Top 5 things that are better at Disneyland than at Walt Disney World

[LeahZ]

Bigger isn't always better and while Walt Disney's original theme park is smaller, it still has the advantage over its East-coast counterpart in a few key areas.

Read more here:

http://www.wdwinfo.com/disneyland/t...r-at-disneyland-than-at-walt-disney-world.htm

 

[starjazz]

Totally agree. We love both places for different reasons, so I won't say one is better, but this list definitely hits DLR's high points.

WDW has its high points too, such as the total immersion factor - nothing quite like staying on property at WDW, taking a boat over to MK or a monorail to Epcot, the waterparks, and each resort's little idiosyncrasies. Epcot, AK and DHS are great parks too.

I just love Disney period.

 

[JandD75]

Totally agree. We love both places for different reasons, so I won't say one is better, but this list definitely hits DLR's high points.

WDW has its high points too, such as the total immersion factor - nothing quite like staying on property at WDW, taking a boat over to MK or a monorail to Epcot, the waterparks, and each resort's little idiosyncrasies. Epcot, AK and DHS are great parks too.

I just love Disney period.

Amen!!!

 

[Midnightred]

Love it, thanks! I also want to add "climate" to that list!

Midnightred

 

[GatorChris]

Disneyland was my first park as a kid. That said, I agree with the list with the exception of the "Attractions". While Disney does have some rides that WDW doesn't, and some that are actually better like Pirates, WDW has DL beat on this subject. Why? The sheer size of WDW enables it to have so much more to do. How about the entire Epcot World Showcase. If all WDW had on DL was this, it puts them ahead. But if you add in an entire Animal Kingdom park, WDW runs away on the attractions board. And we haven't even counted the water parks.....

Proximity is a gimme or a tie. I like that the parks and resorts are so close at DL. However, because they're so close, it makes the hotels very pricey. At WDW the distance gives each resort an "escape" feel, plus the prices at the values and moderates stay relatively low. So proximity is there, but it comes at a price.

 

[cdatkins]

Disneyland was my first park as a kid. That said, I agree with the list with the exception of the "Attractions". While Disney does have some rides that WDW doesn't, and some that are actually better like Pirates, WDW has DL beat on this subject. Why? The sheer size of WDW enables it to have so much more to do. How about the entire Epcot World Showcase. If all WDW had on DL was this, it puts them ahead. But if you add in an entire Animal Kingdom park, WDW runs away on the attractions board. And we haven't even counted the water parks.....

well I kind of disagree

take a look at fantasyland. DL has many more attractions in like half the space or less. My guess is that DCA has about as many attractions as DHS and AK combined.

Epcot is where WDW really has the advantage on attractions, IMHO. And that park is what makes a visit to WDW really worthwhile. If I only had to choose between DLR and MK/DHS/AK, I would choose DLR everytime.

 

[Blue32]

Disneyland was my first park as a kid. That said, I agree with the list with the exception of the "Attractions". While Disney does have some rides that WDW doesn't, and some that are actually better like Pirates, WDW has DL beat on this subject. Why? The sheer size of WDW enables it to have so much more to do. How about the entire Epcot World Showcase. If all WDW had on DL was this, it puts them ahead. But if you add in an entire Animal Kingdom park, WDW runs away on the attractions board. And we haven't even counted the water parks.....

Proximity is a gimme or a tie. I like that the parks and resorts are so close at DL. However, because they're so close, it makes the hotels very pricey. At WDW the distance gives each resort an "escape" feel, plus the prices at the values and moderates stay relatively low. So proximity is there, but it comes at a price.

I suppose it depends how you define "attraction". For the size of WDW, you would think that WDW would blow away DLR in the # of attractions category, but it doesn't. It's actually quite close.

 

[GatorChris]

well I kind of disagree

take a look at fantasyland. DL has many more attractions in like half the space or less. My guess is that DCA has about as many attractions as DHS and AK combined.

I suppose it depends how you define "attraction". For the size of WDW, you would think that WDW would blow away DLR in the # of attractions category, but it doesn't. It's actually quite close.

OK, here's some things that DLR doesn't have that WDW does that make me long for FL. Country Bears, Monster's Laugh Floor, People Mover, Mickey's Philharmagic (what is DL waiting for on this one?), Indiana Jones Stunt Show, Beauty&theBeast Live, Double Dumbo with play area, Expedition Everest, Kilamanjaro Safari, two great animal trails that kick San Diego Zoo's butt by themselves, Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo Musical, and the 7 Dwarfs mine coaster. These are attractions that aren't duplicated/replaced at DLR with the exception of maybe Aladdin as a live show (vs. 4 others at DHS/AK). Again, I'm not even adding all the great stuff at Epcot.

