I'd say both are pretty equally stubborn in my experience, and a lot of it boils down to location and habit. I remember years ago on a different forum reading a thread about what people's first Disney park was and whether or not that resort was their favorite. While there were a few outliers, by and large most people who had been to both preferred the one they went to first, and the more they went to that first resort before they went to the second, the more that tended to be true. Heck, even though I'm from the Chicago area my first Disney park experience was Disneyland, and that may well explain my overall preference for that resort over WDW, something that is DEFINITELY atypical for an Illinois resident.
As alluded to above, in my experience, the more people times people have been to their first Disney resort complex (Resort A), the less likely they will be to be receptive to Resort B. Eventually, they will have internalized Resort A so much that A becomes the way everything is supposed to be and B is often just a weird outlier that will
never replace A in their hearts. And the less time they spend at B, and the less feedback they take from B regulars before they go to B, the more this becomes true. I see this all the time from both DLR and WDW fans.
Regional associations play a role too. In IL, if you're going to go on a beach or theme park vacation, many will automatically think of Florida whether they've been or not. It's simply engrained within the populace. By contrast, far fewer people have been to California because of its sheer distance from the Midwest. I'd say few people around here truly understand or appreciate the differences between California and Florida, or those between Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Most people around here, if they even know which resort is which, know that the bigger one is in Florida, and since in the US bigger must mean better, why would one ever go to the one in California? I've been told several times by people who've never been to DLR or haven't been in 20+ years that I'd be disappointed by going to Disneyland over WDW, mostly because "it's smaller." While I can't give firsthand accounts, I've no doubt there are plenty of people who live in areas where the default is DLR who don't understand why anyone would want to go all the way to Florida when DLR is right here and has "Walt's touch" all over it. In general, I've found that people who haven't been to both (and even that's not always a guarantee, as I've read and heard some outlandish claims and takeaways over the years from people who "just got back" from a quick first time trip to the other Disney resort) have no real concept for or appreciation for how the resorts differ beyond their size, but can easily find a myriad of reasons (often well-rehearsed from years of use on boards like these) for why they shouldn't try the other park complex.
I think Disneyland fans are guilty of not approaching WDW on its own terms, and fail to embrace the things that make WDW unique compared to its worldwide counterparts, which to me absolutely includes many of the resorts. Likewise, WDW fans are guilty of dismissing all of DLR because it's "only" two parks with a tiny castle, and often fail to appreciate the little touches that give Disneyland Park in particular so much character.
Personally, I think the aversion to "the other resort" that's so common on both sides of the fence is weird. While I suppose I can understand it if you are within, say, a few hour's drive away from one of them, mostly it just seems like a way to arbitrarly exclude the other park, often for flimsy reasons that, to me, should be easy to see through for those who have actually done and appreciate both. I did both US resorts within a year of each other as a child, and when I discovered that there were more Disney parks in other countres, I made it a goal to visit all of them someday. Sometimes I still am confused by the fact that most of the time I seem to be the exception rather than the rule.
My last trip to DL was five days. I planned to spend time sightseeing LA, but ultimately didn't because I ran out of time just seeing the entire DL resort. And this wasn't even my first trip.
As for most unwilling to try the other US Disney resort: out of snobbishness, easily DL fans, out of laziness/habit, WDW fans.
This is probably the most accurate breakdown of the reasons fans don't go to the other resort.
RE: Disneyland trip length, while some of it will depend on interests, I do think that the DLR parks have more going on than might be immediately obvious to someone looking at the resort from afar after only knowing WDW. While I personally don't
need five full days (and most people probably don't), I do think there's a case to be made for spending five days at DLR, and I inevitably end up buying five day tickets every time I go. Most of the time, it's not running out of things to do before five days is up that becomes the problem for me-it's simply tiredness and fatigue.
Trying to understand how a WDW vacation is somehow more expensive for some of those who live closer to Florida than California… How?
As mentioned by others, generally speaking costs are higher at World, but even airfare in some situations can also be more expensive. Using myself as an example, you would think that, being based out of Chicago, it would be cheaper for me to fly to Orlando than LA because Orlando's closer, and yet that has seldom been the case for me. Maybe that's a weird geographical quirk that isn't replicated in other regions (or perhaps I'm just uniquely bad at searching for Orlando airfare), but Orlando flights have at best been about *equal* to LA flights in price for me and members of my family.
And you will NEVER run out of things to do in Southern California. You will want three days at Disneyland/California Adventure. There is the beaches, Universal Studios, Hollywood, the studio tours (we did Warner Bros.), Knott's Berry Farm and a little further inland there is Magic Mountain. 9 days we spent there and we just simply ran out of time.
Do it.................at least just once!
This too frequently gets overlooked, and there are SO MANY THINGS to do in Southern California, which should be the actual destination people plan for. While you certainly could make a weekend (or longer than weekend) trip to just DLR, and I've certainly done it myself, it's much more rewarding when experienced as part of a trip to SoCal. The diversity of things to do is staggering, and having been there several times now, I'd say at this point that if you can't find something else compelling to do within two hours of Disneyland, you're just flat out not looking. There are beaches, museums, other theme parks, movie studios, hiking trails, national parks, other cities to explore, scenic drives-there's an absolute plethora of other things to do and explore, and I've gotten into a rhythm with my trips out west, which will include Disneyland, Knott's, potentially USH or Magic Mountain, and always a few things that I've never done before. I find it to be a very satisfying, very repeatable trip.
If there's one thing that I can say is exclusively a product of WDW fan thinking, that I've seen from time to time, that has never made sense to me (although perhaps it's lessened to a degree now that taking a day or two away at UO has become more normalized), it's the idea that a vacation is either 100% Disney or 0% Disney with no in between possible. While it's possible to have a great vacation by just doing DLR, it's also true that Disneyland was never designed or intended to be a one-stop shop in the way that WDW has always billed itself. If there's one thing I wish to impress upon people, it's that Orlando is unique among cities/regions with Disney theme parks in that there's really no other reason to go to Orlando if you're not going to parks, but every other city or region with a Disney resort is home to great non-theme park alternatives and experiences. I mean, you wouldn't fly all the way to Paris to just do DLP and leave, right? People would look at you like a crazy person, deservedly so, because you'd be skipping out on a bunch of great experiences in favor of just dropping into a theme park (albeit a very good one) and leave. The same principle is true in California, a place drowning in excellent things to see and do. There are lots of great things to do in SoCal other than going to Disneyland, and so any trip out to DLR should embrace at least some of them.
Lesson: never put off something you want to do because life can change in a heartbeat.
