Orlando’s Best And Worst Roller Coasters in 2022

What makes a good roller coaster? The answer can be as varied as the people that visit Orlando every year. To keep people coming back for more, Orlando parks are always investing in new attractions and roller coasters are one of the top draws for most parks. You’ll find numerous run-downs of the roller coasters and attractions around Orlando so what makes mine any different? I will throw an objective eye on every roller coaster you can find around Orlando as well as offer up my personal opinions about what makes them good, bad or anything in between in my rundown of Orlando’s best and worst roller coasters in 2022.

Inclusions & Exclusions

First, let’s set some ground rules so we know what we are talking about in this article. When I say Orlando I mean the districts of International Drive and Kissimmee. For that purpose I am excluding the roller coasters you will find in Legoland and Busch Gardens because both parks are an hour outside of Orlando. You’ll find a separate article detailing all the roller coasters at Busch Gardens in the future. With those rules set lets to find out, alphabetically, what attractions and parks we will be talking about.

Orlando Roller Coasters By Park

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

• Expedition Everest

Disney’s EPCOT Center

• Guardians Of The Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

• Rock ‘N’ Rollercoaster Starring Aerosmith

Disney’s Magic Kingdom

• Big Thunder Mountain
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• Space Mountain

Seaworld Orlando

• Elmo’s Choo Choo Train
• Ice Breaker
• Journey To Atlantis
• Kraken
• Manta
• Mako

Universal’s Islands Of Adventure

• Flight Of The Hippogriff
• Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure
• Harry Potter And The Forbidden Journey
• Hulk
• Pteranadon Flyers
• Velocicoaster

Universal Studios Florida

• Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts
• Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit
• Revenge Of The Mummy
• Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster

Breaking Down Orlando’s 20+ Roller Coasters

As you can see from the list above, that’s quite a few roller coasters to break down. Now, if you’re visiting Orlando you’re not just going for the roller coasters but they will make up an important part of your visit.

If you want all-out thrills, which park packs the most white-knuckle punch for your buck?

The Top Roller Coaster Park In Orlando For Thrills

This answer may surprise you, but based purely on a traditional roller coaster experience with minimal theming, the number one park in Orlando for out-and-out roller coaster thrills is now Seaworld which is home to 6 roller coasters, the most for a single park in Orlando.

This aligns with Seaworld’s long-term plan to transition itself into a thrill park with a marine theme from conservation parks focused on education. The tagline for the park now is “the roller coaster capital of Orlando”.

Not content with its current crown, Seaworld has already announced a new roller coaster for 2023. “Pipeline” is due to open in the spring with construction carrying on at a hectic pace near the park entrance in an area formerly used for corporate functions. “Pipeline” will be the first stand-up roller coaster built in quite some time anywhere in the world and will use manufacturer Bollinger & Mabillard’s new restraint system for a more comfortable ride. It will also feature a world-first inversion, the “wave curl”. Be sure to follow my blog for more information on the construction of Pipeline and many other new attractions around Orlando.

Top 10 White Knuckle Roller Coasters In Orlando

That’s the top white knuckle theme park in terms of roller coasters sorted. How about a rundown of the top white knuckle roller coasters you can find in Orlando? That’s probably the easiest list to compile for this rundown of Orlando’s roller coasters. Without further ado, here are the top 10 roller coasters that will leave you with white knuckles and trembling legs.

Orlando’s newest roller coaster jumps right to the top of the white knuckle roller coasters in Orlando thanks to an almost perfect blend of storytelling and pacing. Two distinct halves of the attraction provide variety and their own mix of thrills without being at all repetitive while building to a mind-blowing vertical top hat crescendo over water. Velocicoaster is as beautiful to watch as it is to ride.

Mako is an all-out thrill machine with very little theming beyond its striking purple track colour. Mako is the tallest and fastest roller coaster in Orlando. Designed and built by Bollinger & Mabillard, Mako incorporates their new patented lap restraint for total freedom. It may lack any loops but more than makes up for that with all-out speed and plenty of coveted in-seat airtime.

An opening day attraction at Islands Of Adventure that’s as popular today as the day it opened. So popular in fact the entire track was replaced 2 years ago but the familiar roar of Hulk, and its riders, still remains. Made by Bolinger & Mabillard, the same designers of Mako above and Kraken just below, Hulk tops Kraken by a couple of inversions and a launch that packs quite the scream-inducing punch.

