Everyone’s most anticipated part of 2026 is here – our Disney Theme Park Rankings! Sorry that we’re getting it out of the way so early, we hope you find something else to anticipate for the rest of the year. Joking aside, we’ve been ranking the Disney Parks we’ve been to every year for the past 7 or 8 and I look forward to writing this post every year. I’ll update this a few times throughout 2026 to include new openings, closures and anything else that could change our order. We’ll be ranking 10 theme parks, every park in Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, Tokyo Disney Resort and Disneyland Paris Resort.

2025 was a relatively quiet year for those 10 parks. Magic Kingdom added Disney Starlight and The Beak and Barrel, Epcot added Geo-82 and a redone Test Track. Both Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom added new shows, as well. All of those are positive changes in our eyes. Over on the west coast, Disneyland Resort kicked off their 70th anniversary with a strong assortment of entertainment.

Internationally, Tokyo Disney Resort had a quiet year and Disneyland Paris spent the year gearing up for Walt Disney Studios Park turning into Disney Adventure World. Much of 2025 felt like a year in transition as there are big projects underway in all 4 of these resorts I’ve mentioned. A few will come to fruition in 2026 but most will wait for at least another year or two.

For those keeping score at home, we’re obviously missing 2 Disney Parks on this list – Hong Kong and Shanghai. We’ll be in Hong Kong in October! We also don’t include the Universal Parks. Most of them would rank towards the bottom, for those curious. Epic Universe bucks that trend and would place more toward the middle, an impressive achievement for a brand new theme park.

It probably goes without saying that these rankings are all my opinion. There are reasons why parks fall where they do but I have my biases! I also want to mention that I enjoy being in all of these parks, especially the top 9. Even the last place finisher has improved by leaps and bounds this year. For the first time ever(!), I’ve included tiers. There was some nitpicking in this order so the tiers help show how we grouped them. Those tiers have titles and I, as the creator of the names, can’t speak for the quality of those titles.

Without further ado, here are our 2026 Disney Theme Park Rankings.

The ‘Help is on the Way’ Tier!

10. Disney Adventure World (Walt Disney Studios Park)

Look, it’s a bad theme park right now. I’ve talked about that before. Our experience in Walt Disney Studios Park was baffling at times, save for a few good moments in the Ratatouille area and an okay Marvel Land. I won’t rehash the negatives, placing it last (by a wide margin) speaks loudly enough. The good news is that 2026 has seen get the park exponentially better. Full disclosure, we haven’t seen Disney Adventure World in person yet and won’t until 2027. We’re only going off of our experience with the park in its Studios Park era while factoring in a beautiful new Frozen area as well as other upgrades.

The Frozen themed land is easily the prettiest part of the park and that’s without me seeing it in person. There’s also new, and much needed, dining. A few small rides will add depth to a decent attraction roster. Things are looking up! 2026 is the year that the 2nd park at Disneyland Paris has gone from “What the heck is this?” to “Hey, I kind of like this.” That may seem like a low bar but we’re trying to keep expectations in tow here.

The ‘We’re Fun but We Have Issues’ Tier

9. California Adventure

7-9 are oh so close together in 2026. I’ve put California Adventure in last place for now because of a growing concern that the festivals have become more of a negative than a positive. Entertainment cutbacks at Festival of Holidays were noticeable and the food has dropped in quality while they’ve offered less of it. On top of that, the park feels overcrowded compared to the other 2 in this tier.

Of course, there’s more to DCA than festivals and crowds. There’s a bunch of rides here, including a few exceptional ones. Cars Land remains a hallmark of modern Imagineering. With the current construction projects like the Avengers E-ticket, Coco attraction and Avatar expansion, the park is going to get worse before it gets better. But that payoff should be worth it!

8. Hollywood Studios

Of the parks in this tier, Hollywood Studios has the most to gain in 2026. A Muppets retheme of Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster will open in May along with an animation experience. It’s exciting to see the park start to use some of those empty spaces, especially after already improving in 2025 with a few new shows.

