Ready for another East Coast/West Coast feud?

How about if we do this one Disney style?

Disney fans in Southern California could be forgiven for feeling that their home park, Disneyland, is inferior to the East Coast’s Walt Disney World. Orlando’s Magic Kingdom holds the attendance record as the world’s most-visited theme park, with Anaheim’s Disneyland left in second place. And the Magic Kingdom in Florida has got that ridiculously photogenic 189-foot-tall Cinderella Castle, dwarfing Disneyland’s relatively frumpy 77-foot-tall Sleeping Beauty Castle.

But when it comes to fixing up classic attractions, Disneyland beats its upstart younger sibling, and I’ll show you why.

Disneyland’s Big Thunder Mountain Railroad reopens Monday after a 14-month refurbishment. Visitors will find a new, smoother track, a restored town of Rainbow Ridge, and an “explosive” new scene inside the mountain. They’ll also find the latest example of Disneyland showing up Disney World in the restoration game.

Why does Disneyland do a better job of fixing up its rides and shows? The short answer is: Disneyland takes more time to do it. When Disney closed Thunder Mountain in Orlando in 2012, the park took just five months to reopen the ride – nine months less than Disney spent fixing Thunder in Anaheim.

With locals making up so much of the audience in Southern California, Disneyland can afford to take attractions offline longer than Walt Disney World, where almost all visitors come from outside Central Florida, and where have come to Disney World from outside the United States.

It’s no big deal for a Southern Californian to come back to Disneyland in a few months when a classic attraction reopens. For visitors flying in from Brazil or the United Kingdom, if a classic ride isn’t open when they visit Disney World, those visitors likely won’t get another chance to experience it. That encourages Disney World to get its big-name attractions open for the high seasons in summer and around the Christmas holidays, preventing the year-plus-long refurbishments Disneyland has done.

But there’s one more thing, as the late Disney Legend Steve Jobs would say. Where do all the Disney corporate executives live? Hint: not Orlando. Let’s not forget that.

Let the battle begin:

