Having been to both Disneyland and Disneyworld as an adult (once each), I feel fully qualified to give my opinion on which one is better! Of course, I'm not qualified at all and this post is mostly for myself, but hey. Anyway, these are obviously just opinions, so I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks if they have been to both. (By the way, Disneyland includes the Disneyland park and Disney's California Adventure. Disneyworld refers to all 4 parks and resorts, not just the Magic Kingdom.)
First of all, let me say that if you love a wide variety of amazing resorts, or if you love Epcot, then it's not even close. DW wins hands down. They have all kinds of amazing places to stay, while DL has one really nice resort and two pretty nice resorts. And there is nothing like Epcot at DL. So, if you love those things, that's the end of the argument
Fortunately for me, neither of those things are true. I love the parks and the resorts are nice, but we tend not to spend too much time there. And as I mentioned before, we liked Epcot, but didn't love it enough that we would be sad to go to a Disney park and not do Epcot, if that makes any sense.
So, with that out of the way, let's break it down. These lists are based on my knowledge and experience and may be inaccurate. To me, something is "important" if I would have come home from the trip, heard about the attraction and then kicked myself for not having ridden it.
Important attractions that are in both parks and are essentially the same:
Haunted Mansion
Peter Pan
Little Mermaid ride
Tea Cups
Tea Cups
Splash Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain
Cinnamon Rolls
Steel Roller Coaster (Many would completely disagree with this, but the Rockin' Roller Coaster and California Screamin' are very similar big, fast, steel coasters but one is a dark coaster and one is not. Since you don't really go to Disney to ride a regular coaster, it's basically a wash for me.)
Jungle Cruise (can't remember where we liked this one better honestly)
Bug's Life and Muppet Movies
Turtle Talk with Crush
Raft Ride
Toy Story Mania
Important attractions that are in both parks but better at DW:
Tower of Terror - I honestly don't remember a huge difference between the two but supposedly it's bigger and better at DW.
Cinderella Castle - this is a matter of taste, but most people prefer the larger castle in DW
Dumbo
Important attractions that are in both parks and better at Disneyland:
Small World
Pirates of the Caribbean
Space Mountain
Fantasmic
Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters
Soarin' (because of the que and because hey, you're actually in california for the ride)
Jedi Training
Important attractions that are only at Disneyworld (this obviously doesn't include every minor ride):
New Fantasyland including Enchanted Tales with Belle.
Sorcerer's of the Magic Kingdom and Agent P
Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor
Everest
Illuminations
Beauty and the Beast show
Tree of Life
Festival of Lion King
Nemo
Animals (although, to be fair since DL is smaller, you could just drive down to the San Diego Zoo if you wanted a really fantastic animal experience - which we actually did)
Dinosaur (I don't think Deanna liked this enough to put it on a list as important)
Important things that are only at Disneyland:
Cars Land including Radiator Springs Racers (Some would say Test Track is similar to RSR and goes faster so is better, but not having ridden RSR I would say most people think it is a better ride than Test Track even if you think they are equivalent types of rides, so I'm leaving it here)
World of Color show
Matterhorn
Ferris Wheel
Indiana Jones ride
Grizzly Mountain
Carthay Circle Theater replica
Tigger Tails
Aladdin show (which is my favorite Disney park show so far)
Nemo Sub ride
Let's break down the other aspects of a visit to Disney.
Weather:
DW is hot and humid with a long hurricane season. DL is hot and dry with no hurricanes.
Winner: DL, and it's not even close.
Food:
There is a much greater number of restaurants and quick service places at DW but in general we liked the food quick service places at DL well enough and we liked Blue Bayou better than any place at DW. Plus, DL has mangoes! But, DW has Cinderella's castle and generally a bigger selection of character breakfasts.
Winner: It's a wash.
Travel:
This is where DL has a HUGE edge. You can stay on property or off property and be within a 15 minute walk of both parks. The entrance to both parks is directly across from each other. Downtown Disney is a few minutes away. DW can take an hour to get to the park. And the travel system can be byzantine with crazy buses, boats and monorails.
So, which park wins? Well, I think that depends on your situation.
Who is Disneyland best for?
Families with very young kids - it's just so nice to have the flexibility of walking back to your hotel at a moments notice.
First timers - DW can be overwhelming. If you've never been to either before, it's much easier to plan and naviagte DL than DW.
People who want the "original" Disney, built by Walt himself.
