DL, good, bad, ugly

[dennis99ss]

Spent three days four nights at Disneyland hotel, with one full day at Disneyland, One full day at California, and a third day split between the two.

So, in a rambling sort of way, there were some good things, some bad things and some ugly things.

Disneyland hotel, while it apparently has been updated, it feels dated. It just does not have the Disney feel to it that we get from the Florida properties. While the lighted headboard, etc is nice, the hotel feels like a chain hotel more than a Disney hotel.

Downtown Disney--Brennans is still a great place to eat and we would recommend it to everyone. But, we tried the Mexican restaurant one night, and would have been better going to the Corner market for frozen Mexican tv dinners. Food was horrible, and service was worse.

With regards other food, we enjoyed Carthay Circle at California--very nice food, and a great wine list, as well as the Blue Bayou at Disneyland (the only thing missing was the glass of wine, but otherwise, food was good). we would go back to both.

Disneyland -- The theme of this trip was that all rides break all the time. During the time we spent in Disneyland, we experienced closures at Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Space Mountain, Big Thunder, Jungle Cruise, Autopia, Indiana Jones, Matahorn. They all experienced stoppages which required the lines to be cleared, and fast passes to be given out. This was over the course of a day and a half, and are the ones we knew of. Some of the rides were closed on more than one occasion. At one point, there were three rides closed. The fact that so many rides were closing, so often, makes me wonder about the park's intention to spend any money on maintenance and upkeep.

The park was dirty. Yes, there were a lot of people, but, I have been in the Florida parks during the same time of year, and do not recall the trash on the ground that we saw at Disneyland. trash on the ground, trash in the grass and bushes, trash on the canopies and off the que line walkways. I understand that this is probably because the clients at Disneyland are different from Florida in that it has many more day visitors than Florida, but, we did not see a presence of park personnel cleaning as we see in Florida. Another indication of lack of proper funding.

The rides upkeep seemed to be duck tape city. The matahorn bobsleds had numerous carts with "padded ducktape" wrapped on either handrails, handles, etc. Of course the tape gets dirty and fairly nasty. The wood fencing on the lines for the big thunder railroad had pieces broken at the connection with the vertical stanchions. You guessed it. Instead of a proper fix, ducktaped to keep it stable.

Over at California, we did not experience the ride stoppages nor the cleanliness issues, but, it is a newer park.

Radiator Springs and maters tractors are two great rides. Worth the trip to the park.

California--Everything on the boardwalk is shut down for the nightly show. Because we don't really care about the nightly show, the fact that all of the attractions on the boardwalk close early, and remain closed for about 2 hours, takes a little away from the park experience.

At Disneyland, it is apparent that the park does not know how to handle crowds, or, simply allow to many visitors in. The personnel try to institute "one way traffic" patters, but, the kicker is that they do not coordinate, so you have one cast member saying stay left, while 50 yards down, another is saying the opposite. Their attempts to control traffic flows does not work and was more of a hindrance than a help. Then, for the fantasmic show, they block off large swaths of walkway, leaving about 10 feet of passable area for the crowds to walk through.

It has been about 5 years since we were out at Disneyland between Christmas and New Years. The park is ok, it is the original, and California is a nice park, but, because of the lack of attention to detail at Disneyland in the form of the perceived lack of maintenance resulting in breakdowns, dirty grounds and ducktape, Disney Florida is our choice for the next couple years I think.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I was in the parks for five days last week, so I'll chime in on a few things. I was just discussing the cleanliness issue with my DH. We definitely would not label the park as "dirty." I saw an attendant working almost every time I used a restroom. As for trash on the ground, we saw some but not much. We did see many custodial CMs sweeping up. Part of the issue may have been the sheer volume of people in the parks. There are certain areas they just can't get to for routine maintenance. For example, they don't generally enter crowded ride queues unless someone reports a spill. Otherwise, the trash scattered here and there has to wait until closing time.

Yes, there were ride closures, but there are many things that could contribute to this (not necessarily poor maintenance). We've heard many times that one little object on a track will cause a ride to shut down. They can't reopen until a reset sequence is run, which can take a while. Since it's done in the interest of safety, we just have to endure it and move on to a different ride. My DS16 was riding TOT by himself and said a lady on his elevator had a panic attack just as everyone was buckling their seat belts. She had buckled her belt and then quickly unbuckled it so she could get off the ride. The CM explained to everyone that since her belt had been unbuckled, everyone had to get off and relocate to a different elevator. So that particular elevator remained down until the system could be reset. That slowed the loading down quite a bit.

Regarding the crowded walkways, yes, they were a problem. The park was built in 1955 and Walt probably never dreamed it would be handling the volume of today's crowds. We felt the CMs handled crowd flow as well as they could. We never encountered a CM telling us to go in a different direction than a previous CM had told us. Between the ropes and the CM's instructions, it was always very clear where we needed to walk. We learned to avoid the New Orleans Square area in the middle of the day and as Fantasmic time approached. The Pirates line spilled into the walkways, making it difficult to get around. It would be nice if they added Fastpass or some type of system to space people out during the day to avoid that line becoming so huge.

Also, we're not local to the area, but we do live in California and visit once or twice a year. I wouldn't categorize the locals and day visitors as the ones tossing their trash around. Many of the locals I've encountered are proud and even protective of the park. Many are annual passholders and are extra respectful of following rules and keeping the parks clean. Disrespectful people are just as likely to visit Disneyworld as they are to visit Disneyland.

