Wondering what the best family rides at Disney World are? We’re sharing our favorites (and the ones we’d suggest avoiding).

Don’t make me choose! I have an emotional attachment of some level to just about every attraction at Walt Disney World, and if we had time I would take you out for Dole Whips and explain to you why you should ride ‘em all! But when Moms and Dads ask about “Best Disney World rides” or “Worst Disney World rides”, what they are really saying is “I am planning a great big, magical adventure for my family – please help me get it right.” So let’s do that!

The Best Family Rides at Disney World

To make sure we make the best picks for families, I have looped in my favorite consultants – my whole family of supers! Each of us has made our picks for best and worst, and we crowned an overall champ as well. As always, some of their picks surprised the heck out of me! Here at Dad’s Guide to WDW, we have experts with a lot of different flavors of family… toddlers, big kids, tweens and teens, so remember: my line up will be different than yours, and your mileage may vary! Here then are our picks for the Best and Worst Disney World rides for families:

1. Baby Bear’s Picks – Let it Go!

Best: Frozen Ever After

Take a slow boat from the Norway pavilion at EPCOT to Arendelle to celebrate Summer Snow Day with Elsa, Olaf and all of your friends from Frozen. I asked Baby Bear why this was her pick for Best Disney World Ride for families and she was both poetic and practical. “When I saw it the first time,” she said, “it was just like I dreamed it would be.

Photo by WDW Magazine Team

I felt like I was really there and it was magical” She went on to observe that when you meet Anna and Elsa now, they are wearing their Frozen 2 outfits, but Frozen Ever After’s animatronics feature the original looks, plus those from the Frozen Fever short film, and this is important. DO NOT be put off by warnings about “backward and forward plunges down short waterfalls”… the only thing scary about this ride is the heart(s) you would break by skipping it.

Worst: Alien Swirling Saucers

Baby Bear is less rhapsodic about her pick for Worst Disney World Ride for families, Alien Swirling Saucers, found in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. “It’s like they needed a third ride for Toy Story Land, so they cloned the Teacups (Mad Tea Party) but forgot to tell it it was just Teacups with a way longer wait time, so it thinks it’s so great. Also it’s built around the worst characters in the series.” She paused a moment to consider “I’d still ride it though.” So there it is. You’re in Toy Story Land right beside Galaxy’s Edge. If you have all the time in the world, ride Alien Swirling Saucers. But if anything has to be cut for time, this is it.

2. Teen Bear’s Picks – A Couple of Fossils

Best: Star Tours: The Adventures Continue

What? With all they spent building Galaxy’s Edge, my son still nominates Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Star Wars flight simulator Star Tours for Best Disney World Ride? “Best for families,” he corrects me, looking a little misty-eyed. “You never know what sequence is going to play next and you know how, when it isn’t busy, you can just walk on Star Tours and go again and again?” I remember the day he was thinking of, long, long ago, when we rode Star Tours so many times in a row that every member of my family was eventually called out as “the rebel spy”, possibly out of respect for our determination, but more likely out of sympathy. The exit and the entrance are close together – watch those wait times and if they drop to 5 or even 10 minutes, maybe take a run at our record!

Worst: TriceraTop Spin

In a keen display of irony, I used to take Teen Bear’s sister on this Jurassic “Dumbo-style” spinner again and again until he and Mama Bear would retreat to the gift shop, but Teen Bear insists this is not why this denizen of Chester and Hester’s DinoLand U.S.A. at Disney’s Animal Kingdom earned his pick as Worst Disney World Ride. “Think about it,” he said “if you set out to re-create a cheesy, roadside carnival, dino-based or not, if you do your job perfectly, all you have done is made a cheesy, roadside carnival, if a slightly ironic one.” You still have time to see if he’s wrong before DinoLand U.S.A. passes into (pre) history in the coming Animal Kingdom expansion. 

3. Mama Bear’s Picks – The Family That Plays Together…

Best: Kali River Rapids

This pick shocked me, because water rides are not my wife’s favorite thing, and this river raft adventure ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom promises “You Will Get Wet. You might get soaked.” She has a history of riding into the biggest geysers no matter where in the 12-seater round raft she starts. “That’s why it’s the best Walt Disney World ride for families.

Photo by Courtney Reynolds

Everybody faces each other, like we’re at a family dinner. Then we all start laughing and kidding, and soon we get everyone on the raft talking and joking and then we start the ride and then I get soaked.” She isn’t kidding either, it’s uncanny, but she’s also right about the way this adventure ride brings people together – families, friends, strangers, everybody. It’s a great pick.

Worst: “it’s a small world”

It’s just this side of blasphemy, but Mama Bear’s unpopular opinion is that “it’s a small world” is something to be endured. In her defense, one time we did get stuck in the final room for fourteen of the longest minutes of my life. The song was stuck in all of our heads for three days. But even before that, she has never been a fan. The thing is, we always ride it at least once every trip, and you’re going to as well. The queue is shielded from the sun, the line moves along well, the boats are comfortable and stable and you can count on 10 minutes of twilight and air conditioning. And your kids want to ride it, even if they don’t know it yet. But try and hold out for a wait time that isn’t going to try your patience, because the ride just might.

4. Papa Bear’s Picks – There’s Always Room For One More.

Best: Haunted Mansion 

For every fully-equipped Disney Dad, there was once a trembling newbie just trying his best. And so I admit to you my secret shame: On our first Disney World trip we skipped the Haunted Mansion out of my concerns that it might be “too scary for the kids”. I don’t like most haunted houses full of cheap jump scares, but I cannot begin to tell you how much this brilliant attraction is not one of those. When you climb aboard your Doombuggy and set off to meet 999 Happy Haunts, you are embarking on a voyage that combines precisely the right amounts of scare and silly to produce a state of wonder and astonishment that will follow you home like a Hitch-Hiking Ghost. Without a doubt, a worthy pick for the Best Disney World ride for families.

Worst: Astro-Orbiter  

I noticed on a recent trip that we never seem to ride rocket-spinner Astro Orbiter any more, and was met with embarrassed silence. “It’s kind of just Dumbo without the whimsy,” Teen Bear said at last. “And you have to line up twice,” Baby Bear joined in “once for the elevator and then again for the ride.” I protested, but to no avail, and so Astro-Orbiter earns my “worst” pick for being an attraction we seem to have outgrown, but if your adventurers are not too big to share a retro-rocket with you yet, and you find yourself in Tomorrowland on a low-crowd day, you may want to give it a try!

Photo by WDW Magazine Team

 Best Walt Disney World Ride For Families – Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

All of those “Best of” picks we just shared? They were actually everyone’s SECOND pick. When the question was posed, every single member of the family picked EPCOT’s reverse-launching, 360 degree-rotating, story-telling thrill coaster Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, beyond a doubt the most fun you can have at one of the most fun places in the known universe. Some of you will need to be patient with this one, as you do need to be taller than 42 inches to ride, but the wait will be worth it!

Honorable Mentions: The How-Could-We Awards 

Instead of picking a Worst Overall, we’re looking back at a few of the attractions we can’t believe we left off the original “best” list, and putting them on our Honorable Mention list. You won’t want to miss any of these rides if you can help it. Like all of the best Walt Disney World rides, they tell a story while they deliver a thrill, and you will be just as amazed as we were that they missed the main list:

• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• Avatar Flight of Passage at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (44 inches +)
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT

And those are our picks… today at least. As you can see there are amazing adventures waiting for you, and before you  know it you’ll be putting your own “Best Of” lists together and checking them off with your own families! Good hunting!