10 issues you are able to do at Disneyland which you could’t do at Disney World
It is embarrassing to confess now, however rising up I did not really feel any want to go to Disneyland when Disney World was proper in my yard. All I knew was that it was smaller and did not have a few of my favourite Disney World rides just like the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Spaceship Earth.
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Once I lastly did make my strategy to Disneyland, I had no selection however to eat my phrases (and some Dole Whips whereas I used to be at it). As a result of Walt Disney constructed Disneyland from the bottom up, the park has a historical past that Disney World doesn’t. Even some points of interest which can be positioned at each parks usually are not fairly the identical at Disneyland as they’re at Disney World.
These aren’t the one variations, although. Listed here are 10 issues you may solely do at Disneyland.
See Walt Disney’s house
Personally, I might leap on the probability to dwell inside Disneyland. Because of Walt Disney, there is a fully-furnished house ready for me on Fundamental Road, U.S.A.
When Walt Disney was constructing Disneyland, he had a small house constructed above the Disneyland Fireplace Station to maintain a detailed eye on the park’s progress. It additionally served as a retreat for his household after the park opened on July 17, 1955.
Trying straight up above the Disneyland Fireplace Station on Fundamental Road, U.S.A., you may see a lamp glowing within the house’s window. Because the legend goes, a choice was made to go away the lamp illuminated after Walt’s dying in 1966 to suggest his fixed presence within the park.
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Exterior the Disneyland Fireplace Dept. SUMMER HULL/THE POINTS GUY
That is the closest most guests will ever get to Walt’s Disneyland house, however there may be one surefire strategy to get a glimpse inside this legendary Disney landmark. On Walt’s Fundamental Road Story tour, friends are led down Disneyland’s Fundamental Road, U.S.A. by an professional information who shares Disney secrets and techniques and little-known information alongside the way in which. As a part of the tour, friends can step inside Walt’s house and take pictures with the famed lamp glowing within the background.
See memorabilia that impressed Walt Disney to create Disneyland
All through Disneyland, there are landmarks from Walt Disney’s previous that impressed him to construct his authentic theme park. The primary two are a carousel horse and park bench from Griffith Park in Los Angeles. The bench is similar bench Walt sat on whereas watching his daughters journey spherical and spherical on the Griffith Park merry-go-round.
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Bench and carousel horse from Griffith Park. TARAH CHIEFFI/THE POINTS GUY
Within the foyer of the Nice Moments With Mr. Lincoln attraction on Fundamental Road, U.S.A., you may see a bench and carousel horse from Griffith Park, in addition to pictures of the Griffith Park merry-go-round and one in every of Walt strolling by means of Sleeping Magnificence Citadel.
Touring again in time even additional into Walt’s childhood in Marceline, MO, there was a tree on his household’s farm that he dubbed the Dreaming Tree. He claimed it was a “magical spot the place he might go to daydream and draw,” in keeping with the Walt Disney Hometown Museum.
In a manner, the doodles and drawings Walt created beneath that tree have been the seeds that ultimately grew into well-known Disney characters like Mickey Mouse and groundbreaking animated movies like “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” that paved the way in which for a theme park that introduced these characters off the display and made them actual.
To commemorate Disneyland’s fiftieth anniversary in 2005, a sapling from Walt’s Dreaming Tree was gifted to the park by the Walt Disney Hometown Museum and was planted on Tom Sawyer Island in Frontierland, in keeping with Southern California’s The Press-Enterprise.
No plaque or signage factors on to the tree’s location. The OC Register claims it may be seen behind a big teepee and fireplace pit in a reproduction Native American village on the riverbank, however in case you aren’t eagle-eyed sufficient to identify it, there’s one coming to Mickey’s Toontown that will probably be inconceivable to overlook.
Mural of Mickey and the Dreaming Tree. DISNEYLAND RESORT
When the refurbished Mickey’s Toontown opens on March 8, 2023, one of many many interactive play options will probably be a reproduction Dreaming Tree with sculpted roots that encourage children to dream up their very own adventures as they climb, crawl and discover.
Paddle a canoe inside a theme park
Most points of interest at Disney parks are on a monitor or, within the case of trackless rides like Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway or Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, guided by refined laptop programing. There’s, nevertheless, one attraction you may solely discover at Disneyland that’s fully powered by you — the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes.
In contrast to the Jungle Cruise or Pirates of the Caribbean, in order for you this boat to maneuver, you have to paddle the complete size of Disneyland’s Rivers of America. Your arms may be sore, however you may be rewarded with views of Tom Sawyer Island and the animals and villages alongside the river banks when you paddle.
Prepare to grow to be an Avenger
I will not bore you with the authorized particulars, however because of theme park utilization agreements between Marvel, Disney and Common, Disney World can not legally use sure Marvel characters in sure theme parks.
In contrast to its East Coast counterpart, Disneyland will not be beholden to the identical restrictions. They took full benefit of that by opening a Marvel-themed land in June 2021. At Avengers Campus at Disney California Journey, you may meet heroes like Iron Man and Black Panther, dine on teeny-tiny or larger-than-life dishes at Pym Check Kitchen, sling webs with Spider-Man on Internet Slingers: A Spider-Man Journey and extra.
Briefly, if you wish to bump fists with Iron Man, you may have to go to Disneyland.
Eat beignets contained in the park
I’ve by no means been to heaven, however I am nearly 100% positive there are Mickey beignets up there. These Mickey-shaped, sugar-dusted beignets are scrumptious, lovely and served up recent and heat from the Mint Julep Bar in New Orleans Sq. at Disneyland.
Yow will discover Mickey beignets at Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort at Disney World, however there is no such thing as a such spot to take pleasure in this delightfully messy deal with contained in the park. You’d must trek all the way in which to Disneyland Paris or Tokyo Disneyland for that privilege.
