I live in So Cal so we could theoretically drive up to Disneyland whenever, so I guess I assumed Magic Kingdom wouldn’t be all that unique or interesting. Instead I suggested going to Epcot, but a friend just told me he was “unimpressed” by Epcot.
So I leave it to you to influence my decision… which (if any) of the parks should I bother to visit?
Thanks in advance 
It really depends on what you’re interested in. There are Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, plus two water parks. Galaxy Edge (the Star Wars area) is in Hollywood Studios if that interests you.
There’s also Universal Studios with the Wizarding World of Harry Potter and more fun roller coaster style rides. What interests you?
Epcot is pretty dated IMHO. Universal is better for adults (again IMHO) if it’s an option for you.
Thank you for the comments so far – I should note that there is a work event at Universal Studios planned for earlier in the week so I will already have been there.
I don’t like rides (my husband doesn’t share my opinion). I guess maybe a good question is, how different is the Magic Kingdom from Disneyland, for anyone who’s visited both?
The main thing I have to share - the time of year determines how much you can see or do. Certain times of year, the parks are packed stupid full.
And even tho it’s been a few decades, I found both Magic Kingdoms to be really similar, so you might want to check out a different park. In the interest of full disclosure, I’d rather be disemboweled than go to any of the parks, but I am an old grouch, so there’s that. 
Epcot is undergoing a massive renovation, which is scheduled to be completed by 2021. I don’t know when you’ll be there, but some things are already closed, with more closings scheduled. I would hate to go to Epcot, only to find that something you really wanted to do is unavailable.
The new Star Wars stuff at Hollywood Studios looks impressive, but is pretty crowded and hard to get into right now (my wife and I were just there over Christmas). I’ve never been to Disneyland, so I can’t compare the two.
We go to Walt Disney World (WDW) fairly frequently (week-long visits more or less annually since 2007). Note that WDW consists of four main parks (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom), plus two water parks and a shopping district.
I haven’t been to Disneyland since the 1980s, but my understanding is that it is fairly similar to Magic Kingdom. While Magic Kingdom is probably our favorite park at WDW, I can understand skipping it if you live close to Disneyland.
We also love Epcot, but I second what others have said: Epcot has been long overdue for a renovation, and it is currently undergoing a lot of construction. They are hoping to finish by 2021 (50th anniversary of WDW). If you’re only going for one day, I would probably not recommend going there until they finish the current round of construction.
So I would therefore probably recommend going to Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom for the day.
Hollywood Studios has some pretty great rides (Toy Story Mania, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror, plus the new Star Wars area and rides). Even if you don’t generally like rides, you would probably like Toy Story Mania, which is a mild arcade-type ride that is a lot of fun. It’s one of my wife’s favorite rides, and she doesn’t like most rides.
Animal Kingdom has some good rides as well, plus animal exhibits. One of the rides is a safari ride with real African animals. The Lion King stage show is also great.
P.S. We spent one day at WDW this past October, and spent most of it at the Food & Wine Festival in Epcot. We then moved over to Hollywood Studios for the evening, and I was pleasantly surprised that the Galaxy’s Edge area (i.e. Star Wars area) was not particularly crowded.
Sad to hear that Epcot is going through construction, as that would have been my suggestion. If you are an adult, and rides aren’t an attraction for you, Epcot is laid back and they serve adult beverages throughout the park.
I was in the same boat about 10 years ago.
I had been to Disney Land a few times and the conference I was at rented out half of Universal Orlando so I didn’t know what to do on my free day.
After doing some research I took a charter bus to the Kennedy Space Center. I think it cost me ~$60. It picked me up at my hotel about 7:00AM, we drove to small space museum on the way and stopped there for about 45 minutes. Then we went off to Kennedy Space Center. I think there was a 3 hour tour, then we had an hour or so to do our own thing then the bus took us back to our hotels and I believe I go back early evening.
Being a minor space nerd, it was an UNBELIEVABLE experience and I can’t recommend it enough!
So that’s one option for you.
Another option that I’d wish I was able to pull off was a airboat tour of the Everglades. I thought that would be pretty cool as well.
Good luck!
MtM
For something very different than Disneyland I would suggest Animal Kingdom rather than Epcot. I like Epcot but it does feel a bit dated. Glad it’s being renovated
When you say you don’t like rides, do you mean roller-coaster type thrill rides? Many of Disney’s rides are slow boats or track vehicles meant to simply convey you past interesting things to look at. So there may be more for you to enjoy than you think.