To me, it's just being a little slanted to say DL can keep up with WDW. There's two big reasons I'm doing DL with an AP for the next year: Cars Land (which is great) and money (nearly $2K just to fly us there). If the money was there, it would be hard for me to pass up all those great attractions (and resorts and restaurants) that WDW tempts me with day by day. But that's just me.

 

[Just Peachy]

WDW and DLR have somewhat different appeals (and were designed that way). I read a quote on one of the Disney blogs once that ‘Disneyland was designed by a grandfather for his grandchildren and Disneyworld was designed by committee for the whole world’… or something to that effect.

My family loves both and we try to do the “unique stuff” first when we visit either resort. We live in Colorado so either coast is a bit of a trip (with CA being a little cheaper and shorter travel). When we visit WDW next year we will focus on AK, Epcot, water parks, and now the updated MK . Last year we went to DLR and spent most of our time in the DCA side spending lots of time in Cars Land and on Buena Vista Street. While we love how close and accessible everything is at DLR, we also love how different each of the parks are at WDW. As some of the earlier postings state, there are as many things better at WDW over DLR as you can find for DLR over WDW.

We haven’t been back to WDW since the Advent of FP+ so the jury is out on that issue. I am very familiar with how to “work” the FP- system at DLR and (previously) WDW and I found that we almost never needed to use FPs as we have learned how to manage our time and movement through parks even on the most crowded of weeks (we typically visit the parks in Summer, Thanksgiving Week and Christmas Week) . OK, on Christmas week we do have to use FPs more. But for the most part we haven’t needed a FP system.

 

[starjazz]

I saw an "official" count once of "rides" at the two locations. It was very close between DLR and WDW if you're looking at rides alone. That may have been before WDW's FL expansion. But it'd still be close.

Whoever said proximity is a tie has to be very biased. It isn't even close. The closest you can get to Magic Kingdom is the Contemporary which is still TWICE as far as the Tropicana/BWPPI/Park Vue/etc. to DL, and it costs easily 4 times as much. To get the Tropicana (or similar) rate, you'd have to stay way the heck out at AoA or some such motel and take a 45 minute bus ride. Blech. Proximity isn't even close to a tie.

But atmosphere and immersion definitely swing in WDW's favor. And you could certainly pull off 2 straight weeks of non-stop themepark-ing in WDW and still not see everything. That'd be hard to do at DLR.

 

[DahliaRW]

I absolutely HATED the distance between parks and the distance from parks to the resort hotels at WDW. I felt like I was wasting so much time on the stupid busses. And there is nothing "magical" about having to wait over an hour to get a bus back to your resort after fireworks at MK or Illuminations at Epcot. Park hopping was just not practical. And for a family of 5, there were no "cheap" options for resorts, the value resorts require 2 rooms for 5 or a suite which was more expensive than staying at POR and the resort was further away. I much prefer walking 5-10 minutes between my hotel and the park, and for less money (talking about the offsite hotels here).

I totally agree on counter service. Much better at DLR than WDW. But the table service restaurants at WDW are better, though so so so much more spread out. And the bus system makes it hard to go between resorts to dine at various restaurants. Hated that. We didn't get to try restaurants at the other resorts because it just wasn't feasible to get there and back - a family of 5 can't fit in one cab and then there is the car seat issue with the kids.

 

[Disney Dreams]

OK, here's some things that DLR doesn't have that WDW does that make me long for FL. Country Bears, Monster's Laugh Floor, People Mover, Mickey's Philharmagic (what is DL waiting for on this one?), Indiana Jones Stunt Show, Beauty&theBeast Live, Double Dumbo with play area, Expedition Everest, Kilamanjaro Safari, two great animal trails that kick San Diego Zoo's butt by themselves, Festival of the Lion King, Finding Nemo Musical, and the 7 Dwarfs mine coaster. These are attractions that aren't duplicated/replaced at DLR with the exception of maybe Aladdin as a live show (vs. 4 others at DHS/AK). Again, I'm not even adding all the great stuff at Epcot.

To me, it's just being a little slanted to say DL can keep up with WDW. There's two big reasons I'm doing DL with an AP for the next year: Cars Land (which is great) and money (nearly $2K just to fly us there). If the money was there, it would be hard for me to pass up all those great attractions (and resorts and restaurants) that WDW tempts me with day by day. But that's just me.

