A comprehensive guide to Disney World water rides, including what they are and where you can find them in each of the parks.
Disney World water rides? It certainly isn’t the first thing you think of when you start planning your family’s adventure to the theme parks at Disney World, but there are more than you might expect, and some of them are among the most iconic experiences in the parks. Feel like you should have the lowdown so your team is prepared, and you have the right gear, should it rain? We’ve got your back, right here!
Types of Water Rides at Disney World
For the most part, Disney World water rides use water to float guests through a story. The overwhelming majority of water rides in the Disney World theme parks are just that: low-noise, gentle transportation that is easy to control. Boat rides, in which the boat is not always even a part of the narrative. But there are exceptions.
How Wet Do Guests Get on Disney World’s Water Rides?
Trying to stay ahead of the splash? Well, you’re not wrong. Most Disney World water rides are very dry, but not all of them! At least one sets out with the intention of getting you and your family as wet as humanly possible in a short time, and if you choose to ride, you’d better be ready for what’s coming!
Nobody wants to drag a change of clothes and a towel for everybody around all day, and in this, the Florida sun is your quick-drying friend. Still, it couldn’t hurt to let this list be your guide to staying as dry as you feel you need to be while riding Disney World water rides.
Disney World Water Rides: A Complete List
We’re sharing your comprehensive list to all of the Disney World water rides, broken down by each of the parks.
Water Rides at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Photo by WDW Magazine
Na’vi River Journey
Located in Pandora – The World of Avatar, Na’vi River Journey is a leisurely boat ride uses water only as a means of transportation as you travel through a series of caverns and bioluminescent alien jungle, and at no time will part of the thrill include getting wet. In fact, thanks to some pleasant air conditioning and an environment of twilight, it’s entirely possible that you will emerge from this “water ride” drier than you were when you boarded.
The experience is built around the fantastic alien landscape and the glowing creatures that bring it to life, from the smallest flying insect to the massive animatronic Na’vi Shaman of Songs, but this is a very dry adventure.
Kali River Rapids
Located in the Asia area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Kali River Rapids is the opposite of Na’vi River Journey in every way possible. It is fast, unpredictable, and you absolutely will get wet. This ride is not for landlubbers!
Your loved ones will be strapped into a round, 12-seater tube boat as you race through the white water (including a waterfall!) There is no predicting which seats will carry their passenger to the most outrageous soaking, but you may very well wish you had packed a poncho…or possibly a towel or even a change of clothes. Unless, of course, you are the Disney Dad who has to carry all of this stuff!
Water Rides at EPCOT
Photo by WDW Magazine
Gran Fiesta Tour Starring The Three Caballeros
Located within the Mexican pavilion in EPCOT’s World Showcase, Gran Fiesta Tour is simple but charming, as Donald Duck’s bandmates Panchito and Jose try to find their missing friend before their concert, taking guests on a tour of famous sites in Mexico in the process.
Not only will you not even get a little bit wet, you will usually not have to wait many minutes to set out on your journey, as the ride is, in my experience, a frequent walk-on and pleasing enough to take the kids around more than once.
Living With The Land
Located in the World Nature area, this boat ride is slow, calming, and more than a little bit like a social studies project that ran away to join the circus. Living With The Land will cruise you through greenhouses at a pace that is best described as leisurely, while learning about the future of farming. If you get even a little bit damp it is because the greenhouses can get warm in the middle of the day. It is, however, a much-loved attraction and an excellent way to get off your feet for a few minutes and relax.
Frozen Ever After
Located in the Norway Pavilion in the World Showcase area of EPCOT, Frozen Ever After is that rare Disney World water ride to occupy the middle ground between getting you soaked and telling you a story. Queen Elsa is treating her subjects to a Summer Snow Day, and you will travel by boat to visit many friends from the Frozen franchise in the form of stunning animatronics.
