dbenlee
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 23, 2005
Having just returned from our first trip to Disneyland (okay, technically, I went to Disneyland in 1979 as a teenager, but DW and DS have never been), I decided to write a short (OK, maybe not so short after all) review. Being a WDW vet, I thought a few comparisons and pointers might be helpful to others. Having not written a review before, please forgive my rambling.
As I said, we are WDW vets, having averaged at least 1 trip a year for the last 12 years. I am 49 and absolutely refuse to grow up. DW (Texas Disney Fan) is 45 and the mature brains of our trio. DS is 17, recently earned his Eagle Scout rank (sorry, shameless plug, but hey, proud parents!) and suffers from being overly influenced by me and refuses to grow up also. All 3 of us are major Disney fans and enjoy doing anything Disney related.
We flew from Houston (IAH) on Friday, December 16 and arrived at LAX at 11:30 pm. Arriving as late as we did, we had to arrange our own transportation. We choose to use GoSedan, ignoring the reviews we read on Yelp. Having never flown into LAX, DW decided to pay the extra $10 to have the driver meet us at baggage claim. As soon as we landed and DW turned on her cell phone, she received a text from the driver (Vinny) introducing himself and saying he was in baggage claim waiting. DW told him our flight was a little delayed and he said no problem and that there was no rush. After making our way to baggage claim and finally getting our bags, Vinny escorted us out to the car and got us loaded up and smoothly on the road. We have a great experience with GoSedan and Vinny and were very pleased and would not hesitate to use them again.
We arrived at Disney’s Grand Californian just before 1am. Check in was smooth as always and we were in our room quickly. We were in room 4514, a one bedroom villa. We could see the top of Grizzly Peak from the balcony. The room was laid out basically like the other one bedroom villas we have stayed in. It was clean and did not show large amounts of wear. The proximity of the resort to the parks was phenomenal! The ease and speed of entering DCA or DTD directly from the resort was a real pleasure.
Obviously, DLR is nowhere near as large as WDW. Even though this was known intellectually, it was very surprising and wonderful to experience. As WDW vets, we are very used to the hikes that can be involved in moving through some of the parks and park hopping. The ability to leave our room and be in a park within 5 to 10 minutes was amazing. Moving from one attraction to the next was quick and fairly easy. As the crowds increased throughout the day, the obvious bottlenecks were somewhat difficult to navigate, but that was expected and no different than any of the parks in WDW.
One thing that did surprise us, compared to WDW, was that the rope drop crowds are not nearly as intense. Obviously, there were a fair number of people that showed up for rope drop and that took advantage of the AM EMH and Magic Mornings. In our 4 days visiting the DLR parks, we never experienced the “stampeding herd” feeling that is sometimes experienced at WDW. The crowds didn’t seem to start showing up until mid to late morning, basically 10-11 AM. As anytime we visit any park, we have a list of attractions we “have” to experience. We always have a “plan” so that we are able to experience our must do’s. Each day we were finished by noon except for the night time shows. We never stood in line for more than 30 minutes and rode some rides more than once (Soarin’, Haunted Mansion, POTC). One rant about crowds isn’t truly about crowd levels but behavior. If you have to FART, doing so in the middle of a crowded Stretch Room of Haunted Mansion is NOT the place. To the JERK who released the noxious cloud in this area when we were there, you were NOT funny. Also, you might want to alter your diet and may even need to see a doctor to find out what is wrong with you!
As far as attractions go, we were very pleased with many of the differences. POTC is longer and has 2 drops vs the one drop at WDW’s version. The overall theming is more of a Louisiana swamp and was more enjoyable to us. Haunted Mansion was re-themed to Nightmare Before Christmas and was a lot of fun and a nice change. DLR also re-themes Jungle Cruise to Jingle Cruise which we enjoy at both parks. Riding Nemo at DLR made me nostalgic for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at WDW. Other rides with different themes and different designs were also a nice change. Seeing characters roaming through the park at unscheduled times was a nice surprise also.
We did have one major disappointment that could not be avoided and was no one’s fault, especially Disney. Because DLR is located in the middle of Anaheim they have a number of things they have to do or not do for safety sake. One of these is their fireworks shows. We tried each of our last 3 nights to watch the fireworks show and it was cancelled each night because of winds. Obviously there was nothing Disney could do about this, but it was very disappointing none the less.
On a plus side, we did the World of Color Dessert Party. World of Color is a unique show that we really enjoyed and having seats with unobstructed views made it even better. We had a little difficulty finding the check in booth at first because they had not changed the sign, other than that, everything went smoothly and quickly.
Initially this trip was thought to be a one time, but so was our first trip to WDW. We always enjoy Disney at Christmas time trip, seeing and experiencing all of the Holiday festivities. We are now planning, in a couple of years, to return a little earlier in the Christmas season, during the week, before schools are out for the Holidays. We want to do a more relaxed visit with less crowds. Overall we enjoyed our first visit and look forward to more visits in the future.
