It’s the smallest and the one I’m probably least likely to get a chance to visit again. Definitely gets lots of points for its World of Frozen land.

No love for Hong Kong Disneyland? I mean they are all top notch. If you’ve never been to a Disney Resort, you may not know the score. Imagine the most meticulous attention to detail you’ve ever encountered. Imagine the best fireworks show you’ve ever seen - but it happens every night. Imagine the best parade… Imagine turning a corner and seeing the best day of some kid’s life unfolding before you. That’s the vibe. Now imagine there are six of these magical places dotted around the globe and someone decided to rank them. One of them would have to be at the bottom.

Don’t get me wrong, I love it here - you can drink champagne on Main Street. The food is fantastic - and the theming is outstanding (There’s an anamatronic dragon under the castle!).

The Disneyland Paris Hotel is a 5-Star pink princess fantasy with a Clarins Spa on prem. I think two or three years from now, when they’ve built the new World of Frozen and extended the about-to-be-rebranded Studio Park, this one is going to be higher on the list. And, y’know, it’s an hour from Paris… arguably one of the most ridiculously beautiful cities in the world where good food and actual castles abound. It’s not like you’re in the middle of Florida and suddenly there’s a Michelin Star restaurant where there used to be a swamp…

DLP does the things the French already know how to do really well! And that’s not a given; this *is a theme park! There’s just a lot of room for improvement with the rides. You don’t get a big finale at the end of Phantom Manor, for example - no grim grinning ghosts com[ing] out to socialize…

Shanghai only has one park but it is HUGE. It’s hard to fully describe the scale compared to, say, Paris or even the O.G. in Anaheim. It also has the best Pirates of the Caribbean ride in any of the parks - and one of the best dark rides I’ve ever been on. Period. The Zootopia land is very cute, too, and makes a nice change from seeing the same Toy Story Land over and over…

Shanghai is maybe the opposite of Disneyland Paris in that the food was pretty meh but the rides were amazing!

It’s important to respect cultural differences - there’s no Haunted Mansion here because you wouldn’t represent ghosts like that in China! - but this *is a theme park and the theme is “(Innocuous) American Stuff.” Shanghai does a great job of trying to contextualize what is essentially a very specific version of America that only ever existed in the minds of two dudes from Missouri. That’s difficult to pull off (even in modern day America, much less Mainland China), so rather than do “Main Street USA” as the other parks do, Shanghai opts to represent different aspects of “Americana” with a hodgepodge of classic tropes - a wild west saloon. a 1940s movie theater and so on - mixed in with the recognizable “lands” all with a Chinese-ish overlay. It works-ish. And, this is not a “Disney” owned park so honestly you do you, Shanghai Disney Resort - especially if it results in things like Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure!

Some say this park has the best versions of all the rides and I’d say that’s maybe true if it’s a toss-up between WDW and DL. Disneyland is the go-to when I’m out visiting family in LA so this one is a two-way tie for 3rd and 2nd place based on a [space/big thunder] mountain of priceless memories with the people I love most in this world, but [ducks] the castle is sooooo dinky!

Disneyland gets major points for having a <cough> fully operational Galaxy’s Edge not to mention the Sanfransokyo area (giving Big Hero 6 some love!) and, really, the whole California Adventure of it all.

Hot take: Disneyland has the best churros!

Well, I mean. It’s amazing, but it’s pretty far from my house. It’s hard to put into words what it’s like but it’s almost overwhelming. We’ve been twice now. The first time we stupidly thought we could do it all in a day and barely scratched the surface. The second time, we did a Vacation Package plus 2 additional days and we barely scratched the surface.

Hot take: I don’t get Duffy & Friends. I mean I know what it is and I understand it and everything. It just doesn’t resonate at all. More merch for everyone else, then!

HOW could it not be? The first, the last, the everything. Sometimes I think, wouldn’t it be great to escape all the madness and hole up in a delux studio at BLT looking out over Bay Lake (the refurbs look great!)? [I am going to attempt to do this every so often, if I can swing it.]

Where was I? Right. WDW has 4 Parks, 2 water parks, 25 official Disney resorts (plus 7 more), a shopping district, plus a whole bunch of other stuff that’s not for me - leaving more for everyone else! - like golf courses and camp grounds. It’s the size of San Francisco - it truly is A World. I’ve done the Keys to the Kingdom tour, I’ve eaten lunch in Cinderella’s Castle, I’ve gone to the Halloween party in a Haunted Mansion themed dress, I’ve been there during a hurricane, I’ve built my own droid, I’ve gotten afternoon drunk (many times), and I’ve said “Laugh it up, Fuzzball” to Chewbacca while “Disney bounding” as Han Solo.

My preferred dole whip is a strawberry dole whip diet coke float!

Remember the EPCOT neon rainbow light tunnel? Now THAT was The Future!