Planning for Walt Disney World vs. Disneyland
I am in the midst of planning my FIRST vacation to Disneyland, California. Yes, that's right. Although I've been to Walt Disney World countless times, I have never, ever been to Disneyland.
The United States is blessed with two Disney theme park complexes. Walt Disney World is based in Florida and has four theme parks, two waterparks, two mini-golf courses, a sports complex, several professional golf courses, and 19 (giver or take) resorts and campgrounds. Disneyland is based in California with just two theme parks and three resorts.
While these are both Disney, one thing I've learned was planning for a vacation really varies depending on which complex, Florida or California, you are visiting. In this blog, we're going to share the differences we've found so far just in planning.
Planning Where to Stay
At Disneyland, California, there are only three resort hotels to choose from: Paradise Pier, Disneyland Hotel, and the Grand Californian. All of these Disney-owned hotels have prices that would put them solidly in the deluxe price range at Walt Disney World, but unlike Walt Disney World, Disneyland does not have a bunch of land around it buffering it form the rest of Anaheim. This means that you can get a room at an independent hotel basically across the street and then still walk to Disneyland, without staying at a Disney hotel. In fact, many hotels on Harbor Boulevard, right across the street from the esplanade, are closer to the main gates of both theme parks than the Disney owned resorts. Disneyland Hotel is about a 15 minute walking distance to the main gate, whereas the Best Western across the street is about a 5 minute walking distance.
At Walt Disney World in Florida, there is a much wider difference between Disney-owned resorts and non-Disney resorts in terms of proximity. Imagine a patch of land twice the size of Manhattan (that's 42.47 square miles). Walt Disney World sits on property of this size that is Disney-owned and buffered from the outside world for the most part. All Disney-owned resorts in Florida are on the "double Manhattan" island. All non-Disney owned resorts have to be off the "double Manhattan" island, with a few exceptions. The only places you will find non-Disney owned resorts that are even reasonably close to property are the Swan and Dolphin outside of EPCOT, or the resorts across the street from Disney Springs.
But just being across the street from Disney Springs isn't enough to get you access to all 42.47 square miles. Because of the sheer size of Walt Disney World, don't expect to be able to walk from theme park to theme park, or even from a resort to all theme parks. We're talking a huge amount of land! While two theme parks are technically walkable from each other (EPCOT and Disney Hollywood Studios), it's a longer walk (about 20-25 minutes). Some resorts are walkable to theme parks, but never all of them. For example, you can walk to the Magic Kingdom from the Grand Floridian, the Contemporary, and even the Polynesian, but you could never walk to EPCOT from the same resorts. Similarly, you can walk to EPCOT or Disney Hollywood Studios from the Boardwalk, Beach Club, Yacht Club, Swan, and Dolphin, but you could never walk to the Magic Kingdom from the same.
And from most resorts, you can't walk to ANY theme park at Walt Disney World. If you can walk to a park, you will be paying deluxe prices. At other resorts, you will use Disney's complementary transportation service consisting mostly of buses, but also gondolas, the monorail, and boats to get around.
A Disney Cruise Line bus at the bus stop at Coronado Springs Resort, one of the many resorts on property from which you must use a bus to get anywhere
This isolation can be a blessing in that newspapers are not automatically delivered to you and you don't have to tune in to any television or news of what's going on in the outside world either. In other words, you will be a in a bubble and if you want to escape completely while staying on Disney property, there is nothing to stop you from doing so, quite unlike Disneyland in Anaheim in its position right next to the Santa Ana freeway.
In terms of planning, this means a few things:
At Walt Disney World
If you don't want to drive in each day and pay for parking, staying on property matters.
Staying on property also matters if you want to have a "bubble" to feel fully separate from the outside world.
Staying on property is not nearly as expensive as it is at Disneyland, but you also aren't guaranteed to be nearly as close as at Disneyland.
Even if you stay on property, you will have to use transportation services to get to most of your experiences.
At Disneyland
Staying on property is pricey!
There are off-property hotels that are actually physically closer to the main gate than Disney-owned hotels.
You probably won't feel isolated from the outside world no matter where you stay.
In most cases, you will be able to walk all over the Disneyland complex from your hotel.
Dining
There are two main things we want to talk about when it comes to dining. First, where to dine. Second, how to reserve dining.