As I said, we are WDW vets, having averaged at least 1 trip a year for the last 12 years. I am 49 and absolutely refuse to grow up. DW (Texas Disney Fan) is 45 and the mature brains of our trio. DS is 17, recently earned his Eagle Scout rank (sorry, shameless plug, but hey, proud parents!) and suffers from being overly influenced by me and refuses to grow up also. All 3 of us are major Disney fans and enjoy doing anything Disney related.
We flew from Houston (IAH) on Friday, December 16 and arrived at LAX at 11:30 pm. Arriving as late as we did, we had to arrange our own transportation. We choose to use GoSedan, ignoring the reviews we read on Yelp. Having never flown into LAX, DW decided to pay the extra $10 to have the driver meet us at baggage claim. As soon as we landed and DW turned on her cell phone, she received a text from the driver (Vinny) introducing himself and saying he was in baggage claim waiting. DW told him our flight was a little delayed and he said no problem and that there was no rush. After making our way to baggage claim and finally getting our bags, Vinny escorted us out to the car and got us loaded up and smoothly on the road. We have a great experience with GoSedan and Vinny and were very pleased and would not hesitate to use them again.
We arrived at Disney’s Grand Californian just before 1am. Check in was smooth as always and we were in our room quickly. We were in room 4514, a one bedroom villa. We could see the top of Grizzly Peak from the balcony. The room was laid out basically like the other one bedroom villas we have stayed in. It was clean and did not show large amounts of wear. The proximity of the resort to the parks was phenomenal! The ease and speed of entering DCA or DTD directly from the resort was a real pleasure.
Obviously, DLR is nowhere near as large as WDW. Even though this was known intellectually, it was very surprising and wonderful to experience. As WDW vets, we are very used to the hikes that can be involved in moving through some of the parks and park hopping. The ability to leave our room and be in a park within 5 to 10 minutes was amazing. Moving from one attraction to the next was quick and fairly easy. As the crowds increased throughout the day, the obvious bottlenecks were somewhat difficult to navigate, but that was expected and no different than any of the parks in WDW.
One thing that did surprise us, compared to WDW, was that the rope drop crowds are not nearly as intense. Obviously, there were a fair number of people that showed up for rope drop and that took advantage of the AM EMH and Magic Mornings. In our 4 days visiting the DLR parks, we never experienced the “stampeding herd” feeling that is sometimes experienced at WDW. The crowds didn’t seem to start showing up until mid to late morning, basically 10-11 AM. As anytime we visit any park, we have a list of attractions we “have” to experience. We always have a “plan” so that we are able to experience our must do’s. Each day we were finished by noon except for the night time shows. We never stood in line for more than 30 minutes and rode some rides more than once (Soarin’, Haunted Mansion, POTC). One rant about crowds isn’t truly about crowd levels but behavior. If you have to FART, doing so in the middle of a crowded Stretch Room of Haunted Mansion is NOT the place. To the JERK who released the noxious cloud in this area when we were there, you were NOT funny. Also, you might want to alter your diet and may even need to see a doctor to find out what is wrong with you!
As far as attractions go, we were very pleased with many of the differences. POTC is longer and has 2 drops vs the one drop at WDW’s version. The overall theming is more of a Louisiana swamp and was more enjoyable to us. Haunted Mansion was re-themed to Nightmare Before Christmas and was a lot of fun and a nice change. DLR also re-themes Jungle Cruise to Jingle Cruise which we enjoy at both parks. Riding Nemo at DLR made me nostalgic for 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea at WDW. Other rides with different themes and different designs were also a nice change. Seeing characters roaming through the park at unscheduled times was a nice surprise also.
We did have one major disappointment that could not be avoided and was no one’s fault, especially Disney. Because DLR is located in the middle of Anaheim they have a number of things they have to do or not do for safety sake. One of these is their fireworks shows. We tried each of our last 3 nights to watch the fireworks show and it was cancelled each night because of winds. Obviously there was nothing Disney could do about this, but it was very disappointing none the less.
On a plus side, we did the World of Color Dessert Party. World of Color is a unique show that we really enjoyed and having seats with unobstructed views made it even better. We had a little difficulty finding the check in booth at first because they had not changed the sign, other than that, everything went smoothly and quickly.
Initially this trip was thought to be a one time, but so was our first trip to WDW. We always enjoy Disney at Christmas time trip, seeing and experiencing all of the Holiday festivities. We are now planning, in a couple of years, to return a little earlier in the Christmas season, during the week, before schools are out for the Holidays. We want to do a more relaxed visit with less crowds. Overall we enjoyed our first visit and look forward to more visits in the future.
