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Which Disney Resort is best - Disneyland Paris or Walt Disney World Florida? 2021 guide

The short answer: Walt Disney World in Florida is much bigger and gets better reviews than Disneyland Paris. However, Disneyland Paris is much easier to reach from the UK. During August, Disneyland Paris is considerably cheaper and is a nicer temperature. During Spring and Autumn, Walt Disney World is a reasonable temperature and not much more expensive than Disneyland Paris in our price comparison.
The long answer: See below for our comparison of prices, customer reviews, attractions and travel times to Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World in Florida.

How many Disney resorts are there?

There are 6 Disney resorts around the world, but most people in the UK choose between these two: If you’ve spent hours online and you’re feeling confused, it’s because both these incorporates more than one theme park:
  • Disneyland Paris includes Disneyland Park and Walt Disney Studios Park.
  • Walt Disney World in Florida includes Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park plus two water parks called Disney’s Blizzard Beach and Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon.

For simplicity, most visitors from the UK buy a ticket which means they can hop between the different parks over several days.

We’ve decided to just compare Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The other Disney Resort which you are probably familiar with is Disneyland in Anaheim, California. This is the original Disney Resort, but it's further from the UK than Walt Disney World in Florida. It's also not as big, whereas Walt Disney World is considered Disney's 'flagship' resort and is the one visited by most UK holidaymakers.

There are also other Disney resorts in Tokyo, Hong Kong and China but they don't get as many UK visitors so we won't include them in our comparison.

Which Disney resort gets the best reviews?

  • ​Disneyland Paris scores an average of 4/5 from tens of thousands of TripAdvisor reviewers or 4.5/5 from Google reviewers. 
  • Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida scores an average of 4.5/5 from TripAdvisor or 4.7/5 from Google reviewers

You can start looking at individual scores for each theme park, but I find it more helpful to look at the overall score as you’re likely to visit all of them if you're visiting for a week or two from the UK.

So, overall, the Disney resorts in Florida gets better customer reviews than Disneyland Paris. Of course, there are other factors to consider...
Disneyland Park entrance
Disneyland Park is one of the theme parks which make up Disneyland Paris

Which Disney resort is easiest to reach from the UK?

Quite obviously, Disneyland Paris is the easiest to reach from the UK, but how much difference is there?
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  • Disneyland Paris is a flight of about 1 hour from London (90 minutes from Manchester, 2 hours from Glasgow), plus a train of about 1 hour. Or you can take your car in the Eurotunnel from Folkestone for about 35 minutes and then a drive of 3 hours. If you don’t take the car, you can get from London to Disneyland Paris in about 3 hours on the Eurostar.
  • Walt Disney World is on the USA’s East Coast, so it’s a flight of about 9 or 10 hours from London plus connections if you fly direct. If you don't get a direct flight then it's about 15 hours. Flying direct is generally a lot more expensive (about £100 - £200 extra per person in our comparison).
Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse at Walt Disney World
There's a good chance you'll see these guys, whichever Disney resort you choose

Which is the cheapest Disney resort - Paris or Florida?

Now here’s where it gets interesting…

There are many different ways to compare prices with hundreds of options of accommodation, meals and extras. But let’s compare the cost of typical peak time and off-peak family holidays. 

Peak time: We looked at the cost of a week’s holiday for a family of four in August 2021 with two adults and two primary school aged children. We looked for the cheapest Disney resort accommodation with food included and entry to the theme parks. We also included basic travel costs (so, economy flights for example).

  • Disneyland Paris £3381 for 7 nights in Disney’s Hotel Santa Fe, including flights and entry to both Disneyland Paris parks for 8 days. 
  • Walt Disney World, Florida £5131 for 7 nights at Disney's All Star Resort. Includes indirect economy flights from London and entry to all parks.​
Parade at Disneyland Paris
Evening parades are a big part of the appeal of Disney's resorts
Off peak: same type of holiday as above, but we searched for mid September 2019 rather than mid August.
  • Disneyland Paris £3337 for 7 nights at Disney's Hotel Santa Fe including entry to both Disneyland Paris parks for 8 days and flights.
  • Walt Disney World, Florida £4320 for 7 nights at Disney's All Star Resort. Includes indirect flights from London. Includes entry to all parks.​

So, Walt Disney World in Florida is generally the more expensive but it's interesting that the ​price for Disneyland Paris was the same in August and September whereas Walt Disney Walt was about £800 cheaper in September than it was in August (partly because of the cost of the flights).

How big is Disneyland Paris compared to Disney World Florida?

There's no doubt that Walt Disney World in Florida is the larger resort. It has four theme parks and two water parks, compared to two theme parks at Disneyland Paris. Walt Disney World in Florida is also frequently described as Disney's 'flagship' holiday resort.

Roughly speaking Walt Disney World in Florida is about five times as large as Disneyland Paris and the Florida resort also has two water parks which aren't included in that figure.

(Figures vary depending on which guide you read. According to Theme Park Tourist, the two Disney theme parks which make up Disneyland Paris total 188 acres. The four theme parks which make up Walt Disney World in Florida total 943 acres. Other websites come up with different numbers. Wikipedia claims that Walt Disney World is 25,000 acres whilst Disneyland Paris is 4800 acres, although I suspect the differences are what you include (i.e. just the theme parks or the whole resort including hotels and undeveloped bits).

