The Magic Kingdom never loses its charm

I spent Sunday in a losing battle with a seven-year-old. My argument: Pirates of the Caribbean is the best ride at Disneyland. By late afternoon I had managed to talk him to my side, displacing Star Tours, his previous favourite. But then I made the mistake of introducing him to the Matterhorn. Can you recall your first roller coaster? The speed, the excitement, the thrill of doing something so grown up? I'm afraid the buccaneers were doomed to fall behind the Alpine bobsled.

If you must be beaten by a child, then there's no better or more enjoyable place to surrender than Disneyland.

I am a Disney girl. Not only were the animated classics the seminal tales of my childhood, but I was privileged enough to have a bunch of holidays at both Disneyland (California) and Disney World (Florida). And while I love the excessive sprawl and variety of the group of parks and resorts in Florida, there is something uniquely magical about Disneyland.

This may be, in part, because it was the first of the Disney parks I visited. But 30 years later (yes, I am old enough to remember when each ride needed a ticket, and "E tickets" were the best) I still find the California incarnation that slight bit more magical than its Eastern sister. This is primarily due to size. Disneyland is like Dr. Who's Tardis: Bigger on the inside than the outside.

Disneyland is surprisingly small in comparison to any modern amusement park. And yet, the designers managed to magically cram in six radically different areas and a bewildering number of rides in each. Part of this is simply artful design. Architecture, trees and hedges are used to screen and separate one area from another. The closest parallel in my experience are the gardens at Hidcote and Sissinghurst, which employ exactly the same tricks to create vastly differing garden rooms. The illusion of each land is perfect, created with an attention to detail and architectural craftsmanship on par with what Disney might have done in his own home. Yes, these might be stage sets, but they're crafted with the detail and quality of the real thing.

Thus, when you're in Adventureland, you ARE in Africa ... something I've appreciated all the more since being to the "dark continent". Disney managed to distill and purify down to the essence of a place. Duck down a narrow passage, and you emerge into the old west. Just as perfectly evocative. And New Orleans Square is a perfected, exquisite representation of the French Quarter. Everyone should travel to see the world for themselves, of course. But I'm quite certain that Disney's distillation of the planet's best was part of what drove me to see more of the real thing.

One of the greatest miracles here is the way the engineers pieced the rides together. Several, like Pirates of the Caribbean and the Haunted House, have deceptively small footprints in relation to the expansive rides inside. This is because the ride itself has been sunk underground, reached through some clever entry point of waterfalls or hidden elevators. Or there's that argument-winning Matterhorn, the twists and turns of which have been built into a surprisingly tight circle, making it a skyscraper of roller coasters.

So, assuming I've convinced you of the "magic" in "Magic Kingdom", here are a few tips from an old hand.

• If possible, make the most of early and late hours. The first hour upon park opening, and the last before it closes, are always the best time to get on the premium rides.


• Take advantage of the Fast Pass system. This allows you to pre-book riding time on the best rides. The most efficient way to manage the queues is to alternate Fast Passes with waiting, enabling you to walk straight on to every other ride.


• Use the most crowded part of the day to eat, browse through the shops or watch the entertainers. Or explore Tom Sawyer's Island, which is never quite as crowded as the rest of the park.


• If you have time for a fine dining experience, try the Blue Bayou restaurant. This remains one of the better cajun restaurants I've experienced, with the benefit of a spectacular setting. You appear to be in a lantern-lit courtyard at the back of an ante-bellum mansion. Stars twinkle above in an inky night sky, crickets chirp, Spanish moss hangs from the trees and boats (actually part of Pirates of the Carribbean) glide through the bayou beyond. It's a particularly great illusion when it's a hot and sunny day outside.


• Buy yourself a pair of mouse ears with your name stiched across them at the Mad Hatter in Fantasyland. For some inexplicable reason, this is the only place on either coasts that you can get the old-fashioned, personalised mouse ear treatment.


• Finally, take along a seven-year-old. While Disney easily stands on its own for adults, and I've enjoyed numerous holidays in both parks without a kid for company, there is something particularly special about re-discovering the magic with the next generation. Even if he can't yet appreciate the world-beating primacy of the pirates.