A WDW family does Disneyland!!

[joliesmom]

I had been to Disneyland almost 15 years ago but my DH and DD had never been there, we do however go to WDW a few times a year. I was nervous about what my trip experience would be since we are so use to the "World". So I'll give you a few of my insights.

- All of the rides that are at both parks are better at DL. I don't believe it was because they were new to me they were just better. Space Mountain was excellent and TOT had some aspects that were memorable.

-Line cutting is horrible at DL. I haven't figured out why they have all of those gates that open throughout the line.

-The are fewer characters at DL and they have no handlers for the most part. Minnie Mouse was just standing alone picking people from the crowd. I have to say at WDW their character interaction is much more organized and there is a better variety of characters.

-Although the castle is small at DL Main Street is larger and the reality is that Walt walked Main St at DL. My DD rode in the firetruck that the driver said Walt use to drive around Main St- you can't get that at WDW.

-Fireworks- pretty much non-existent except Fri and Sat at DL. WDW has fireworks more frequently.

-The monorail- Forget the monorail at DL, it is not an essential means of transportation. People ride it as an attraction and it only makes 2 stops back and forth. It is easier to walk.

-Corndogs- can WDW invest in a corn dog cart? After the corn dog cart can they get a Kettle Corn cart (the smell alone is worth it).

-The Weather- Let me just say that last May I went to WDW and it was horrendous- hot and humid. At DL the weather was wonderful and I like wearing a sweatshirt at night.

-The proximity of the Parks- It was so nice to go on so many attractions and not have to take a bus or monorail. The set up of the attractions and the parks was wonderful. We got so much accomplished because we weren't waiting for buses.

I have to say that with airfare being so reasonable I will be back to DL sooner than I should be.
Patti

 

[luvdisney2006]

I just got back from DL after going to WDW about 5 times.

I like the fact that you can walk to the parks instead of taking busses (you can walk to Epcot from Beachclub and Boardwalk) but there are only 2 them parks compared to 4 plus the 2 water parks at WDW

Disneyland is basically the size (if not smaller) of magic kingdom.

It's a Small World is better at DL
Pirates of the Caribbean better at DL

We also enjoyed Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride and the Matterhorn Bobsled's. We waited in a LONG line to get to Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin which wa snot worht the wait

You could do both parks in 2 days max.

There are hardly any rides with fastpasses and the ones that do have them they had shut down so there were none that actually had fastpasses available while we were there! Long long lines everywhere!

There were no characters to be seen other than Mickey one day and Cruella De Ville the next day

Castle is much smaller than Cinderella's, main street smaller.

We liked the Grizzly River Run at California Adventure better than Kali River Rapids at WDW

While there are some rides that they don't have at WDW, we still like WDW WAY better.

Weather was not good. The sun did not come out until after 12 or 1 pm and when it did then winds picked up and made it cold especially at night

The 3 resorts that are at Disneyland are EXPENSIVE compared to WDW!

There are no Value resorts at DL but alot of offsite ones that are close walking distance

Howard Johnson has spacious rooms and is a nice resort for the price (over half price of DLH or PP)

We had a room at Disneyland Hotel that was smaller than any hotel I have ever stayed at which they say is normal room. used points because if I didn;t room would have been $289 AAA rate!!!!!! Crazy! We got moved to a different room because the Downtown Disney view room is very very loud and you can hear noise from Downtown Disney til 1:00 am Because the room is so cramped the bed is practically right up against sliding door so it is like you are on the balcony

The room we got moved to was 3 times larger abnd was nice Not sure what price that room goes for

I like waking up to abundant sunshine in morning in WDW apparently sun doesn't normally come out til after 12 or 1 because of smog/mist

We enjoyed ourselves and had fun but all in all we like WDW better !

 

[dwelty]

I like waking up to abundant sunshine in morning in WDW apparently sun doesn't normally come out til after 12 or 1 because of smog/mist

The weather you experienced is normal for May, Early morning clouds that come in off the ocean. This is not smog. The rest of the year DLR is quite sunny all day long. and you will NEVER have the hot humid weather you experience at WDW in the summer. We go to both Resorts quite often WDW and DLR. I think you will find FEW people who go often to both locations that would say the weather in Rainy humid WDW is better than Southern California.