With a modicum of research you can find the specifics of what each park has to offer and see what most appeals to you. I would bet that even during construction, Epcot will have plenty enough going on to fill a day’s visit. While some like your friend are “unimpressed” by Epcot, others absolutely love it. Don’t dismiss the idea based on one person’s opinion.
I’ve found that Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios are the most do-able parks in a single day (though the new Star Wars attractions and expanded Toy Story area at HS may have changed that.) And if you don’t feel like a theme park at all, Disney Springs (formerly Downtown Disney) is definitely worth a visit. You can browse the shops, have a quick lunch, stop for a cocktail here and there, and pick a nice restaurant for dinner, and before you know it you’ve killed a whole day.
Enjoy!
I’m 37. A friend of mine about my age was just at Walt Disney World, and said the Millennium Falcon ride was very immersive. Take that for what you will.
If you’re close to Disneyland, then the Star Wars stuff is also available there, and both Tower of Terror and the Swirling Saucers ride have Disneyland versions under different skins (and Disneyland has its own Fantasmic). So that leaves mostly shows at Hollywood Studios, which can be fun, but not something I’d go to Hollywood Studios just to do.
Epcot does have a lot of construction, but there isn’t really a whole lot “down” long-term. Though that is because the park was rather neglected for so long, so there were a lot of un or under-utilized buildings. So a lot of walls, a lot of construction, but all you really have lost are a fountain, Ellen’s Energy Adventure, and all the free Beverly you can drink.
Still, I’d probably look at Animal Kingdom. Only one thing I can think of there that’s the same as Disneyland (Dinosaur is pretty much a reskinned Indiana Jones). Depending on your tolerance for motion simulators, Flight of Passage was by far the best ride in Disneyworld pre-Star Wars Land, the Safari is cool and unique, and there are some good shows like the Lion King and Finding Nemo (and maybe the bird show. I don’t like it after the changes, but if you’re there and have time…)
FWIW, UltraVires, I used to feel similarly back before our first family trip in 2007. Prior to that, I’d gone to WDW a couple of times in the early '90s, mainly because I was living in Orlando at the time, and visitors always wanted to go there. Living in Orlando, you get really sick of the tourists and the theme parks, so after I moved away I really had no desire to go back.
“Been there, done that,” I said to my wife when she suggested taking our then 10-year old son. Also, “Why would I do Disney’s fake version of something (like whitewater rafting, for example) when I could do the real thing?”
But my wife persisted, so we finally went…and had the best family vacation we’d ever had. Our dozen visits since have largely been an effort to recapture the magic of that first family visit.
There were a number of things that made it such a great vacation for us, including the fact that we did some planning beforehand. I think the people who go and don’t have a good time often just show up at peak times (and peak crowds) with little or no planning, which is a mistake. WDW is too big, too complicated, and more often than not simply too crowded to just show up, unless you already know what you are doing. Go without a plan, and you will likely find yourself paying too much and doing little more than standing in lines in the hot Florida sun.
Go with a plan (and a reservation) and you can find yourself sipping a cocktail at Oga’s Cantina in the new Galaxy’s Edge at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Let me just upvote this 1000 times. I really truly understand that people like to just wing it or go with the flow, but 99% of the time planning is the key to an enjoyable vacation. No one is saying that a plan has to have the precision of a military drill or can’t be flexible, but showing up without any clue will often lead to a miserable time. And I think this philosophy applies to a Disney trip, a trip to Paris, or a national parks trip. Heck, I’d even suggest some planning for a cruise.
If you’re not that into rides, and you’ll already have been to Universal that week, it’s probably not worth going to Disney too.
Gatorland is easy to do in one day in Orlando and is relatively unusual and Florida-specific.
There are vineyards and breweries you can visit for something a little different. I haven’t actually been to this one,, but it looks pretty good and is free, so you wouldn’t be losing out much even if it wasn’t great.
Kennedy Space Centre is definitely worth visiting, though it might feel like a long day at the end of a working week.
My wife is not that into rides, but she loves WDW. (My son and I do like rides, and we also love WDW.)
In any event, it’s not actually all about the rides. If all we cared about were rides, we’d go to our local Six Flags (which I haven’t visited in over a decade, and have no desire to ever go back).
Personally I would go to LEGOland. Granted, I LOVE LEGO, but it’s also a smaller park that you can actually see and do everything in one day.
Agreed, there is more to Disneyland than rides - same with Universal Studios. But they’re fairly similar, so if they’re not really your thing, and like the OP, you live near enough to go to Disneyland in Anaheim if you want to but don’t often go to Florida, then it’s probably better to use the time to do something different.
I’ve found that thoroughly planning a WDW vacation leaves you knowledgeable enough to be pretty flexible.