Even without the upcoming additions, Hollywood Studios has one of the better attraction rosters in Orlando with a nice variation of thrill and family rides. I still find the layout of the park maddening but if you can look past that and a wonky overall theme then DHS likely ranks closer to the middle of the pack than I have it, especially for those that like a thrill.

7. Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom is holding onto 7th place by a claw. I’ll be honest, Animal Kingdom is my favorite Walt Disney World park and it’s getting a little bump from that. There’s a very strong case for it to be in 9th place. This is another park where help is on the way but most of it won’t be arriving until 2027. That means 2026 will see the park with very few rides.

But this sticks to 7th place (at least until the Muppets re-arrive in Hollywood Studios) because I just like being in Animal Kingdom. It’s the most picturesque park in WDW and the overall theme is very cohesive. I’d be more than happy to spend an entire day here walking the trails, watching the entertainment and eating delicious food. This is also my favorite park to rope drop at Disney World!

We Keep Improving Tier

6. Epcot

Epcot has done a great job of making quiet changes that improve the park. Test Track is better and Frozen Ever After has seen an upgrade. I like the move away from 3D at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Now that the disappointment of Epcot’s spine makeover has settled, it’s easier to focus on the positives and the park has quite a few! The attraction roster is versatile and strong here while the park maintains an exploratory feeling. I’m hoping for another big project announced at D23 Expo this year for Epcot!

5. Magic Kingdom

The river is gone, long live the river. If I get past that one dramatic, and disappointing, change at Magic Kingdom then the park has seen upgrades recently and will continue to throughout 2026. Beak and Barrel is a fun addition! More importantly, the difference between having a nighttime parade and not having a nighttime parade is stark. Disney Starlight makes Magic Kingdom much better. On top of that, Tron keeps growing on me and there are some classics here. Big Thunder and Buzz are back and that’s reason enough for this park to jump Epcot.

I’m Beautiful and That’s What Really Matters Tier

4. Disneyland Paris

Disneyland Paris has issues, But things like quick-service dining and certain maintenance aspects pale in comparison to walking down Main Street and seeing that iconic castle on the hill. The arcades on both sides of the outdoor street are nearly as wondrous. The rest of the park is gorgeous too. DLP also features iconic versions of Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion (Phantom Manor, in this case) and (Hyper)Space Mountain. While I’d love to see it get a few more original attractions, there’s not a castle park that can measure up to it in terms of just being really, really, ridiculously good looking.

The Best of the Best Tier

3. Disneyland

Second and third place are always so close on my rankings and I’ll probably flip flop them numerous times over this year. For now, Disneyland falls to 3rd place with all of the refurbishments coming for the offseason. Thankfully, the 70th anniversary entertainment has come back through the summer in full force and is really good! The attraction roster here is still the best in the world. I’d love to see Disneyland up their food game a little bit this year as it’s seen a small drop recently, at least in my opinion. Even with that, there’s no place quite like Disneyland where charm is matched with jaw-dropping rides.

2. Tokyo Disneyland

Another reason that Disneyland is third and TDL gets second place for 2026 is the way they handle crowds. We were in both for the holiday season and they had similar crowd levels. Thanks to Tokyo Disneyland’s larger paths, the experience was far more pleasant there. That’s a miniscule reason compared to Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast, Pooh’s Hunny Hunt and Tokyo Disneyland Electrical Parade Dreamlights though. Have I mentioned that the Country Bears are here in all of their glory? That’s enough for me to rank any park highly.

1. Tokyo DisneySea

Another year, another first place finish for Tokyo DisneySea. The Tokyo Disney Resort parks can be confusing to navigate and they have dropped some stage show entertainment recently. It’s also extremely busy. I get the complaints. But those fade quickly when you walk into DisneySea and get swept up in all the park is. There’s no shortage of amazing sights, making this the most beautiful park to just walk around. If that’s not enough, the attraction roster is fantastic and the dining scene is one of the best. The themed design here has no match, with glorious architecture and backstories galore. I don’t know if any theme park will ever beat it.

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