@Christine I'm also a long time WDW vet. About 10 years ago when we were visiting family in Los Angeles, my wife and I decided to take a spur of the moment last minute trip for our first time in Disneyland. There was no planning, never read up on the differences Disneyland had or the best ways to experience a different Disney park. Honestly, my thinking was "I know the Magic Kingdom like the back of my hand and it was modeled after Disneyland, so it SHOULD be easy to navigate, right?"
BIG MISTAKE!
First our drive from LAX to Anaheim was a nightmare and since we arrived to DLR later, parking was a mess. By the time we parked, got out our strollers for my 3 kids who were all toddlers at that time, purchased tickets and got into Disneyland, it was pushing past 11am and the park was extremely packed. The layout was so different than the Magic Kingdom and navigating the park without doing any research was a big mistake. We made all the same mistakes that you did after reading all of your posts on this thread. We were all HUNGRY, had a tough time finding food and just settled for the first thing we saw. Similar to you, we also thought "This doesn't compare to WDW at all" and really didn't enjoy it and felt too stressed out. At that time, we just focused on our kids and spent the rest of our time there in Mickey's Toontown, doing character meet and greets getting pictures with the kids and a few more activities that they would enjoy. We called it a day after a couple of hours as our three young kids were tired and my wife and I were just exhausted because of how non-familiar things were compared to the Magic Kingdom.
Afterwards, we made multiple more WDW trips and as usual, always have had a great time. Although in the back of my mind, I knew that going to Disneyland unprepared was
ALL MY FAULT and I always wanted to have a "redo" of going to Disneyland with my family. Then when I heard Disneyland was reopening in April of 2021, we decided to add 3 extra days to our Los Angeles vacation and do Disneyland properly this time with the kid all teenagers now. I'm usually an over planner and that's how I'd plan our WDW vacations. So I spent 3 months reading almost every thread here and watching a ton of YouTube videos on Disneyland. I wanted to be well prepared as possible this time around...….and it paid off big time. That when we did visit in July of 2021, our day in Disneyland was my favorite Disney day ever, even compared to any day at WDW! There was no shows, no fastpass/
genie+, several restaurants were closed post pandemic but even with all that, we still found the magic of Disneyland because of all the planning I did this time around. I was prepared for anything and that led to an amazing day. If you want to read how that day went, here's my trip report....
https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...ing-disneyland-trip-report-7-28-7-29.3848213/
Bottom line, I'm certain that if you give Disneyland another chance and prepare for that trip just a little bit, you'll find that Disney magic that you thought was lacking. You'll get as much out of Disneyland as you put into planning for that trip. If you have any questions on best practices, just ask, as I'm sure anyone on this message board would more than be happy to help you out.