Kraken was the first roller coaster to open at Seaworld in June 2000. At the time of opening, it was the tallest and longest roller coaster in Orlando. The pulse-pounding, thrill-a-second ride lasts over 2 minutes and incorporates 7 inversions. It is still one of my favourite roller coasters in Orlando.

Rock ‘N’ Roller Coaster, Orlando’s original launched roller coaster has been going strong now for over 20 years and shows no signs of slowing down. However, persistent rumours of a re-theme refuse to go away owing to the licencing deal with Aerosmith running its course in the near future. The thrill here is all about the launch but 3 inversions sustain momentum even if you can’t see the minimal neon theming zooming past in the pitch-black enclosed interior of the show building. The ride is on the rough side, particularly for shorter guests because of old-style overhead restraints still in use on the ride cars.

Seaworld’s latest rollercoaster (in 2022, and there’s yet another roller coaster coming in 2023) is smaller than most but what it lacks in space it makes up for in a short, sharp burst of adrenaline. Ice Breaker features Orlando’s steepest beyond vertical drop plus multiple launches all packed into a tightly cohesive track layout designed to keep you out of your seat with as much airtime as possible. It may not look like much, but Ice Breaker adds up to more than the sum of its parts for those daring enough to ride.

Manta is what I call a marmite coaster. You either love the riding style or you hate it. A “flying” coaster is characterised by slower speeds and a ride position styled to make you feel as though you’re flying, in this case mimicking manta rays as they move about the ocean. The thrill here is definitely the unusual ride position, not speed. As such I would class this attraction as a brilliant family roller coaster if your kids are tall enough to ride.

Definitely aimed at more of the family market than coasters higher on this list and the classic ‘Duelling Dragons’ coaster it replaced. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure packs more punch than most family coasters thanks to multiple launches, a backwards section plus a surprise drop track section. Quite rightly one of the most popular attractions at Islands Of Adventure, if you can experience this ride you should even if it consistently has one of the longest queues.

Expedition Everest is the adrenaline shot Animal Kingdom needed and is as popular today as the day it opened. As with all things in Disney, this ride is aimed at a family market and has the rider height to go with it so don’t expect loops. The thrills here come inside the mountain and in the form of a short backwards section that packs quite the thrill for a family coaster plus that drop out of the mountain you can see in the photo above packs more punch than it looks like it has especially if you are towards the back of the train.

EPCOT’s first roller coaster is a masterpiece of design and engineering. Guardian’s Of The Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is aimed squarely at the family market the thrills are provided mainly by the first launch and accompanying soundtracks (there are 5 different tunes chosen at random). There are no inversions and the reverse launch (the first in any Disney park worldwide) is thanks to the innovative coaster car design allowing the ride cars to be pointed at any point in the show building. A cracking cast and stunning HD visuals add up to this being one of the finest attractions in any Disney park currently. TRON in Magic Kingdom has a lot to live up to in 2023.

Top 6 Immersive Roller Coasters In Orlando

That’s the thrill element taken care of but what about Orlando’s bread and butter? What do we all come to Orlando for? We want to be immersed in fun and excitement. A different set of roller coasters and other attractions with eye-watering budgets are catering to that. Here are Orlando’s top 6 dark, immersive and family-orientated roller coasters in 2022.

There really is no coaster quite like Guardians Of The Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at the moment anywhere on the planet. Completely enclosed in one of the largest buildings on Earth the story takes centre stage while the technology tells that story seamlessly and with an amount of fun that should be bottled. As soon as you come off you’ll want to ride again and again.

You may have been expecting to see this more prominently featured. The groundbreaking Kuka-Coaster technology allows Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey to unfold around you in surprising ways but, by design, it is also limiting the thrill element that you get with other forms of roller coaster. Harry Potter And The Forbidden Journey is a technical marvel but it’s about as far from a traditional roller coaster as you can get. If you want a traditional rollercoaster experience you may find this slightly lacking which is why Guardian’s Of The Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind just pips Forbidden Journey to the top spot of immersive roller coasters in Orlando.

