Disneyland smackdown – California v. Paris v. Hong Kong

Posted by holly on Jul 17, 2009 in Americas, Asia, Blog, BlogSherpa, Europe

Yep, I’m a dork. Let’s just get that out of the way right off the bat. I unabashedly love Disneyland, have been more times than I care to admit - and counting. It’s pure fun. Hell, just hearing the Disney music playing as I wait to enter brings a huge grin to my face. Through my travels I have been lucky enough to visit parks on 3 continents (Disney World in Florida and Tokyo Disneyland are still on my hit list, but I’m sure it won’t be too long before I have them chalked off, too. I’ll keep you posted) and am qualified to compare them head to head in this, my first Disneyland Smackdown.

For the purposes of this smackdown, I’m going to stick with just the “Disneyland” and not include the California Adventure or MGM Studios Paris, as they are each so unique, and would put Hong Kong, a place with only one park, at a disadvantage right off the bat. Also, I’m going to focus more on the differences between them than the similarities. This is because, to have the “Disneyland” title, there has to be a huge amount of similarities to keep the Mousketeers happy. If the formula ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? Every park has a Main Street, Tomorrowland, Fantasyland, etc. and honestly, if you need a bathroom on Main Street, they’re in the same place in all three countries. And so it begins…

The first major difference any guest would notice is the Castle. It’s smack in front of you and will undoubtedly require a photo stop at least once in every visit. In California, the castle was intentionally built smallish and done in pastels as to be friendly and unintimidating to visitors. In Paris, where the guests are going to be accustomed to insanely large and ornate realcastles in their home countries, the castle is much larger, more gothic in it’s architecture, and bright pink. Oh, and it has a giant animatronic dragon beneath it. Hong Kong tried to recreate the cuter California castle, and they did a good job, but it’s small-scale is highlighted by the mountains surrounding the park, making it seem, well, dinky.

The coolest things to compare are the coasters. Big Thunder Mountain in California is big and classic with the focus more on the animatronic goat chewing dynamite and bat-filled mines than the speed or the drops. You just enjoy this ride, it’s not particularly thrilling. Paris once again took this idea and cranked it up to the extreme. Their Big Thunder is hands-down my favorite Disneyland ride in any park, as it takes up the entirety of the island in the middle of the Rivers of the Far West, and the start and end involves a dark, fast tunnel right underneath the water before you pop up on the other side. The “danger” factor is upped, too, as if you speed off the rails, you end up in the water. They have the goat, too. Hong Kong, unfortunately, doesn’t have a Big Thunder yet, but I’m sure one’s in the plans somewhere.

All three parks do have Space Mountains, though. And all three are thrilling, fast and whip you around crazy turns in the dark. For years the California one made me dizzy, as so many of the twists were in the same direction, but about five years ago they overhauled it, introducing new ride cars, a better soundtrack and new track configuration. It made a huge difference in my books, as the dizziness is gone and it’s just a crapload of fun. This is a great ride people who like the coaster experience without giant drops to contend with. Hong Kong’s Space Mountain is a close counterpart here too, and the screamometer level is about equal to California, although this one, most likely due to the fact that it’s technology is only a few years old, feels faster and darker. And then there’s Paris. I went on this ride expecting it to be as simplistic (for lack of a better word) as the other two. In hindsight, the over-the-head locking seatbelt should have tipped me off, but it didn’t. This ride really goes up the screamometer right from the start, where they actually shoot you out of a cannon on the roof, going from zero to feaking fast in seconds. Inside there’s also a full 360 loop and a corkscrew. The intensity caught me so off guard that I bruised both knees bracing them on the back of the seat in front of me! Once I knew what this ride was like, it’s great (still no big drops. I don’t do big drops), but if you’re unprepared, look out :)

It’s a Small World (come on, you knew it was coming) is so synonamous with Disneyland that all three parks feature one. You either love it or hate it, but everyone rides it. Hong Kong was the first to deviate from the Small World mold, mixing animatronic characters from Disney movies (Aladdin riding his carpet in the middle east, Lilo and Stitch surfing in Hawaii, etc) with the ubiquitous singing dolls. As someone raised on IASM(my mobile played the music when I was an infant, no joke) I was worried this would detract from the simple joy of this ride, but it surprised me by being very seamlessly integrated into the classic format. Now it’s kind of a “spot the movie characters” game as you go. Especially great for the little ones. As recently as June 09, California took a page from Hong Kong’s book and debuted their own new IASM, complete with the ”hidden” characters. Paris, as of writing this, was still using the classic format.

Naturally, the language is going to be different from country to country, but the Disney people do a great job of putting signage in multiple languages, and what isn’t translated is accompanied by pictograms to remove any confusion. There is something that makes me giggle uncontrollably at hearing the PeeWee Herman voice of the robot in Star Tours entirely in French, though. The Jungle Cruise in Hong Kong found a simple solution to the language issue by just running boats in Mandarin, Cantonese and English simultaneously. All you have to do is make sure you get into the right line and you’re golden.

Food is an essential part of any theme park experience, and, coming at it with a very westernized palette, I found this aspect a ton of fun overseas. Sure, all three parks have the standards: hot dogs, burgers, fries, Mickey-shaped ice cream bars, etc. but the regional specialties make this interesting. Hong Kong, for example, sells fish balls and Korean squid on a stick at the street carts right along with the hot dogs. The Plaza Inn here sells wonderful Dim Sum meant to be shared in a lantern-lit restaurant. Paris has frog’s legs and sells alcohol pretty much everywhere, so you can wander around with your wine and frog’s legs to your heart’s content.

In conclusion, the castle is bigger and the rides are more intense in Paris; Hong Kong is smaller and newer with more of a focus on regional food and the smaller family-friendly rides; And California is the original, so nothing can compete with that. Plus, due to their age, they have the most rides per square foot. But despite all their differences, Disneyland is still Disneyland, regardless of what country you’re in. If you have kids or just like feeling like one, it will always be worth the price of admission.