Most of the ride is fairly fright-free, but after a visit to the Ice Palace, you do rush backwards, change directions at the nearest snow monster, and race down a small drop that feels bigger in the dark. It can be a little bit splashy, but nothing worth putting a poncho on for… and for anyone little enough to be challenged by the drop, not experiencing this beautiful ride would be much scarier.
Water Rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
There actually are no boat rides at Disney’s Hollywood Studios! For some reason, the boat rides that are so much a part of the experience everywhere else in Walt Disney World never settled in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Here you can pilot a starship, get rescued by droids, and be shrunk down to the size of a toy, but you can safely take those towels out of your enormous backpack, Disney Dad, because you are staying dry! (Florida mid-day rainstorms notwithstanding.)
Water Rides at Magic Kingdom
Photo by Andy Jerzewski
Magic Carpets of Aladdin
Located in Adventureland, it’s a stretch to call this a “water ride”. It is actually a “Dumbo”-style spinner, but if you (or the young adventurer piloting the flying carpet) chooses to fly at about mid-height as you circle, it will put you right in the sights of one of a pair of water-spitting decorative camels, who stand a pretty good chance of getting you wetter than many of the boat-based rides at Magic Kingdom (which is still not very wet).
Pirates of the Caribbean
Also located in Adventureland, on Pirates of the Caribbean, a world of animatronic adventurers is revealed to passengers in one of this ride’s iconic flat-bottom boats. Early in the proceedings, there is a small drop that may persuade first-timers that this is going to be a wet ride, but the drop is not repeated.
Later, when sailing a little too close to a naval bombardment, you will find yourself bested by small splashes that reinforce the idea that you just had a close encounter of the cannonball kind, but while you might get slightly splashed, you will not really get wet so much as surprised.
“it’s a small world”
Located in Fantasyland, this musical tribute to world peace may be the most iconic “water ride” in Walt Disney World, but you are infinitely more likely to get the Sherman Brothers’ famous theme song stuck in your head than you are to make any contact at all with the water your craft is sailing through.
Jungle Cruise
That craft you are piled into as you take the World Famous Jungle Cruise is a lot more like a real boat than some that you have ridden, but that water you are in is not very much like the rivers of the world. You might think that a baby elephant has water in its trunk, but it’s snot. (See what I did there?).
The only thing that makes you more likely to get wet on this ride than some others is that the attraction is outside, and it could start to rain (but the boats are covered, so even that isn’t a great concern.)
Liberty Square Riverboat
Now THAT’S a boat! Specifically, an authentic steam-powered paddle wheeler. The Liberty Belle will sail you around the rivers of America for an immersive history lesson complete with a voice-over by Mark Twain.
It’s a big boat, and at no time will you be in any danger of getting wet. RIDE IT WHILE YOU CAN – the Liberty Belle, Tom Sawyer Island, and the Rivers of America themselves will all too soon sail into history to make way for new attractions featuring Disney / Pixar’s Cars franchise and Disney villains
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
The quintessential Disney World water ride is reborn! In its previous life as Splash Mountain, plummeting down this log flume to certain watery doom was a rite of passage for young Disney kids, and the magnificent transformation into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure has done nothing to change that with the addition of one of the most stunning casts of characters in the history of animataronics.
Your mouseketeers are going to want to ride this one, probably more than once, so be prepared. I have ridden this ride and emerged fairly dry. Other times, I have been utterly soaked, and there is no apparent way to predict, so anticipate a good soaking and make your peace with it. Put your cellphone in a Ziploc bag, bust out that pocket-poncho, and get ready for fun.
What About Disney World’s Water Parks?
Walt Disney World is also home to two of the greatest water parks in the world: Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon and Disney’s Blizzard Beach. Water parks differ from theme parks in that you may safely assume that every single attraction at the water parks is actively trying to get you as wet as you can possibly be. There’s no mystery here… just soaking wet fun! Enjoy some of Dad’s Guide to WDW’s water park coverage here!
