Disneyland bubble

[LKing]

Yeah, but the roads are all Disney roads - it's not like you are out in the city or anything and you don't see all these non-Disney chain stores, etc. There is a McDonalds though, but it's a pretty fancy one.

McDonalds used to be located inside DCA. Now there are chain restaurants such as Starbucks, Ghirardelli and Boudins, with menus that are slightly different than outside of the park.

In DTD, you'll see chain stores such as Sunglass Hut, Sephora, Pandora, Love Pop, and Lego. The majority of DTD restaurants (including Great Maple in the Pixar Place Hotel), are chains. DTD chain restaurants include Starbucks, Jamba Juice, Wetzel's Pretzels, Salt & Straw, Ballast Point, Earl of Sandwich, Black Tap, Naples Ristorante and Clyde's Hot Chicken and soon, Din Tai Fung and Portos.

During festivals (Lunar NY, Food & Wine), Disney brings in outside vendors to set up carts and sell products. No Disney GC, no Disney discounts, no cash payments.

DTD even has Jehovah Witnesses with their table set up outside of World of Disney.

 

[Pluto468]

I don't need a bubble to have a good time.

@ClaraOswald ~ This should be a bumper sticker.

 

[StarlitNight05]

McDonalds used to be located inside DCA.

This brought back very fond memories!

When DCA first opened I BEGGED my parents relentlessly to go. By that time (I was 14), my older brother was too cool to go to Disneyland, so they only took me. And to top it off, we stayed at what was then Paradise Pier Hotel! My Mom reasoned that I was likely going to outgrow my Disneyland love like my brother, so we splurged for the first time staying onsite. Little did they know at the time, I would never grow out of it!

Once we got to DCA and were deciding on lunch, like a good 14 year old, I wanted McDonald's as soon as I saw it. I'll never forget my Mom looking at me so disappointed "We came all this way and you want McDonald's?!" Luckily she obliged

Sorry, OP, for the side rant

 

[Pluto468]

This brought back very fond memories!

When DCA first opened I BEGGED my parents relentlessly to go. By that time (I was 14), my older brother was too cool to go to Disneyland, so they only took me. And to top it off, we stayed at what was then Paradise Pier Hotel! My Mom reasoned that I was likely going to outgrow my Disneyland love like my brother, so we splurged for the first time staying onsite. Little did they know at the time, I would never grow out of it!

Once we got to DCA and were deciding on lunch, like a good 14 year old, I wanted McDonald's as soon as I saw it. I'll never forget my Mom looking at me so disappointed "We came all this way and you want McDonald's?!" Luckily she obliged

Sorry, OP, for the side rant

That reminds me of the Conestoga fries wagon in Disneyland. I used to love going there.

 

[crystal1313]

Oh man. We were just talking about the fry wagon at Disneyland and how we miss it!! Lol.

 

[NVDISFamily]

I start to feel the Pixie Dust vibes as soon as I cross the border from NV into CA when I know I’m inbound to Disneyland so I consider anything West/South of the 5 or 57 the bubble for me. But for a more direct comparison a stay at the Grand Call or Disneyland Hotel is awesome and the Grand is peak bubble compared to anything at WDW. With the fact that you can hop from park to park in a few min being a huge win.

Some examples of peak bubble bliss -



I love waking up to this out my window -



Hope you have fun at the OG mouse house

 

[starlite_]

Oh man. We were just talking about the fry wagon at Disneyland and how we miss it!! Lol.

I remember one school trip where we only ate fries from that cart and candy we brought in with us. Souvenirs were more important than food.

 

[DizMe]

I always feel the Disney bubble, even when I'm on the monorail and viewing the backstage areas, Harbor Blvd, etc. It's like looking down at the poor people who aren't inside ha ha.

I love the way Walt & Co thought forward to make sure Disneyland gave you the feeling of being removed from the outside world. The berms, etc were a brilliant plan, along with forced perspective to give you the feeling of things being full-sized when they really aren't.

Edited to add that I would like to give a big frowny Mickey face to those who decided to sell bubble wands at DLR. I don't want bubble saliva in my face, hair, etc. It's just so annoying to have a giant, non-stop stream of them flowing straight into my face and I can't really do much but grumble because some little kid is having incredible fun unintentionally making me miserable.

 

[ClaraOswald]

I just don't like when the bubbles land on my glasses.

 

[Porsche4]

I love the WDW bubble. At DL I have stayed both onsite (Grand Cal) and offsite (Howard Johnson). I loved the convenience of the Grand Cal but honestly I did not feel I lost the Disney bubble feeling by staying at the HoJo. I feel like even though you are not in a Disney Bubble per se, if you stay on Harbor Boulevard I feel like that area being lined with hotels makes it feel like you are in a sort of Disney Bubble. I feel like all the people walking along the pavement are all excited and in a Disney mood, and you are surrounded by mouse ears and kids dressed as princesses and that helps to build that Disney Magical feeling even though you are on a busy LA road. I feel sorry for the homeless people on the street but they still don't spoil the Disney excitement for me and yes I can even block out the "Preacher" and the trashy street vendors because I choose to zero in on the happy expectant Disney families and people around me, they make me feel like I am in a Disney bubble.

 

[Jwaire]

We've debated this ad nauseam, but there's not much of a bubble at Disneyland Resort. I was surprised just how plopped down Disneyland feels. It's literally in the middle of Anaheim sandwiched between the 5 and neighborhoods. However, we still enjoyed our time there.

They try around the area they can control. The signage gets more Disney-like as you get off the freeway and the landscaping improves, but if you are used to Walt Disney World—it's kind of disappointing.

