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Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California share many of
the same rides.
We’ve already explored the rides in Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, Adventureland and Frontierland
so if you haven’t seen those videos yet, definitely check em out.
It’s been a little while since those episodes but there have been many requests to finish
the comparisons.
So like we’ve done in the past, we’ll use Magic Kingdom as the model and explore
the rides of Main Street and Liberty Square that can also be found at the Disneyland Park.
But which theme park has the better version of each of these rides?
Well that’s what we’re gonna discuss, as we count down the Top Disney World vs Disneyland
Rides: Main Street & Liberty Square Edition.
So let’s begin with one of the first rides you see before even entering the park.
The Disneyland Railroad and the Walt Disney World railroad at Magic Kingdom were both
opening day attractions; Disneyland in 1955 and Magic Kingdom in 1971.
This steam powered railroad takes you on a grand circle tour around the parks.
The route of the Disneyland Railroad is about 1.2 miles and the Walt Disney World Railroad
is about 1.5 miles.
Disneyland has four separate stations; Main Street, New Orleans Square, Mickey’s ToonTown
and Tomorrowland.
Walt Disney World only has 3 stations; Main Street, Frontierland and Fantasyland/Storybook
Circus.
They both offer great ways of getting to different areas of the park while experiencing a quintessential
Disney ride.
I don’t know about you, but for me it’s not a day at the parks without going for a
grand circle tour on the train.
The ride experience is pretty much identical where you’re met with lots of greenery,
you’re given a glimpse into Splash Mountain, and get unique vantage points of the park.
But I’m gonna be upfront and say Disneyland does this ride the best and I’ll tell you
why.
First thing, you get to ride along the Rivers of America on this beautiful new bridge overlooking
the water.
You really feel like you’re being transported into a new world.
Plus you get a lot less obstructed views of Disneyland just in general when you compare
it to Magic Kingdom.
There’s a lot of times where there’s prolonged sections of literally nothing at Magic Kingdom.
I just feel like Disneyland gives us more toy look at.
So those are a few of the positives to the Disneyland Railroad but what really makes
Disneyland the winner are the Dioramas.
This is what brings it from an average theme park train ride to a ride that has the Disney
difference.
Although the Disneyland Railroad was an opening day attraction, the dioramas were added later
on.
In 1958 they added the Grand Canyon then in 1966 the Primeval World made its debut which
reused the audio animatronics from The Magic Skyway at the World Fair.
The diorama has quite a bit of Disney history since the attractions from the World’s Fair
set a new standard for the Disney rides and attractions of the future.
Plus these dioramas are a lot of fun and make up about 2 minutes of your train ride.
So when it comes to the Railroad I’d say Disneyland has the better version of the ride.
One ride that many Disney Fans have their reservations on as to which version of the
ride is the best is the Haunted Mansion.
We all know the original Haunted Mansion was at Disneyland.
It opened in August of 1969 and its found in New Orleans Square.
When the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland was being conceived, they already knew Florida
would be getting their own version of the ride so Imagineers created duplicates of all
the sets and props.
The ride was completed by April of 1971 then in October, Magic Kingdom’s version of the
ride officially opened . So if everything was a duplicate then technically the rides
should be the exact same, right?
Well not quite.
There are a few major differences between the two versions so let’s start at the exterior.
Placing Magic Kingdom’s Haunted Mansion in Liberty Square, the building’s architecture
takes on the Dutch Gothic Revival Style.
From the mid to late 1800’s, this style was used a lot for houses in rural areas and
the design was based off the Rathbone Estate in Albany, New York.
Over at Disneyland with the Haunted Mansion placed in New Orleans Square, the architecture
showcases the victorian era and the building was inspired off the Shipley-Lydecker House
in Baltimore, Maryland.
Both buildings do a great job of setting the scene in their respected lands.
Now once you’re inside, the experience begins in the stretching room.
This is such an iconic part of the ride even though its not the physical ride yet.
{Ghost Host} Your cadaverous paler, betrays an aura of foreboding.
Almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphoses.
Is this haunted room actually stretching?
Or is it your imagination, hmmmm???
-the only difference are the mechanics of the room.
At Disneyland, an elevator is used to lower you.
That’s how they achieve the stretching effect.
At Magic Kingdom they create the stretching illusion by actually raising the ceiling.
Disneyland’s also raises but it’s only by a few feet.
Both are effective with creating a room that stretches beyond what you initially think
it’s capable of.
Now since Florida had the blessing of size they were able to expand and incorporate a
couple of scenes on the actual ride at Magic Kingdom that were in the loading area at Disneyland.
The Hanging portraits on the right hand side here at Disneyland are part of the first physical
scene on the ride at Magic Kingdom.
The ride at Disneyland starts with the Hallway corridor as the first scene.
{Ghost Host} We find it undelightfully livable here in this ghostly retreat.
Every room has wall to wall creeps.
-but at magic kingdom you actually get an additional minute and a half of scenes before
the Hallway.
So there’s the hanging portraits, the extended Library scene with the rotating bust illusion,
the Organ room, the endless staircases, the bats, THEN you finally get to the hallway.
So that’s a pretty substantial amount of extra show scenes.
This brings the total ride time at Magic kingdom to about 7 minutes and 30 seconds, not including
the stretching room where as Disneyland’s ride time is about 6 minutes.
The ride times do fluctuate a bit depending on the speed of omnimover system whether its
been slowed down or stopped.
Usually getting a ride that doesn’t slow down or stop is rare these days.
{Ghost Host} Kindly remain seated in your doom buggy please.
We will continue our tour momentarily.
Then from the hallway until the attic everything is pretty much the same including that iconic
ballroom scene.