Build-your-own Mickey waffle and some bacon at Chef Mickey's
Let's start with where to dine. Because of Walt Disney World's size and isolation from the rest of Orlando, you would need to either have a car, or use an uber or lyft to dine off property. There are still plenty of people who choose to do so, but between getting to your car, driving for 20-25 minutes off of property, dining, then driving back, you can see how dining off property can be time-consuming at Walt Disney World. The advantage of doing so, of course, is that prices off-property can be more reasonable than those on property. So let's just say, it's possible, but does require a mode of transportation and time.
Even if you dine on property at Walt Disney World, between the size of the property and the time it may take for Disney transportation to get you to a restaurant, if you must travel to your dining location, Disney recommends allowing 90 minutes to get there. For example: Say you want to go from your resort (Port Orleans Riverside, let's say) to Whispering Canyon Cafe at the Wilderness Lodge. There are not buses directly from one resort to another, so the first thing you must do is get to a hub. All theme parks and Downtown Disney are hubs. You may wait up to 20 minutes for a bus to a theme park from your resort. The bus ride itself will take up to 20 minutes. Then you will find transportation to the Wilderness Lodge and wait for that (up to another 20 minutes). Then this transportation can take up to 20 minutes as well. For those counting, we are at 80 minutes and that doesn't count the time it takes to walk to the bus stop at your resort, and the time it takes to walk to the Whispering Canyon Cafe at Wilderness Lodge from the bus stop or boat pier.
Meanwhile, at Disneyland, while dining is plentiful on property and at Downtown Disney which is easily walkable from the parks. If you are walking from the back of one park to another, it can take you up to a half hour to do so, but most dining is going to be walkable within about 20 minutes from point A to point B, no hub necessary. For example, we recently got reservations for dining at the Disneyland Hotel and are stressing a little bit over whether we want to walk the 15 minutes from where we will be to that reservation because it is "so far". In terms of Walt Disney World, it is nothing.
But even if you are tiring of Disney food (how could you, though?), there are familiar options on Harbor Boulevard, easily walkable, including a McDonalds and a Cheesecake Factory. In fact, there is an entire mall, the Anaheim Garden Walk, about 15 minute's walking time from the main gates of the theme parks. So dining off property is much, much easier at Disneyland.
Now, let's talk reservations. If you want a nice full-service sit-down meal (Disney calls this Table Service), then at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, Advanced Dining Reservations (ADRs) are highly recommended and should grab them well in advance of your dining day.
What does "well in advance" mean? Right now, during the pandemic, it means 60 days ahead of time at the moment reservations become available. In normal times, it is 180 days out for Walt Disney World, and still 60 days out for Disneyland. Reservations become available online at 6 am ET for Walt Disney World or 3 am PT for Disneyland, California. If you are following along with time zones, that means basically the same time, wherever your time zone is, for both. You will want to be on the online site or in your app at that time, refreshing your screen, until you can book dining.
And this is where the experience begins to differ. At Walt Disney World, our experience has been that ALL dining for the date 60 days or 180 days out is released at this time. All slots, all restaurants. And then the battle royale begins with everyone who will be in the park that day booking their dining for ALL restaurants at the same time. In fact, most guests stay on property and are able to reserve dining for 180 days plus the length of their stay ahead of time since they are able to book for their entire stay, up to 10 days, at 180 days from the first day of their stay.
So it was a shock to us when we learned at that Disneyland, the date of release is much more relaxed. Some days a few restaurants released their ADR slots 60 days out. Some days, no dining slots were released for 60 days out. Disneyland takes this much more as an "up to" 60 days out policy. And not even all slots are released at 3 am the day they are released. We saw Oga's Cantina slots released for 56 days out at 11:50 pm PT. It seems to be much more of a "whenever" attitude. We're still not sure if staying on property would mean you could book dining for your length of stay at 60 days from the first day, but based on when dining has been released and alerts we have set up, it certainly doesn't seem to be the case, and Disney doesn't advertise it.
At Walt Disney World, if you did not manage to snag an ADR, the chances of you dining at that restaurant are slim to none. You can ask, but it would be much more rare to get a walk up slot than not. In fact, in the past if I did not have reservations for a day and I decided I would like to sit down to table service somewhere, I would get on the app and make a same-day reservation rather than walk up. Very few restaurants tend to be available for same-day reservations at Walt Disney World.