Reportedly the most expensive attraction yet constructed, Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is an assault on the senses helped in no small part by the fact the massive attraction is almost completely hidden from view. A mix of indoor and outdoor elements can be a little jarring but the story carries seamlessly from the extraordinarily detailed queue line through the attraction. Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure is a masterpiece of design and storytelling told on an almost biblical scale.

Now one of the oldest attractions on this list, Revenge Of The Mummy was Universal’s first stab at telling a story on a roller coaster. The result has been wildly popular since it opened. So popular in fact it has also just reopened from a multi-month-long refurbishment of track and components replacement that will allow Mummy to keep thrilling families for many more years to come. The story is set up in the queue and through the first 3 scenes before you are launched, quite literally, into the thrill portion in complete darkness. Tight turns and sudden drops with a very clever false ending make this classic roller coaster a must-ride for anyone tall enough to ride.

Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts should have provided a shot of adrenaline with added wands but a combination of too much story and the wrong choice of ride vehicle make Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts a stuttering, jarring experience. Fans of the movies may be expecting a thrilling roller coaster-type experience into the depths of Gringotts vaults but the story is told mainly through multi-media screens. Besides the fantastic start that you’ll want to grip on for, every time you think you’re finally going to get some momentum your ride car is brought to a shuddering halt for the next screen exposition. Harry Potter and the Escape From Gringotts isn’t a bad ride, just the wrong type of ride for the story that’s trying to be told.

Opening to much hype, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Ride is a fun take on a standard roller coaster. The surprise element here is the tilting cars as you venture off into the mines. What keeps this attraction from being higher on the list is the short ride length. Still, one of the most popular attractions in Magic Kingdom, if you don’t pay for an Individual Lightning Lane Pass you will probably be queueing 90 minutes to 2 hours for this experience only to come off feeling a little short-changed for your time.

Top 7 Orlando Roller Coasters For Small Children

What about budding adrenaline fans in the making? It’s important that you manage expectations before you arrive to avoid any meltdowns with height restrictions. I constantly hear parents arguing with ride attendants but Orlando’s theme parks are very strict with height restrictions. With the exceptions of numbers 2 and 3 on the list below, these kiddie coasters feature minimal theming but provide the requisite thrill for youngsters.

Slinky Dog Dash manages to straddle a very fine line between family thrills and all-out thrills. The sprawling layout of the track allows for two genuinely family-thrilling yet surprising bursts of speed while the views over Toy Story Land are amazing from the top of the helixes. The queues are long but Genie+ reservations are available.

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad is a classic in roller coaster circles. The Disneyland Paris version is slightly superior in my opinion thanks to more acreage in Paris than here but you still won’t be disappointed. Three lift hills prevent the thrills from becoming too intense and a high rider throughput per hour keeps the line moving swiftly. If this is your first time in Magic Kingdom Big Thunder Mountain Railroad should be high on your list of attractions.

As I’ve mentioned above, an excessive queue and short ride duration keep this from the top spot but what there is of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Ride is brilliantly executed. If you can get a queue time of under an hour or are willing to pay for Individual Lightning Lane passes you should definitely put this on your itinerary. The rope drop technique generally won’t work for this attraction as most people make a beeline for it first thing, especially on-resort guests but queues can be a tad quieter towards the end of the day.

Flight Of The Hippogriff is a standard figure eight layout roller coaster elevated by being able to take in the Wizarding World Of Hogsmead from a height. Youngsters will love the view of Hogwarts Castle as they zip around the track. Tucked at the back of Wizarding World the queues aren’t too bad considering the rest of the area.

The Barnstormer in the Storybook Circus area of Magic Kingdom uses scenic elements for added thrills elevating this attraction above other standard kiddie roller coasters like Elmo’s Choo Choo Train at Seaworld and Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster in Universal Studios. Tucked at the back of Fantasyland and near two play areas, there is also plenty for children to do if they don’t want to ride while waiting for someone in the relatively short queue.

Seaworld has done brilliantly with Sesame Street Land tucked at the back of the park next to Shamu Stadium. They have taken what made Shamu’s Happy Harbour popular with kids and extended and improved the range of attractions and even included a daily parade. Elmo’s Choo Choo Train has also been repainted and repurposed from Shamu’s Happy Harbour (it was previously known as Shamu Express) and the detail of the whole area along with short queues makes the entire Sesame Street area of Seaworld one of the best places for young children outside of the Magic Kingdom.