People who don't have a long time for their vacation - You can see everything at DL in 2-3 days. Even with a full week, we felt like there was still so much to do at DW that we didn't get to see.
Who is Disneyworld best for?
One timers - DW is so huge and has so much variety to offer, if you're only going to do Disney once, might as well go big.
People who love resorts or Epcot.
Families with teens - with more stamina than little kids, you can get to experience the greater variety of DW; also, teenagers love HP so you can take a quick trip to the HP park
People who have a long time for their vacation
Who else is Disneyland best for? Me! The smaller size and the weather are enough to tip me over to generally prefer DL to DW. It's like a super concentrated dose of Disney without the humidity. I think, all things being equal, I would prefer to go back to DL rather than DW. In fact, Deanna and I might just do that for our 15 year wedding anniversary this year!
Now, that being said, we also LOVE Harry Potter and the Harry Potter park, so when the expansion is open, we are definitely heading back to Florida to vist HP and DW again!
Let's break down the other aspects of a visit to Disney.
Weather:
DW is hot and humid with a long hurricane season. DL is hot and dry with no hurricanes.
Winner: DL, and it's not even close.
Food:
There is a much greater number of restaurants and quick service places at DW but in general we liked the food quick service places at DL well enough and we liked Blue Bayou better than any place at DW. Plus, DL has mangoes! But, DW has Cinderella's castle and generally a bigger selection of character breakfasts.
Winner: It's a wash.
Travel:
This is where DL has a HUGE edge. You can stay on property or off property and be within a 15 minute walk of both parks. The entrance to both parks is directly across from each other. Downtown Disney is a few minutes away. DW can take an hour to get to the park. And the travel system can be byzantine with crazy buses, boats and monorails.
So, which park wins? Well, I think that depends on your situation.
Who is Disneyland best for?
Families with very young kids - it's just so nice to have the flexibility of walking back to your hotel at a moments notice.
First timers - DW can be overwhelming. If you've never been to either before, it's much easier to plan and naviagte DL than DW.
People who want the "original" Disney, built by Walt himself.
People who don't have a long time for their vacation - You can see everything at DL in 2-3 days. Even with a full week, we felt like there was still so much to do at DW that we didn't get to see.
Who is Disneyworld best for?
One timers - DW is so huge and has so much variety to offer, if you're only going to do Disney once, might as well go big.
People who love resorts or Epcot.
Families with teens - with more stamina than little kids, you can get to experience the greater variety of DW; also, teenagers love HP so you can take a quick trip to the HP park
People who have a long time for their vacation
Who else is Disneyland best for? Me! The smaller size and the weather are enough to tip me over to generally prefer DL to DW. It's like a super concentrated dose of Disney without the humidity. I think, all things being equal, I would prefer to go back to DL rather than DW. In fact, Deanna and I might just do that for our 15 year wedding anniversary this year!
Now, that being said, we also LOVE Harry Potter and the Harry Potter park, so when the expansion is open, we are definitely heading back to Florida to vist HP and DW again!
5 comments:
i love you guys. this is a great post and leaves me feeling good about being closer to DL. seeing all the posts made me think i might watch harry potter so i would get a thrill out of seeing the whole shebang, but sounds like i have a few years to grow my kids to get us to DW. you were our original inspiration for DL and we truly love it. in fact we found a great condo right behind DL with a five minute walk that was really great!
Heidi - I'm super impressed that you read that whole post! We may pick your brain about the condo next time we take the kids.
You guys should write a book. It would definitely pay for your next trip to Disney!
I'm so impressed by your analysis. I also cannot believe I read ALL your DL and DW posts! But I was sucked in... and it makes me really sad and guilty that I haven't written about our DisneyWorld trip yet. I have only been to DW as an adult, and it was our first time and even though it was huge and humid... LOVED it! I don't even know what a vacation would be like without humidity! Strange!
Tammy, Unfortunately I am late to the scene to monetize my unnatural love of the Disney parks. Many people have done that already - and better than I could.
Natalie - You seriously win the gold star. I didn't think anyone would read every post! I figured most people would skim the pictures and maybe click on the videos if they were really bored. We also LOVED DW but Deanna has a deep, burning hatred of humidity and I have a deep, burning hatred of inefficiency, so I just couldn't stand "commuting" to the parks all that time each day, or wanting to take Camilla back for a nap but knowing it would kill 3-4 hours. I think we are in the minority of preferring DL to DW though. Most disney-philes consider DL to be the "world's most famous regional theme park."
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