When considering a Disney trip, lots of people get stuck on deciding where to go: Disneyland vs Disney World.
People often say “I love going to Disney” or “we went to Disney on vacation,” but for the non-Disney adult that can be confusing to know if they mean Disneyland or Disney World.
Both parks have great things to see and do, but there are some very distinct differences.
Well, we’re here to help you know exactly which is which! Having spent time in both destinations, we can help you break down these differences and decide which one you’d like to visit.
Disneyland vs Disney World: The Main Differences
While both Disneyland and Disney World celebrate all things related to the House of Mouse, they have some pretty major differences that can be broken down into a few categories: location, size, and attractions.
Location
This may seem obvious to many people, but some folks don’t realize that Disney World and Disneyland are two entirely separate destinations, located on opposite coasts of the United States.
Disneyland, the original Disney Park, is located on the West Coast of the United States in Anaheim, California, just outside of Los Angeles.
Disney World is located on the East Coast of the U. S. in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, just outside of Orlando.
These two places are over 2,500 miles apart and a direct flight from one city to the other would take over five hours to complete. So needless to say, they aren’t exactly neighbors.
Size
There is also a massive difference is the size of Disneyland vs Disney World.
Disneyland takes up just 500 acres of land right in the middle of a metropolitan area. That number converts to just over three quarters of one square mile (0.78125 square miles to be exact).
Disney World covers 43 square miles of property, spread out so much that it forms two different municipalities, Lake Buena Vista and Bay Lake.
There are actually two parks located on that property in Anaheim: the original Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure. For the purposes of this article, we’ll refer to them collectively as Disneyland.
Disney World features four separate theme parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom) and two water parks (Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach).
Both locations feature non-ticketed dining and shopping areas. Disneyland has Downtown Disney and Disney World has Disney Springs.
Attractions
When it comes to making a decision to visit Disneyland vs Disney World, knowing what attractions are located at each place at is going to be a big factor.
While both Disney Destinations feature some of the same attractions, both locations have lots of exclusives that may make one more attractive than the other.
We’re going to break them down into lists for you, just to make it clear.
Attractions At Both Disneyland AND Disney World
While some of the attractions might have slightly different names or some differences in ride experience, the concepts are pretty much the same overall. The rides in both locations include:
- Disneyland Railroad / Walt Disney World Railroad
- The Enchanted Tiki Room
- Jungle Cruise
- The Adventureland Treehouse/Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- The Haunted Mansion
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Mark Twain Riverboat/Liberty Square Riverboat
- Tom Sawyer Island
- Frontierland Shooting Exposition
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- It’s A Small World
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- The Little Mermaid: Ariel’s Undersea Adventure
- The Mad Tea Party
- Kind Arthur Carousel/Prince Charming Regal Carousel
- Astro Orbiter
- Autotopia/Tomorrowland Speedway
- Star Tours
- Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin/Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Space Mountain
- Millenium Falcon Smuggler’s Run
- Star Wars Rise of the Resistance
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Turtle Talk with Crush
- Soarin’ Around The World
- Toy Story Mania
- Goofy’s Sky School
Attractions Unique to Disneyland
Even with all those shared attractions listed above, there are still a LOT of attractions that are unique to Disneyland and Disney’s California Adventure.
Disneyland Attractions:
- Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln
- Indiana Jones Adventure: Temple of the Forbidden Eye
- Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes
- Sailing Ship Columbia
- Mickey’s House
- Minnie’s House
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Chip n Dale’s Gadget Coaster
- Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
- Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
- Snow White’s Enchanted Wish
- Storybook Land Canal Boats
- Casey Jr. Circus Train
- Alice In Wonderland
- Matterhorn Bobsleds
- Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
Disney’s California Adventure Attractions:
- Red Car Trolley
- Monster’s Inc: Mike & Sulley to the Rescue
- Guardian’s of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout
- Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure
- Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters
- Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree
- Radiator Springs Racers
- Grizzly River Run
- Games of Pixar Pier
- Pixar Pal-A-Round
- Jessie’s Critter Carousel
- Inside Out Emotional Whirlwind
- Incredicoaster
- Golden Zephyr
- Goofy’s Sky School
- Jumpin Jellyfish
- Silly Symphony Swings
Attractions Unique to Disney World
With it’s four amazing theme parks, Disney World has tons to offer visitors.
Magic Kingdom Attractions:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- TRON Lightcycle Run
- The Barnstormer
- Casey Jr. Splash N Soak Station
- Country Bear Musical Jamboree
- Enchanted Tales with Belle
- The Hall of Presidents
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
- Monster’s Inc Laugh Floor
- PeopleMover
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
Epcot Attractions:
- Guardian’s of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
- Mission: Space
- Test Track
- The American Adventure
- Awesome Planet
- Bruce’s Shark World
- Canada Far & Wide
- Frozen Ever After
- Gran Fiesta Tour
- Journey Into Imagination with Figment
- Moana: Journey of Water
- Living with the Lane
- Impression de France
- Beauty & The Beast Sing Along
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- Reflections of China
- Seabase
- Spaceship Earth
Hollywood Studios Attractions:
- Rock n Roller Coaster
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
- Frozen Sing A Long Celebration
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
- Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy
- MuppetVision 3D
- The Little Mermaid: A Musical Adventure
Animal Kingdom Attractions:
- Avatar: Flight of Passage
- Dinosaur
- Expedition Everest
- Kali River Rapids
- Animation Experience at Conservation Station
- Animal Encounters: Winged Encounters
- Festival of the Lion King
- Finding Nemo: The Big Blue and Beyond
- Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail
- It’s Tough To Be A Bug
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Maharajah Jungle Trek
- Na’vi River Journey
- The Tree of Life
- Wild Africa Trek
- Wildlife Express Train
(For the purposes of this post, we are omitting the attractions at Blizzard Beach and Typhoon Lagoon waterparks)
Disneyland vs Disney World: Our Opinions
So now that we’ve gotten the factual portion of this post out of the way, it’s time to tell you about the less obvious difference that we have noticed. Please keep in mind, THESE ARE OPINIONS. Our opinion may not agree with yours, and that’s ok. We’re always happy to discuss these disagreements in the comments, as long as things stay civil.
