Our Favorite and Least Favorite Experiences at Disneyland Park

Despite its somewhat small size, Disneyland Park is chock full of rides, attractions, restaurants, and opportunities to make life-long memories.

From old-school rides like Pinocchio’s Daring Journey to newer favorites like Indiana Jones Adventure, there is so much to experience in The Happiest Place on Earth.

We’re chatting about a few of our favorite and least favorite experiences at Disneyland!

Our Favorite Experiences at Disneyland

Space Mountain

For anyone who’s visited both Disneyland and Walt Disney World in recent years, it’s likely no surprise that Space Mountain is one of our favorite attractions in Disneyland.

While Disney World’s can feel downright jerky at times, Disneyland’s version is smoother, featuring newer track and sound systems.

It’s especially cool when the ride turns into Hyperspace Mountain, which is inspired by Star Wars, of course. While we still have a soft spot for Disney World’s Space Mountain, we LOVE the ride in Disneyland.

Pirates of the Caribbean

Pirates of the Caribbean is another ride we truly enjoy at Walt Disney World, but we love it even more at Disneyland.

In the simplest terms, the OG Pirates of the Caribbean attraction is awesome because it’s a whopping 15 and a half minutes long. The ride begins near Blue Bayou restaurant in New Orleans Square and takes riders on an epic, swashbuckling journey through Jack Sparrow’s adventures.

This ride is an example of classic Disney Imagineering (with some modern additions) at its best, and we absolutely love it.

Stage Door Cafe

Over in Frontierland, you’ll find Stage Door Cafe, which has a fairly small menu featuring fish and chips, chicken tenders, and sandwiches. You’ll also find some delicious funnel cakes and hand-dipped corn dogs here!

While you may be planning to visit Little Red Wagon to get your corn dog fix, Stage Door Cafe typically has shorter lines. Plus, who could say no to a fresh, crispy funnel cake after that savory dog?

Don’t forget to use Mobile Order during your visit to Stage Door Cafe to save even more time!

Character Interactions

We decided to include one less concrete experience on our list of favorites — character interactions.

At Disneyland, characters tend to roam around quite a bit more than they do at Disney World. These interactions are much more relaxed, and you can potentially see a variety of characters at any time. There’s something more exciting about the spontaneous character run-in than the static ones.

Our Least Favorite Experiences in Disneyland

The Matterhorn

We personally are not big fans of The Matterhorn, which is located between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. We love the look of this attraction, but it is SUPER jerky and a bit uncomfortable.

Though they’re different attractions, we find ourselves comparing The Matterhorn to Animal Kingdom’s Expedition Everest, which is smoother but also thrilling.

The Matterhorn is still a Disneyland Park staple and is in no way a bad attraction, but we just don’t love it as much as some of the other rides at Disneyland.

Splash Mountain

Pirates of the Caribbean is to Disney World what Splash Mountain is to Disneyland — great, but not AS great as its counterpart.

Disneyland’s version of Splash Mountain is about three-and-a-half minutes shorter than Magic Kingdom’s, and it only features three drops as opposed to five. We also prefer the side by side seating in Magic Kingdom’s version as well.