The "real Disneyland"

[All American]

That's pretty cringe-worthy. There are ignorant know-it-all's out there. However, when I hear crazy stuff like that, I wonder if the person is just joking around to get see how people react. Maybe it's because I'm a rotten person who, every once in while, likes to make comments similar to the lady in the original post. For example, when we were at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, as we were approaching the Hogwarts castle, I asked my husband, "Is this Cinderella's or Snow White's castle?" The gasps of disbelief, exasperated sighs, and general looks of horror were pretty funny. For the lady in the original post, I hope she was joking because that's pretty bad.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I would probably just have asked her "You do know that Disneyland opened in 1955, and the Magic Kingdom (WDW) opened in 1971, right?"

But, sometimes, I'm not nice that way.

 

[taniahappy]

OH I would have told her the correct info, politely of course!

 

[bumbershoot]

I couldn't help saying that it would make DL a lot less crowded if the WDW people who found it so inferior stayed at WDW.

Heh heh heh.

But I'm pretty sure the woman mentioned in the original post was right about one thing. The castle is bigger in Magic Kingdom.

Sure. totally.

But it's a totally different family's castle. Cinderella vs Aurora. (or as I like to call them, castles owned by Mr Cinderella's family vs Philip's family) They shouldn't be the same. If they were, that would be weird.

But it is mostly unapproachable due to all sorts of shows going on there.

So true. What's the point of a bigger castle if you can't ever go through it. Some people sign up for rundisney events just so they can "run through the castle". Of course, you're only running if you're at the front of the pack; if you're slower, then you're slowly moving through it because everyone stops to take selfies as they go through it. Irritating.

At least at Disneyland I can walk through and go up steps and walk through the SB story, which is really neat. A ton better than paying nearly $300 for the 3 of us to eat vegetable gnocchi at CRT, that's for sure!

However, I remember seeing on DIS people inquiring about Walt Disney Imagineering jobs and asking if they would have to move to Florida. The fact is most of the creative jobs for WDI are in Glendale, CA near the Walt Disney Company HQ.

And much/most/all? of IT is in Seattle.

A few years back we got stuck for a little bit on Pirates just before the jail scene. One of the ladies on the row in front of us was telling her friends that they built the ride after the movies came out. Like, not just updated it to include Jack Sparrow, but really, truly, the ride didn't exist before 2003. My correcting-people-thing took over and I piped up that the ride had actually opened in the 60s. She didn't believe me.

Painful. And shows none of them had taken the time to watch the special features of the POTC DVD, which shows the original Pirates ride. Then the second movie's special features shows the Sparrow-add-on with Depp riding it. Amateur POTC fans, right there.

Its certainly charming and i definitely enjoyed it, but it was much smaller then i expected

And on the opposite side, I was FREAKED out at how big the WDW property was. I knew the size of it; I knew it is bigger than the town I live in. But I expected 30 mph city streets, not 50 mph *highways* going through it. It was astonishing.

 

[STLstone]

It took a lot of skill to design small like that. Look up the term "forced perspective". Walt just didn't have enough money to build bigger. He also didn't care for all the businesses that built around the park. He would have liked a bubble. He also had to deal with a somewhat sleazy partner in building the Disneyland Hotel, which the Walt Disney Company didn't own. They tried to buy it for years and could only manage to gain ownership in the 80s.

Quite a few people have commented that the size really helps with reduced walking and the ability to go from attraction to attraction quickly.

When you can quickly stroll from DL to DCA without going outside security, it makes the size of WDW seem almost obscene!

 

[Angrose]

I have to laugh because I've been on the DISboards quite a bit this morning and every time I see this thread's title it makes me chuckle and think of my nephew. We took him for his first trip 17 years ago when he was only 5 years old. He was blown away and kept asking us at every turn "Is this the REAL Disneyland??!!" HIs little imagination was just going wild and he just couldn't believe that everything that he was seeing was real and not just in his head. I'm so lucky that I have been able to visit the park so much in the last few years but every time I walk down Main Street USA I get the same feeling that I can't believe I'm once again in the REAL Disneyland! I've never been to any of the other parks but I can't ever imagine any of them giving me that same feeling.

 

[sheetz]

I figured that Disneyland was the first draft and they improved everything when they built Disney World. But having visited Disneyland for the first time in 2014 (after several WDW visits), I know that is simply not the case.

