Before I get into the meat of this article, I must say that I feel privileged to have been able to experience the Disneyland Resort both before and after the 2001 expansion which included the addition of Disney’s California Adventure Park, Disney’s Grand Californian Resort Hotel, and the Downtown Disney complex. Had I not seen the transformation the resort undertook after this expansion, my opinions might have been different… With that said, let’s get down to business, shall we?

The Disneyland Resort and the Walt Disney World Resort. One contains the first, original Disney theme park – the ONLY Disney theme park in which Walt Disney personally set foot. The other contains the (currently) most visited Disney theme park in the world.

If we look at the resorts as a whole, the Disneyland Resort consists of the original Disneyland Park and Disney’s California Adventure Park. Additionally, the resort contains the Downtown Disney shopping, dining, and entertainment complex as well as three Disney resort hotels: the Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel and Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel. The entire resort sits on about 140 acres in Anaheim, California.

By contrast, the Walt Disney World Resort occupies nearly 30,000 acres of land in Central Florida. That’s over 200 times the size of the Disneyland Resort, and is actually twice the size of Manhattan Island in New York! The Walt Disney World Resort includes four theme parks: The Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Additionally, the Downtown Disney complex is divided into three distinct districts: Downtown Disney Marketplace, Downtown Disney Pleasure Island, and Downtown Disney West Side. The Walt Disney World Resort also boasts 99 holes of golf, two miniature golf courses, two themed water parks – Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach (River Country seems to be closed indefinitely…), and nearly 30,000 hotel rooms spread out among over 20 different resort hotels located on the property.

Take a look at the pictures below from disneyland.com and disneyworld.com. Although not to scale, it is clear to see just how massive the Walt Disney World Resort is compared to the Disneyland Resort.

In this image, you can see how close together everything is at the Disneyland Resort. Image courtesy of www.disneyland.com © Disney.

This image gives you a good idea of just how massive and spread out everything is at the Walt Disney World Resort. Image courtesy of www.disneyworld.com © Disney.

So, the question remains: Which is better – Disneyland or Walt Disney World? Believe it or not, it really is hard to say! So, instead of trying to choose which is superior, I will instead talk about the characteristics of each that make them more enjoyable than the other.

I’ll start with the Disneyland Resort. The one thing I really enjoyed about the Disneyland Resort is how navigable the property is. Once you set foot in the resort, there is no need for any type of transportation. Everything is connected and easily accessible by foot. Park-hopping took on a new meaning for me at Disneyland, as it literally took about 3 minutes from the time we exited the turnstiles at one park to pass through the turnstiles at the other. By comparison, park-hopping at Walt Disney World means having to board a monorail or bus for a 10 to 15 minute journey across the property to the other park. Then you still have to walk from the drop off area to the entrance turnstiles. I’d say you are doing well if you can make it from one park to another in 20 minutes!

Another thing I really enjoyed at Disneyland is how quaint the entire resort is. I once saw an interview with Imagineer Tony Baxter where he described Disneyland as being charming, and Walt Disney World as being spectacular. I don’t think it could be put any better! Plus, I never felt rushed at the Disneyland Resort. I always felt as though I had plenty of time to see everything, and I could pace myself a little better. Conversely, at Walt Disney World, I constantly feel as though I have so much ground to cover, so I have to keep moving to get as much done as I can!

Finally, the Disneyland Resort seems to have the advantage in the weather category. Typically, weather in Southern California can get hot, but it is dry heat. Disneyland does not have that humidity that plagues Central Florida. I found that I was less exhausted at Disneyland since I could walk outside and not feel as though I’ve been sweating for hours! Plus, Disneyland seems to take advantage of the fact that they do not have much rainy weather (at least compared to Florida!) and many of their rides have outdoor loading areas for their attractions. Examples include Big Thunder Mountain, the Matterhorn, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, and It’s a Small World. All of these attractions have indoor loading stations at Walt Disney World (except for the Matterhorn which is unique to Disneyland).

On the flip side, there are many things about Walt Disney World that are much more enjoyable. The most obvious one is that you will virtually never run out of things to do! With four theme parks, there is obviously a higher total attraction count than at Disneyland. Plus, you have all the extras like golf, mini-golf, water parks, and so many other forms of recreation (horseback riding and parasailing just to name a few!).

Another great thing about Walt Disney World is that the parks were obviously designed with large crowds in mind. While I do enjoy the intricate pathways in Disneyland Park, they do tend to get quite crowded during peak times of the day as the masses are trying to move from one section of the park to another. When given a clean slate, the Imagineers learned from this and created the Walt Disney World parks with wider, more open pathways to help alleviate much of the congestion that one would find at the original Disneyland Park.

The thing that I really enjoy the most about Walt Disney World, however, is the expansive greenbelt that surrounds the resort complex. Once you pass under one of the many entrance arches into the property, you are transported to another world. You do not see the outside world until you pass under that arch again on your way out. The entire property is covered in dense foliage or beautiful lakes. By contrast, once you exit the gates of Disneyland Park, you can see hotels, restaurants, food marts, and all the other businesses that are an inevitable outgrowth of a successful tourist attraction. (Although, admittedly, this has improved since the 2001 expansion.)

So, just how did it come to be that Walt was able to acquire so much more land in Florida than in California? Hmm… that sounds like a great topic for another article… Tune in next week as we dive head first into the fascinating history of Walt Disney World.

Until then, I’ll see ya real soon!