DL again or WDW?

[Meemoo]

My husband and I are a bit lost as to where to go next time. I'll let you know our thoughts on the two, then give me your opinions!!

DL - Our first trip together as a family with the kids last year. We stayed at VGC and we loved the proximity to the parks, getting a FP and going back to the room, popping down to use it. Everything was easy. We did always feel like we had to be somewhere at the certain time though, the time went too fast!! Never a spare moment. We loved Paint the Night and the 60th Anniversary Fireworks, Fantasmic, Blue Bayou, Goofy's Kitchen, Indiana Jones Ride, Soarin, Cars Land and the magic of meeting random roaming characters like Mary Poppins and Mat Hatter and Alice. Our thoughts are that if we were to do it again, we'd space out the trip more, have some spare days for other things, rent a car and do some other day trips to avoid the go,go,go to exhaustion with DL! There are great deals on airfares. The flight is far, but not eye twitching too far!!

WDW - A new place we have never been to. A chance to go somewhere new to explore as a family. Our DVC points would stretch far here, less points per night. I'd like to see the 'big castle', The original Main Street Electrical Parade, stay at Animal Kingdom & VGF, see Fantasmic, my daughter loves Figment (any dragon actually) and I'd like to eat at Be Our Guest restaurant and I'd have to try a Disney Cruise. My worries is that we might miss DL, we don't get to go too often. We like DL's convenience, will it feel like a battle at WDW, constant waiting for buses, lining up for things. Time will go fast, we'll be tired. It will cost a fair bit more, in flights and the need for a Disney Cruise. We'd rent a car.

Those are my thoughts so far! Either way, we'd be traveling during off peak. Many people love DL for its originality and convenience, but plenty of people say WDW is the place to go. Help me decide

 

[AussieNSW]

Wow that is such a hard question. It does depend on the time of the year and the ages of your children. I can never answer that question so I tend to do both. We fly into either Dallas or New York with Qantas and fly home from LAX so that we get to do both.

At WDW you need to do a lot more planning. There is some major changes and work going on that may influence your choice. The nighttime shows at WDW are not as good as the Disneyland 60th celebrations except over the Christmas period when they are fantastic. We really disliked Fantasmic at WDW and found it very dark I much preferred it at Disneyland. They have a new nighttime show at AK which looks good. The hotels at WDW and staff are better at WDW. You really feel like you are on vacation as you donot need to leave the Disney bubble. You can also go to SeaWorld and Universal Studios and visit NASA. I like Orlando it feels relaxing.
You can go on a cruise easily which we have done twice after staying at WDW. You also have water parks avaliable on site.

At Disneyland it is more compact which is nice and I love down town disney I did not like Disney Springs it was to spread out and took to long to get there. You are not in a Disney bubble so it was easier to eat at different places such as the Cheesecake Factory and In Out. There is plenty of shopping malls near by. There is alot of other cool things to do such as lae brae tar pits, farmers market, ice hockey.

I cant chose but if cost is not a huge problem and you have seen the 60th celebrations at Disneyland I would go for WDW but just be careful with the time you chose to go as it can be very hot and humid. If you stay at a resort on the monorail transportation is even easier.

 

[Meemoo]

Wow that is such a hard question. It does depend on the time of the year and the ages of your children. I can never answer that question so I tend to do both. We fly into either Dallas or New York with Qantas and fly home from LAX so that we get to do both.

At WDW you need to do a lot more planning. There is some major changes and work going on that may influence your choice. The nighttime shows at WDW are not as good as the Disneyland 60th celebrations except over the Christmas period when they are fantastic. We really disliked Fantasmic at WDW and found it very dark I much preferred it at Disneyland. They have a new nighttime show at AK which looks good. The hotels at WDW and staff are better at WDW. You really feel like you are on vacation as you donot need to leave the Disney bubble. You can also go to SeaWorld and Universal Studios and visit NASA. I like Orlando it feels relaxing.
You can go on a cruise easily which we have done twice after staying at WDW. You also have water parks avaliable on site.

At Disneyland it is more compact which is nice and I love down town disney I did not like Disney Springs it was to spread out and took to long to get there. You are not in a Disney bubble so it was easier to eat at different places such as the Cheesecake Factory and In Out. There is plenty of shopping malls near by. There is alot of other cool things to do such as lae brae tar pits, farmers market, ice hockey.

I cant chose but if cost is not a huge problem and you have seen the 60th celebrations at Disneyland I would go for WDW but just be careful with the time you chose to go as it can be very hot and humid. If you stay at a resort on the monorail transportation is even easier.

Thank you for your thoughts. I'd like to visit NASA, so that's a good point.I would love to do a combined DL & WDW stay but I think it would consume too much time. I think we'd have 3 - 3.5 weeks max. We did DL & Hawaii in 3 weeks last year and it felt like it wasn't enough. Not to mention doubling up on all the park tickets, that could be costly!!

I unfortunately have a bad habit of returning over and over to places I have already been. Having said that they always feel too familiar when I go the 2nd or 3rd time and something new would be exciting!!

