It’s been a week since we left our magical time at the Disneyland Resort. I wanted to take a while before posting my impressions, and finally had time this weekend to write them down.
As an fyi, I am a WDW vet, having been there 11 times over the past 28 years. Prior to our recent trip, I had only been to Disneyland Park once, way back in 1992, and only for about 2/3 of a day.
I wanted to discuss my impressions of DLR compared to WDW, then I will get to a few other impressions after that.
Rides: When I attended Disneyland Park in 1992, having been to WDW 3-4 times already by that point, I remember liking all the rides better at DL, particularly Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.
And I had the same impression after our visit to DLR last week as well: every ride that is shared between the two resorts, I generally prefer the DLR version. There is one exception: Haunted Mansion, which I greatly prefer at WDW (I rode as recently as 2009).
We were so bummed that the Matterhorn was closed. I remember absolutely loving this ride in 1992, and was looking forward to riding it again. Oh well, just gives me one more reason to go back someday.
New rides for me:
Indiana Jones: this was the ride I was most looking forward to. Got to ride it 3-4 times. Good but not great (probably hyped it too much in my own mind). I think the ride needs some TLC: audio was spotty at times and it seemed like there were ride elements missing. Third time we rode it, my mother was trying to buckle her seat belt and the ride vehicle lurched forward from the loading station to the seat belt check station. No way that vehicle should move before everyone is buckled.
Autopia: this was one of the big surprises for me, not being a fan of IndySpeedway at MK. My son asked to ride it on the last night so I grabbed some fastpasses and we did it late. Very enjoyable, much better than Indy at MK. Seemed like you could really feel Walt’s presence on this ride, as some of the track veered off into very narrow sections that made you feel like you were going fast, and it just felt like they tried really hard to throw in some interesting twists and turns. Just lots of character to this ride compared to MK’s version.
Star Tours: Stunningly good ride, especially compare to 1.0, which was a fun ride but never really gave you a reason to ride more than once (and I am a huge star wars fan!). Not worth a 120 minute wait, but worth being there early to secure a fast pass.
Little Mermaid: another very solid ride, and you could see this fitting in nicely in Fantasyland for instance. I am so happy that Disney continues to see the value in animatronics for their new rides. Our 8 year old daughter loved it (Ariel is her favorite princess) and wanted to ride multiple times. Very easy to do that before noon when we were there.
Screamin: Wow, Disney can do high thrills! A great ride in a great section of DCA. And the wait is never that long!
Monsters Inc: another good dark ride with animatronics. I rode this one twice and loved it both times.
Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, Storybook Land Canal Boats, Casey Junior Circus Train, Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough: I lumped these all together because none of them are in Fantasyland at MK. Can I just say that Fantasyland at DL blows MK’s out of the water? Again you can really feel Walt’s presence here, it’s just so intimate with so many great little details. I did not include Mr. Toad because I rode that at MK before they took it out, but it was nice to ride that one again. Fantasyland at DL has so much more to do than MK, and we did it on MM and got it all done by 12:00. LOVED casey junior especially…what a great little ride!
Roger Rabbit: meh. Not a fan of the movie and wasn’t too thrilled with the ride either.
Enchanted Tiki Room: after seeing the original, WDW should be ashamed. I hear maybe they are restoring it at WDW, I hope so, because there is simply no comparison.
Shows: We did World of Color on Thursday night and the DL fireworks on Friday night. I liked World of Color, and we had great viewing due to getting blue fast passes, but wasn’t completely blown away by it. It was very good, great at times. DL fireworks were very good too and was great to see Tinker Bell fly so much. Unlike MK, it was great to be able to do more rides AFTER the fireworks.
Dining: We had reservations for Ariel’s Grotto, Blue Bayou and Café Orleans inside the parks. We had reservations at Tortilla Jo’s and Naples Ristorante outside the parks. Ariel’s Grotto was actually very enjoyable. The food was good and it was great for my 8 year old to get to see 5 princesses! I did not think the princesses were as personable as their MK counterparts, only downside there. For instance, when we did Cinderella’s Royal Table at MK in 2009, Cinderella was very interactive with the kids and even remembered their names after dinner. At Ariel’s Grotto, Ariel barely said 2 words to us and the other princesses were a little nicer, but nothing like Cinderella at CRT (in fact, overall I would say the Cast at WDW is much nicer and magical than the cast at DLR).
Blue Bayou was PERFECT. We got a waterside table, and the ambience and food were great. Best dining of the entire trip.
We had to cancel our Café Orleans reservations due to touring plan adjustments. Tortilla Jo’s and Naples were both disappointing.
All in all, as most everyone knows, dining isn’t as great at DLR as it is at WDW. However, Blue Bayou is as good as anything at WDW. There just isn’t the quantity of great eating places at DLR (World Showcase alone gives WDW a major advantage here).
Cast members: As I said above, I thought the CMs at DLR were not as customer friendly as their counterparts at WDW. I think a lot of that maybe has to do with the fact that your average DLR visitor is a local there on a one day trip, whereas at WDW far more folks are there because they have traveled a long way to make WDW their one or two week destination. So you have a different clientele and maybe a harder one to serve at DLR (a lot more youth, for instance, who don’t really like following theme park rules). But I did notice a difference.
