Is Disneyland more crowded than Disney World?

[bethwc101]

I'm asking those who have done both parks. Preferably during similar seasons. holiday time, Halloween, etc. I was reading some of the WDW forums and it doesn't seem as though WDW has the same crowd issues that DLR has. Can anyone share their thoughts and opinions?

 

[Indiana Scott]

Good question and I'm looking forward to answers. It's been a long time since we've been to WDW but it didn't seem as crowded as DLR.
From what I've read, DLR is more congested and even though WDW may have more guests, they have wider walkways and generally more capacity everywhere else.

 

[JKalai]

Are you talking about all of WDW? Or just the Magic Kingdom?

In my opinion, Disneyland feels much more crowded than the Magic Kingdom because DL is much smaller. The size of the walkways in MK are massive. Disneyland however has an advantage as the park has many more rides than MK. Disneyland's walkways can feel very congested and packed, but the wait times for rides usually aren't that bad.

There is also a different demographic at both parks. At WDW, it felt like the off season was less crowded than DL due to all the California locals who go. At Disneyland, IMO there really isn't an off season anymore.

 

[mom2rtk]

Crowds are different at DLR. Since the parks are side by side, they are more fluid. It's harder to escape a crowd by finding a park with lower wait times. Avoiding the park on early entry mornings doesn't help because the crowd is so fluid between the 2 parks. Party days are not low crowd like they are at the MK.

Walkways are more congested. They are smaller. There are fewer FP attractions.

The massive difference in DLR AP base also affects crowds. AP holders are happy to camp out for a parade many hours in advance because they can do rides another time. DLR is much more of a locals hangout than WDW.

Busy and less busy times are not the necessarily the same as at WDW. They are heavily influenced by AP blackout dates.

For all of those reasons, I think SWL will have a much greater impact on the parks at DLR than at WDW. Imagine having SWL plopped down in the middle of the MK. That's the main reason our own travel patterns will likely swap back to WDW once it opens. That park will not be able to absorb those crowds. At least at WDW I can choose different parks completely that aren't side by side.

 

[j9isawesome]

We’ve had the APs that are good at both costs off and on over the years, we even went from Disneyland on a Memorial Day weekend to Disney World & the crowds we’ve experienced on each coast are like night and day to one another. Disney World holds more people & can often have longer wait times. Disneyland *feels* so much more crowded though because the park wasn’t designed for the types of crowds we get these days. Disneyland is like Pandora (you can enjoy it if you’re patient but sometimes it’s so crowded you can’t even walk around) & California Adventure feels like the rest of Disney World (even when it’s busy it never feels stressful/crush of humanity crowded).