Disney’s Florida resort have more than their fair share of thrill rides for older guests, too.

Of course that includes roller coasters, the most popular kind of ride for teens and adults. Coasters have been a major part of Walt Disney World Resort in Florida ever since the original Space Mountain opened up in the Magic Kingdom back in 1975. As the resort has grown, adding more theme parks, two water parks, and a number of hotels en route to becoming one of the most popular vacation destinations in the world, so has its line-up of roller coasters. Today there are nine different coasters of various styles and intensity levels throughout Disney World, with the newest one, the motorbike coaster Tron: Lightcycle Run, opening at the Magic Kingdom in April, 2023.

Which of these nine coasters are most worth your time? Which ones are great for all ages, and which ones should the little kids steer clear of? We break down all nine, ranking them from least to most significant on a variety of factors, including theming, ride layout, and excitement.

Also, let’s pay some (very muted) respect to Primeval Whirl; this list’s original bottom dweller shut down for good in 2020. I’m sure somebody misses it, but, uh, not us.

9. The Great Goofini’s Barnstormer
Location: Magic Kingdom

Coasters are scary when you’re a kid. They’re scary when you’re an adult, too. That’s why we like ‘em. But when you’re a kid you think you literally might die on one of these absurdly designed death trains, especially if you’ve never actually ridden one before. It takes the right kind of roller coaster to ease a child into them, and The Great Goofini’s Barnstormer, found in the Storybook Circus area of Magic Kingdom, is a great example. This junior coaster goes just high and fast enough to capture the essence of a coaster (with a top height of 30 feet and speed of about 25 miles per hour), but without any of the more extreme tricks that can zap an innocent passenger’s mind. It’s a short, relatively gentle introduction to this kind of thrill ride, ideal for younger children and first-timers, but inessential for anybody else.

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8. Space Mountain
Location: Magic Kingdom

Okay, coming in so low is not an indictment of the concept of Space Mountain. If you’re of a certain age this will always loom large as the ultimate Disney thrill ride, the peak example of a coaster that’s also an all-encompassing experience. It might be a relatively tame coaster, all things considered, but when you place it indoors, project stars as far as the eyes can see, and blast music that sounds like a combo of a ‘50s sci-fi movie and a ‘90s rave, it becomes one of the most exciting things you could ever do in a theme park. When Space Mountain is at its best, it is easily one of the three or four best rides Disney has ever made, and would be near or at the top of this list. The Disneyland version is basically a perfect ride right now, running smoothly and in great shape with an on-board audio system blasting that music right into your ears, and it can’t help but make the Magic Kingdom’s rundown version feel disappointing.

Unfortunately the Magic Kingdom version needs a good amount of work. It’s a bumpier, more painful ride than it needs to be, and it still doesn’t have the on-board speakers that revolutionized the Anaheim version. At least the projections, which were almost invisible last year, have been improved—when I last rode it earlier this summer, the stars were out in full effect. With a few other refurbishments the Magic Kingdom original could easily return to greatness alongside the Disneyland version, bumping Space Mountain up at least a few spots on this list.

7. Slinky Dog Dash
Location: Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Slinky Dog has remained one of the most popular rides at Disney World since opening in 2018. Coming in at number five on a list of eight might not seem that impressive, but it’s more a testament to how many great coasters you can now find at Disney World; Slinky Dog Dash is a riotous blast fit for all but the youngest children.

Although it’s a family friendly coaster, Slinky Dog Dash is a little bit more intense than I expected. It’s not quite a true children’s roller coaster, like the Barnstormer, because you’ll feel some genuine G-force while riding it. It also has two launches, at the start and about halfway through, which gives it an extra jolt of excitement. The first half of the queue is lightly themed and exposed to the elements, which is a curious choice, but eventually it turns into a beautifully decorated diorama of familiar characters and oversized toy boxes. And a final musical cameo as you pull into the station guarantees you’ll wrap your ride up in charming fashion.

There’s nothing to complain about with Slinky Dog Dash, other than the first half of the queue and the extreme wait times you’ll find right now. It does share the somewhat lackadaisical approach to theming found throughout Toy Story Land—the story is Andy is building a Hot Wheels-style track in his backyard but using Slinky Dog instead of a car, which means, other than the vehicle, it basically just looks like any exposed, open-air roller coaster you can find at any amusement park. The vehicle itself is adorable, though, and the ride is more than fun enough to please most people who’ll be filing through the Hollywood Studios turnstiles. It’s a more thrilling roller coaster than the next one on this list, but it comes in one spot lower than it because of those theming issues.

6. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Location: Magic Kingdom

Since it opened in Fantasyland in 2014, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train has been the one of the longest waits in all of Disney World, with the stand-by line regularly approaching two hours throughout the day. Is it worth the wait? Well, let’s talk about the ride itself, first.

The entire Mine Train complex is beautifully designed, from the mountain the ride blasts through, to the queue that looks like it was pulled right out of the movie. The ride is more family friendly than Thunder Mountain or Space Mountain, with less strenuous turns, although the biggest drop matches Thunder Mountain at 39 feet, and its top speed of 34 miles per hour is faster than Space Mountain and only one mile per hour off Thunder Mountain’s pace. It’s closer to those two rides than to the kids-only Barnstormer, but it’s still a family friendly experience, and definitely not something children need to be too afraid of. If you can handle Thunder Mountain or Space Mountain, the Mine Train will be a breeze. It also has a tilting technology that makes the cars in the train rock to the left and right as the coaster’s in motion; it’s an unusual feeling at first but it isn’t significant enough to have much of an additional impact on either your enjoyment of the ride or whatever kind of motion sickness you might experience on coasters. The highlight is a slow crawl through the middle of the mine, where state-of-the-art Seven Dwarfs audio-animatronics (with expressive CGI faces projected upon them) are used to create one of the most beautiful dark ride scenes in the park. A second scene at the very end of the ride lets you watch Snow White dance with the dwarfs in their cottage as the Evil Queen waits outside in her Wicked Witch guise.

The content of the ride is really good. At its best, inside the mine, it’s some of the best work you’ll find at any theme park right now. The problem is that it feels unfinished. The official ride time is apparently just under three minutes, but it feels shorter than that when you’re riding it. It’s also oddly laid out for a coaster—it doesn’t start with a big, defining drop, or build up to a special climax. You’ll swoop right and left a few times, hang out with the Dwarfs, experience a little bit more throttling and then pull back into the station. It feels like there should be another scene like the one inside the mine, something that further expands on the movie’s story. So it’s a fun but weirdly unsatisfying ride, and that lack of satisfaction is greatly magnified by the length of the wait.

5. Tron: Lightcycle Run
Location: Magic Kingdom

The newest addition to Tomorrowland is a motorbike coaster based on the lightcycle races from Tron. Disney’s been trying to establish Tron as a franchise for 40 years, with middling success, but perhaps it was meant to be a roller coaster instead of a movie all along? The stuff that makes Tron as a franchise kind of cool might work better for a theme park attraction than a narrative film: bright colored lights, special effects that make it look like you’re inside a computer network, a pulsing electronic score from defunct robo-DJs of Daft Punk, to name the most obvious highlights. Combine all that with a launch that rockets you out of the gate at just under 60 miles per hour, a soaring outdoor track that shoots you through a beautifully lit and futuristic canopy, and then an interior section that replicates the thrill of the race from the movies and videogames, and you’ve got a fun coaster with a great aesthetic. A couple of problems keep it from ranking higher on this list. First off, it’s really short, running about two minutes, with the high-speed coaster segment lasting just under a minute. Also the motorcycle-style ride vehicle is more restrictive than any other ride at Disney, so if you’re tall or have big calves you might struggle to fit on it. Even if you do fit you might find it to be fairly uncomfortable. Tron: Lightcycle Run is one of those rides that’s amazing while you’re on it, but doesn’t quite add up once you’ve had time to think about it. Still, it’s tremendously fun while it lasts, and is a good addition to the Magic Kingdom. Oh, and it’s absolutely gorgeous at night; even if your Virtual Queue or Lightning Lane time is during the day, make a point of walking by the ride at night to see it in all its splendor.

4. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
Location: Hollywood Studios

If all you care about are thrills, this will probably be your favorite roller coaster at Disney World. It launches you forward at the start, hitting almost 60 MPH in under three seconds and immediately rocketing you into the first of three inversions. If you panic about loops in roller coasters, you don’t necessarily have to worry here—it’s so dark in the ride that you won’t know those inversions are coming, and thus won’t be able to stress about them too greatly. It isn’t really family friendly (and you have to be at least four feet tall to ride it) but it’s still not nearly as intense or punishing as what can be found at other amusement parks. And if you like Aerosmith, well, you’ll have them blasting in your ears the whole time. (At least most of the songs are from the ‘70s or ‘80s, although if you wind up in the car that only plays “Nine Lives” you probably deserve some kind of refund.)

