Disneyland v. Walt Disney World

I've often heard people claim that Disneyland is WAAAAYYY better than Walt Disney World, and vice versa. My response to that: Hogwash. Balderdash. Humbug. Baloney. You're full of it.

Often, when pressed for more information, you'll find that those making such preposterous claims have grown up in either SoCal or Florida, never actually been to one of the parks, or been once to one park and 838 times to the other.

I'm no expert on the Disney Parks, but having been to Disneyland and Walt Disney World twice each over the last ten years, I'd like to offer my humble opinion on the matter:

They're both awesome.

Having said that, I'm aware that each park has its advantages, which is probably what people are basing their silly opinions on (my opinions, of course, are never silly). As such, I'd like to discuss five things that actually DO make each park better than the other. Here we go.

Five reasons why Walt Disney World is better than Disneyland:

1. The size. Disneyland is a land-locked place with limited space, which hamstrings the park in terms of growth and potential. Walt Disney World has no such restricitions, as the land on which it sits occupies 47 square miles (about twice the size of Manhattan). As such, the park can grow, grow and grow some more. Compared to Disneyland Resort's two parks (and three hotels), Walt Disney World is huge. In addition to the four major theme parks on the property, Walt Disney World also counts two great water parks, a considerably bigger Downtown Disney and 33 hotels and resorts. As such, there's much more to do at Walt Disney World.

2. These five attractions (featured at both parks) are better at Walt Disney World: Cinderella's Castle (come on, there's really no fair comparison--Florida's version is a true landmark); Fantasmic! (rather than jockey for position in the middle of New Orleans Square, this show has its own amphitheater with unobstructed seating for all); Toy Story Midway Mania (while the ride is comparable in both parks, the queue area in Orlando is fantastic--it's like you're a little toy in a giant toy box, and you don't mind being in the line. By comparison, the queue in Anaheim is, well, a line that you stand in); The Tower of Terror (fun in both places, but the Orlando version actually moves your ride vehicle through the hotel and there's more scenery. In Anaheim, there is no movement on the horizontal plane--you go up, you go down); It's Tough to Be a Bug (again, it's all about the pre-show experience here--descending into the Tree of Life for the show is at least as cool as the show itself).

3. The number of exclusive attractions at WDW far outnumbers the exclusives in Anaheim. These five attractions are probably my favorites among the exclusives: Rock N' Roller Coaster, Test Track, Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Mickey's Philharmagic. There are plenty more where that came from.

4. The Weather. Florida's weather is consistently warmer than Anaheim's, which most of the year makes for a more pleasant experience.

5. The Shows. This is a product of its size, but Disney World has a lot more shows, each in its own theater, than Disneyland. This spreads the crowds around better and gives you plenty of opportunities to be wowed by the Magic.
---------------------------------
Five reasons why Disneyland is better than Walt Disney World:

1. The size. Yep, you read that right. Disney World is so stinkin' huge that it takes forever to get around. It's not uncommon in Orlando to get up in the morning, wait 20 minutes (at least) for the right bus to come along, then ride said bus for another 20 minutes to the park. If you want to take a nap, add 90 minutes of travel time to get back and forth between the hotel and the park. The wait for the bus at park closing is ridiculous because everyone is waiting, too, and the ride home at night is just prolonged torture. Sure, if you stay in one of the hotels along the monorail then your travel time is lessened (though not a lot) between two of the parks and the hotel, but who has that kind of money? If I'm going on vacation, I don't want to lay down a couple grand just on the place I'll be sleeping.
By comparison, Disneyland is cozy and close. We can stay in an off-site hotel, walk across the street to the park and be at the gate in less than 10 minutes. Once in the parks, the attractions are closer together, too. The closeness makes naps a much more palatable proposition and therefore a much more enjoyable day IN the park, rather than getting there. Leaving the park is just as pleasant a walk as it was the rest of the day, too.

2. These five attractions (featured at both parks) are better at Disneyland: Pirates of the Caribbean (the ride lasts about twice as long and there's so much more to see--the Disneyland version is quite impressive, really); It's a Small World (the outdoor façade is so much more pleasant to look at--it also doubles as a screen for the new projection shows, and they've added something on the order of 40 Disney characters in the ride, which makes it that much more fun to try to take it all in!); Space Mountain (I'm a fan of the side-by-side seating); Tom Sawyer's Island (the addition of the Pirate's Cove is definitely an upgrade); Splash Mountain (I actually think the ride in Orlando is longer, but the Anaheim version has a few dips and surprises that I think make the ride more fun).

3. These five exclusive attractions are out of this world!: Matterhorn Bobsleds, California Screamin', Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Aladdin: A Musical Spectacular (in the interest of full disclosure, I missed the Nemo show in Orlando with a sick child, but I hear it was also fantastic), and World of Color (Mickey's Fun Wheel might have made the list, but I couldn't get the group to go on it with me).