What hotel's does everyone recommend as an LA airport stop over to just rest up to break the long haul over to Orlando?

 

[crazy Cat Lady]

If you have 3 weeks I'd recommend WDW. Yes it is more planning, BUT, with fastpass+ you book in advance so you don't have to run around and get the paper passes, plus if you are doing ADR that is taken care of as well. I like a good solid plan done months in advance, it relieves the pressure once on the ground (Disclaimer: I'm also a control freak, so that helps) ;-) Plus there is free wifi in the parks and the app is pretty good at helping you plan on the run checking wait times etc.

Florida has Universal which is fantastic (your daughter will love the dragon on top of Gringotts Bank!) and the water parks + NASA and some excellent outlet shopping. Apparently there is a whole city there called "Orlando", don't ask me what it looks like, we didn't see it it LOL. (We were there 7 days - 4 Disney, 2 Universal, plus one spare that we spent at the F&W Festival).

We stayed offsite in October and found that with the rope drop strategy we got a lot done with minimal hassle and the weather was good. I would get a car if we stayed offsite again though - shuttles from the hotels didn't leave early enough for us so we spent on taxis.

Onsite, we found the Disney transportation very good, so I wouldnt worry about that too much. I'm sure it gets crowded in peak season, but we always got seats.

Long flights should be dealt with like a bandaid in my opinion, torn right off in one painful yank! We flew straight through - Qantas fly direct to Dallas these days (we transited via LAX) and then it's only a couple of hours or so flight to MCO. You'd arrive around 11.00 pm ish and hopefully get enough sleep to get cracking in the parks the next morning.

They are doing a lot of building ATM so you should check for closures (or exciting openings) for your planned dates, that might settle it for you.

My vote for what it is worth is WDW!

 

[viaggiamo]

We debate between this too. DH and I have been to both, but the DChildren have been to DL twice. This is mainly because of flight times. Next time we will consider DW as DS will be older (7yo) and we will add Universal to see Harry Potter world.

Plus I want to travel to Savannah and Charleston...

If you have 3.5 weeks you have heaps of time to choose either. Do you only want to "do" disney or explore other regions?

We generally take 5-7 days for Disney and then visit other areas of the USA, but that's what we prefer and have done that 6 times.

WDW needs 1 week + whereas DL can be done in 4+days.

Have fun planning, I love having the trip wide open and shaving off options as we decide.

 

[Aussiefamof5]

Hi
Have been absent from these boards for so long but caught your post. We were in the exact same dilemma and didn't know what to do. We had a 3 week trip planned around exam time, which falls around thanksgiving time as well so domestic airfares within the USA skyrocket - in the end we stuck with Disneyland/Vegas as it will be a much more relaxed trip but will definitely do DW next time when our youngest is just that little bit older

 

[ColinA]

How are you going to use the DVC points if you want to stay DL, you probably have buckleys of booking VGC. WDW is easy.

WDW all the way for us!

 

[aussie shaz]

I'd love to do WDW after our 2 trips to Disneyland, but the length of flights, costs and planning put me off. I'm a huge planner, but WDW just seems too difficult.
Have you thought about Japan? LOL. We leave for there in 3 weeks. It's less than 10 hour flight from Melbourne, it has 2 Disney parks and a Universal Studios, which also has Wizzarding World of Harry Potter. And it's got lots of culture.

 

[LivingforDisney]

WDW takes lots of planning, but there is so much more to see and do than DL.
I have taken my kids to DL 2008, 2009 & then we did WDW 2013, we spent 14 nights and then we went Dec/Jan just gone and were away 5 and half weeks, we did 4 nights Anaheim on the way.
Both times I was lucky to score the free dining for our stays, which was excellent.
Was so much fun eating at the resturants at the parks and resorts.
To really see and do everything you need a bit of time, 1 day at AK, 1 day at HS , maybe 2 at HS, prob 2 at Epcot and at least 3 at MK.
They are building a whole lot of new stuff, hopefully we will get back there one day, but it will be after all the new stuff is done.

You need rest days as a lot of walking is involved.
Then there is Disney Springs which is great.
You can get a taxi from there to the outlets.
You can go and look at the other resorts, some are amazing.
The bus transport is fantastic, from the airport and the resorts to the parks.
We stayed at the Cabana Bay resort for Universal, was great , we had 3 day park to park tickets, didn't bother about the Front of line thing they sold.
We also went to the other outlets up that end.
We did KSC on our first trip, so didn't do it again in Dec, but we did do the airboat ride again, a must do.
The flight will probably get in late afternoon/evening, we caught a 9.45am from L.A, but it was late, straight thru though and still didn't get to our resort till about 8pm,so the first day is a right off.
Coming home, we left Orlando at 7pm, straight thru to LAX and had about a hour till our flight to Sydney, it actually wasn't too bad, but don't think I could do it on the way like that.
We did a cruise on the Fantasy, 7 night, wouldn't bother with 3 night or 4. The ships are too big and too much to see and do, wouldn't be relaxing at all under 7 nights.
Hoping they are going to bring one down under, as they have 2 new ones on the Horizon.
I didn't think I would go back to WDW as We found it quite over whelming the first time, but glad we had the chance to do it again.
I did spend nearly 12 months researching and booking things myself.
They do seem to have longer park hours at WDW, especially in peak hours, like MK was open 7am till 3am next day.
All in all Christmas was ok for us, it wasn't as crazy as I was expecting, hey we rode the 7 dwarfs mine train 8 times, one of the most popular rides,
we didn't do the parks Xmas eve/ day or NYE /day.
We also went in Sept, was nice weather, some days a bit humid. Preferred the Dec weather, it was actually quite hot most of the time, though Jan was a lot cooler.
I really think at WDW there is no slow time, but definetlty would not go in their summer, way too hot, humid and crowded.
Test track at Epcot is similar to the Cars Ride.
Good luck with your decision