 

[luvdisney2006]

That is good to know because after hearing our tour guide tell us that from spring til fall the sun does not come out until 12 or 1 by the time the sun burns off the mist. so I was thinking so how much more time is left to actually enjoy the weather when in winter it is quite cold!

How long does this cloudy weather last like this? Do you get sunshine in morning at all?

I heard it goes ot 100 in summer in LA/anaheim?

I have never gone to WDW where it has been too hot or humid It has been great everytime I have gone with minimal rain and lots of sunshine from early in the am til night and I have been there over 5 times.

This was my first trip to DL and could not undertand after this weather why peopel were raving about CA so much

Maybe San Diego is better?

your help would be appreciated

thanks

 

[joliesmom]

Disneyland is basically the size (if not smaller) of magic kingdom.

I wonder about the actual size because DL felt larger to me than the MK?

You could do both parks in 2 days max.

We couldn't get everything done and we were in the parks for 3 full days. I like to relax through the parks.

There were no characters to be seen other than Mickey one day and Cruella De Ville the next day.

That's funny because we saw Cruella every day we were there. They need to work on their characters.

The 3 resorts that are at Disneyland are EXPENSIVE compared to WDW!
We had a room at Disneyland Hotel that was smaller than any hotel I have ever stayed at which they say is normal room. used points because if I didn;t room would have been $289 AAA rate!!!!!! Crazy! We got moved to a different room because the Downtown Disney view room is very very loud and you can hear noise from Downtown Disney til 1:00 am Because the room is so cramped the bed is practically right up against sliding door so it is like you are on the balcony

That's so funny the differences in hotel experience. We were in the main building at the DL hotel and our room was nice (not the Poly but nice). In all fairness it usually costs me between $300- $400 per night at the Poly with an AP discount. I bought a package at the DL hotel but I booked a room for my cousin and paid $185 which I thought was a good price for the room. Our room was as large as if not larger than a room at AKL. I think the DL hotel needs updating but was worth the money to me.

 

[joliesmom]

Maybe San Diego is better?

We went to San Diego after DL and again I though the weather was beautiful but it was colder. But hey I'm from Jersey I could live with 70 degree weather forever.

 

[dwelty]

That is good to know because after hearing our tour guide tell us that from spring til fall the sun does not come out until 12 or 1 by the time the sun burns off the mist. so I was thinking so how much more time is left to actually enjoy the weather when in winter it is quite cold!

How long does this cloudy weather last like this? Do you get sunshine in morning at all?

I heard it goes ot 100 in summer in LA/anaheim?

I have never gone to WDW where it has been too hot or humid It has been great everytime I have gone with minimal rain and lots of sunshine from early in the am til night and I have been there over 5 times.

This was my first trip to DL and could not undertand after this weather why peopel were raving about CA so much

Maybe San Diego is better?

your help would be appreciated

thanks

Your tour guide is right about May, Mid may to mid June has early morning clouds. The rest of the year is sunny and generally clear. Summer rarely gets to 100 degrees (Maybe 3 or 4 days a year) The big difference is humidity which is usually around 30% (VS WDW 90%+ in the summer) You must not go to WDW between June and September. Fall is always clear, and has some of our best weather. Winter in So Cal is quite similar to Orlando in winter, rarely gets below freezing at night maybe 3 days a year. Days are almost always in the 70's (I grew up 15 min from DL and worked there during college) San Diego is cooler than LA, but mostly because it is right on the Ocean. Hope this helps!

 

[luvdisney2006]

I found this on the Disneyland website

Disneyland is a lot smaller than Magic Kingdom -- 85 acres as opposed to 107 acres

The only character we saw was cruella deville and Mickey Mouse the whole 2 days we were there! That was it

When we got to WDW we see TONS of characters right when you walk in the park!

I also asked why they don't have any fastpasses on thier rides - only about 5 or 6 (which weren't working at the time) was because "these are older rides and would take way too much money and time to reconfigure them for fastpass capability so basically you will just have to wait in the long lines"

It's not like we didn't enjoyed ourselves because we did but feel like (just our opinion) you are downgrading coming here after going to WDW first

DL is just different than WDW