It’s 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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When I lastly did make my solution to Disneyland, I had no alternative however to eat my phrases (and some Dole Whips whereas I used to be at it). Because 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 are situated at each parks aren’t fairly the identical at Disneyland as they’re at Disney World.
Those aren’t the one variations, although. Here are 10 issues you possibly can solely do at Disneyland.
See Walt Disney’s condominium
Personally, I might bounce on the likelihood to reside inside Disneyland. Thanks to Walt Disney, there is a fully-furnished condominium ready for me on Main Street, U.S.A.
When Walt Disney was constructing Disneyland, he had a small condominium constructed above the Disneyland Fire 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.
Looking straight up above the Disneyland Fire Station on Main Street, U.S.A., you possibly can see a lamp glowing within the condominium’s window. As the legend goes, a call was made to go away the lamp illuminated after Walt’s demise in 1966 to indicate his fixed presence within the park.
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Outside the Disneyland Fire Dept. SUMMER HULL/THE POINTS GUY
This is the closest most guests will ever get to Walt’s Disneyland condominium, however there may be one surefire solution to get a glimpse inside this legendary Disney landmark. On Walt’s Main Street Story tour, visitors are led down Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. by an skilled information who shares Disney secrets and techniques and little-known information alongside the best way. As a part of the tour, visitors can step inside Walt’s condominium and take photographs with the famed lamp glowing within the background.
See memorabilia that impressed Walt Disney to create Disneyland
Throughout Disneyland, there are landmarks from Walt Disney’s previous that impressed him to construct his unique theme park. The first 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 trip 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
Walt himself has been quoted as saying the thought for Disneyland took place throughout his Saturday “daddy’s day” together with his two daughters. He would sit on the bench whereas they rode the merry-go-round and loved the park. “I felt that there must be one thing constructed the place the mother and father and the kids might have enjoyable collectively,” he mentioned. “So that is how Disneyland began.”
In the foyer of the Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln attraction on Main Street, U.S.A., you possibly can see a bench and carousel horse from Griffith Park, in addition to photographs of the Griffith Park merry-go-round and one in all Walt strolling via Sleeping Beauty Castle.
Traveling 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 had 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 best way 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 giant teepee and fireplace pit in a reproduction Native American village on the riverbank, however should 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 youngsters 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 observe 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 is, nonetheless, one attraction you possibly can solely discover at Disneyland that’s fully powered by you — the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes.
Unlike 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.
Train to turn into an Avenger
I will not bore you with the authorized particulars, however as a consequence of theme park utilization agreements between Marvel, Disney and Universal, Disney World can not legally use sure Marvel characters in sure theme parks.
Unlike its East Coast counterpart, Disneyland shouldn’t 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 Adventure, you possibly can meet heroes like Iron Man and Black Panther, dine on teeny-tiny or larger-than-life dishes at Pym Test Kitchen, sling webs with Spider-Man on Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure and extra.
In quick, if you wish to bump fists with Iron Man, you may have to move to Disneyland.
Eat beignets contained in the park
I’ve by no means been to heaven, however I’m nearly 100% positive there are Mickey beignets up there. These Mickey-shaped, sugar-dusted beignets are scrumptious, lovable and served up contemporary and heat from the Mint Julep Bar in New Orleans Square at Disneyland.
You can discover Mickey beignets at Disney’s Port Orleans French Quarter Resort at Disney World, however there isn’t a such spot to take pleasure in this delightfully messy deal with contained in the park. You’d should trek all the best way to Disneyland Paris or Tokyo Disneyland for that privilege.
Ride unique Fantasyland points of interest
Disneyland and Disney World have modified lots since their respective openings in 1955 and 1971. Many opening day rides have closed or been rethemed over time, however each resorts nonetheless have a handful of opening day points of interest, amongst them, Mad Tea Party, It’s a Small World, Dumbo the Flying Elephant and some others.
