WDW vs Disneyland Attraction Showdown

 

In a recent post, I talked about some differences between Walt Disney World and Disneyland in terms of everything but the attractions.  So today I figured I'd actually take a look at those attractions and try to determine how they measure up against each other.  

A few "rules" before I get into the heart of it.  If the attractions are exactly the same on both coasts, there's no point in talking about them here (think Rise of the Resistance as an example).  Similarly, if there is an attraction in one park that doesn't exist at the other resort, there's nothing to compare, so I also won't be talking about these.  This includes rides that are similar in lots of ways but distinctly different (Test Track vs Radiator Springs Racers, for example).  I'm also leaving off an attraction like the Jungle Cruise - it is different in some ways, but the experience for this one is largely based on your skipper no matter what park you're in.  Oh, I also have to leave off Tiana's Bayou Adventure.  While there are some differences, I have only had the chance to experience the Disneyland version so far, so I can't make a fair comparison.

Walt Disney World and Disneyland Differences (Non-Attraction Edition)

 

I've mentioned a few times in this blog that the focus is almost exclusively on Walt Disney World, as opposed to Disney news at large.  There are a few reasons for this - one, WDW is our "home" Disney resort and we've done it enough times to have a solid knowledge of things like crowd patterns, attraction orders, etc.  It's also the most popular destination among Disney resorts, and probably has the most interest from readers.  And expanding coverage beyond WDW would be a bit unwieldy for me personally - I don't have a lot of time to update this blog regularly (as you may have noticed!)

But we recently took a trip to Disneyland (that's the one in California, for those of you who don't know) and I felt that I would be remiss without at least making some posts about that resort.  I didn't want to do a full review or even attraction or restaurant reviews individually, as they are not within the scope of this blog.  But there are plenty of things to compare and contrast between Disneyland Resort (DLR) and WDW, so I thought there would be some value in putting this stuff done before I forget about them and it all blurs together.

Piston Peak Coming to Frontierland

 

Disney announced a bunch of new details for the Cars-themed mini-land coming to Magic Kingdom.  This area is now officially named Piston Peak National Park, and there is a ton of new concept art as well as some information directly from Imagineers about this new project.  This post will take a look at all of that, discuss the timing of the closure of Rivers of America and see whether our minds can be changed about this project as a whole.

Piston Peak is NOT Radiator Springs (which we already knew) but IS connected to the Cars "universe" (a term I'll use loosely here) as it was a setting in Planes: Fire and Rescue, which in and of itself is an offshoot of Cars (got all that?).  The version in the movie was influenced by Yosemite and Yellowstone, but the version being built in the park is more like Rocky Mountain National Park, with plenty of peaks, rivers and geysers.

Disney Starlight: Dream The Night Away Debuts July 20

Disney officially confirmed the opening date of the newest entertainment coming to Magic Kingdom, the night parade known as Disney Starlight: Dream The Night Away.  This parade debuts on July 20.  In this post, we talk a little about the parade, discuss the new park reservation quirk and how the holiday parties impact the viewings of this new offering.

I've only mentioned Starlight once in this blog, as part of the D23 announcements last year.  That's not because I'm not interested in it - quite the contrary, in fact.  I think this will be a fun parade that will draw crowds over the summer.  Disney skeptics would say that this isn't really an "answer" for Universal's Epic Universe, an entirely new theme park in Orlando.  But while Disney has plenty of new attractions debuting in the future, most of them won't appear until at least 2027.  In the meantime, new "smaller" entertainment will have to fill the gap here.

Disney to Open New Theme Park in Abu Dhabi

This blog largely focuses on Walt Disney World, as opposed to the Walt Disney Company at large.  In most cases it's because that's the area that I'm most familiar with, but it also has to do with the fact that corporate Disney news can be so vast and I wanted to keep the focus of this blog more localized.  

However, sometimes big news comes along having nothing directly to do with WDW and it still warrants a post here.  Today's big news is one of these.  Disney dropped a bombshell this morning, announcing a joint venture with the entertainment company Miral to build a new Disney park in Abu Dhabi.  This post will take a look at the announcement and try to figure out the why and why now of this groundbreaking news.

Disney World News Round Up March 2025

 

Disney was busy this morning, putting out bits of information on various things coming to their resorts in the (near) future.  We'll take a quick run through of all of this various news and throw in some commentary where it's needed.  

First there are a few discounts coming this year.  Starting tomorrow (March 27), you can get 50% off kids tickets for visits from 5/27-9/20.  There's also a three day, three park ticket starting at $89 for visits from 4/6-9/22 (notably the ticket does NOT include admission to Magic Kingdom - just the other three parks).  Then there are the "traditional" discounts that pop up from time to time - free dining for four night or longer stays on select dates between 6/29-12/22.  And there are room only discounts of up to 30% for select visits from 8/1-10/11.  You got all that??

Virtual Queue to End at Tiana's Bayou Adventure and Guardians of the Galaxy

 

Disney dropped some big news yesterday - the virtual queue system (VQ) that had been in use on both Tiana's Bayou Adventure at Magic Kingdom and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot are coming to an end on February 25.  This post will talk about what that means for each of these rides and parks specifically, as well as whether this is a good thing for guests and the future of VQ in general.

If you're not already aware (though if you're reading this, you probably are), a VQ is a system that Disney (and other theme parks) use in place of a standby line, usually on new/incredibly popular attractions or attractions that have reliability issues.  When a VQ is in place, there is no standby line at all - this means that a guest can't wait for hours to ride one of these attractions, even if they were so inclined.