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Phyllis Brown

Professor Steingold

ENC 1102

15 February 2024

Annotated Bibliography

“Experience by Design.” Walt Disney Imagineering, sites.disney.com/waltdisneyimagineering/our-

process/. Accessed 25 Jan. 2024.

This source is Walt Disney Imagineering’s official website which is very credible. This page is essentially

the development process of Walt Disney Imagineers when working on a new attraction. It

describes the different phases from an inspiration, concept, parameters, refined design,

production, to construction. It is relevant because it can show who would be interested in this

research project and how it can connect and be applied to new rides. The development process is

constantly changing with new technologies and information. Imagineers need to be able to

quickly adapt to external changes such as customer preferences. Team members start the process

by connecting with others and conducting their own research for the proposed idea. In this stage

they address possible challenges that might arise later and attempt to work out as many kinks as

they can predict to avoid complications. A new question from this source is how often they look

at the public's opinion and what platforms they use to do so. This could be on social media, blogs,

articles, newspapers, etc.

MagicGuides Staff. “New Study Reveals Most Popular Rides at Walt Disney World.” MagicGuides, 27

June 2023, magicguides.com/new-study-popular-rides//. Accessed 25 Jan. 2024.

MagicGuides conducted research in June of 2023 on the rides in all four Orlando Disney parks.

The main factors the researchers examined were monthly search volume, Instagram hashtags, and
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Tripadvisor ratings which were combined in an index to score each of the rides. Number one was

Splash Mountain with 205, 193 searches, 323,813 hashtags, and a 4.5 out of 5 rating which

scored a 26.0. Second was the Tower of Terror with 75,943 searches, 323,813 hashtags, and a 4.5

out of 5 rating which scored 22.7. In sequence third, fourth and fifth were Space Mountain, It’s a

Small World, and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance with a 21.9, 18.0, and 14.9. Additionally, this

source includes two tables: one listing the top 15 rides and their correlating data and two showing

what ride is each US State’s favorite ride is. Interestingly enough, Splash Mountain is the number

one ride in forty-nine states except for Florida which has Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic

Rewind as its top ride. After reading this source I am curious to know what makes Splash

Mountain so popular. Other researchers in the community might wonder what features people

love about the ride that could be incorporated into new rides.

McShane, Julianne. “Disney World closed Splash Mountain after allegations of racism. Not everyone's

happy.” NBC News, 24 Jan. 2023, www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disney-world-closed-splash-

mountain-allegations-racism-not-everyones-h-rcna67203. Accessed 14 Feb. 2024.

This source gives some background information as to why the popular ride, Splash Mountain, was shut

down. Many people criticized the theme for being racist. The film it was based on was from 1946

and called Song of the South and had characters throughout the ride. White children who have

slaves are told African American stories by Uncle Remus. The author makes a point to include

quotes from the NAACP and CEO Bob Iger agreeing the theme of Splash Mountain is racially

discriminating. It was closed and will be transformed into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure instead,

which is more inclusive. This information is very important for this research because Splash

Mountain was ranked so high in popularity, yet it was shut down due to social unacceptability. It

shows that a ride not only has to be immersive and thrilling, but also align with social and

political middle ground. Developers must design every detail and construct rides to follow these

standards.
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“Top 8 Magic Kingdom Rides and Attractions – Walt Disney World.” MagicGuides,

magicguides.com/best-magic-kingdom-rides/. Accessed 25 Jan. 2024.

MagicGuides has created more than one list of popular Disney rides. This one ranks the top eight

rides and attractions at Magic Kingdom. However, it varies from the other list which was created

June 2023. Tron Lightcycle Run, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted

Mansion, and Peter Pan’s Flight are considered the most popular rides. This conflicts with its

other ranking drastically. The source is referring only to Magic Kingdom instead of all parks

which is what the other source by MagicGuides used. One element that could determine which is

more accurate is the published date, but unfortunately it is not stated in the article. It does not

specify how the ranking was determined or methods the author used. It could still be useful to

include some of this information or at least consider that popular rides are subjective to an

individual and everyone has their own favorite.

Winner, Joe. “The Top 15 Most Popular Rides At Disney World.” ESPN, 15 June 2023,

espnswfl.com/listicle/the-top-15-most-popular-rides-at-disney-world/. Accessed 25 Jan. 2024.

Joe Winner lists the top fifteen rides at Disney World and includes data that factors into the index

that decided which rides were most popular. He uses monthly searches, Instagram hashtags, and

TripAdvisor ratings to justify the rankings. The top ride, Splash Mountain, has “205,193 monthly

searches, 323,813 Instagram hashtags, and a high rating of 4.5 out of 5 on Tripadvisor”.

Additionally, the second top ride, Tower of Terror, has “465,274 hashtags, a 4.5 out of 5 rating on

Tripadvisor, and receives an average of 75,943 monthly searches in America”. This has more

hashtags with the same rating and less monthly searches, so the ranking is not based solely on

these factors. Winner says that MagicGuides collected this data and used a particular index to

rank them. This information is useful because knowing the most popular rides at Disney can help

researchers or Imagineers determine what features customers love the most

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