Now at Disneyland you do have the Hatbox box and being someone who loves animatronics this
definitely gives Disneyland’s version a little leg up.
Then as you descend into the graveyard, everything is practically identical again between the
two rides but there are some small subtle differences.
Wether its different lighting and color on the singing busts or different animatronic
configurations like right here on the left hand side.
Either way none of these differences change the ride experience.
In Florida the scene with little Leotta can be found right at the end of the ride where
as at Disneyland you can find it on your way out on the left of the moving walking.
I think by having every scene happen on the physical ride at Magic Kingdom, it does a
better job of creating a cohesive story from the start of your ride to the end.
At Disneyland its still cohesive, it just feels a bit more broken up.
So when it comes to the Haunted Mansion, even though Disneyland is the original I’m gonna
say Walt Disney World does this ride the best.
Now for all you Disneyland fans you’re probably disagreeing with me right now but to further
prove my point that Florida has the better version, let’s turn to Tokyo.
So Tokyo Disneyland is a Disney park not owned by the Walt Disney Company.
It’s actually owned and operated by the Oriental Land Company and they just license
all of the Disney intellectual properties but still hire Disney Imagineers.
Tokyo always wants the best of the best.
They’re not about cutting corners and they are willing to spend large amounts of money
to create premium high quality experiences.
So Tokyo always choses the best versions of the rides from Disneyland and Walt Disney
World for their parks in Japan.
They went with Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean which is obviously superior as we
know, Magic Kingdom’s Jungle Cruise with the indoor temple scene and also their Splash
Mountain, Disneyland’s Space Mountain and finally Magic Kingdoms Haunted Mansion.
If Disneyland really had the better version of the ride then you could bet Tokyo would
want that one in their park.
So with all those reasons that is why Magic Kingdom has the better version of the ride.
The Rivers of America add a lot of Kinetic energy to both Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney
World and at Disneyland in California.
At Magic Kingdom, the rivers border Frontierland and Liberty Square and The Liberty Square
River Boat is based in well, Liberty Square.
Over at Disneyland, this same area of the River is adjacent to Frontierland and its
home to the Mark Twain River Boat.
Both boats have their similarities in terms of functionality and the experience but they
each share differences in their history, so let's explore that first.
The Liberty Square Roverboat is called the Liberty Belle but did you know that it used
to be called the Richard F Irvine?
Thats right, it wasn’t until 1996 after an extensive refurbishment the boat received
a name change.
The Richard F Irvine or the Liberty Belle today, began its service in May of 1973, so
it wasn’t at the Magic Kingdom on opening day which was October 1st 1971.
But you might be thinking, now wait, the Riverboat was most definitely an opening day attraction,
so how could it have been brought into service in 1973?
Well here’s a little fun fact that most people don’t know; Magic Kingdom actually
had two Riverboats but it was only for a brief 7 year period.
The first boat that opened with Magic Kingdom was the Admiral Joe Fowler and that went into
service on October 2, 1971.
You can see that it’s an exact replica of the Mark Twain Riverboat.
It has two smoke stacks and a lot more ornamental design when you compare it to the Liberty
Bell.
It made its way around the Rivers of America until 1980 when went into refurbishment.
As they used a crane to lift the steamboat onto its dry dock, it fell from the crane
and was damaged beyond repair.
This explains why Magic Kingdom doesn’t have the same style of Riverboat as Disneyland
and also Tokyo and Paris for that matter.
Now over at Disneyland, the Mark Twain Riverboat made its debut with the opening of the park
on July 17, 1955.
At the time, it was the first functional riverboat to be built in the United States in 50 years
and they built it in sections over at the Walt Disney Studios.
The Riverboat is as vital to a Disneyland park as It’s A Small World.
It’s not a true Disneyland style park without it, don’t you agree?
Now both the Mark Twain and Liberty Belle offer three passenger decks and in terms of
the ride experience both make a one way trip around the Rivers of America.
You might think the captain of these ships is in charge of the steering, but they actually
ride on a track that gets them through the winding paths of the river.
This here was taken back in 2018 while the Rivers was under refurbishment.
You can see the visible track running through the centre and how shallow the water really
is; its not deep at all.
But when it’s full, you truly believe you’re on free floating leisure cruise filled with
lush scenery and great views of the park.
One difference with Disneyland is that you can also get the same ride experience around
the river on the Sailing Ship Columbia where the ride time on both is about a 14 min ride
and at Magic Kingdom its about a 16 minute ride.
At Disneyland you start off by seeing Frontierland then New Orleans Square and lastly Critter
Country.
At Magic Kingdom you start off in Liberty Square and then pass through Frontierland
for the rest of the ride.
Both offer views of Tom Sawyer Island but the major difference between the two are the
show scenes around the left hand side of the river.
At Magic Kingdom you have a couple small scenes like the alligator swamp then you pass through
the Native American village.
At Disneyland this is their Native American village but show scenes and scenery that come
before this scene give Disneyland the upper hand.
Back in the summer of 2017 Disneyland debuted this new section of the River banks and it
was reworked and shortened to make way for Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge.
This section accounts for 3 minutes of the ride which is a pretty substantial portion
of what would just be trees over at Magic Kingdom.
They may have shorted it but they definitely added a lot more.
It breaks up the environments around the river and adds some excitement since there’s a
lot of detail to take in.
I love this little beaver chewing the bridge post.
It’s sort of a little callback to a scene that Marc Davis would have designed.
If it wasn’t for the new river portion then I’d say both were tied but when it comes
to the Riverboat/ Sailing Ship Columbia i’d say Disneyland does this ride the best.
So what are your opinions of these rides?
Do you agree with my conclusions?
I’d love to know.
Leave a comment down below to start a conversation and don’t forget to hit that like button
if you enjoyed the video.