I've been to Disney World a lot. This was our first trip to Disneyland. A lot of people told me that if I was used to Disney World I would be disappointed in Disneyland. So I thought I would compare them.
As far as Disney World Magic Kingdom and Disneyland go, they are pretty similar. The majority of the rides were the same or very close to it. Disneyland did have a few rides that I've never seen at Magic Kingdom and it goes the same for the other way around.
I was a little disappointed in Disneyland just because they had some major rides shut down for repairs while we were there. I understand that we were going in the off season and expected that a ride or two might be shut down, but not so many major rides including my absolute favorite: splash mountain.
The following were closed: Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain, It's a Small World, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, and Davy Crockett's Explorer Canoes. Also, the park was open until 11 pm. We made it over to Mickey's toon town around 7:45 but it had closed at 7:30. The map did say it might close early due to fireworks but it didn't specify the time and so we were really disappointed that we missed that section as we hadn't expected it to close 3 1/2 hours earlier than the rest of the park.
Disney World is definitely better for an extended Disney Vacation as it has 4 theme parks and 2 water parks. If I didn't plan on spending 4 days at the parks in Florida, I would definitely skip Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Magic Kingdom and Epcot are the best Disney Parks in Florida.
We spent 1 day of this past trip at Disney California Adventure Park which was a little disappointing. The rides were no where near as elaborate as what we are used to from Disney. It was more like carnival rides that just had a Disney Theme applied to them. The only really cool rides were Soarin', Little Mermaid Under the Sea Adventure, Toy Story Midway Mania, Radiator Springs Racers and the swinging cars on Mickey's Fun Wheel just because I've never experienced a Ferris Wheel where the cars would slide around.
If I only had 1 day at Disneyland, I wouldn't waste it on the Adventure Park and if we had paid full price I would have been really disappointed. Since we got the Southern California Resident Deal of only $129 for 2 days at Disney, it wasn't that much more than just going to Disney for 1 day. Overall it was an enjoyable day and the girls did have a lot of fun.
This is really helpful to know. We just got back from a WDW trip and had fun, but I was overwhelmed with just how massive everything is. It got me curious about Disneyland. My husband has a client in LA and if he has a reason to go out there and we can swing it, we might all go and check out DL. But how can they refurbish that many rides at once?! That's ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteGood things to think about!