For us, Disney World is a lot closer than Disneyland, so we primarily visit the parks in Florida, but we’ve made a few recent visits to Disneyland, and have more visits there planned for the future.
The Length of Your Stay
With the sheer size differences of Disneyland vs Disney World, scheduling a trip is vastly different between the two.
For anyone visiting Disney World for the first time, I recommend a minimum of 5 days in the theme parks to get the full experience. If you add the water parks to that, I’d recommend 7 full days.
For Disneyland, we’re able to really feel like we’ve seen it all after two days.
The physical scale of the Disney World property actually eats up a lot of time. Just traveling from a resort hotel to a park will take at least 30 minutes, no matter what form of transportation you use. And if you decide to park hop, which we do frequently, you can count on spending about the same amount of time traveling between parks.
We found park hopping at Disneyland to be extremely easy. You go through security just once for access to both parks, and the walk from one to the other takes just a couple of minutes. During our last visit we wandered between the two quite frequently.
If you want a destination that you can spend more than a week at and still be discovering new things, book a trip to Disney World. If you just want a quick dose of Disney Magic for a couple of days, Disneyland is a great choice.
Accomodations at Disneyland vs Disney World
Where you stay is an important factor when determining where you want to vacation.
Disney World has more than 30 different resorts, ranging from extremely budget friendly to very luxurious. These resorts are broken down into three categories: value, moderate, and deluxe. There’s definitely something to fit every every family.
There are only three official Disney hotels at Disneyland, all of which are hard to book and cost the same as the high end resorts at Disney World do.
The Dining Dilema
Dining can be a major part of your Disney vacation experience if you want it to be. Whether you’re looking for unique snacks or elaborate table service meals, Disney parks will definitely offer some great options. But there are a few key differences in dining between Disneyland vs Disney World.
Just by sheer size, Disney World is of course going to have more dining options, both in the parks and at the resorts. Epcot offers cuisines from around the world, and even has several festivals that feature unique food offerings for park goers.
Both locations offer character dining, where you can meet and greet your favorite Disney characters as you enjoy your meal. Disney World features 12 different character dining locations, and Disneyland has five.
While good dining can be found in both Disney parks, just because of the smaller size, Disneyland does not have as many options as Disney World.
The Disney Bubble: Disneyland vs Disney World
Since Disney World covers so much property, it’s entirely possible (and even likely) that you will never leave Disney property during your stay in Florida. Frequent visitors to Disney World call this phenomenon being inside “The Disney Bubble.”
There’s a certain comfort to being inside the Disney Bubble. Walt Disney World offers complimentary transportation throughout Disney property at Disney World through a system of buses, boats, skyliner and monorails. It’s absolutely feasible to go to Disney World without a car of your own.
Also, you can usually count on a certain level of service and cleanliness. I would also go as far as to say that I feel safer inside the Disney Bubble than I do outside it. It’s very evident that a great deal of thought and effort goes into keeping all theme parks, resorts, restaurants, shops and public areas very clean, maintained and well lit.
I cannot say the same thing about Disneyland. Due to the location of the two parks being right in the middle of an urban area, its hard to get that same “Disney Bubble” feeling in California. While every part of the Disneyland and California Adventure that is on Disney property is maintained at the same level of quality as Disney World, the area is so small that you can’t help but wander outside of it.
The same level of Disney service, cleanliness and safety does not carry over to the properties that surround Disneyland. During our walks from our hotel to the parks at Disneyland, it absolutely does not feel as safe as it does in Disney World. Besides the heavy traffic, which by itself is a huge hazard, we’ve also been approached more than once by very aggressive people asking for handouts and witnessed several people opening using drugs along the two blocks we have needed to walk. This is not the type of environment we are looking for when we’re traveling with children.
Disneyland vs Disney World: In Park Atmospheres
Both Disneyland and Disney World have great atmosphere and ambiance for park goers, but there are some key differences. Both locations can be absolutely magical, but there are some small but noticeable things that might affect which parks you want to visit.
Disneyland has that original spirit of Walt Disney magic about it, since this was the park that Walt himself had the most involvement in building. But there are a few logistical issues about Disneyland that can make it hard to navigate.
When Disneyland was built back in the 1950s, park designers weren’t expecting it’s popularity to be at the heights it has reached today. Consequently the layout of the original parts of the park are a bit confusing don’t accommodate the sheer crowd sizes that are frequently there.
This design flaw is very evident in the queues for some of the original rides. Many of these queues are quite compact, especially on rides like Mr Toad’s Wild Ride and the Matterhorn Bobsleds. The lines really cram park goers into small spaces to try to accomodate for how long the lines get.
In comparison, Disney World designers seemed to have learned a lot of lessons from these queues and have designed them to be much more spacious and even entertaining.
California Adventure is another story. It’s queues are more spacious, like those at Disney World, and layout is definitely more well thought out.
Disneyland vs Disney World: What Will You Choose?
Both Disneyland and Disney World are wonderful places to vacation. We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time on both coasts, and plan to go back to all the parks in the near future.
Have you been to both Disneyland and Disney World? Which destination is your favorite and why? Tell us in the comments!
Disneyland vs Disney World: A Comparison