4. The History. Disneyland has an unparalleled history that is visible throughout the park. I'm sure that the California fans think that the Florida version is just a copy cat park, while the Florida folks think that their park fixed all the mistakes that Disneyland made. The reality, however, is that Disneyland appears to make a (more?) concerted effort to maintain its history in a visible manner. As an example, tunnels and track from the old mine train can still be seen, but they don't look out of place. One can find characters from the old Country Bear Jamboree surreptitiously hidden in the Winnie the Pooh ride, which now occupies the spot of the former. Main Street also has several galleries and attractions which highlight the history. Really, quite neat.

5. The cost. Sure, it probably costs the same for a one-, two- or three-day ticket to each of the parks, but Disneyland is eminently more affordable, especially for us. Two large reasons for this are the fact that, at Disneyland, you can spend three days at the parks and feel sated, while in Orlando three days only scratches the surface--I'd say you need at least seven days to get a full appreciation of the parks (think of all those extra meals and nights in hotels!). I would think leaving Orlando after three days would be very unfulfilling. Additionally, Disneyland has affordable hotels right across the street from the park; good luck with that in Florida. For us, it's also more affordable because it's a reasonable road trip (from Denver, it's about 15 or 16 hours of driving--easily accomplished in a day and a half) to Anaheim, whereas getting to Orlando would either require a week of driving (round trip), or plane tickets, which ain't cheap. In fact, an entire trip to Disneyland costs us only slightly more than just the plane fare to Orlando.

On the whole, I'll say this about these two totally awesome parks. If you've got three days or less, spend them in Anaheim. You won't be disappointed. If you have five days or more, spend them in Orlando (if you have four days, go to the one you haven't been to yet). Both trips make memories to last a lifetime (or at least a few years, until you can make the next trip!).

Pirates of the Caribbean

Disneyland, 2010

Walt Disney World, 2008

Disneyland, 2004

Walt Disney World, ca. 1976

Belay that talk! We wants the keys, not the mutt!

Trip Report, The rest of the story

It rained.

Beginning with the morning we left Anaheim, it rained non-stop Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. On Day 9, we went to church with Nathan that morning (for another ward Christmas Cantata--at least this time the Bishop shared a brief message), went back to Nathan's for lunch, then the Jenkins loaded up and headed for our friends, the Littons, in Ridgecrest, CA (where the roads were largely flooded). Sadly, we didn't get the camera out the whole time we were there (I think we were enjoying being with them too much). We spent a couple of nights at Sean and Melanie's, played some games, caught up, and just generally did the relaxing that every vacation should have.

Tuesday morning we got up early and headed back toward home. All of that precipitation translated into boatloads of snow in the Colorado mountains, so we decided to take the southern route across I-40 through Arizona and New Mexico. It rained the whole way to Albuquerque.

We grabbed dinner at the Cracker Barrel (a family favorite) in ABQ, stayed the night at another Holiday Inn Express where we swam for about 30 minutes that evening, then hit the hay for the final leg of the journey. We have many, many friends in Albuquerque, but because our stay was so short we didn't see any of them--too bad we couldn't stretch it out another day, but we couldn't. We'll have to schedule a trip down there some time soon.

On Wednesday we got up, had another stellar continental breakfast, then made the final, uneventful leg of the trip home. The rain was intermittent, but not bad. We stopped in Colorado Springs to visit with my parents for a bit and exchanged Christmas presents, as they were on their way out of town to visit my sister in Utah. After that, we spent the final hour in the car and finally were back home in time for a laundry day before Christmas at the Nannies.

What a great vacation. We played hard, relaxed hard, enjoyed the company of friends and family, and made memories that will be with us forever. Perfect.

Trip Report, Day 8

Day 8 was a pretty low-key day. We slept in, had breakfast at the hotel (we love Holiday Inn Express because they have the best continental breakfast), then headed over to Nathan's house. After a couple of mellow hours at Nathan's, we all (including Stacey's parents) piled in the cars and headed out to lunch and a movie. We ate at one of those soup and salad buffets, but we were pressed for time because of the movie, so all-you-can-eat went out the window. Oh, well.
We split up to watch the movies--the big boys went and saw TRON in IMAX 3D,

while the girls and Seth stuck around at the restaurant and tooled around the shopping center,

then they caught Tangled in 3D.
I think the girls probably saw the better movie.

After the movies, we went back to Nathan's and chillaxed for the rest of the evening.

Trip Report, Day 7

I love Downtown Disney. I don't love it because it's hip and trendy (though it is). I don't love it because it has some good eats (but it does). I don't love it because of the Disneyland hotels (what real person can afford to stay there?). I love Downtown Disney because of the mega super souvenir shops (e.g. World of Disney).

