Let's look at the data. In an attempt to create an apples-to-apples comparison between the two resorts, I looked at the posted wait times for comparable attractions from Florida's Disney World and California's Disneyland at 1pm local time today. (FWIW, I started to do this comparison yesterday, but the power outage at Disneyland scuttled that plan. If that dissuaded anyone from visiting today, it didn't prevent Disneyland from getting to the point where it stopped selling tickets into the park. So I am confident that we are looking today at the upper end of modern capacity and demand for these resorts.)
The top wait times at each park were:
Now let's look at some comparable attractions:
Keep in mind that the hourly capacity for some of these rides — including Midway Mania, Tower of Terror, Soarin' and Star Tours — is greater at Disney World than it is at Disneyland. So is Disneyland less crowded this week than Disney World?
Well, hold on there a minute, pardner. Let's not rush to that conclusion.
You can fit 70,000+ people into the Magic Kingdom more easily than getting up to 40,000 into the park at Disneyland. Walt's original park sits on just 85 acres, compared with the 107 at the Magic Kingdom, which is the smallest of the four Walt Disney World parks (counting areas under construction at Hollywood Studios). And Disneyland crams many more attractions into that smaller space. That comes at the cost of extra space for queues, pathways, and sitting areas, which makes Disneyland inspire claustrophobia with much smaller crowd loads than at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom.
Disneyland simply doesn't have the queue and pathway space to overload its attractions at the same rate as the Walt Disney World theme parks can, thus, the generally shorter wait times in Anaheim.
It's getting to those shorter queues that's the trick, though. While the data might suggest that Disneyland is less crowded than Disney World, you're going to feel much more crowded inside the park at Disneyland than you will visiting Disney on the east coast. That's especially true if you are rolling in an ECV or with a bulky stroller. Navigating the Disneyland Resort with those this week can feel darned near impossible.
So here is my suggestion for a family considering spending next Christmas week at Disney: If any of you need a wheeled conveyance or you carry bulky diaper bags or backpacks, you likely will feel more comfortable at the Walt Disney World Resort, which will have the physical space to better accommodate your needs than Disneyland will. Yes, you will need to work your Fastpass+ reservations well in advance and get on the app to try to book extra reservation times to minimize waits, but that's the added cost of visiting Disney during the holidays.
But if you all can walk through the parks and travel lightly, consider Disneyland instead of Disney World and squeeze through the best you can. Spring for the Maxpass upgrade and get into the park at opening to manage the waits and not get caught out by a front gate closure. Consider bailing over to California Adventure between noon and 6pm, when Disneyland gets gridlocked, too.
And if you don't have kids or do have scheduling flexibility, enjoy all the same holiday decorations and most of the events by choosing to visit either Disney resort earlier in the season. Both resorts break out their Christmas overlays by mid-November, when crowds are a fraction of what you will encounter this week.
More advice:
I find Disneyland sometimes claustrophobic in places. It is part of the charm, but the crowd control is sometimes insane. Disney World has it down to a science!
Not to mention that Disneyland is just outside of the second largest city in the US.
With everything under construction/renovation, Disney World is effectively 2 3/4 parks right now.
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