mydisneyanytime
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2012
- Messages
- 324
We are finally back home and settled after a 3 week vacation across the country from TN. We did everything that we could during that time including spending 3 days at DL. We had been to DL before. My son had a Make A Wish trip in 2013 and I have been with friends 2 other times long before that.
The DL part of our trip was awesome (as was every other part of our trip) - as this was for my son - he loved every minute of it. We were there the Friday night of the earthquake but not in the parks. I did not like that.....
We did not stay on property but stayed at a hotel about a mile away.
We are not rope droppers so we did not usually get to the gates until after 9 or so except our last day and we were there at 8 and didn't leave until 12AM. It was a long day but a good one.
We are WDW vets and go frequently. We know the ins and outs of using a wheelchair there, which was the one thing that made this trip more difficult. We did get a DAS for my son, which coupled with MaxPass we were able to do a huge amount of rides.
What I liked better than WDW...
MaxPass. Wow - going into it I was skeptical. But WOW!! We did 12 rides the first day, 14 the second, and 22 the last day!!
Characters. We say over 30 characters many of which aren't typical at WDW such as Marvel ones. We saw a few that we see on a regular basis but that was okay. We ate at the Plaza Inn for breakfast and were blown away by not only the amount of characters but the actual interaction of the characters. Probably best character interaction, consistently over the course of the meal, that we have ever had!!
Many rides. Guardians was soooo much better than TOT! We rode 4 times and it was great! All the classic rides seemed to be better at DL than at WDW for the most part. Cars Land - everything about it is just awesome and spot on.
Food. Not the snacks because, honestly, I think that WDW wins hands down for snack type foods. But basic meals - the sandwiches I had were fresh and really good. My husband had the chicken in Pixar Pier 3 times during our 3 days!!
World of Color. We did the dessert party and I would do it again to have a seat. The desserts were pretty good and our waitress was awesome. We had a shorter table (due to the wheelchair as I had put that in the reservation) . We really enjoyed it!!
Security. Only having to go through security one time per day even with park hopping and going to DTD was so nice! It made park hopping more like going to another part of the same park. DTD was so small!!
What I didn't like as well...
Cards. I hated using the cards. Pull them out, put them up. Wait... where is yours? Having the magicband on our arms in WDW makes that so much simpler. I was not sure when WDW started them and tried not to use them. But once I did... it makes such a difference!
Ride Photopass. Having to take a picture of the picture with the number then add it to your account seemed silly. Again, in WDW it just adds it for you. I know that will never happen in CA, I am just sharing my thoughts.
Wheelchair issues. They seemed to have a hard time directing us in the right direction for wheelchairs. In the HM we ended up in the line we weren't supposed to be in because there was no one where they were supposed to be so we had to wait more then get in another line. Trying to get out of HM was rough as the ride shut down and there were people everywhere. Getting to see the stretching room unstretch was cool though. In Incredicoaster they "lost" our chair. No one seemed to know where it was or was willing to help us. They told us to go up the stairs... wait, can't do that. We had to walk back across the car when another came - we had to stop the people getting on, no one did that either. Walk around the floor area until we spotted it in a corner where I had to ask crowds to move so that I could get it. No real big deal but a tad frustrating! There were some other small issues as well.
Castmembers. We saw a lot of cast members hanging out together talking and I would have to interrupt them after waiting for them to stop talking several times. It happened in stores, on rides, etc. I heard several instances of cast members being rude to guests - one on a ride that we were one and the cm was trying to get the kid on the inside of the car but the adult didn't understand and she said something like .. inside, you know.. inside? I also had a hard time getting answers out of some of them. I would ask question and they would give me a one word answer (yes or no) and then I would have to continue to get more information. At one of the kiosks waiting to get a DAS return time it took over 5 minutes (that isn't a problem as we will wait for whatever) but the guy never said a word to me except to ask what ride I wanted. He stood drumming his fingers on the desk, etc. Then told me the ride, the wrong one (again not an issue) and did fix it but never said more than about 10 words. I am used to WDW where almost every cm will talk to you constantly about your day, your experience, etc.
Roaming characters. I do NOT like the roaming character thing. Trying to catch them, have them sign, wait...where is the line? Is there one? Etc. My son wanted all the signatures and it was stressful trying to figure out where they might be. Several times were told the wrong place only to wait then to realize they were on the other side the area. Yes, I would much rather wait in line!! And we did wait in alot of lines... more than 30 characters takes time!
Rides: Matterhorn (never again).
Other thoughts:
We did do SWGE and both Oga's and the lightsaber. Oga's was frustrating, but I should have known better, as they put us at a bar top with my son's wheelchair. We could have waited for a booth but that would have been another 45 minutes. Again, that was more on me for not really reading as much as I should have about it. We did like the carbon freeze and it was hysterical watching my children try to drink out of it! The lightsaber ceremony was really cool and my son loved it. It was cool watching his face light up. No one in my family liked the new Star Wars ride. All agreed they were glad to have done it once but it wouldn't be worth the wait again.
Most of the CM's were from the CA area that we saw. At WDW CM's are from just about everywhere in the United States and around the world. Not a positive or negative just an observation.