 

[LivingforDisney]

Btw, Fantasmic is better at DL, we didn't bother with it last time.
Love the Electrical Parade.
I wouldn't hire a car if staying on site.

 

[Agent 86]

If you have three weeks, I'd do Walt Disney World. One week at the parks (and other attractions like NASA and Universal). One week on a Disney Cruise (as a bit of a break from the parks). And one final week at Walt Disney World.

 

[Meemoo]

If you have three weeks, I'd do Walt Disney World. One week at the parks (and other attractions like NASA and Universal). One week on a Disney Cruise (as a bit of a break from the parks). And one final week at Walt Disney World.

I like the idea of having the cruise in the middle.

 

[Meemoo]

I'd love to do WDW after our 2 trips to Disneyland, but the length of flights, costs and planning put me off. I'm a huge planner, but WDW just seems too difficult.
Have you thought about Japan? LOL. We leave for there in 3 weeks. It's less than 10 hour flight from Melbourne, it has 2 Disney parks and a Universal Studios, which also has Wizzarding World of Harry Potter. And it's got lots of culture.

Yes, Japan is certainly on our lists of places to visit, but I was going to wait a few years so the kids my appreciate it more. I hear you, WDW does sound hectic with all the planning but I need to see it some day!!

 

[Meemoo]

How are you going to use the DVC points if you want to stay DL, you probably have buckleys of booking VGC. WDW is easy.

WDW all the way for us!

We were successful last time with VGC, if we choose our dates wisely it should work out - if not I don't mind to stay at Disneyland Hotel, and sell some points to do so, I've always wanted to stay there but WDW is still on the cards, just a big decision but I love exploring all the possibilities of both options

 

[LivingforDisney]

Cruise at then end of trip, you will be glad of the break from all the walking at the parks.
Most people mention this on Disney disboards site.
Just give yourself plenty of time for the trip, it is a long way to go,so the longer you can spend the better. It is nothing like Disneyland, believe me, even on our free days we were walking somewhere lol.
Best idea is to write out day by day where you want to be, add in the travelling to and from Aus, rest days, you will need some , especially if you are staying at one of the expensive resorts, so you can get to use the pool ect, and then see how many days you come up with.

 

[Meemoo]

Is there no special WDW ticket offer for Aussies as there is for DL? I was just doing some research, if I get the 10 day park hopper, I only get 14 days to use it so I'd have to cram it in and not take the cruise until after I am done there or I'd forfeit whatever days were left.

 

[ColinA]

Is there no special WDW ticket offer for Aussies as there is for DL? I was just doing some research, if I get the 10 day park hopper, I only get 14 days to use it so I'd have to cram it in and not take the cruise until after I am done there or I'd forfeit whatever days were left.

You are correct. Next level is one of the annual passes.

 

[GrazingGoat1966]

For what it's worth....

Hands down WDW. Have done both on multiple occasions but you simply cant compare with the ridiculous amount of options that you have at Orlando compared to Anaheim.

4 parks compared to 2

2 water parks compared to none

3 golf courses compared to none

27 on site accommodation options compared to 3

Disney springs at least twice the size of Downtown Disney

And with the complimentary Disney transport you simply don't need to go to the expense of hiring a car whilst you stay on-site.

Enjoy your decision!

 

[Royal Consort]

In my view, WDW is the hardest destination I've ever had to plan for. The ridiculous amount of planning is sometimes still beyond my comprehension. However, in saying that I find that planning the trip is part of the fun.

I adore the Disneyland Resort and probably prefer it over Walt Disney World. In saying that, you've visited Disneyland Resort already. There's an entirely new experience on the other coast - so why the hell not?

Also get to WDW before the Australian dollar really sucks. Your wallet will thank you kindly.

 

[Zosha]

If you've got three weeks go to WDW. When we went there for the first time in 2014, I was thinking it would be a one-and-done kind of trip. Words cannot describe how much we loved it though, so much so we are going back again this December (269 days!). We are also going to stop in DL on the way over as I have never been there. You will not regret WDW - it's definitely worth the pain of travelling over to the other side and completely doable in 3 weeks.