The term theme park was first coined with the opening of Disneyland because the thing that Walt Disney had created was so significantly different from the amusement parks that had pre-dated it, the previous term no longer seemed adequate. Today, we tend to use the terms theme park or amusement park almost interchangeably to describe any location where a collection of attractions are built on a significantly large scale. But do they really describe the same thing?
We call a section here at CinemaBlend, "theme parks," but we also cover amusement park news. There is certainly enough similarity between the two to combine them under one name in some cases. However, the differences between theme parks and amusement parks are more than just semantic. There are real, vital differences between what constitutes a theme park like Disneyland and what is an amusement park, like Magic Mountain. Here are the key differences and why they’re important.
