The food

Image: frankfranc, Flickr (license)

Now, yes, there’s a caveat here — Los Angeles is one of the great food cities of the world. If you’re willing to venture beyond the Anaheim pavement, you’ll find some of the best dishes you’re likely to ever eat.

But, simply comparing one stretch of property to another, the sheer amount of world class options available at Walt Disney World towers over the collection of fine dining options at Disneyland.

Jiko, at the Animal Kingdom Lodge, is a restaurant that would be a destination location in any city in the country. California Grill, located high atop the Contemporary Resort, has astonishing views of the Magic Kingdom and incredible cuisine to match. The Boathouse and Morimoto elevate Disney Springs to something much more impressive than your local mall.

And that’s just a small selection of restaurants available at the resorts and Disney Springs. There are countless more than appeal to every appetite.

Plus, if you include the parks in this conversation, there are few places on earth as thrilling for foodies as the World Showcase at Epcot, particularly during the Food and Wine Festival.

If you’re a foodie looking for a vacation destination that will keep your palate busy, Walt Disney World is simply in another class beyond Disneyland.

The bubble

Image: chad_sparkes, Flickr (license)

But if you take a step back and ask yourself why it is you actually choose to go on a vacation, you’ll likely realize that all vacations ultimately attempt to provide the same thing: escapism.

If you spend all day in an office, or if you’re in school, or if you stay at home, or if you work a blue collar job, you likely spend all year waiting for the precious days that belong to you — days where you feel like you truly own your own time. Even more importantly, vacations can take you away from the problems of the real world — substituting in difficult questions like, “Which Fastpass should I get?” or “Should I really get a second Mickey bar?”

The goal of the Disney Parks is to create a bubble of protection around you, keeping all the stresses of real life far away. And while Disneyland accomplishes this well with great theming and friendly cast members, Walt Disney World takes things to an entirely different level.

From the time you step off the plane or out of the car until the time you leave the fantastic front gate of the Walt Disney World property, you can give yourself over to this place to provide you with joy and relaxation unlike any other vacation destination. If you stay on property, you can take Disney buses and watch Disney movies. You can eat Mickey Mouse waffles and hit your golf ball into a Mickey Mouse-shaped bunker. You can feel totally detached from the real world, and housed within the Disney bubble.

Disneyland is amazing, but it doesn’t separate you from the real world. It feels like a particularly magical corner of the real world, rather than an entirely different place. Isn’t that what you want from a vacation — to be taken away to somewhere completely without care?

If it is, Walt Disney World is unbeatable for you.