This is the next installment in our “Overrated/Underrated” series. Today, we are going to share rides which we feel are overrated.
Obviously, rides are the main reason why most people visit the parks. We each have our must-do’s and must-skips, and everyone lists are different. However, there are some on our must-skip list which always seem to have long wait times for reasons that escape us. We find that they don’t quite live up to the hype.
Now I know some people’s personal favorites may be on this list, and those people might be offended by that. Please don’t be. Some of these are actually pretty decent rides. However, we just find that they aren’t worth the wait time.
MAGIC KINGDOM: Peter Pan’s Flight
The falls into the category of “decent ride but not worth the wait”. The ride itself is fine. You ride in a slow moving vehicle flying over several classic Peter Pan scenes, including the iconic flight over London. However, this ride has some of the longest wait times of any ride at the Kingdom. Even on a light day, you can expect to wait at least an hour or more, and at busy times of year, you could wait almost two hours! For a basic indoor dark ride that lasts only 2-3 minutes, that sort of wait is definitely not worth it. No way!
The other thing to note is that Peter Pan’s Flight might not be friendly for disabled individuals. The last time we tried to ride it with my daughter, the cast member, seeing that she was in a wheelchair, asked if she would be able to climb down a six foot ladder. Clearly, she cannot so I answered “no”. Based upon that, they would not let her ride. The reason was that, if there is a ride malfunction, guests may have to be evacuated by ladder depending upon where they are when the ride stops. Based upon that fact along, we will likely never ride this ride again until Disney re-vamps the ride to make it more mobility friendly.
Conclusion: 15 minute wait max, unless you are not ambulatory, in which case, you cannot ride it.
EPCOT: Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
This is one of the newest rides at Epcot, located behind the France pavilion. As a newcomer, it draws lots of crowds which mean lots of waiting in line. However, the ride itself is underwhelming.
Part of the problem with the ride is that it is very similar to Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and Rise of the Resistance in terms of the ride system. However, it is inferior to both of them. The problem that we have is that it relies too much of 3D visual effects whereas the others rely mostly on physical effects. There are just too many times when you are just sitting still watching the action on a screen. So when you compare Remy to the other two rides, it falls short.
Conclusion: 30 minute wait max.
ANIMAL KINGDOM: Kali River Rapids
Who doesn’t like a rapids ride, especially during the hot summer months (which Florida has in abundance)? Add into the mix the fact that Animal Kingdom has a limited number of rides, you end up with long wait times for most of the year.
Unfortunately, Kali River Rapids does not deliver. First, the ride itself is super short. It is only about 3-4 minutes long. Compared to similar rapids rides at other parks, Disney’s version is super quick. That brings us to our second complaint. This ride is essentially a clone of rapids rides at pretty much any run-of-the mill theme park. While some of the visuals are interesting, it is the type of ride you can probably experience anywhere.
As an aside, Banshee and I were at Animal Kingdom in January many years ago when the weather was considerably cooler than normal Florida weather. On that trip, Kali River Rapids was a walk-on ride, since nobody really wanted to get wet when it is in the 50’s. We decided to ride it, and while we did get wet as expected, Disney set up these HUGE space heaters at the end of the ride which allowed you to dry out after your wet and wild experience. I don’t know if they still do that, but if they do, then don’t be afraid of riding it when the weather is cooler.
Conclusion: Ride if it is walk on.
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS: Slinky Dog Dash
The ride is okay but again not amazing. The theming is kind of cool as it is what you would imagine if someone built a roller coaster out of Tinker Toys, but the ride itself is standard fair. It is pretty much your basic family coaster at the level of Seven Dwarves Mine Train (which also was in the running for overrated at the Magic Kingdom). We don’t really find anything special or distinct about it, other than how it looks, and you don’t need to wait on line for 2-3 hours to just look at it!
Yes, it is a fun family coaster, but it is not worth giving up several hours of your time to ride.
Conclusion: 30 minute wait max.
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
I figured I’d mention some other rides which we don’t think are worth the wait time, but didn’t quite make it into our top group.
Seven Dwarves Mine Train (another family coaster clone, although the rocking cars and the soundtrack elevate it somewhat; still not worth the wait)
Tomorrowland Speedway (this is waste of a lot of prime real estate in the Magic Kingdom; the only reason why it wasn’t in our top list was that the wait times aren’t horrendous)
Test Track (we like the part that they added where you can build your own virtual vehicle, as this helps pass the time while in line; however, the ride itself is not anything special)
Navi River Journey (we actually love this ride for its music and visuals, but the wait time is out of proportion to the actual time spent in the ride)
So there you go.. our list of overrated WDW rides. This is just our opinion. It doesn’t make it the RIGHT opinion, but that’s what makes these discussions so much fun!
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