Fun Fact: Comparing the Size of Disney's Theme Parks


Yesterday evening we asked this question to all our Facebook followers:

"TRIVIA QUESTION: Can you list all the Disney Theme Parks in the world (taken individually), from the SMALLEST to the BIGGEST in size? Let's see who gets this right!"

Sounds interesting, doesn't it? If you think you know the answer, feel free to share it in the comments section of this post. Keep on reading to find out the right answer (with official figures released by the Walt Disney Co.):
  1. The SMALLEST Disney theme park in the world is Disney California Adventure - 55 acres (not counting the Cars Land expansion, which is not open at this time);
  2. Hong Kong Disneyland - approximately 60 acres (55 not counting the new Toy Story PlayLand);
  3. Walt Disney Studios Paris - 62 acres;
  4. Disneyland Park (California) - 85 acres;
  5. Tokyo DisneySea - 122 acres;
  6. Tokyo Disneyland - 126 acres, and Disneyland Paris - 126 acres;
  7. Magic Kingdom - 142 acres;
  8. Disney’s Hollywood Studios - 154 acres;
  9. Epcot - 300 acres;
  10. The BIGGEST Disney theme park in the world is Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park- 500 acres.
Now, let's analyze these very interesting figures:
  • The Walt Disney World Resort contains the four biggest Disney Parks ever built (Shanghai Disneyland's acreage is still unknown at this time, as the park is still under construction);
  • The biggest Disney theme park in the world (Disney's Animal Kingdom) is also the one with the least amount of rides (not counting animal exhibits or shows);
  • The two smallest Disney theme parks in the world (Disney California Adventure and Hong Kong Disneyland) are currently the ones receiving the most attention;
  • Tokyo Disneyland and Disneyland Park Paris have almost exactly the same acreage;
  • Disney's Hollywood Studios is 12 acres bigger than the Magic Kingdom. Surprising, huh?
  • The Magic Kingdom in Florida is 57 acres bigger than the original Disneyland Park in California;
  • Tokyo Disney Sea is exactly in the middle of the list, making it the "average" Disney park (and that's very far from being true in real life, of course!);
  • There's a 158 acres difference between the size of the Magic Kingdom and Epcot.
  • Disney California Adventure, Hong Kong Disneyland, Walt Disney Studios Paris, Disneyland Park, and Tokyo DisneySea would ALL fit inside Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park at the same time!
Something to think about, isn't it? Thanks to all who guessed (JiffyPop and Steve2wdw were close)!

All these figures were taken from the official Walt Disney Company 2010 Fact Book.

21 comments:

  1. well for sure Animal Kingdom is the biggest followed by epcot and tokyo disney sea, thats easy, after that it gets a bit harder. ide say disney paris then disneys hollywood studios but their both about the same size. Tokyo disneyland i know for a fact as the biggest disneyland so that comes next followed by Magic Kingdom and Disneyland. now it gets really tricky because of expansions. I cant really predict how big the expansions would make each park though so im going to say as of right now its disney studios paris, California adventure and the smallest is Hong Kong.

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  2. Here's my guess from smallest to largest;
    DCA
    WDSP
    HKDL
    DL
    DHS
    TDS
    MK
    TDL
    DLP
    EPCOT
    DAK

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  3. Smallest to largest:
    Hong Kong Disneyland
    Disney California Adventure Park
    Walt Disney Studios Paris
    Disneyland
    Magic Kingdom
    Tokyo Disneyland
    Disney's Hollywood Studios
    Disneyland Park Paris
    Tokyo DisneySea
    Epcot
    Disney's Animal Kingdom

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  4. Assuming DCA's and HKD's expansions are complete, I think JiffyPop has it right.

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  5. I think jiffypop is right, but DHS is smaller than MK I believe

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  6. WOW, Ok

    Walt Disney Studios
    Hollywood Studios
    Hong Kong Disneyland
    California Adventure
    Disneyland Park Anaheim
    Magic Kingdom
    Tokyo Disney Sea
    Disneyland Park Paris
    Tokyo Disneyland
    Epcot
    Animal Kingdom

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  7. And for me :

    Walt Disney Studios
    Hollywood Studios
    Hong-Kong Disneyland
    Disneyland Park (Anaheim)
    California Adventure
    Magic Kingdom
    Tokyo Disney Sea
    Tokyo Disneyland
    Disneyland Park (Paris)
    Epcot
    Animal Kingdom

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  8. I'm sorry, but these figures are not all correct. I don't know who put together this alleged "fact" book regardless if it came from the company or not, but the facts are that the MK is 105 acres, Disneyland is 95 acres and DCA is 60 acres (5 acres of new addition between Flik's Fun Faire and Tower of Terror since 2001). DCAwill jump to 72 acres as of June. Also, the Hollywood Studios figures include all of the backstage "working studio" sedition, which is deceiving. Truly the Hollywood Studios guest area is closer to 60-70 acres.

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  9. @Last Anonymous: These figures are OFFICIAL. The only one that is not confirmed is Hong Kong Disneyland's, hence the "approximation" tag.

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  10. the smallest park in WDW has the most rides, theres something wrong here

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  11. Does the Magic Kingdom one count the new Fantasyland? Because last i read was that Disneyland Paris was the largest Park based on the original in California

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  12. I'm sorry, but there's no way these are right. Where do you get access to the "official" fact book? The acerage of DCA at opening was 55. It's been expanded to include Tower of Terror and a Bugs Land. Magic Kingdom is around 107(not exact, but certainly not 142). The fantasyland expansion may change it some, but I doubt it. I'm pretty sure Disneyland Paris, DHS, and Tokyo Disney Sea are off. The first two being off lead me to believe that this "OFFICIAL" source is wrong. If you can provide a link to it that would be greatly appreciated. I enjoy you updates on Orlando very much.