Because there is no charge to get into Downtown Disney, we can shop at our leisure and not feel like we're 'missing out' on something. Who wants to buy a Disneyland ticket to spend time in the souvenir shops? Not I, said the Dog.

The morning after our three days of perfection was spent sleeping in (a little), packing up (while Seth worked on his Jedi skillz),

then walking over to Downtown Disney for some leisurely souvenir shopping. Up to this point, Seth and I were the only ones who had already picked up our souvenirs, so the rest of the family was on tap to pick theirs up. The first stop was at World of Disney, where Stacey got herself a foxy little Disneyland hoodie and David picked up a challenging Disneyland Rubik's Cube (alas, no photos).

I should probably mention here that we woke up to rain, rain and more rain. It had not rained on us AT ALL for the four days that we were at Legoland and Disneyland, but now it had finally come, and there was no sign of letting up. We were extremely blessed.

The girls had had their eyes on some special Downtown Disney Build-a-Bears since the evening we arrived in Anaheim (see Trip Report, Day 2), so the next stop was the Build-a-Bear workshop. Sarah picked out a simple but elegant ursus with a special Disney logo on it, while Hannah went for the much more fun bear with multi-colored Classic Mickey spots (we don't have more photos of this because a certain four-year old threw a fit because he couldn't have a second souvenir, and a certain parent chose not to cave in. The consequence left only one parent in the store armed with the video camera, hence few stills).

After we said our final goodbyes to the Disneyland Resort complex, we piled in the minivan and headed north toward Valencia, where Stacey's brother, Nathan, lives. We caught a late lunch at In-N-Out burger (yes, I had a Double Double Animal Style, Cheese Fries and a Neapolitan Shake--thanks for the tip, Erin), then tried to weave our way through Friday afternoon, rainy, holiday weekend traffic in Los Angeles. We failed.

We crossed our way west from I-5 to the 405, which was no better, then crept northward. Finally, after about 3.5 hours of creeping, we pulled off at Santa Monica Boulevard in search of the Los Angeles Temple. We found it! While some temples look smaller in real life than they do in the photos (e.g. San Diego, albeit a gorgeous temple), the Los Angeles temple is actually way bigger and more beautiful in person than the photos are able to depict. The added bonus was that they had their Christmas lights up--very nice.

We spent a little more than an hour at the visitors' center, then piled back into the car (and the traffic) and inched our way north to Valencia. All told, we spent about 4.5 hours in the car to get from South L.A. to North L.A. I was beginning to think that California was a totally awesome place to live because they have Disneyland AND In-N-Out Burger, but the traffic pretty much killed it for me. I love Colorado.

After we (finally!) got checked in at the Magic Mountain Holiday Inn Express, we headed into Valencia and met Nathan for dinner. Good food, good company.

Trip Report, Day 6

Day 6 was our third and final day in Disneyland Park. As always, we were up at the crack of dawn and at the park when it opened. We spent a few minutes on Main Street to get our pictures with Goofy and Mickey,


and I stopped in for a souvenir at the Mad Hatter.


Because of the Space Mountain technical difficulties the previous day, we headed straight for Tomorrowland. As is the beauty of getting to the park early, we walked right on to the ride. Twice.

If you look really hard, you still can't see Seth.

Stacey and Grandma skipped the second ride (actually, Grandma skipped them both) and headed up to get in line to meet the princesses at the Princess Fantasy Faire. We caught up to them and the girls were able to meet Belle, Tiana and Ariel.




While the girls were with the princesses, the boys got a head start on ToonTown and rode Gadget's Go Coaster something on the order of six times. When the girls and grown ups caught up, we went to Mickey's and Minnie's houses (where we met both the mice),




then took a spin on Roger Rabbit's CarToon Spin (twice), outside of which we met Pluto.

Once we were done with ToonTown, we took a spin on the Happiest Holiday Cruise that Ever Sailed.


After Small World Holiday, the girls went back to the Princess Fantasy Faire for the Coronation Ceremony with Aurora, Cinderella and Snow White,

and the boys went and rode the Matterhorn Bobsleds again, followed by the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (twice).

We met up again at the Golden Horseshoe, where we sat and had lunch (corn dogs, chicken, fish and chips)while being entertained by Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. After lunch, it was time for Pirates of the Caribbean, followed by the Haunted Mansion Holiday, the Jungle Cruise and the Enchanted Tiki Room.




After hearing the birds sing the words and the flowers croon, we grabbed some Dole Whips, then we took turns riding Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye (the one ride in Disneyland Park for which Seth is too short) while Seth played at Tarzan's Treehouse.


As we completed Adventureland, we noticed that the park was getting CRAZY busy, so we headed out for a little while and got some dinner at the International House of Pokey Service.

We got back into the park, which by this time was wall-to-wall with people, in time to catch the "Christmas Fantasy" Parade (from the train station platform--not the best vantage point, but we did see everything).





