About this ride
Boats drift through enormous rooms representing different world regions, each filled with elaborately costumed animatronic children. The scale is genuinely impressive — hundreds of figures across dozens of countries. A holiday overlay version during December adds Christmas and holiday decorations from cultures worldwide.
Best time to ride
Good midday rest — fast-moving queue, climate-controlled interior, and long enough to genuinely rest your feet.
Insider tips
- Look for subtle Disney character appearances hidden among the native figures.
- The holiday overlay version (November–January) is widely considered the best version of the ride.
- The exterior facade and animated clock tower are some of the most photographed spots in Fantasyland.
- The original was designed by Mary Blair, whose flat graphic art style is still beautiful more than 60 years later.
Good for
Mateo's Take
It's a Small World is a test of something I think matters: whether you can appreciate what something is instead of judging it for what it isn't. This is not a thrill ride. It doesn't ask anything of you physically. What it asks is that you pay attention to the extraordinary amount of craft in those rooms, hundreds of hand-crafted hand-costumed figures representing dozens of countries, all designed by Mary Blair whose flat graphic art style is still beautiful more than 60 years after she created it for the 1964 World's Fair. The holiday overlay version, running from November through early January, is the single most transformed version of any attraction at Disneyland. The cultural holiday traditions of dozens of countries layered over the original score makes the ride something genuinely different and deeply moving. My recommendation: ride it at least once on any Disneyland visit, and if you visit during the holiday season, treat the holiday overlay as a must-do.
— Mateo, Lead Disney Parks Specialist
Related guides
Planning a Disneyland trip?
Save on tickets before your visit — same parks, lower prices.
Save up to $30 vs gate price
Some links on this page are affiliate links. We may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps us keep the site free.
More family-friendly rides at Disneyland
View all →Haunted Mansion is the quintessential Disney dark ride — spooky, witty, and endlessly detailed. You board a Doom Buggy for a guided tour through a grand manor populated by 999 happy haunts. The Disneyland version is the longest Haunted Mansion in any Disney park worldwide, with a unique outdoor section through the New Orleans bayou.
rating
4.8
/ 5.0
Pirates of the Caribbean is the original Disney dark ride masterpiece — the one that set the template for everything that followed. Walt Disney himself oversaw its creation, and it opened in 1967 as the last attraction he personally supervised. You drift through moonlit bayous and into a chaotic port town under siege by buccaneers.
rating
4.8
/ 5.0
Jungle Cruise is Disneyland's original opening-day comedy boat ride — a live skipper-led river tour past animatronic wildlife where the puns are the point. No height requirement, no Lightning Lane, and one of the best morning rides in Adventureland when paired with Indiana Jones.
rating
4.4
/ 5.0