My son loved DL, my daughter would rather go back to WDW. I loved being in the original park but I like atmosphere of WDW better with the larger scale of everything. I am sure that I will be back to DL in a few years so I will take what I learned from this trip and make our next trip even better.
The DL part of our trip was awesome (as was every other part of our trip) - as this was for my son - he loved every minute of it. We were there the Friday night of the earthquake but not in the parks. I did not like that.....
We did not stay on property but stayed at a hotel about a mile away.
We are not rope droppers so we did not usually get to the gates until after 9 or so except our last day and we were there at 8 and didn't leave until 12AM. It was a long day but a good one.
We are WDW vets and go frequently. We know the ins and outs of using a wheelchair there, which was the one thing that made this trip more difficult. We did get a DAS for my son, which coupled with MaxPass we were able to do a huge amount of rides.
What I liked better than WDW...
MaxPass. Wow - going into it I was skeptical. But WOW!! We did 12 rides the first day, 14 the second, and 22 the last day!!
Characters. We say over 30 characters many of which aren't typical at WDW such as Marvel ones. We saw a few that we see on a regular basis but that was okay. We ate at the Plaza Inn for breakfast and were blown away by not only the amount of characters but the actual interaction of the characters. Probably best character interaction, consistently over the course of the meal, that we have ever had!!
Many rides. Guardians was soooo much better than TOT! We rode 4 times and it was great! All the classic rides seemed to be better at DL than at WDW for the most part. Cars Land - everything about it is just awesome and spot on.
Food. Not the snacks because, honestly, I think that WDW wins hands down for snack type foods. But basic meals - the sandwiches I had were fresh and really good. My husband had the chicken in Pixar Pier 3 times during our 3 days!!
World of Color. We did the dessert party and I would do it again to have a seat. The desserts were pretty good and our waitress was awesome. We had a shorter table (due to the wheelchair as I had put that in the reservation) . We really enjoyed it!!
Security. Only having to go through security one time per day even with park hopping and going to DTD was so nice! It made park hopping more like going to another part of the same park. DTD was so small!!
What I didn't like as well...
Cards. I hated using the cards. Pull them out, put them up. Wait... where is yours? Having the magicband on our arms in WDW makes that so much simpler. I was not sure when WDW started them and tried not to use them. But once I did... it makes such a difference!
Ride Photopass. Having to take a picture of the picture with the number then add it to your account seemed silly. Again, in WDW it just adds it for you. I know that will never happen in CA, I am just sharing my thoughts.
Wheelchair issues. They seemed to have a hard time directing us in the right direction for wheelchairs. In the HM we ended up in the line we weren't supposed to be in because there was no one where they were supposed to be so we had to wait more then get in another line. Trying to get out of HM was rough as the ride shut down and there were people everywhere. Getting to see the stretching room unstretch was cool though. In Incredicoaster they "lost" our chair. No one seemed to know where it was or was willing to help us. They told us to go up the stairs... wait, can't do that. We had to walk back across the car when another came - we had to stop the people getting on, no one did that either. Walk around the floor area until we spotted it in a corner where I had to ask crowds to move so that I could get it. No real big deal but a tad frustrating! There were some other small issues as well.
Castmembers. We saw a lot of cast members hanging out together talking and I would have to interrupt them after waiting for them to stop talking several times. It happened in stores, on rides, etc. I heard several instances of cast members being rude to guests - one on a ride that we were one and the cm was trying to get the kid on the inside of the car but the adult didn't understand and she said something like .. inside, you know.. inside? I also had a hard time getting answers out of some of them. I would ask question and they would give me a one word answer (yes or no) and then I would have to continue to get more information. At one of the kiosks waiting to get a DAS return time it took over 5 minutes (that isn't a problem as we will wait for whatever) but the guy never said a word to me except to ask what ride I wanted. He stood drumming his fingers on the desk, etc. Then told me the ride, the wrong one (again not an issue) and did fix it but never said more than about 10 words. I am used to WDW where almost every cm will talk to you constantly about your day, your experience, etc.
Roaming characters. I do NOT like the roaming character thing. Trying to catch them, have them sign, wait...where is the line? Is there one? Etc. My son wanted all the signatures and it was stressful trying to figure out where they might be. Several times were told the wrong place only to wait then to realize they were on the other side the area. Yes, I would much rather wait in line!! And we did wait in alot of lines... more than 30 characters takes time!
Rides: Matterhorn (never again).
Other thoughts:
We did do SWGE and both Oga's and the lightsaber. Oga's was frustrating, but I should have known better, as they put us at a bar top with my son's wheelchair. We could have waited for a booth but that would have been another 45 minutes. Again, that was more on me for not really reading as much as I should have about it. We did like the carbon freeze and it was hysterical watching my children try to drink out of it! The lightsaber ceremony was really cool and my son loved it. It was cool watching his face light up. No one in my family liked the new Star Wars ride. All agreed they were glad to have done it once but it wouldn't be worth the wait again.
Most of the CM's were from the CA area that we saw. At WDW CM's are from just about everywhere in the United States and around the world. Not a positive or negative just an observation.
My son loved DL, my daughter would rather go back to WDW. I loved being in the original park but I like atmosphere of WDW better with the larger scale of everything. I am sure that I will be back to DL in a few years so I will take what I learned from this trip and make our next trip even better.