But if you think about it, WDW's size has caused logistical nightmares that more recently built theme park resorts have tried to avoid. Disney resorts in Paris and Tokyo, as well as Universal Orlando, all more closely resemble DLR's compact layout than WDW's massive sprawl. I haven't closely followed Shanghai's development but I suspect it will be the case there as well.

 

[bethbuchall]

one time we were on pirates and as we passed the blue bayou, a woman behind us told the rest of her group that you had to make reservations a year in advance if you wanted to eat there. my husband and i looked at each other like, "what?" lol. but based on other (non-disney) snippets of her convo that we overheard, she didn't seem like the brightest crayon in the box. now every time we pass blue bayou he tells me that we need to make a reservation a year in advance to eat there, haha

We often joke like your husband did after hearing someone say something way off base. Someone listening to our conversations may think that we have absolutely no idea what we're talking about.

 

[bcla]

And much/most/all? of IT is in Seattle.

Well - I see some odd queries about WDI. One asked if Imagineering had any creative jobs in NYC. Something about not wanting to move.

 

[bcla]

A lot of people get things wrong. Here's one claiming that Country Bear Jamboree was designed for WDW. It was actually designed for the Mineral King ski resort that was never built.

http://www.orlandovacation.com/disney-world/attractions/other-disney-parks/

 

[bcla]

That's pretty cringe-worthy. There are ignorant know-it-all's out there. However, when I hear crazy stuff like that, I wonder if the person is just joking around to get see how people react. Maybe it's because I'm a rotten person who, every once in while, likes to make comments similar to the lady in the original post. For example, when we were at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, as we were approaching the Hogwarts castle, I asked my husband, "Is this Cinderella's or Snow White's castle?" The gasps of disbelief, exasperated sighs, and general looks of horror were pretty funny. For the lady in the original post, I hope she was joking because that's pretty bad.

I dunno. I was at a local zoo with one of those cookie cutter carousels. I heard a comment about the panda baring rather sharp teeth. I just said, "they are bears" and something about them being built like bears even though they almost exclusively eat plant material. She said, "No they're marsupials." I finished off that they were bears and that scientific study showed that. In the end I don't think she believed me.

 

[disneyobsessed808]

It would have taken me a lot to hold back from going up to her and saying, "Um, actually..."

Disneyland may be small, but I believe it still has the most attractions of any Disney park.

 

[pinkprincess30]

My assistant at work is going to WDW in October and she keeps calling it Disneyland. It's driving me CRAZY! hahaha

 

[LizzyS]

My assistant at work is going to WDW in October and she keeps calling it Disneyland. It's driving me CRAZY! hahaha

No! I hate that so much!

 

[maltdizzy]

My pet peeve are all the people (including here on DIS) that refer to WDW as "The Happiest Place on Earth." Disney still reserves that for DL.

 

[bcla]

My pet peeve are all the people (including here on DIS) that refer to WDW as "The Happiest Place on Earth." Disney still reserves that for DL.

They call it "The most magical place on earth".

That being said, there's a lot that's commonly used. For instance No Doubt's album "Tragic Kingdom". I looked it up, and it was a joke name for Disneyland used by a band member's teacher in the Anaheim schools.

Although "Magic Kingdom" refers to one park in Florida, that phrase dates way back before there were any plans to build in Florida. They had the Magic Kingdom Club discount card.

 

[maltdizzy]

They call it "The most magical place on earth".

Yep.

 

[Xenorye]

Not sure about that. Right now there are Disney parks in five (sorry, six) locations around the world. I wouldn't think that any one location gets the majority of the visits. Granted visitors to Florida take longer visits across multiple parks.

Magic Kingdom (or, 1/4 of Disney World) is the #1 most visited theme park in the world every year. They get more visitors. Doesn't mean they're better!

 

[krispin41]

I just got back from my most recent trip last week and I actually overheard someone say, "The added all the jewelry" to the Castle for Frozen." Um...not sure how you could miss the big 60 on the front, but okay. LOL

 

[bcla]

Magic Kingdom (or, 1/4 of Disney World) is the #1 most visited theme park in the world every year. They get more visitors. Doesn't mean they're better!

Sure. However, the 2nd most visited is Tokyo Disneyland. Disneyland is #3. My contention was that no Disney park location has the majority of visits.

Shanghai Disneyland is also expected to become the most visited theme park in the world,