Of these, there are a pair you possibly can not trip at Disney World however stay intact at Disneyland – Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Snow White’s Enchanted Wish (initially Snow White’s Scary Adventures).
At Disney World, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride 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 can see his headstone within the Haunted Mansion’s pet cemetery after you exit the trip, and a portrait of Mr. Toad hangs in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh trip.
Snow White’s Scary Adventures closed in 2012 to make manner for Princess Fairytale Hall, a princess meet-and-greet location. You can nonetheless see Snow White’s story play out on the close by Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, which opened in 2014.
Visit Cars Land
At Disney California Adventure, you possibly can be part of Lightning McQueen, Mater, Luigi and the entire gang from Disney and Pixar’s “Cars” movies. You can race via 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, nonetheless, is that if you flip the nook and get your first glimpse of Cars Land, you actually really feel such as you’ve stepped into the film. Pro tip: Visit at nightfall when the neon lights flicker to life and the basic track “Sh-Boom” by The Chords performs overhead.
There is not any such land at Disney World. You can go to the Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy present at Hollywood Studios, or in case you are within the temper for a speedy automobile trip, Epcot’s Test Track is comparable in velocity and format to Radiator Springs Racers.
Experience the Haunted Mansion’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” overlay
Every 12 months from September via mid-January, Disneyland’s model of the Haunted Mansion will get a frighteningly festive makeover known as Haunted Mansion Holiday.
The seasonal overlay is themed to Tim Burton’s “The Nightmare Before Christmas” film. The storyline is just like the film, although on this real-life model, Jack Skellington and the residents of Halloween Town 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 (you will discover it within the “swinging wake” scene), you may have to go to Disneyland.
Ride 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 precisely 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. Before its opening, most coaster tracks had been constructed from wooden.
Disney World has many mountains of its personal, however no Matterhorn.
Dine contained in the Pirates of the Caribbean trip
There are a handful of variations between Disneyland’s model of the Pirates of the Caribbean trip and Disney World’s, however the largest distinction is you could dine inside the attraction at Disneyland.
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Inside the Blue Bayou. TARAH CHIEFFI/THE POINTS GUY
The Blue Bayou restaurant serves Louisiana-inspired delicacies with a aspect of Pirates of the Caribbean boats gently gliding previous as you dine. Same-day walkup availability could also be out there, however if you wish to assure a spot at this sit-down eating location, superior reservations are advisable.
Visit Mickey and Minnie of their properties
Mickey’s Toontown at Disneyland is the realm of the park the place you possibly can go to Mickey, Minnie and all of their pals at their properties. Instead of ready in an everyday line to fulfill Mickey or Minnie, you wind via the fully-decorated rooms of their respective properties and get to fulfill 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 properties for Goofy, Donald, Mickey and Minnie, together with the kid-friendly Chip ‘n’ Dale’s Gadgetcoaster, Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (which is open whereas the land is beneath building).
There are loads of spots to fulfill Mickey and Minnie at Disney World, however you possibly can solely go to with them inside their properties at Disneyland.
Walk between the parks
Disney World has 4 theme parks, two water parks and greater than 20 on-site inns. That’s a lot bigger than Disneyland’s two theme parks and three on-site inns, 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 possibly can flip proper to enter Disneyland Park, left to enter Disney California Adventure or stroll straight forward to the retailers and eating places of Downtown Disney. If you need to “park hop” between Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, you are able to do so in lower than 60 seconds (sure, I’ve timed it). All of Disneyland’s on-site inns are additionally inside strolling distance of the 2 theme parks.
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At Disney World, you must drive or take Disney transportation to get round. There is a strolling path that connects Epcot and Hollywood Studios to the BoardWalk space resorts and the Swan and Dolphin resorts, however it will take you greater than 20 minutes to stroll the complete distance between these two parks.
When it involves comfort and walkability, Disneyland comes out on prime.
Bottom line
After having spent numerous hours at Disney World and Disneyland, I might by no means choose a favourite. Rather, 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.