As a ride, it’s a blast. It doesn’t make sense in a Disney park, though. How does Aerosmith, in any way, fit the Disney image? The ride opened in 1999, a year after Aerosmith had a huge hit with “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing” from the live action Disney movie Armageddon. That’s a connection right there, but the ride never really brings it up, and the song isn’t on the soundtrack. (Which is good—that’s a terrible song and would be a really bad fit for a roller coaster.) Aerosmith’s a band whose drug use is almost as legendary as its music, and whose songs are riddled with sexual innuendo. There’s nothing intrinsically wrong with that—this is rock ‘n’ roll, after all—but it doesn’t really fit at Disney World. So it’s no surprise that, after several years of rumors about various Disney properties replacing Aerosmith, Disney announced that The Muppets will be taking over this coaster—specifically Doctor Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, the crew’s resident rock band. Until then, this will remain one of the most entertaining but also baffling thrill rides at Disney World.

3. Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Location: Magic Kingdom

Before Disney World had a kid’s coaster, and before the more kid-friendly Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Slinky Dog Dash opened up, this was the gateway coaster of choice for the Disney-loving youth of America. Unlike Space Mountain, so cold and unknowable in the distance recesses of the cosmos (and its show building), Thunder Mountain was something any kid could wrap their head around. You can see the whole ride right there, and the Old West cowboy movie aesthetic has a comfortable mid-century warmth to it. It’s not that intense at all, and would rank as one of the less thrilling coasters at most Six Flags parks, but the design work and world-building turn this into one of the most beautifully realized roller coasters in the world. Starting with a lift hill that slowly pulls your train through an homage to the colorful Rainbow Caverns of the old Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland ride at Disneyland, Thunder Mountain promptly blasts you through an abandoned old mining camp, into a mine that collapses during an impromptu earthquake, through the fossilized remains of a T-rex, and then back into the station, past the few scattered buildings that remain in this old ghost town. Between the gorgeously designed rock work of the mountain itself, which is based on Monument Valley, and the sequence of set pieces that make up the ride, this is a great example of what theme parks should strive to accomplish. It’s not just a ride, it’s a wholly unified experience.

2. Expedition Everest—Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
Location: Animal Kingdom

Let’s get the big controversy out of the way at the start, here: yes, the main centerpiece of Expedition Everest has been broken since shortly after the ride opened in 2006. Near the end of the ride there’s a giant audio-animatronic yeti that’s supposed to reach down at you as your train surges past. It hasn’t been operational in over a decade, supposedly due to the stress that motion was putting on other parts of the ride structure. As cool as a yeti that moves must be, it’s the kind of detail that you wouldn’t even know you’re missing if you hadn’t already read or been told about it.

Whether the yeti moves or not, this is still the best roller coaster at Disney World. It takes everything Disney’s Imagineers excel at—creating a transfixing and transformative space through art and design techniques that range from the old-fashioned to the state of the art—and combines it with a legitimately intense coaster with a couple of major surprises. The queue is a dusty, lived-in base camp, with pieces of climbing equipment and old radios laying about, with a small yeti museum foreshadowing the encoutner ahead. Only the second tallest and second fastest coaster at Disney World (after Aerosmith), it nonetheless is the most thrilling due to its layout. The open-air lift hill to the top of the snowcaps of Mt. Everest fills you with that combination of fear and excitement that you don’t really feel in enclosed coasters like Aerosmith or Space Mountain. An abrupt stop where the track is out at the top of the mountain might at first seem like an accident waiting to happen, but then the entire train plunges backwards into darkness and through the center of the mountain, where you first encounter the yeti. A final straight-ahead plunge beneath the beast brings you back outside, where you gradually coast back down to safety. Between the tight turns, the strong but not overwhelming G forces, the two changes in direction, and the massive (if immobile) yeti, Expedition Everest is the best roller coaster at Disney World.

1. Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
Location: EPCOT

We’re going to have to separate the ride from the theme here. Like many fans of old-school EPCOT, I feel like Disney’s brand new roller coaster doesn’t really fit in this park. As I wrote in my review, it almost feels like a commentary on how Disney views the original EPCOT today, and the company’s decades-long process of undoing the park that guests knew in the ‘80s. That doesn’t make Cosmic Rewind any less amazing as a ride, though. This modern day Space Mountain unites story, music, and the physical thrills of a roller coaster in an overpowering, exhilarating, multisensory spectacle that will no doubt wow guests for years to come. Yes, it’s brand new, so there might be some recency bias here, but it’s a genuinely incredible experience, even if it’s not in keeping with the traditional spirit of EPCOT.

Editor-in-chief Garrett Martin writes about video games, theme parks, travel, and more.