Journey authentic Fantasyland points of interest
Disneyland and Disney World have modified so much since their respective openings in 1955 and 1971. Many opening day rides have closed or been rethemed through the years, however each resorts nonetheless have a handful of opening day points of interest, amongst them, Mad Tea Social gathering, It is a Small World, Dumbo the Flying Elephant and some others.
Of these, there are a pair you may now not journey at Disney World however stay intact at Disneyland – Mr. Toad’s Wild Journey and Snow White’s Enchanted Want (initially Snow White’s Scary Adventures).
At Disney World, Mr. Toad’s Wild Journey was changed by The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in 1999, although Disney did go away a few tributes to Mr. Toad within the park. You possibly can see his headstone within the Haunted Mansion’s pet cemetery after you exit the journey, and a portrait of Mr. Toad hangs in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh journey.
Snow White’s Scary Adventures closed in 2012 to make manner for Princess Fairytale Corridor, a princess meet-and-greet location. You possibly can nonetheless see Snow White’s story play out on the close by Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare, which opened in 2014.
Go to Automobiles Land
At Disney California Journey, you may be a part of Lightning McQueen, Mater, Luigi and the entire gang from Disney and Pixar’s “Automobiles” movies. You possibly can race by means of Carburetor County on Radiator Springs Racers, dine at Flo’s V8 Cafe, meet your favourite characters from the movies and extra.
What’s much more spectacular, nevertheless, is that if you flip the nook and get your first glimpse of Automobiles Land, you actually really feel such as you’ve stepped into the film. Professional tip: Go to at nightfall when the neon lights flicker to life and the traditional track “Sh-Increase” by The Chords performs overhead.
There is no such thing as a such land at Disney World. You possibly can go to the Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy present at Hollywood Studios, or if you’re within the temper for a speedy automotive journey, Epcot’s Check Monitor is analogous in velocity and format to Radiator Springs Racers.
Expertise the Haunted Mansion’s “The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas” overlay
Yearly from September by means of mid-January, Disneyland’s model of the Haunted Mansion will get a frighteningly festive makeover known as Haunted Mansion Vacation.
The seasonal overlay is themed to Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas” film. The storyline is much like the film, although on this real-life model, Jack Skellington and the residents of Halloween City deliver Christmas to the Haunted Mansion.
In its greater than 50-year historical past, Disney World has by no means added a seasonal overlay to its model of the Haunted Mansion. To see – and odor – the enormous gingerbread haunted home that Disney builds yearly for the event (yow will discover it within the “swinging wake” scene), you may have to go to Disneyland.
Journey the world’s first tubular metal curler coaster
The Matterhorn Bobsleds coaster opened at Disneyland in 1959 and it’s nonetheless “rolling” sturdy immediately. The coaster’s design was impressed by the true Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland, which Disney visited whereas engaged on the 1959 movie “Third Man on the Mountain.”
The coaster is strictly 100 instances shorter than the 14,700-foot-tall real-life Matterhorn, however that is not the solely factor that makes it distinctive. The Matterhorn is the world’s first tubular metal curler coaster. Earlier than its opening, most coaster tracks have been made out of wooden.
Disney World has many mountains of its personal, however no Matterhorn.
Dine contained in the Pirates of the Caribbean journey
There are a handful of variations between Disneyland’s model of the Pirates of the Caribbean journey and Disney World’s, however the greatest distinction is which you could dine inside the attraction at Disneyland.
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Contained in the Blue Bayou. TARAH CHIEFFI/THE POINTS GUY
Go to Mickey and Minnie of their houses
Mickey’s Toontown at Disneyland is the world of the park the place you may go to Mickey, Minnie and all of their pals at their houses. As a substitute of ready in a daily line to satisfy Mickey or Minnie, you wind by means of the fully-decorated rooms of their respective houses and get to satisfy them and take a photograph if you attain the tip.
Mickey’s Toontown is at present being refurbished however will reopen on March 8, 2023 with extra space to play and newly-designed houses for Goofy, Donald, Mickey and Minnie, together with the kid-friendly Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Gadgetcoaster, Roger Rabbit’s Automobile Toon Spin and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (which is open whereas the land is beneath building).
There are many spots to satisfy Mickey and Minnie at Disney World, however you may solely go to with them inside their houses at Disneyland.
Stroll between the parks
Disney World has 4 theme parks, two water parks and greater than 20 on-site accommodations. That is a lot bigger than Disneyland’s two theme parks and three on-site accommodations, however Disney’s smaller footprint makes it way more walkable than its Florida counterpart.
After you enter the primary gates of the Disneyland Resort, you may flip proper to enter Disneyland Park, left to enter Disney California Journey or stroll straight forward to the outlets and eating places of Downtown Disney. If you wish to “park hop” between Disneyland and Disney California Journey, you are able to do so in lower than 60 seconds (sure, I’ve timed it). All of Disneyland’s on-site accommodations are additionally inside strolling distance of the 2 theme parks.
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At Disney World, it’s a must to drive or take Disney transportation to get round. There’s a strolling path that connects Epcot and Hollywood Studios to the BoardWalk space resorts and the Swan and Dolphin resorts, however it might take you greater than 20 minutes to stroll the complete distance between these two parks.
Relating to comfort and walkability, Disneyland comes out on high.
Backside line
After having spent numerous hours at Disney World and Disneyland, I might by no means decide a favourite. Slightly, I attempt to spend my time at every park doing issues that I am unable to do on the different. For Disneyland, meaning paddling my very own canoe down the Rivers of America, consuming beignets contained in the park (and getting powdered sugar throughout my face) and strolling in Walt’s footsteps.