At Disneyland, walk-ups seem to be much more common. In fact, Disneyland holds back from reservation slots specifically for this purpose. And you can find walk-up availability on the Disneyland app by checking waiting lists and adding your name to a waiting list. So in many cases, if you did not get an ADR, it's not the end of the world if you can be flexible and are willing to go on a waiting list.
Here's what all that means in terms of planning:
At Walt Disney World
You need to get a dining reservation exactly when they become available, don't wait, and if you don't get one, assume you won't be eating there.
All reservations for all restaurants become available at the same time so if you don't see something, it means it's gone.
If you want to dine off-property have a plan for an Uber, a Lyft, or a rental car.
Allow plenty of time to get to your reserved dining, and understand the transportation system you will use to get there.
At Disneyland
Getting a dining reservation early is good, if it shows up. If it doesn't show up 60 days head, it might show up later. Just keep checking if your heart is set on something.
If you didn't get the reservation you wanted, check to see if you can go on the waiting list the day you want to dine there.
If you still can't dine on property, that's ok, because there are plenty of chain restaurants you can get to by walking.
Allow time, but not nearly as much time as at WDW to get to dining (a half hour in most cases seems sufficient).
Crowd Levels
Some truths will hold across both park complexes. Holidays will always be crowded, for example. Weekdays, especially days kids are normally in school, will always be less crowded.
A very crowded day on Main Street USA vs. a quiet night in Africa at the Animal Kingdom
One difference that seems more pronounced at Disneyland, however, is the effect of weekends and even evenings. Disneyland's guest base leans much more heavily toward Annual Passholders (or Magic Key holders as they are now called) than does Walt Disney World. Disneyland is much more a local park, for Southern Californians, than Walt Disney World. When Southern Californians are not working, it's not uncommon for those who love Disney to say "Let's go to Disneyland tonight and see what's up". Disneyland is right in the middle of Anaheim, just off the freeway, so it's easy for passholders to get there and just check things out. Overall, this means more day trippers on weekends and evening guests than at Walt Disney World.
This point was really driven home to me as I was reviewing crowd levels for my upcoming Disneyland vacation. Most days I will be there are a 1-2 crowd-level wise (yayyyyy!), but then Saturday rolls around it's a 9. Sunday isn't much better at a 7-8. Then Monday is a 3. If anything tells you the influx is coming on the weekend, this does for sure. A lot of people who go to Disneyland aren't weeklong vacationers. They are weekend trippers.
Saturdays at Walt Disney World are often days where there is an uptick in crowds, but most Saturdays are a small 1-2 point uptick. Walt Disney World is more of a global destination. Most people going there are staying there for many days. Even Annual Passholders to Walt Disney World are those that live anywhere in the country and make trips out for days at a time.
Bottom line when it comes to Saturdays: I'm planning on not going into the parks AT ALL on my Disneyland Saturday. With only two parks to spread crowds amongst, it's going to be busy at both. I'll be at the beach. If this where Walt Disney World, there would be no problem with the small uptick. I would not go to the Magic Kingdom (always the park that gets hit hardest on Saturday) and would instead make that my Animal Kingdom day, where I would experience less of a difference because there are twice as many parks to spread the crowds amongst.
In terms of planning, this all means:
At Walt Disney World
Holidays will be crowded!
Saturdays are the busiest days.... but there are four parks so choose the lowest crowd-level park (often Animal Kingdom or EPCOT)
If there is a festival at EPCOT, be aware that it will also draw weekend crowds and consider working around that.
You have four parks to select from, so use a crowd calendar to look at all crowd levels for each park. They can vary significantly between parks even.
Also consider a park hopper so you can leave a park and go to a less busy park if you feel crowds are worse at your current park than predicted.
Most guests are from all over the country and world and are not familiar with how to get around, etc. so expect to see lots of pictures being taken and lots of confusion.
At Disneyland
Holidays will be crowded!
Saturdays and Sundays will be crowded!
Crowd levels won't be much different between the two parks because they are walk-able from one another and those with park hoppers will just move between them.
Be aware of things like festivals at Disney's California Adventure that might draw disproportionate crowds from Disneyland.
Also be aware of events like Dapper Days that might draw weekend crowds.
Most guests are locals and have been there before. If you are not a local, be polite if you are lost or acting like a tourist.
As you can see, there are a lot of differences between the two Disney theme parks in the United States, alone. These are bound to impact your planning and now that we've done it, we can decidedly say that planning for Walt Disney World is not the same as planning for Disneyland. We hope this helps those of you wanting to check out the other coast. Until next time...
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