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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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After I lastly did make my strategy to Disneyland, I had no alternative 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 sights which are situated 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 possibly can solely do at Disneyland.
See Walt Disney’s condo
Personally, I’d leap on the likelihood to stay inside Disneyland. Because of Walt Disney, there is a fully-furnished condo ready for me on Principal Road, U.S.A.
When Walt Disney was constructing Disneyland, he had a small condo constructed above the Disneyland Hearth 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.
Wanting straight up above the Disneyland Hearth Station on Principal Road, U.S.A., you possibly can see a lamp glowing within the condo’s window. Because the legend goes, a call was made to go away the lamp illuminated after Walt’s loss of life in 1966 to suggest his fixed presence within the park.
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Exterior the Disneyland Hearth Dept. SUMMER HULL/THE POINTS GUY
That is the closest most guests will ever get to Walt’s Disneyland condo, however there may be one surefire strategy to get a glimpse inside this legendary Disney landmark. On Walt’s Principal Road Story tour, friends are led down Disneyland’s Principal Road, U.S.A. by an professional information who shares Disney secrets and techniques and little-known details alongside the best way. As a part of the tour, friends can step inside Walt’s condo and take photographs 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 experience 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” along 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 ought to be one thing constructed the place the dad and mom and the kids may have enjoyable collectively,” he stated. “In order that’s how Disneyland began.”
Within the foyer of the Nice Moments With Mr. Lincoln attraction on Principal Road, 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 considered one of Walt strolling by way of Sleeping Magnificence Fort.
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 may go to daydream and draw,” in accordance with the Walt Disney Hometown Museum.
In a method, the doodles and drawings Walt created beneath that tree have been the seeds that finally 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 screen 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 accordance 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 in case you aren’t eagle-eyed sufficient to identify it, there’s one coming to Mickey’s Toontown that can be unattainable 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 can 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 sights 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 subtle pc programing. There may be, nevertheless, one attraction you possibly can 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, if you’d like this boat to maneuver, you have to paddle the total size of Disneyland’s Rivers of America. Your arms may be sore, however you will be rewarded with views of Tom Sawyer Island and the animals and villages alongside the river banks whilst you paddle.
Prepare to change into an Avenger
I will not bore you with the authorized particulars, however as a result 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 isn’t 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 possibly can 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 will have to move to Disneyland.
Eat beignets contained in the park
I’ve by no means been to heaven, however I am virtually 100% certain 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.
You’ll find 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 best way to Disneyland Paris or Tokyo Disneyland for that privilege.
Experience authentic Fantasyland sights
Disneyland and Disney World have modified loads 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 sights, amongst them, Mad Tea Get together, It is a Small World, Dumbo the Flying Elephant and some others.
Of these, there are a pair you possibly can now not experience at Disney World however stay intact at Disneyland – Mr. Toad’s Wild Experience and Snow White’s Enchanted Want (initially Snow White’s Scary Adventures).
At Disney World, Mr. Toad’s Wild Experience 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 may see his headstone within the Haunted Mansion’s pet cemetery after you exit the experience, and a portrait of Mr. Toad hangs in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh experience.
Snow White’s Scary Adventures closed in 2012 to make method for Princess Fairytale Corridor, a princess meet-and-greet location. You may 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 possibly can be a part of Lightning McQueen, Mater, Luigi and the entire gang from Disney and Pixar’s “Automobiles” movies. You may race by way 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 once 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 tune “Sh-Growth” by The Chords performs overhead.
There isn’t any such land at Disney World. You may go to the Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy present at Hollywood Studios, or if you’re within the temper for a speedy automobile experience, Epcot’s Check Observe is comparable in pace and format to Radiator Springs Racers.
Expertise the Haunted Mansion’s “The Nightmare Earlier than Christmas” overlay
Yearly from September by way of mid-January, Disneyland’s model of the Haunted Mansion will get a frighteningly festive makeover referred to 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 convey 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 scent – the enormous gingerbread haunted home that Disney builds yearly for the event (you will discover it within the “swinging wake” scene), you will have to go to Disneyland.
Experience the world’s first tubular metal curler coaster
The Matterhorn Bobsleds coaster opened at Disneyland in 1959 and it’s nonetheless “rolling” robust immediately. The coaster’s design was impressed by the actual Matterhorn in Zermatt, Switzerland, which Disney visited whereas engaged on the 1959 movie “Third Man on the Mountain.”
The coaster is strictly 100 occasions 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 comprised of wooden.
Disney World has many mountains of its personal, however no Matterhorn.
Dine contained in the Pirates of the Caribbean experience
There are a handful of variations between Disneyland’s model of the Pirates of the Caribbean experience and Disney World’s, however the largest distinction is which you can dine inside the attraction at Disneyland.
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Contained in 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. Identical-day walkup availability could also be accessible, however if you wish to assure a spot at this sit-down eating location, superior reservations are really useful.
Go to Mickey and Minnie of their houses
Mickey’s Toontown at Disneyland is the realm of the park the place you possibly can go to Mickey, Minnie and all of their associates at their houses. As an alternative of ready in a daily line to satisfy Mickey or Minnie, you wind by way of the fully-decorated rooms of their respective houses and get to satisfy them and take a photograph once 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 development).
There are many spots to satisfy Mickey and Minnie at Disney World, however you possibly can 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 resorts. That is a lot bigger than Disneyland’s two theme parks and three on-site resorts, however Disney’s smaller footprint makes it way more walkable than its Florida counterpart.
After you enter the principle gates of the Disneyland Resort, you possibly can 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 resorts 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 total distance between these two parks.
With regards to comfort and walkability, Disneyland comes out on high.
Backside line
After having spent numerous hours at Disney World and Disneyland, I may by no means choose a favourite. Reasonably, I attempt to spend my time at every park doing issues that I am unable to do on the different. For Disneyland, which means 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.
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