Walt Disney World or Disneyland?
Which one should you go to and why?
There's no way I'm walking out of this one unscathed.
So it's a really common question.
Which one should you go to, Disneyland or Disney World?
I think for Disney fans, which I would imagine
would be a large part of the people watching this channel,
would say both.
You should try and get to both throughout your lifetime,
because they are very different experiences.
However, for all of the general guests, people
may be planning their first trip who
might have found this video just by searching that very
common question, I think it does become a choice between one
or the other.
And I think the real answer is there is no clear answer.
It really is going to boil down to a number of factors
that play into your vacation and what you find important.
So rather than try and give you a clear cut, objective answer,
because there is none, I'm going to talk about some
of those factors and how the different parks relate
differently to them.
So when people ask me this, Disneyland or Disney World,
I think it really boils down to three specific questions
to then ask the person who's planning this trip.
Which is where do you live, how far are you willing to travel,
and what kind of vacation experience you want.
The first two are pretty simple, the third one I think
is where it really boils down to the differences
between the parks.
Where do you live?
Are you in LA?
Because in that case, Disneyland's just a drive away.
Or if you're in Atlanta, a couple
of hours in the car and you're at Disney World.
I think that plays heavily into which one you're going to want
to choose to go to on vacation.
But that's something you need to consider, where are you.
Are you international?
At that point, I imagine you're spending enough money just
to get to the states that the short hop over to one
or the other is not going to be the biggest deal,
and so you could go to either.
But that sort of plays into how much you're
willing to spend to travel.
If you're looking for a cheap vacation
and you're on the East coast, Disney World
is probably going to be your best bet, because traveling
is going to be cheaper than flying cross-country
to California, and vice versa.
So the real meat and potatoes lies
within that third question, which
is what kind of vacation experience do you want?
Because I think that's where these two parts really
differ the most, in what they offer as far as a vacation
experience.
People might think they're the exact same,
they're theme parks, right?
It's rides and Mickey Mouse and they must be the same,
but they're not.
First off, they are wildly different in size.
Disneyland is two theme parks and a downtown shopping area
called Downtown Disney.
You've got Disneyland and Disney's California Adventure,
whereas on the East coast in Disney World,
you have four theme parks, you have two water parks,
you have a downtown shopping area, you have mini golf,
you have regular golf, you have a sports center, you have spas,
you have something like 20 plus hotels,
whereas Disneyland might only have
I think it's three or four.
There's just, in terms of scope, they're wildly different.
And so that provides options for very different vacation
experiences.
Some people when they vacation, you just want tourist stuff,
you want theme parks and rides and water parks and beaches.
And if that's what you're looking for on a vacation,
I think Walt Disney World is going to offer more and offer
better experiences, because you can
spend a week or two at Disney World and get all of that
and not be bored.
You're not going to be doing too much over again because there's
so much to do there.
And even if you're going outside of Disney World,
you have so much more in terms of, you have Universal,
you have Busch Gardens, you have the Kennedy Space Center,
right.
You can get that sort of tourist experience
on the East coast in Florida.
And I say tourist experience, I'm
not trying to talk down at the idea.
I think there is a legitimate reason to want that.
It's sort of an escapism that Walt Disney World definitely
offers.
Their parks are part of their property,
and their property is twice the size of Manhattan.
So when people say like you're leaving the real world to go
to Disney World, they mean it.
You are buffered pretty heavily from the real world.
You're not going to look over and just see downtown Orlando.
You're in Disney World.
And so if you want that escapist experience,
that's the place to do it.
On the other side, Disneyland offers you
history and variety, right.
So history, this is the part that Walt built.
Some people might not find a ton of value
in that, I personally do.
There is something about walking down Main Street knowing
that this is the Main Street that Walt Disney built.
This is the original place, this is where it all happened.
On top of that, I think because they
don't have the blessing of size that Disney World has,
they have to be more careful with how
they use their space, and so what really blew me away when I
went to Disneyland for the first time,
was that everything seemed much higher quality.
And I think part of the reason is they can't waste space
over there.
They don't have a ton of it.
Whatever is there needs to be great,
and they don't have as much, so they can't just say,
well, we have five other rides that will make up
for this lousy ride.
And so I think quality there is a bit heightened.
Now to be completely honest and straightforward,
I was down there for their 60th anniversary.
I have no doubt that they had a better budget at that year,
and so they were probably spending money
to keep things sort of whipped into shape and looking as good
as it could be.
Whereas Disney World is a couple of years
away from its big anniversary, so it's
probably not seeing that.
I think on top of that, you get the sense of variety,
because if you're the kind of person
who wants to do a lot of different things
on your vacation,
Disneyland is great because you can do Disneyland
in two days, maybe three days.
Two if you're really getting there right at rope drop
and going to the end of the day.
Three days if you want to be a little more
comfortable with it.
But that gives you a lot more time
to then explore other things outside of Disney
to sort of enrich your vacation.
You can go to Hollywood and you go to Santa Monica.
You could hop on down to San Diego
or go up to San Francisco.
You know I think as far as a region of the country goes,
there's just a lot more there to see that isn't just
theme park rides and you know beaches and stuff like that.
So I think that's where really the answer comes in,
is what kind of experience do you want?
Do you want just theme park rides for a week or two?
Go to Disney World.
You're going to have so much to do there
and there's going to be a lot of space
and you're going to escape the real world,
it's going to be great.
Do you want a little taste of Disney
while doing other things that are not Disney related?
Go to Disneyland, because the stuff
you do there is going to be very compact
and I think the sense of community
there is a lot stronger because you
have a lot more locals from LA who
are visiting during the week and the weekends,
whereas I think at Disney World, It's
a lot more families from out of state.
And there's going to be a lot more to do there
that's just not Disney related.
What I would love to hear is arguments for both sides
in the comments below.
Like I said, there's no right answer,
there's no wrong answer, it's really
going to boil down to what you find is
important with your vacation.
And so the more we can compile from different people
and different perspectives, the better it's
going to be for somebody who's watching
this video, because they're looking
to plan a Disney vacation and they don't
know which one to go with.
I want to thank you all for watching.
If you want to see more videos like this, whether it's
Disney planning or Disney history or Disney news,
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Whatever you do this week, make the most of it,
because it makes it that much better.
And I'll see you all next time.
Bye guys.