{"id":26161,"date":"2012-10-15T07:18:43","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T11:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/?p=26161"},"modified":"2022-04-12T13:53:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-12T17:53:05","slug":"disneyland-or-disney-world-can-you-really-love-both","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/disneyland-or-disney-world-can-you-really-love-both\/","title":{"rendered":"Disneyland or Disney World? Can you really love both?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Just like religion and politics, discussing Disneyland and Disney World can sometimes lead to a very heated debate.\u00a0 Seems some people have strong opinions in one direction or the other.\u00a0 I’ve decided that I love both and for very different reasons.\u00a0 If you’ve only done one, you may ask yourself, why even bother trying the other?\u00a0 Hopefully, I can give you a few things to consider.<\/p>\n

Size<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love Disney World for it’s sheer size.\u00a0 It’s a destination to me that captures me for an entire vacation.\u00a0 With four theme parks, two water parks and lots of other activities, I can stay on the resort property and never feel compelled to leave although the walking at Disney World can be exhausting.\u00a0 I love Disneyland because it’s intimate.\u00a0 With just two parks and a smaller version of Downtown Disney and less square footage, I can enjoy the parks as part of a larger California vacation and still feel like I’ve gotten my “Disney Time”.\u00a0 The smaller size means I can slow down a bit to get from one end of the park to the other.<\/p>\n

Economics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Staying at Disney World\u00a0 allows for many different levels of accommodations and I love that I can still get all of the Disney Magic even at a Value resort or choose a Deluxe resort if I want that extra special touch.\u00a0 Disneyland offers me the same options with the added benefit of Good Neighbor hotels that are just steps away from the park literally.\u00a0 Try walking back to a Disney World hotel that’s not on the monorail route!\u00a0 That option can help me cover the difference in\u00a0 air fare to California than to Florida since I live closer to Florida.<\/p>\n

Food<\/strong><\/p>\n

I love the variety of dining at both parks.\u00a0 Disney World takes the prize here for table service restaurants for sure but Disneyland gets a bit of an edge when it comes to counter service options for me.\u00a0 The fact that they don’t offer all of the same foods makes it fun to visit both to see what’s unique about each.<\/p>\n

History<\/strong><\/p>\n

Disneyland was Walt’s baby.\u00a0 Just walking around the park you can feel his presence and his moment in history when this park opened.\u00a0 It will always be special because of that.\u00a0 It is the original.\u00a0 Disney World took Walt’s dream and broke it open never seeming to lose Walt’s ideas about what families wanted.\u00a0 Disney World is Disneyland 2.0 to me.\u00a0 Look at how fondly we still think of some of the original Atari games even though we now are waiting for Playstation 4?<\/p>\n

Options<\/strong><\/p>\n

Disney World gives my family a chance to spend time at the parks and build in the Water Parks Fun and more option to our tickets so that we can also have days to go to Blizzard Beach, Typhoon Lagoon, Disney Quest or Miniature golf.\u00a0 We can get tickets to a Cirque de Soleil show or try the Richard Petty Experience or simply lay around the resort pool.\u00a0 Disneyland gives me the opportunity to try the Adventures by Disney\u00a0Hollywood Family Vacation One-Day Itinerary tour or book a tour for a day trip through my Magic for Less agent.\u00a0 Both have unique tours within the parks too.\u00a0 You can Walk in Walt’s footsteps in Disneyland or do a Seqway tour at EPCOT.<\/p>\n

If you’ve only ever tried one park or the other, I encourage you to consider the other.\u00a0 You’ll get the magic at both for sure and might even see why it’s tough for me to choose!<\/p>\n