You are comparing four parks and two water parks to two parks. You cannot make that comparison and have any expectation except to come out with WDW offering more. If it wasn't, something would be seriously wrong.

Compare DL park with Magic Kingdom park. Then, let me know what your results are. At least that's comparing on park to one park.

- Dreams

ETA: P.S. Country Bears Jamboree used to be at Disneyland. The PeopleMover used to be at Disneyland. And ummm, I'll just leave this right here: Matterhorn.

 

[DahliaRW]

You are comparing four parks and two water parks to two parks. You cannot make that comparison and have any expectation except to come out with WDW offering more. If it wasn't, something would be seriously wrong.

Compare DL park with Magic Kingdom park. Then, let me know what your results are. At least that's comparing on park to one park.

- Dreams

But if you compare rides to rides, WDW barely has more, and that's between 4 parks, whereas DLR fits nearly that many rides into 2. If you're a ride person, that makes a difference.

 

[snowy76]

Over on the WDW Theme Parks board, this topic was also posted with many people responding that the thing that puts DL over WDW is NO Fastpass+!

We haven't been back to WDW since the new Fastpass program began... but we've been to DL twice. Honestly, FP+ is scaring me away slightly. Between the ease of planning for DL, and Anaheim weather, we'd rather wait longer and save for another DL trip. I'm not sure when I want to deal with the barely-controlled chaos that WDW seems to be becoming. If I go back to Orlando anytime soon, my priority with be Diagon Alley at Universal. WDW might become the side trip... when it used to be other way around. I love both DL and WDW for different reasons, but currently, DL truly has my heart!

 

[grnflash]

I've only been to WDW once and while I'm sure many, many people will disagree with me, it was the magical immersion factor that I missed. As a park visitor, I would totally give immersion to DLR, no contest.

We stayed onsite (POR) and as a vacation, I would agree that the immersion was way more. But we spend our time in parks and there the immersion fell short at WDW. DL just has so much more detail, so intricately woven into the park. There's so much beyond the rides to see and experience. And the detail can't be missed, it just surrounds you everywhere you go (well, except TL.) We didn't find that overall at WDW.

Instead , the overwhelming amount of concrete comes to mind first. And the largeness of everything as well reduced our feeling of immersion. Nice huge castle but with huge concrete stage blocking the front, inaccessible to the masses. Huge Main Street that felt more like a well done movie set instead of an actual small town street. Huge Double Dumbo that gave you sight lines of awnings and another Dumbo. Big spooky mansion set so far away from everything that all its spookiness was contained to that attraction, not sharing it with its land.

Of course they could fill up a lot of this largeness, but they haven't. I didn't really feel immersed in the lands so much as we were just moving from attraction to attraction. And, oh, you're not going to see any characters out along the way.

As for the other parks, yes, when on rides at DCA the immersion is regularly busted since you can easily see outside the park, which is a shame. But on the ground, I love the vibe that immerses you in this park. And it is so pretty at night! But at Epcot though, it was the sad dilapidation of Future World that immersed us. DHS felt disjointed with a lack of things to do/see (kinda like DCA used to be, so they do know how to fix this.)

So as for "keeping up" - well, imo, WDW has a long way to go to catch up to DLR. (Our resort was lovely though and I would love to see this type of hotel immersion at DLR.) And I'll throw another nod to regular FP too.

 

[ColdNeverBotheredMe]

Also, not to mention the last reason on the list! It even said that you can debate pretty much all the other reasons, which everyone's been doing, but the fact remains that Disneyland is where Walt Disney actually walked. I don't think anything can really beat that.

 

[B-Ride]

Love it, thanks! I also want to add "climate" to that list!

Midnightred

Would have to agree with this one. We spent 4 days at Disneyland in August and to do it without the oppressive humidity and constant threat of a thunderstorm was a real joy. I would also agree that the proximity was great.

As for attractions, the Disneyland versions were better in places but WDW still is the king especially in better themed queing areas and more pre-shows. Also, how can you possibly not have Mickey's Philharmagic.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

A rebuttal from my good friend Jack Burgin:

Top 5(+) things that are better at Walt Disney World than at Disneyland

 

[Ware Bears]

We visited Disneyland for the first time last year and immediately it became our favourite resort. We very much enjoyed our three trips to WDW and intend to go there again one day but there's something very very special about DL, guess it's partly down to the size as we also love DLP. Can't wait until we return to DL next summer.

 

[DaisyDuck001]

I like that Disneyland has fall foods such as pumpkin muffins, pumpkin beignets, etc. Just recently visited WDW and couldn't find much autumn food there!