USA & Europe Disney Resorts Ranked
For mother’s day in May, Austin surprised me with a trip to my favorite park at Walt Disney Resort: Animal Kingdom. Then, just one week later, we visited Disneyland Paris for our one year wedding anniversary. Since I’ve been to three of the six Disney resorts, which includes eight of the 12 individual Disney parks (not including the two water parks in Orlando), I thought I would rank what I have seen thus far! If you have been to any of the Disney Asia resorts, or have your own ranking of the resorts you’ve visited, let me know in the comments below!
USA & Europe Disney Resorts
3. Disneyland Paris
As someone who has visited both Walt Disney World (Orlando, FL) and Disneyland Resort (Anaheim, CA) over 100 times cumulatively, Disneyland Paris (comprised of both Disneyland and Walt Disney Studios Park) was pretty repetitive, with a few twists thrown in the mix. First, the stand-outs in Disneyland. Big Thunder Mountain has a tunnel underwater that leads you to the ride, which is built entirely on an island. Sleeping Beauty’s castle has an intricate interactive area within (I would rank this castle #1 overall). The Pirates of the Caribbean line was the most immersively themed of all three resorts, and the Adventureland area is incredibly thought-out. As for Walt Disney Studios Park, it offered a couple new attractions never before seen, including Crush’s Coaster and Ratatouille: The Adventure—both of which were awesome! Furthermore, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith was better than Walt Disney World Resort, plunging you into complete darkness and an immediate vertical loop. Unfortunately, nearly half the park was closed for refurbishment, so it only took us a few hours to knock out all the rides. On the bright side, everything in both parks had wait times of 30 minutes or less!
Now for the bad. What truly killed the magic for me was the smoking areas every ten feet within the park. Furthermore, guests smoke while walking around the park and cast members do not enforce these rules whatsoever. I frequently found myself walking through a cloud of smoke while trying to navigate the park. And speaking of cast members… Upon entering Disneyland Park for the first time, I could not find a single cast member, aside from the one’s operating the attractions. I wanted to ask about getting an anniversary button to wear, but could not find even one cast member walking around Main Street. And the one’s I did see looked absolutely miserable (and this was consistent across both parks). And let’s talk about food—I couldn’t find it anywhere either! After I dropped Austin off at Crush’s Coaster in Walt Disney Studios (around 10 a.m.), I walked around for 30 minutes searching for food (as I am currently pregnant and always hungry!). I could not find one open food cart or quick service restaurant aside from a single ice cream stand. We didn’t find a cart with hot food until two hours later. This seemed to be a theme across both parks throughout the day—there were many quick service and food stand locations, but 90% of them were closed.
2. Walt Disney World Resort
Although I have a certain level of bias towards WDW — it was the first Disney resort I ever visited, and the home of both of my Disney College Programs — it still only takes the number two spot on this list. First, let’s talk about the diversity of activities. It is the largest Disney resort, containing four traditional parks and two water parks, so there is never a shortage of things to do. I have spent many days resort hopping and not even entering the parks, taking the monorail from the Contemporary to the Grand Floridian to the Polynesian, enjoying the unique restaurants, bars, and shops. Not to mention the huge Downtown Disney—sorry, Disney Springs—renovation that recently took place. I visited this brand new area and it is completely unrecognizable from the DTD I knew during my Disney College Program in 2015. It has the nightlife, the shopping, the food, and the Disney touch we all know and love. Absolute perfection.
And then there are the parks… Magic Kingdom is enormous, well laid out, and a truly immersive experience. Although the futuristic area of Epcot is lacking, in my opinion, the World Showcase is one of my favorite destinations on Disney property. You can meander through the 11 countries, enjoying the local food and drinks (so many delicious drinks!) for hours. Hollywood Studios is the weak link of the four main parks, although I have yet to visit the new Toy Story addition. Perhaps this, combined with the upcoming Star Wars addition, will sway my overall WDW ranking on this list. But this park has a few of my favorite classics — Hollywood Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Toy Story Mania. Finally, Animal Kingdom — what used to be a half-day park, now fully transformed. Now, I already loved AK before the renovations. Expedition Everest, Kilimanjaro Safaris, and the Festival of the Lion King will forever be some of my favorites. But now that I’ve experienced the new Pandora addition? This park (or even just the Flight of Passage attraction alone) gives all others across the world a run for their money. If I were to rank the 12 individual Disney parks, AK would be #1.
The main downside of WDW is its expansiveness. It is extremely difficult to get from resort to park to park to resort when you are unfamiliar with the property. As such, I’d recommend you allot a full week to do the entire resort — and this includes rest days to relax by your Disney resort pool. Trust me, you will need the rest days… And if you end up in Florida at the wrong time of the year, the humidity is so thick you’ll practically be eating the air.
1. Disneyland Resort
It’s the original Disney resort, meticulously planned and opened by Walt himself, and I’m not sure if it can be beat. When I first trekked across the country to Disneyland in Anaheim, my hopes were not high. Not only was my heart already tied to WDW in Orlando, but all everyone mentioned was how tiny it was compared to WDW. However, the small size of this resort ended up being a huge perk in my eyes. I could easily switch from Disneyland to California Adventure (the two parks Disneyland Resort has to offer), grabbing a FastPass at one and running back over to the other multiple times in a day. Now, some may bag on the paper FastPass system (mostly my husband, who is a huge fan of the tech-savvy app used at WDW), but I much prefer the old-fashioned method. When using the app to get FastPasses, the popular rides are usually completely booked weeks in advance (since you can reserve these 30+ days prior to your visit). At Disneyland Resort, on the other hand, it truly is a first-come-first-served system. If you get to the park early enough, you can hurry over to the most popular ride, get a paper FastPass, and then enjoy the next couple hours worry-free until your time to ride arrives. Fingers crossed they don’t switch to the month-prior-booking-system anytime soon!
Disneyland is home to my second favorite ride (recently surpassed by Animal Kingdom’s Flight of Passage), Indiana Jones. Additionally, Haunted Mansion is incredible during the holiday months when it transforms into a Nightmare Before Christmas themed attraction, and there are churros around every. single. corner. Across the square from this original park is California Adventure, which truly takes the cake in my book. I am a thrill seeker, so the Incredicoaster (previously California Screamin’), Guardians of the Galaxy—Mission: BREAKOUT! (previously Tower of Terror), and Radiator Springs Racers are my go-to rides. But the crème de la crème is Cars Land—a true masterpiece in terms of theming. The food, shops, attractions, and visits from the Cars characters makes this the most immersive part of any Disney resort, in my humble opinion. And although I haven’t visited the new Star Wars addition to this resort, I can only imagine it further secures Disneyland Resort’s spot at #1.
What do you think of these rankings? How would YOU rate the Disney resorts? Let me know in the comments below!