My friend is going to be graduating this year and as a gift from her parents she is allowed to go anywhere in the US that she wanted for her last summer vacation at home. She is a big fan of theme parks and one of the biggest Disney fans I know, so she knew for certain she wanted to go to a Disney park, but the thing was she couldn’t decide which one. She came to me for my personal opinion on whether or not she should go to Disneyland or Disney World, as I had been to both of the parks before. I suggested to her that although Disneyland is closer to our home in Reno, Nevada she should choose Disneyworld for her vacation rather than Disneyland. Her face looked as blank as a white canvas she was really shocked that I didn’t say Disneyland. One of the main reasons she was shocked was because, when most disney fans think between the two parks they see Disneyland as more “authentic” due to Walt Disney completing the project. I was quick to tell her that I don’t believe that to be true at all. I told her that the way she was going to be able to pick between the two parks is by three things and those are, availability, future availability, and price.

The first point I addressed was the point of not having a lot to choose from. My friend at first thought I was just going to address the fact of Disney World having 4 parks and Disneyland only having 2, but that's not just it. Disney World lists on their website that they have 2 water parks being “Typhoon Lagoon and Blizzard Beach”, 35 different resort options being resort hotels and villas, 2 mini golf courses, 1 full golfing course, 1 very large shopping district (Disney Springs), and many different transportation options  such as “ferry, monorail, train, and bus” which are included for all guest. This is a lot compared to Disneylands 3 hotel options, small shopping district (Downtown Disney), and 2 parks. Disney World is still growing as well so these numbers will change over the course of the next few years, because Disney World’s 50th anniversary will be coming up in the year of 2021. Overall Disney World has more options for you to choose from which can help when considering things like your budget which was a key factor for my friend to consider.

The second point I addressed to my friend was the future availability for the parks to expand. The reason I brought up this point is because if she liked her experience and wanted to come back would it be the same or different. Disney World right now is planning on bringing a lot of new things to the table for its 50th anniversary, and although Disneyland has and will be introducing new experiences for guests they are having some setbacks. One of the major setbacks we have seen from Disneyland recently is the fact that it closed all of the shops and restaurants closest to the Disneyland hotel in order to try and make way for a 4th hotel. Well these plans failed due to licensing and other reasons with the city of Anaheim, so Disneylands already small shopping district just got smaller and more boring. This was brought to the media's attention through ThemeParkInsider when they stated, “And now, after re-running the numbers on the hotel without the tax break, Disney has decided to kill the project that started this whole saga”(ThemeParkInsider 2019). That instance brought up a good point that a lot more people noticed and that was that Disneyland doesn’t have much room to expand. This is solely due to the fact that Disneyland will have to buy the property of small businesses in order to have enough land to expand. It is certainly like playing a bigger version of Monopoly. This has been shown in many respects in the past 5 years as Disneyland is replacing many things that are still popular in order to “expand”. One of the main points of that is when they decided that they were going to close a Bug's Land for the new Marvel Land, and although Marvel Land sounds interesting it is still replacing something that is very popular for families. Disneylands got no more room to expand whereas Disney World can do so without taking away popular attractions because it has the land.

The final point I brought up was the price. The price will range for both parks depending on which park you go to. Although this is true I had done an interview with Kim Lapaglia who is a editor at Disney food blog and she explained that, “Walt Disney World can be reached by car or direct flight for many guests on the East Coast and Central states. Once there, a multitude of resorts offer lodging for all budgets”. This is a good point because cost is something that many people including my friend are worried about when it comes to vacations. Disney World is also a good option because of the fact that it offers many cost affordable hotel options, whereas disney only has 1 value resort out of its 3 total resorts.

Overall if you are in the same predicament as my friend I would have to suggest go to Disney World and not Disneyland. Although in the case of my friend we are closer to Disneyland, Disney World offers more cost affordable options for guests when it comes to hotels and such as they have a larger quantity which ranges in price points. Disney World will also be able to continuously expand due to the amount of space it has compared to Disneyland. So, if you want to have more to do and not stress about pricing I would have to say go to Disney World.