Tucked away in an oft-forgotten parcel of Universal Studios, Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster is a fun ride that interacts with scenic elements providing a little extra thrill to the mix. It may not have the awareness of the Wizarding World next door and the area isn’t as cohesive as Seaworld’s Sesame Street Land but Woody Woodpecker’s Nuthouse Coaster is a fun adventure for children in a park that generally caters to an older clientele. You only have until mid-January 2023 to ride this attraction and many others in the Kid Zone area as Universal Studios have confirmed the area will be closed permanently from 15th January.

Notable Exceptions

That’s almost every Orlando roller rated in 2022 but you may have noticed a couple of omissions. Let’s tidy up the list with what I haven’t featured yet.

As one of the first tubular steel roller coasters, I get that Space Mountain is an iconic piece of roller coaster design. Iconic or not, it doesn’t provide a very pleasurable ride experience. Next to no lighting in the giant dome make what little there is in scenic elements almost invisible as you fly past. Tight turns, sudden drops and noisy lift hill mechanisms are an assault on your body (not helped by the small ride cars) and hearing. Adults will come off battered, bruised and almost deaf from the echo of riders screaming on the twin tracks. For some children, it’s quite a traumatic experience being thrown about in the dark. It’s also a very popular ride still, and I would rather spend my queue time on something altogether more pleasurable at the end of the queue. In a park packed with so many iconic attractions avoiding Space Mountain could be one of your most savvy time-saving moves.

One of the only attractions to feature a maximum rider height (unless accompanying a child) Pteranadon Flyers is unique in Orlando for ride design. Suspended chairs swing from a single tubular steel track offering amazing views over the Jurassic Park area of Islands Of Adventure. A short ride duration and tiny hourly throughput keep the queue sometimes too long for many to experience. If you get the chance with minimal queue time and have a child of the correct height to accompany you, this is a great attraction to experience.

When is a roller coaster not a roller coaster? When it’s Journey To Atlantis, the world’s first hybrid flume and roller coaster attraction! Journey To Atlantis is a fantastic ride but I’ve omitted it from the lists because it is predominantly a water flume attraction with only a tiny portion of your ride time actually on the roller coaster section. Newer versions of this attraction in San Antonio and San Diego toned down the dark ride exposition and ramped up the thrills with more roller coaster track but in this iteration, the roller coaster section is over in seconds.

The Worst Roller Coaster In Orlando In 2022

With one roller coaster left on my list that I haven’t mentioned, I come to the award for the worst roller coaster in Orlando.

A roller coaster so bad it’s painful and nauseating. From the moment you crest the lift hill you can’t wait for the experience to be over. That roller coaster is Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit in Universal Studios.

On paper Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit should have provided a much-needed ‘traditional’ adrenaline shot in a park too often happy to have yet another multimedia screen-based attraction because of space constraints.

The fault lies in the design. With land at a premium in Universal Studios, Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit is sandwiched into an impossibly thin parcel of land between the public section of the Studios as you enter and the still working area of sound stages that are off limits to the public.

Roller coasters need space to breathe but Hollywood Rip Ride Rockit throws one element at you after another not giving you any time to recover from the last manoeuvre resulting in a dizzying, nauseating experience that’s best avoided even if you don’t suffer from motion sickness.

I haven’t even mentioned your thumping soundtrack as you twist, drop and spin your way around the track. Look online before your visit and you will find loads of hidden music tracks you can choose from instead of the 16 or so displayed on your screen. Press the ride logo until a keypad opens up allowing you to type in a 3-digit code from the secret list. You only have about 15-20 seconds to do this before the system will choose for you.

When you arrive at the park if the track layout looks too enticing by all means give it a whirl, just don’t say I didn’t warn you first!

Conclusion

That’s it for my rundown of Orlando’s best and worst roller coasters in 2022. If you’ve never been hopefully this rundown will help you decide on some priorities ahead of your visit and save you time in some queues.

The opinions expressed here are my own but once you’ve ridden Orlando’s roller coasters you may be able to come up with your own list. You might agree with me, or you might not but that’s the fun part. Let’s do it all again in 2023!