Getting around: Much, much easier at DLR. I can’t tell you how nice it was to be a 12 minute walk from hotel to main entrance, which made it far easier to be there at opening and leave for afternoon rest. This is well nigh impossible for us at WDW because our time share is a good 20 minute drive away, then you have to get into the park which takes another 10-20 minutes (even longer at MK). Furthermore, park hopping was ridiculously easy to do. Kudos to Disney for how they have designed DLR.
Magic: WDW is a magical place and it’s never lost its magic for me. But DLR is at a higher level. You can just feel Walt’s presence there, and I hate to say it but WDW does seem a tad bit more commercial in how it’s designed and layed out. Doing the Enchanted Tiki Room, for instance, you just sense that little has changed since Walt supervised its creation, and it’s almost like you’re back there when it was first opened. Same with all of Fantasyland, Autopia, etc. Even Sleeping Beauty Castle seemed to have more character than its giant counterpart at WDW (and even has an attraction inside!). I can’t wait to go back to WDW (and we are planning to do so in 2013), but I will certainly make my way back to DLR someday due to the magic.
Crowd levels: very crowded, particularly in Tomorrowland. But with smart fast pass management, DLR is definitely doable in the summer. I got far more fast passes than we used. Thanks to Hydro Guy and others for tips, they worked like a charm, and no one even looked at me funny for using fast passes well beyond their bracketed time.
Ride closures: Being a WDW vet, I was shocked at how often rides closed down at DLR. Indiana Jones, Star Tours and Space Mountain were all closed for multiple hours at various times when we were there. TSMM was actually closed from 10-10:20 one morning, which wasn’t that enjoyable since we had done the bridge rush to get their and beat the crowd. Star Tours was closed for something like 7-8 hours one day, which is pretty remarkable when you consider that we are only 2-3 months after a major refurb to the ride. Closures threw some major hiccups into our touring plans, though we managed to adjust and it all worked out fine in the end. But it was a MAJOR difference between DLR and WDW, where rides have rarely if ever closed down on us unless they were going through a planned refurb.
Weather: Uh, no contest. Low 80s and 0% humidity at DLR vs. 90s and 100% humidity at WDW. The weather at DLR was downright heavenly.
Conclusion: DLR is a magical, special place that ALL WDW vets have to visit at least once. And I promise that after you go, you will definitely want to go back!
As an fyi, I am a WDW vet, having been there 11 times over the past 28 years. Prior to our recent trip, I had only been to Disneyland Park once, way back in 1992, and only for about 2/3 of a day.
I wanted to discuss my impressions of DLR compared to WDW, then I will get to a few other impressions after that.
Rides: When I attended Disneyland Park in 1992, having been to WDW 3-4 times already by that point, I remember liking all the rides better at DL, particularly Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean.
And I had the same impression after our visit to DLR last week as well: every ride that is shared between the two resorts, I generally prefer the DLR version. There is one exception: Haunted Mansion, which I greatly prefer at WDW (I rode as recently as 2009).
We were so bummed that the Matterhorn was closed. I remember absolutely loving this ride in 1992, and was looking forward to riding it again. Oh well, just gives me one more reason to go back someday.
New rides for me:
Indiana Jones: this was the ride I was most looking forward to. Got to ride it 3-4 times. Good but not great (probably hyped it too much in my own mind). I think the ride needs some TLC: audio was spotty at times and it seemed like there were ride elements missing. Third time we rode it, my mother was trying to buckle her seat belt and the ride vehicle lurched forward from the loading station to the seat belt check station. No way that vehicle should move before everyone is buckled.
Autopia: this was one of the big surprises for me, not being a fan of IndySpeedway at MK. My son asked to ride it on the last night so I grabbed some fastpasses and we did it late. Very enjoyable, much better than Indy at MK. Seemed like you could really feel Walt’s presence on this ride, as some of the track veered off into very narrow sections that made you feel like you were going fast, and it just felt like they tried really hard to throw in some interesting twists and turns. Just lots of character to this ride compared to MK’s version.
Star Tours: Stunningly good ride, especially compare to 1.0, which was a fun ride but never really gave you a reason to ride more than once (and I am a huge star wars fan!). Not worth a 120 minute wait, but worth being there early to secure a fast pass.
Little Mermaid: another very solid ride, and you could see this fitting in nicely in Fantasyland for instance. I am so happy that Disney continues to see the value in animatronics for their new rides. Our 8 year old daughter loved it (Ariel is her favorite princess) and wanted to ride multiple times. Very easy to do that before noon when we were there.
Screamin: Wow, Disney can do high thrills! A great ride in a great section of DCA. And the wait is never that long!
Monsters Inc: another good dark ride with animatronics. I rode this one twice and loved it both times.