If you stay at Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier, you're going to be looking at neighborhoods, the hills, the convention center, parking deck, parking lot, etc. unless you pay for a Theme Park view room.

Several of the new neighboring hotels have views into DCA.

 

[Jwaire]

I definitely feel like I'm in a bubble when I stay on property. You walk from your hotel to the parks through downtown Disney, so there's no need to see much of Anaheim.

You won't see the outside world from inside the parks, aside from what other people have mentioned. But it's not like you're standing in Fantasyland and can see Anaheim roads or anything like that.

Not sure as much thought and care of the berm was put on the DCA side though ... Taken from Mickey's Deathwheel (or whatever they call it nowadays)



It's not a big deal. It's just smaller. They don't own as much property around it as you might expect. You can see why Walt was frustrated.

 

[LoveDaisy]

I love the WDW bubble. At DL I have stayed both onsite (Grand Cal) and offsite (Howard Johnson). I loved the convenience of the Grand Cal but honestly I did not feel I lost the Disney bubble feeling by staying at the HoJo. I feel like even though you are not in a Disney Bubble per se, if you stay on Harbor Boulevard I feel like that area being lined with hotels makes it feel like you are in a sort of Disney Bubble. I feel like all the people walking along the pavement are all excited and in a Disney mood, and you are surrounded by mouse ears and kids dressed as princesses and that helps to build that Disney Magical feeling even though you are on a busy LA road. I feel sorry for the homeless people on the street but they still don't spoil the Disney excitement for me and yes I can even block out the "Preacher" and the trashy street vendors because I choose to zero in on the happy expectant Disney families and people around me, they make me feel like I am in a Disney bubble.

Thank you for your honesty. This is for sure something that would make me feel outside of the bubble, but totally normal for cities I travel to, just not what I want for the Disney bubble.

 

[LoveDaisy]

We've debated this ad nauseam, but there's not much of a bubble at Disneyland Resort. I was surprised just how plopped down Disneyland feels. It's literally in the middle of Anaheim sandwiched between the 5 and neighborhoods. However, we still enjoyed our time there.

They try around the area they can control. The signage gets more Disney-like as you get off the freeway and the landscaping improves, but if you are used to Walt Disney World—it's kind of disappointing.

If you stay at Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier, you're going to be looking at neighborhoods, the hills, the convention center, parking deck, parking lot, etc. unless you pay for a Theme Park view room.

Several of the new neighboring hotels have views into DCA.

Thanks I am used to Disney World we stay onsite usually at BWI. We walk to 2 parks, do I day at MK (Disney bus) and usually skip AK.

 

[MillauFr]

Orange County California is a bubble. It certainly isn't the real world.

 

[disneychrista]

A fun video about the bubble inside Disneyland park

 

[Tinkaboo]

You have to keep in mind in 1955, it WAS in the middle of nowhere. Even as a younger person, I have fond memories of the last remaining strawberry field down on the corner near Harbor and Katella. They sold them at their own stand there.

Should Walt have bought more land? He could barely get financing for what he did get!

For me…my bubble includes Candy Cane which has been there since the beginning and whose staff are just as sweet and kind as any Disney CM.

My last visit to WDW last November…I didn’t even have personal contact with anyone at our hotel…everything done on the app. Not much Disney Magic there.

 

[ClaraOswald]

We've debated this ad nauseam, but there's not much of a bubble at Disneyland Resort. I was surprised just how plopped down Disneyland feels. It's literally in the middle of Anaheim sandwiched between the 5 and neighborhoods. However, we still enjoyed our time there.

They try around the area they can control. The signage gets more Disney-like as you get off the freeway and the landscaping improves, but if you are used to Walt Disney World—it's kind of disappointing.

If you stay at Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier, you're going to be looking at neighborhoods, the hills, the convention center, parking deck, parking lot, etc. unless you pay for a Theme Park view room.

Several of the new neighboring hotels have views into DCA.

I mean, minus the neighborhood/convention center....you basically described the WDW hotels too.

 

[Porsche4]

You have to keep in mind in 1955, it WAS in the middle of nowhere. Even as a younger person, I have fond memories of the last remaining strawberry field down on the corner near Harbor and Katella. They sold them at their own stand there.

Should Walt have bought more land? He could barely get financing for what he did get!

For me…my bubble includes Candy Cane which has been there since the beginning and whose staff are just as sweet and kind as any Disney CM.

My last visit to WDW last November…I didn’t even have personal contact with anyone at our hotel…everything done on the app. Not much Disney Magic there.

Gosh I couldn't agree more. I refuse to use the Disney App to check in. For me there is so much excitement in entering a Disney Hotel foyer which is usually themed or has a wow factor and then I enjoy going up to the counter and interacting with a CM. They are usually genuinely interested in where you have come from and as a top priority for me is a quiet room I always get the perfect room location if I chat with a CM. Being old fashioned I just can't bring myself to let a computer App make that choice for me.

 

[PiratesOfTheSea]

I don't think there's any way to fully avoid the outside world unless you pay for a premium view onsite hotel and don't get too far above ground level outdoor while in the resort. That doesn't bother us enough to plan around it, but speaking from experience, once you have stayed at an onsite hotel, it's very difficult to go back offsite. Realistically the Harbor hotels/motels are more than adequate but the vehicular traffic there is probably the one thing that really kills the bubble.

I will also say there is a subtle difference in the vibes between the crowds coming from the DLR/PPH side vs the Harbor side. Not in a good or bad way, just in terms of priorities.