Ranking all the Disney resorts in the world from last to best
Ever since I was a little kid, Disneyland was always this mysterious and enchanting place I always wished to visit. Hearing the conjecture repeatedly that it was the happiest place on earth added to the growing hype for me. However growing up, my family wasn’t that rich so visiting any Disneyland was out of the question (Growing up in Sydney Australia does not help that cause one bit). All I knew was that when I grew up, I was going to visit all the Disneyland resorts in the world.
There are currently six Disneyland Resorts exist around the world
- Disneyland Resort — Anaheim, California
- Walt Disney World — Orlando, Florida
- Tokyo Disney Resort
- Disneyland Paris
- Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
- Shanghai Disney Resort
My Disney park journey started in 2010 visiting Disney World first, and finished in 2019 where Hong Kong Disneyland was the last park I visited.
Having visited each Disney resort in the world (I hope they don’t build any more, more parks will dilute the magic), I wanted to rank each park from lowest to best.
6. Disneyland Paris
Pros
- The best Tomorrowland out of all the park, which has a Jules Verne vibe. This was a response to all the other Tomorrowlands at the other Disney parks being outdated quickly with the future coming way too quickly. Credit to legendary Imagineer Tony Baxter for coming up with a steam punk aesthetic for Paris’s version of Tomorrowland
- Crush’s Coaster in Walt Disney Studios Park (the 2nd park in the Paris resort) is one of the best rollercoasters in any Disney park. It’s unique, cute, thrilling and one of the few rides at a Disney park that undersells but over delivers by a huge margin.
- Great architecture and landscapes at Disneyland Paris. The castle was built like an actual castle unlike the other fibre glass castles, and it shows.
Cons
- Walt Disney Studios Park (2nd park) was made on the cheap (Blame Michael Eisner) and feels like it. Doesn’t feel like a proper Disney Park but more of a sophisticated carnival show.
- I haven’t been to Disneyland Paris since 2012, but there has been very few E-ticket attractions added to the park. The only new notable addition is the Ratatouille ride, and until this year, this park felt neglected by The Walt Disney Company.
5. Hong Kong Disneyland Resort
Pros
- Mystic Manor — This is by far the best ride in any Disney park. Even better than Flight of Passage. This ride has great animatronics, the amazing trackless system and fantastic Danny Elfman music. However most importantly, it has great story with great characters which a lot of rides wished they had.
- The park caters well for English, Mandarin and Cantonese speakers
- Contains unique rides that can’t be found at other parks like the previously mentioned Mystic Manor, as well as Grizzly Gulch, Iron Man Experience and Ant-Man and The Wasp: Nano Battle!
Cons
- The park was built on the cheap (Blame Michael Eisner again), and the park is nearly done with it’s renovations and expansion to make the place feel like a proper Disney park
- The park is the smallest by far compared to other parks. It can take about 3⁄4 of a day to do everything in the park if the amount of people in the park isn’t too crazy high.
- Still got renovations at the moments but things will get better
4. Shanghai Disneyland
Pros
- No expense was spared in this park. Under Bob Iger’s direction, they made this park so grand
- The only Disney park that melds culture from a country within the park itself seamlessly. Chinese culture is infused into the park really well, and a big fan of the mural of the twelve Chinese zodiac signs but represented by Disney characters
- The best rollercoaster that can be found in any Disney park (Tron Lightcycle Power Run)
- The park is so huge, and they left plenty of land for more expansion (Here’s looking at Zootopia land)
- The only park that has an obstacle course, which is amazing. Spent so much time on the three courses they have here
- Their version of Pirates of the Caribbean ride, ‘Battle of the Sunken Treasure’ blows all the other POTC rides out of the water (Pun intended). Shanghai’s POTC ride contains amazing animatronics, special effects and the unique ride track is just amazing and you will be surprised when you ride it the first time
Cons
- Some of the cast members were rude and not up to Disney standards. I never had any issues with any cast members in any parks and this dropped Shanghai Disneyland to 4th spot. When you get yelled at to stand over there, it really dampens your day
- If you are unlucky, language might be an issue as some cast members might not be able to speak English.
- Despite the size of the park being large, needs more E-Ticket rides, although the park is relatively new so this should be rectified soon.
3. Disneyland Resort
Pros
- It is the original park so it historically has more value
- There are a lot of storybook rides that can only be found here like Mr Toad’s ride. These story book rides seem like they’re being phased out and ignored at other parks, so I treasure these kind of rides.
- Disney California Adventure has the awesome Cars Land.
- For some reason, this is the only resort that has the Matterhorn Bobsled ride. This ride is awesome and the fact that it’s only found in Anaheim makes this resort worth going
Cons
- Anaheim is out of the way and not really near LA
- The park is situated in suburban areas, so you can see the city and houses beyond the edges of the park. This is an actual problem Walt Disney noticed and is the reason why Disney World is located in an area so far away from the city.
2. Disney World Resort
Pros
- Contains four different theme parks as well as two water parks and a downtown district. This resort is so large with so much things to do that you’ll never run out of things to do when you visit, unless you plan to stay a fortnight to do everything and give it justice.
- The size of Disneyworld is pretty much its own county, and with that, you actually feel like you’ve entered a difference universe.
- World of Pandora opened at Animal Kingdom
- All rides here are better than their counterparts in LA besides Pirates of the Caribbean
Cons
- With so many things to do here, plus Universal Studios being only a click away, hard to prioritise what to do if you have limited time
- Depending on when you go, the weather could affect your holiday. The weather can get really hot, it could rain all of a sudden and the worst case scenario is hurricane alert being sounded which would ruin all your travel plans.
- A little nitpick, but I saw a lot of people are in the motor wheelies and I felt some of them didn’t really need it, because I saw at least two of them walk, and only used to motor wheelies to cut in line
1. Tokyo Disney Resort
Pros
- Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo Disneysea are miles ahead of the other parks in terms of craftsmanship and showmanship
- Japanese people in general are the nicest people you could ever meet in the world. Disney cast members are the nicest employees in the world. Japanese people working as cast members equals to nicest people in the entire universe.
- The imagineers who built the parks have no concept of what a budget plan is, and they spared no expense at the park. Even the gardens and shrubbery is amazing
- The only park that does an electric light parade, and is worth getting a good spot on the parade line to watch
- Easy to get to and from Tokyo station
- A lot of the rides here can be found at other parks, but have been plussed up to a ridiculous degree it makes the original ride look lame. Case in point, compare the exterior of Toy Story Mania at any of the other parks to the version in DisneySea, and you get my point.
Cons
- Way too many people at both parks. It doesn’t matter what day of the week or time of the year, there just seems to always be lines of people at any ride or show
- Lines can be long, especially in the country where waiting in lines is a social activity
- The parks have a lottery system to gain access to shows, and although it is fair, but unless you are really lucky, your happiness at the park is determined if you can get into the shows like Big Band Beat, which are amazing, but most likely you’ll miss out watching amazing shows like that
Having written all that, I still love each Disney park in its own way, and you should visit each park