Alice in Wonderland, Pinocchio, Storybook Land Canal Boats, Casey Junior Circus Train, Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough: I lumped these all together because none of them are in Fantasyland at MK. Can I just say that Fantasyland at DL blows MK’s out of the water? Again you can really feel Walt’s presence here, it’s just so intimate with so many great little details. I did not include Mr. Toad because I rode that at MK before they took it out, but it was nice to ride that one again. Fantasyland at DL has so much more to do than MK, and we did it on MM and got it all done by 12:00. LOVED casey junior especially…what a great little ride!
Roger Rabbit: meh. Not a fan of the movie and wasn’t too thrilled with the ride either.
Enchanted Tiki Room: after seeing the original, WDW should be ashamed. I hear maybe they are restoring it at WDW, I hope so, because there is simply no comparison.
Shows: We did World of Color on Thursday night and the DL fireworks on Friday night. I liked World of Color, and we had great viewing due to getting blue fast passes, but wasn’t completely blown away by it. It was very good, great at times. DL fireworks were very good too and was great to see Tinker Bell fly so much. Unlike MK, it was great to be able to do more rides AFTER the fireworks.
Dining: We had reservations for Ariel’s Grotto, Blue Bayou and Café Orleans inside the parks. We had reservations at Tortilla Jo’s and Naples Ristorante outside the parks. Ariel’s Grotto was actually very enjoyable. The food was good and it was great for my 8 year old to get to see 5 princesses! I did not think the princesses were as personable as their MK counterparts, only downside there. For instance, when we did Cinderella’s Royal Table at MK in 2009, Cinderella was very interactive with the kids and even remembered their names after dinner. At Ariel’s Grotto, Ariel barely said 2 words to us and the other princesses were a little nicer, but nothing like Cinderella at CRT (in fact, overall I would say the Cast at WDW is much nicer and magical than the cast at DLR).
Blue Bayou was PERFECT. We got a waterside table, and the ambience and food were great. Best dining of the entire trip.
We had to cancel our Café Orleans reservations due to touring plan adjustments. Tortilla Jo’s and Naples were both disappointing.
All in all, as most everyone knows, dining isn’t as great at DLR as it is at WDW. However, Blue Bayou is as good as anything at WDW. There just isn’t the quantity of great eating places at DLR (World Showcase alone gives WDW a major advantage here).
Cast members: As I said above, I thought the CMs at DLR were not as customer friendly as their counterparts at WDW. I think a lot of that maybe has to do with the fact that your average DLR visitor is a local there on a one day trip, whereas at WDW far more folks are there because they have traveled a long way to make WDW their one or two week destination. So you have a different clientele and maybe a harder one to serve at DLR (a lot more youth, for instance, who don’t really like following theme park rules). But I did notice a difference.
Getting around: Much, much easier at DLR. I can’t tell you how nice it was to be a 12 minute walk from hotel to main entrance, which made it far easier to be there at opening and leave for afternoon rest. This is well nigh impossible for us at WDW because our time share is a good 20 minute drive away, then you have to get into the park which takes another 10-20 minutes (even longer at MK). Furthermore, park hopping was ridiculously easy to do. Kudos to Disney for how they have designed DLR.
Magic: WDW is a magical place and it’s never lost its magic for me. But DLR is at a higher level. You can just feel Walt’s presence there, and I hate to say it but WDW does seem a tad bit more commercial in how it’s designed and layed out. Doing the Enchanted Tiki Room, for instance, you just sense that little has changed since Walt supervised its creation, and it’s almost like you’re back there when it was first opened. Same with all of Fantasyland, Autopia, etc. Even Sleeping Beauty Castle seemed to have more character than its giant counterpart at WDW (and even has an attraction inside!). I can’t wait to go back to WDW (and we are planning to do so in 2013), but I will certainly make my way back to DLR someday due to the magic.
Crowd levels: very crowded, particularly in Tomorrowland. But with smart fast pass management, DLR is definitely doable in the summer. I got far more fast passes than we used. Thanks to Hydro Guy and others for tips, they worked like a charm, and no one even looked at me funny for using fast passes well beyond their bracketed time.
Ride closures: Being a WDW vet, I was shocked at how often rides closed down at DLR. Indiana Jones, Star Tours and Space Mountain were all closed for multiple hours at various times when we were there. TSMM was actually closed from 10-10:20 one morning, which wasn’t that enjoyable since we had done the bridge rush to get their and beat the crowd. Star Tours was closed for something like 7-8 hours one day, which is pretty remarkable when you consider that we are only 2-3 months after a major refurb to the ride. Closures threw some major hiccups into our touring plans, though we managed to adjust and it all worked out fine in the end. But it was a MAJOR difference between DLR and WDW, where rides have rarely if ever closed down on us unless they were going through a planned refurb.
Weather: Uh, no contest. Low 80s and 0% humidity at DLR vs. 90s and 100% humidity at WDW. The weather at DLR was downright heavenly.
Conclusion: DLR is a magical, special place that ALL WDW vets have to visit at least once. And I promise that after you go, you will definitely want to go back!
)
Glad you felt the magic and my opinions line up with your 99% of the way. Except for World of Color which blows me away every time... 
The Matterhorn!