    Dave

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  13. Of course, David! Here's the link: http://a.media.global.go.com/investorrelations/2010Factbook_FINAL.pdf (you will find those figures on page 10, except Hong Kong Disneyland's, as it just gives the acreage of the entire resort).

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  14. I got to what I think your link was supposed to lead to(I couldn't get it to work in the URL, so to find it, try to search the link via Bing). That's very interesting and I stand corrected on Magic Kingdom. I searched more sites and learned that it opened with 107 acres, but considering how the park is, i can't tell what that included. Many reputable sites still use that figure today. Here's what I think about the two figures: 107 is the original used space not including the then open patches(Space mountain, Thunder Mt, the still open space between fantasyland and the train tracks, and more). The 142 probably all of the space set aside for both park expansion(future and past) and used space. As for DCA, IF the report is correct, then the 55 acres the park opened as must have included future expansion space of Tower and Bugs land. Disney does lie or get things mixed up sometimes, but I don't think this is something they would do that with. I'm still skeptical of it, but everything if relative to what you include. Thanks for the link!

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  15. No worries, Dave! Sorry about the fact that the link didn't work, but it came out different once I posted the comment! I thought it was a problem only on my computer. Sorry again!

    Thank you for your input in the subject, by the way. As I said, I just reported what I read on their official fact book! :-)

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  16. The information is still incorrect regardless of your source. I saw your source location and I know for a fact how they pull their information. It includes old data and in some cases the back-of-house facilities acreage is included with the park acreage. When you include the north service area at WDW that does push the Magic Kingdom up to that 147 figure when in fact the true MK park acreage is indeed 105. Same for the Hollywood Studios. DCA has never been updated from its original opening date figure after the park expended with Flik's Fun Faire and ToT. And Disneyland's figure has been incorrect for decades. The actual number is 95 acres.

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  17. Does anyone know the largest Theme Park in the world, by area?
    AND The tallest ride?

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  18. @OTPN administrator why not changing the actual size of the parks right now today including the DCA Expansion, HKDL Expansion

    1. The SMALLEST Disney theme park in the world is
    Hong Kong Disneyland - approximately 68 acres (counting the new Toy Story PlayLand, Grizzly Gulch and Mystic Point);
    2. Walt Disney Studios Paris - 62 acres;
    3. Disney California Adventure - 72 acres (counting the Cars Land expansion, which is opened on June 2012);
    4. Disneyland Park (California) - 85 acres;
    5. Magic Kingdom - 105 acres;
    6. Tokyo DisneySea - 122 acres;
    7. Tokyo Disneyland - 126 acres, and Disneyland Paris - 126 acres;
    8. Magic Kingdom - 142 acres;
    9. Disney’s Hollywood Studios - 154 acres;
    10.Epcot - 300 acres;
    11.The BIGGEST Disney theme park in the world is Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park- 500 acres.

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    Replies
    1. Alton towers in the uk is >500acres

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  19. Do the sizes include parking lot? The 154 acres for Hollywood studios seems quite large compared to the 85 acres given for Disneyland. Also the 142 acres for Magic Kingdom (in Disney World) seems quite large compared to the 85 Acres given for Disneyland. I have walked through all of these parks more times than I care to admit; the Florida parks do not seem to be nearly twice the size of the California parks.

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  20. Any size give in the 2010 Disney report, is without clear definition of what's included and what not.
    (1)
    What 'seems' to be clear about the table is through the title "Theme park opening dates" > so, area given at opening date, not actualised in any of the cases. Means, some are actually larger.
    (2)
    The last figure is the only one to have a note, on HKD ("total property", so saying nothing about the DL park itself)
    The figures could be, the one loose from the other : be the visitable area, or the visitable area + backstage included, and... counted with or without the area used for entry and transportation hub in front of the parks. As zero information is given, we can oly guess.
    (3)
    I found from several sources, for instance, a remarkabe precise acreage of 106.3 acre ... for MK. SOME source suggests, that's the visitable enclosed area. So, then, MK backstage would be 142-106.3=35.7 acre ....
    (4)
    And then, what is the truth with the other parks ?
    SO, it's not because the source is official, that they provide numbers that are usefull for real comparison.
    (5)
    Just to compare to one of the old "real"(*) theme parks in Europe: Efteling. (3 years older then DL in Anaheim)
    There the actual size is:
    72 ha (177.5 acre) total park area including backstage, and split: 65 ha (160 acre) visitable, 7 ha (17.5 acre) backstage.
    (In other words, Efteling is bigger then all of the Disneyland/Magic Kingdom lookalikes ... there was a question from someone about the size of other theme parks in the world).
    Total Efteling resort property, accounts for 276.1 ha (682 acre), which includes hotel zonings, golf resort, parkings, green areas, and theme park expansion area wich will be further activated in phases > expected in 2020, 2022. We expect to see the visitable area of the theme park itself, grow towards 85 ha (210 acre) with additional backstage as well.

    CHEERS

    (*) With "real" theme park, I mean : fully intricately themed storytelling park, with animation, animatronics, dark rides etc etc etc)

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