We figured out that the reason for the sudden craziness in the park was this--we were there on the last day before blackouts for Annual Passholders, and the park got inundated mid-afternoon by all the locals who had put off coming to Disneyland for the Christmas fireworks (and the parade, I suppose).

Because we had pretty much done every attraction that we had wanted to by that point and were not interested in 60-minute (or even 30-minute) lines, we dropped into the "Disney Story featuring Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln". In truth, it was really cool. We loved looking at the displays of the Park's history, and the Mr. Lincoln presentation was extremely well done. We really felt like our experience was enhanced by having done this--we got the "Full Disney", if you will.

After Mr. Lincoln, we headed up and snapped a few photos of the pretty castle, swung by Pixie Hollow to check it out--even though Tinkerbell wasn't there (much to Seth's chagrin--he's got a serious crush)--then over to It's a Small World to check out the AMAZING amount of lights on the façade. They even had a little projection show that took us off guard. The lights and decorations were what we really wanted to see by going in December, and we weren't disappointed!

After seeing Small World, we went and staked our claim around The Hub for a spot to watch the fireworks (we even lucked into four seats on the benches). Since Seth really doesn't do standing around very well, Stacey and David took him to Tomorrowland to check out the Star Wars souvenirs. He came back with his very own green lightsaber that he built himself. His skills are complete.

At long last, the fireworks show began and it was, in fact, spectacular. I'm not a big fireworks guy, but this was a really great show. The fact that the castle is included in the show with some really good music makes it a very enjoyable experience.


After the show, the streets were trashed, but in true Disney style, the cast members were out in full force and the place was spotless within about 10 minutes. Magic.

After the show, we tooled around the park a bit, not wanting to leave, then made our way back down Main Street where we ducked into the Main Street Cinema for a few minutes. After that, we made our way out of the park for the last time (this trip, anyway). Three completely magical and wonderful days were complete, and we were sated. It was absolutely worth it.

Trip Report, Day 5

Disneyland Day 2!!! We met up with Stacey's parents, who had flown in from Colorado the previous evening and, after a quick continental breakfast, headed over to Disneyland. The park was open early, but it was roped off at the end of Main Street so we were there for the rope drop and were able to get right on the rides we wanted. While we had covered a lot of the park on our first day, we hadn't touched Tomorrowland, where the first 99 minutes of Day 2 were dedicated. We headed straight to the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage (another notoriously long line, otherwise), where we were the very first ones on the sub. This attraction was fantastic--they really repurposed the old submarines well!


After Nemo, we were among the first to drive at Autopia, followed by Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters (one of our favorites--we did it twice)

Protecting the Universe from the Evil Emperor Zurg (but seriously, check out that score!).

We followed up Buzz Lightyear with the Captain EO tribute--at the beginning of the show David leaned over and said, "He'd better not be singing and dancing his way out of trouble." Well, he did. We would have done Space Mountain after Captain EO, but the ride was down that morning with mechanical issues. Good thing we had another day at the park!
After Tomorrowland, we headed out of the park and over to Disney California Adventure, where we would spend the rest of the day. First up was Soarin' over California (rode it twice), followed by California Screamin' (which we rode three times throughout the day).


After Screamin', we rode Toy Story Midway Mania,

King Triton's Carousel,

Meet N' Greets with Jessie, a Green Army Man and Duffy the Disney Bear (don't think he's going to catch on in the States--just sayin'...),


then on to lunch at the Golden State Dining Area (Sarah had a burrito, Hannah and I had Asian rice bowls, and everyone else had soup).
After a satisfying lunch, we headed over to the Hollywood Backlot to watch Playhouse Disney Live on Stage,

then back to the hotel for some much-needed naps!

David stayed a little longer with Grandma and Grandpa to catch the Muppets 3D show, and met Napoleon Dynamite Jon Heder, who was there with his family.

After our naps, we went back to California Adventure for the Pixar Play Parade, then into A Bug's Land for It's Tough to Be a Bug!.



After that, the five thrill seekers went to catch a ride on the Tower of Terror (this ride is a can't miss!)

while the others stayed behind and played at Flik's Fun Fair.

After going back for the last of our three rides on California Screamin' (did I mention that we loved this roller coaster?) and an ice cream stop, we headed over to Paradise Park to watch the World of Color show. While the crowds were crazy and we had to stand in a cramped area for a long time waiting for the show to start, we LOVED the show itself--a very nice addition to the park's offerings. The best part of the show was the encore (or TRONcore), in which pretty much all of Paradise Pier turned into a TRON-themed backdrop for a three-minute advertisement for the movie. The best part about that movie was the hype, and the best hype was that segment from the World of Color.

With that, Disneyland Day 2 was complete. Another fabulous, fun-packed day!