But for UK visitors the question is probably whether Disneyland Paris is big enough to provide jam-packed entertainment for the length of their stay. Will you still get the real Disneyland experience if you go for the cheaper and closer option?

How many days is enough to visit Disneyland Paris or Walt Disney World in Florida?

  • ​The official Disneyland Paris website recommends "three full days" is enough to see the resort. They suggest "two days for Disneyland Park and...one day for Walt Disney Studios Park". It does though suggest that you could stay a week if you wanted to see the shows and parades and then spend some time at your hotel pool.
  • I couldn't find an 'official' recommendation for Walt Disney World in Florida but several guides suggest that somewhere around six days is ideal for first time visitors. Also bear in mind that Orlando is home to other world class theme parks such as Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Florida so you could stay for longer.​

Where can I find discounts, deals and offers for Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World in Florida?

Which Disney Resort has the best weather - Disneyland Paris or Walt Disney world Florida?

One factor when choosing between Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World Florida may be the weather at the time of year that you’re looking to travel. 

You won't be shocked to read that the climate at Disneyland Paris is fairly similar to the UK, whilst Florida is a lot warmer
 
  • For UK school summer holidays (July and August) you can expect temperatures of about 20 degrees celsius at Disneyland Paris or about 28 celsius at Walt Disney World in Florida (source: HolidayWeather.com)
  • May, June and September temperatures average about 15 celsius at Disneyland Paris or about 25-27 celsius at Walt Disney World in Florida
  • Easter or October half term at Disneyland Paris averages about 11 degrees Celsius, or about 22-24 at Walt Disney World in Florida
  • Christmas and February half term at Disneyland Paris average about 5-7 degrees, whilst at Walt Disney World in Florida the average is about 16 celsius.
 
My conclusion? In July and August I’d personally pick Disneyland Paris as I wouldn’t fancy walking around all day and queuing for rides in the heat of Florida in July or August.

During May, June and September it’s a question of whether you prefer to be a little too warm or a little chilly. Florida’s a bit hot for my liking but you’ll need a jumper at Disneyland Paris.
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However, during Easter, Christmas and the UK half terms at October and February I’d say Walt Disney World in Florida is much more appealing than Disneyland Paris which is pretty cold (much like winter in the UK). 

When are the busiest and quietest times of the year at Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World Florida?

You could quite easily spend the next six hours looking at graphs with red and green blobs and still not know when the busiest and quietest times are at Disneyland Paris and Walt Disney World in Florida.

There's a lot of data out there, but here's the gist of it:
  • Disneyland Paris - the official guidance is that the quietest times are 'mid-week (Tuesdays to Thursdays) during mid-January through mid-March or mid-April through mid-May'.  Christmas and August seem to be busy, based on the data that I've found. Late October is quite busy whilst September is quite quiet and other months are somewhere in between. 
  • Walt Disney World is very busy over Christmas/New Year and in late November (due to Thanksgiving). It's also busy during most of March, April and June. Meanwhile, January, February, September and October are the quietest months according to most guides I've read. July and August are somewhere in the middle (the heat puts some people off). There are some odd blips due to US public holidays so take a look at MagicGuides which has a useful diagram showing busy and quiet days all year.

You won't be shocked to hear that the quietest times to visit Disneyland and Disney World are also generally the cheapest.

When is the best time to visit Disneyland Paris or Walt Disney World Florida?

So, there are several factors to consider when deciding on the best time to visit, but the main things are the weather, how busy the parks are and whether you want to be there for special events (Christmas, Easter etc).

My personal conclusion:

  • For Walt Disney World - if you're working around UK school holidays then February and October half terms seem like times when the Florida resort is a) not too busy and b) not too hot. If you like the hot weather or want to stay for two weeks (without a telling off from the head teacher) then late August/early September look relatively quiet. If you don't have to worry about school holidays, I'd personally go in mid September when the park is quiet and the weather is not quite as hot as July.​ ​
  • For Disneyland Paris -  if you need to fit in with school holidays I would avoid Christmas and New Year unless you particularly want a Disney Christmas as it's busy and cold.  Easter is a good option if you don't mind it being a little on the cool side. The weather is better in July/August, but you can expect to queue. If you aren't tied to school holidays then June seems like it offers good weather whilst not being so busy.​

Conclusion

If you want to full-fat Disney experience, then Walt Disney World in Florida is certainly your best choice. It's considerably larger than Disneyland Paris and will easily provide enough entertainment for a week of Disney princesses and Mickey Mouse photos to entertain your children (and bore your Facebook friends). It also gets better reviews than Disneyland Paris.

However, there's a lot going for Disneyland Paris if - like me - you don't mind the idea of a Disney related holiday but would rather it doesn't cost more than your last car and doesn't involve a long haul flight with impatient children. The parks are not so huge that you feel you can't see everything, but there is certainly enough for several days entertainment.

Weather and crowd sizes are other factors to consider. Between May and October, Walt Disney World in Florida is very hot (averaging 24-28 celsius) so you may find it hard work spending long days watching parades and queueing for rides. However, from October to March, Disneyland Paris is pretty cold so you may be stood around shivering. 

Other guides from the Holiday Park Guru

Holiday-Park-Guru-Don't-Blame-Us-Disclaimer: All the information on this page is accurate, as far as we know. However, facilities at holiday parks change so please check with the park before booking.