"The happiest place in the world" is the byline for Disneyland. It is obvious that by making such a claim, the implication that the rest of the places in the world are somehow not as happy is made. This is perhaps factually true: most people in the world I'd claim are not happy, i.e., completely content with themselves. But I don't believe for a moment Disneyland provides a solution for these people. Sure, the people visiting Disneyland are happy, and they have a great time, but Disneyland is about escapism; it's about forgetting one's problems and worries for a brief while. And while escapism is good and all, it does not make one happy for more than a short period of time; what it does is make one forget the problems they have. In other words, it's an ephemeral sort of happiness.
I believe happiness comes from within you and I equate happiness with contentment. And contentment is doing what you want when you want to.
If you can ignore the crass commercialism, something I've already
talked about in my essay Art, Greed, and
Entertainment: My Visit to Walt Disney World, Disneyland,
as can be expected, was a lot of fun. However, it is nowhere as cool
as Walt Disney World in Florida. The
rides are pretty much the same, though my perception was that the
rides in Disney World were sometimes bigger/longer. The one exception
for this is 
the
Indiana
Jones Adventure ride for which I don't believe there is a
equivalent in Walt Disney World. In general, I enjoyed the rides
about 
Alice in
Wonderland compared to rides like Space Mountain.
Like the last time I was at a Disney park, the best part for me was interacting with the characters:
We also went to Universal Studios which are a lot better
with cool attractions involving Back to the Future, 
Jurassic Park,
Backdraft,
Beetlejuice, The Blues
Brothers, E.T., 
Waterworld, a wild
west stunt show, and a great backstage tour showing how they do the
special effects (such as 
simulated
floods) for movies like King Kong,
Earthquake, Dante's Peak, and
Jaws.
We went to place called Marvel Mania within the park. Being a big
fan of comic books, I really
enjoyed the atmosphere and even got a chance to interact with 
one of my
favourite characters (it's sad how low Marvel has gone with the
character in recent years, however).
The drive itself was fun: the scenery going through central valley is pretty in its own right. We had great music: Rainbow, Queensryche, Dire Straits, Primus, Butthole Surfers, and more!
I recommend visiting these parks in the off-season. We went to Universal Studios on a Monday and there was not a single line that was longer than five minutes!