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Last refurbishment at Disneyland: Jan. 7, 2013-March 17, 2014 Last refurbishment at Walt Disney World: Jan. 9-May 27, 2012 So what does nine extra months of work time get Disney fans? They’ll find a fresh new roller coaster track, plus a bunch of new special effects in the old “earthquake” scene near the end of the ride. Remember when the rocks would shake as your train crawled up the third lift in the ride? Those rocks stopped shaking years ago after an accident at the Disneyland Paris Thunder when the rocks actually did dropped on top of some riders. The rocks still don’t shake inside Florida’s refurbished Thunder Mountain. But Disneyland visitors will see a completely different scene: in their place The mine shaft now is lined with fuse wires and abundant cases of TNT, ready to blow in a cartoon-like “explosion” that will push your mine train out of the mountain. Instead of getting a new ride scene, Disney World visitors got an “interactive” queue out of their Thunder’s most recent refurbishment. Disney World has been adding small visitor-triggered animation elements to entertain visitors in its waiting areas at the same time it’s also been spending millions of dollars to develop a “Fastpass+” ride reservation system that allows visitors to skip those waiting areas. Which is better? The win goes to Disneyland here. Space Mountain Last major refurbishment at Disneyland: April 10, 2003-July 15, 2005 Last major refurbishment at Walt Disney World: April 19, 2009-Nov. 22, 2009 A year-plus roller coaster refurbishment is nothing new for Disneyland fans. A decade ago, Disneyland took down Space Mountain for more than two years to rebuild the ride’s track. Disney laid a deeper foundation for the new ride track, which has helped Space Mountain maintain a smooth ride even nearly 10 years later. Disneyland also got new ride vehicles during the 2005 refurbishment, which not only put less strain on the track, but also provided better-quality on-ride sound without the frequent sound malfunctions that plagued the ride after installation of its on-board audio in 1996. The 2005 refurbishment also replaced the Dick Dale surf music with a more thematically appropriate soundtrack composed by Michael Giacchino, who went on to score J.J. Abrams’ “Star Trek” films. The last big refurbishment at Disney World’s Space Mountain lasted just seven months, though it did take Space Mountain offline for the popular summer season. Florida hasn’t had the complete top-to-bottom all-at-once track rebuild that Disneyland got, but the park gradually has upgraded the ride system over the years, including introducing the introduction of new ride vehicles in the 2009 refurbishments. Compared with Disneyland’s Space Mountain rockets, the Disney World vehicles are plush, with comfy, upholstered seats that feel more like living room recliners than spacecraft seats. But there’s no in-seat audio, and Disney World’s old coaster track can feel like riding a jackhammer. Which is better? Again, Disneyland gets the win. Matterhorn Bobsleds vs. Expedition Everest Last refurbishment at Disneyland: Jan. 9, 2012-June 15, 2012 Disneyland’s original roller coaster looks great following its latest refurbishment. But fans can’t stop complaining about the ride’s new “sleds.” No longer do you have to wrap your legs around the person in front of you (a big, big plus for generations of teens visiting Disneyland on a date). Now, everyone gets his or her own seat. But The downside: Unless you’ve got the flexibility of a winter Olympian, the short seat length might leave you feeling like you’ve been thrown down the side of a mountain in a tuna can. But, hey, at least Disneyland has a Matterhorn Mountain, which doesn’t exist at Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. Disney World does, however, have a snowy, Yeti-haunted mountain roller coaster in Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park. But the animatronic Yeti that used to swing his massive arm at passengers visitors hasn’t moved in years, and Disney has not yet committed the time or money to fixing it. Which is better? So, cramped seats or a broken Yeti? This one’s a draw, where neither park wins. Fantasmic! Let’s look beyond Disney’s “mountains” for a few more examples. Disneyland’s Fantasmic! has been entertaining visitors for more than 20 years. With the show often dark during off-season months, when the park closes in the early evening, Disneyland has used the downtimes to add several upgrades to the show over the years, most notably the addition of high-definition projectors in 2008, a massive new Maleficent dragon in 2009, and World of Color-like fountains this year. At Disney World, Fantasmic! plays at the Disney’s Hollywood Studios park, where Disney built an all-new outdoor theater for the show’s debut 1998. The Disney World version lacks many of Disneyland’s recent enhancements, including the new Maleficent dragon. Florida also doesn’t have the Mark Twain riverboat for its finale, using instead a two-level barge that looks about as much like the Twain as a high school homecoming float looks like a Rose Parade winner. Which is better? Speaking of winners, it’s Disneyland, again. Haunted Mansion The Haunted Mansions in Anaheim and Orlando have welcomed many changes over the years, including a floating crystal ball for Madame Leota and a new attic scene featuring a “Black Widow” bride whose husbands just happen to keep dying for some reason. Hmmm…. (Disneyland got those changes in 2005; Disney World in 2007.) Since 2001, Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion has gone down for refurbishment at least twice every year, as Disney switches to the annual “Nightmare Before Christmas”-inspired “Haunted Mansion Holiday” overlay and back again. Disney World’s Haunted Mansion stays with its original decor and narration year-round, however, so refurbishments there focus exclusively on maintenance and enhancements. That has given Disney World’s Haunted Mansion visitors several bonuses the Disneyland original lacks, including an M.C. Escher-like staircase scene at the beginning of the ride and an enhanced, talking Hitchhiking Ghost at the end, with new computer animation that allows the ghosts to interact with riders. Which is better? Give this one to the East Coast: Disney World wins. Major expansions These are hardly the only attraction refurbishments that Disney has made over the years. Disney has added characters from the “Pirates of the Caribbean” movies to the rides on both coasts, but the changes haven’t diminished the Disneyland original’s commanding lead over the abridged Florida copy. The Star Tours rides on both coasts were updated to Star Tours: The Adventures Continue, in 2011, but the attraction remains the same in both locations. The Disney World version at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, however, offers a much more impressive queue, with the Empire’s AT-AT walkers attacking an Endor-themed movie set. Let’s close with a look at the most recent major expansions at each resort. In 2012, Southern California fans got Cars Land, a richly detailed new land in the Disney California Adventure park based on the Disney/Pixar franchise. Highlights include the E-ticket, high-speed Radiator Springs Racers ride, with two smaller rides and a popular new restaurant also included. At Disney World, the Magic Kingdom is getting an expanded “New Fantasyland.&rdquo It officially opened in 2012, but won’t be complete until the Snow White-themed Seven Dwarfs Mine Train family roller coaster opens this spring. The other additions included a second Dumbo carousel, a “Beauty and the Beast”-themed restaurant and character encounter, and the same Little Mermaid ride that debuted at California Adventure in 2011. Which is better? No one in the Disney-fan community online seems to believe that the Seven Dwarfs ride will match the wildly popular Radiator Springs Racers, so let’s we’re going to defend our home turf and give this one, again, to the Disneyland Resort — the happiest place to be a Disney fan.

Robert Niles is the founder and editor of ThemeParkInsider.com. A Los Angeles native, Robert worked as a cast member at Walt Disney World in Florida before beginning a career in journalism. He’s worked for the Los Angeles Times, [Denver] Rocky Mountain News, and Omaha World-Herald in addition to writing freelance articles and appearing as a guest on many television and radio shows.

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