 

[MouseEXP]

FYI. Most of the breakdowns that you experience are usually due to the guests being to slow when loading or unloading from the vehicle.

CM's then have to stop operations clear the current guests on the ride and then the maintenance operator has to clear and reset the attraction.

Experienced Disneyland visitors will usually wait for this process to take place. Based on the attraction it can take 10-30 minutes. If the issue is serious they will force people to exit and perhaps give them a FP to come back.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Spent three days four nights at Disneyland hotel, with one full day at Disneyland, One full day at California, and a third day split between the two.

So, in a rambling sort of way, there were some good things, some bad things and some ugly things.

Disneyland hotel, while it apparently has been updated, it feels dated. It just does not have the Disney feel to it that we get from the Florida properties. While the lighted headboard, etc is nice, the hotel feels like a chain hotel more than a Disney hotel.

Downtown Disney--Brennans is still a great place to eat and we would recommend it to everyone. But, we tried the Mexican restaurant one night, and would have been better going to the Corner market for frozen Mexican tv dinners. Food was horrible, and service was worse.

With regards other food, we enjoyed Carthay Circle at California--very nice food, and a great wine list, as well as the Blue Bayou at Disneyland (the only thing missing was the glass of wine, but otherwise, food was good). we would go back to both.

Disneyland -- The theme of this trip was that all rides break all the time. During the time we spent in Disneyland, we experienced closures at Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Small World, Space Mountain, Big Thunder, Jungle Cruise, Autopia, Indiana Jones, Matahorn. They all experienced stoppages which required the lines to be cleared, and fast passes to be given out. This was over the course of a day and a half, and are the ones we knew of. Some of the rides were closed on more than one occasion. At one point, there were three rides closed. The fact that so many rides were closing, so often, makes me wonder about the park's intention to spend any money on maintenance and upkeep.

The park was dirty. Yes, there were a lot of people, but, I have been in the Florida parks during the same time of year, and do not recall the trash on the ground that we saw at Disneyland. trash on the ground, trash in the grass and bushes, trash on the canopies and off the que line walkways. I understand that this is probably because the clients at Disneyland are different from Florida in that it has many more day visitors than Florida, but, we did not see a presence of park personnel cleaning as we see in Florida. Another indication of lack of proper funding.

The rides upkeep seemed to be duck tape city. The matahorn bobsleds had numerous carts with "padded ducktape" wrapped on either handrails, handles, etc. Of course the tape gets dirty and fairly nasty. The wood fencing on the lines for the big thunder railroad had pieces broken at the connection with the vertical stanchions. You guessed it. Instead of a proper fix, ducktaped to keep it stable.

Over at California, we did not experience the ride stoppages nor the cleanliness issues, but, it is a newer park.

Radiator Springs and maters tractors are two great rides. Worth the trip to the park.

California--Everything on the boardwalk is shut down for the nightly show. Because we don't really care about the nightly show, the fact that all of the attractions on the boardwalk close early, and remain closed for about 2 hours, takes a little away from the park experience.

At Disneyland, it is apparent that the park does not know how to handle crowds, or, simply allow to many visitors in. The personnel try to institute "one way traffic" patters, but, the kicker is that they do not coordinate, so you have one cast member saying stay left, while 50 yards down, another is saying the opposite. Their attempts to control traffic flows does not work and was more of a hindrance than a help. Then, for the fantasmic show, they block off large swaths of walkway, leaving about 10 feet of passable area for the crowds to walk through.

It has been about 5 years since we were out at Disneyland between Christmas and New Years. The park is ok, it is the original, and California is a nice park, but, because of the lack of attention to detail at Disneyland in the form of the perceived lack of maintenance resulting in breakdowns, dirty grounds and ducktape, Disney Florida is our choice for the next couple years I think.

Well, bye bye then! The less people in my park, the better...haha!

I actually found the opposite to be true of cleanliness. I feel that WDW is always more trashy and dirty. Especially the bathrooms. I think local people at Disneyland often feel that it's 'their' park and they like to keep it clean. Not all, of course. But that's the general feel I get.

Did you not look at photos or do research before booking the Disneyland Hotel? Sounds like somewhere else may have fit your needs a bit better. The Grand Californian, maybe.

And just a quick FYI for future posts - Matterhorn, duct tape, California Adventure, queue.

 

[dennis99ss]

wow Clara. Thanks for the English lesson. You remind me of Sister Mary Ann from my parochial school days.

but, since you mention bathrooms, I would guess 50% of the men's rooms had an issue in DL. Either one station, either "stand 2 p" or "sit to p" either malfunctioning, overflowing or roped off. It was just imho, unlike Disney on the other coast. but, to each their own....

 

[Aladora]

And just a quick FYI for future posts - Matterhorn, duct tape, California Adventure, queue.

Fun fact, the term "duck tape" actually predates "duct tape" and both are actually correct.

I have nothing else to add to this thread, but I always liked that little fact.

 

[jaxy82]

This post made me laugh way more than it surely was intended to. I think if the number one thing I had on my mind after returning from a Disneyland trip -- that included staying at a property hotel, no less -- was litter, than I would be feeling like I had failed at having fun.

It's a shame that the only positive things in this entire report were about the food.

And FWIW, I have found the parks to be extremely clean and the CMs to be very on top of making sure everything is in tip-top shape.

 

[ClaraOswald]

This post made me laugh way more than it surely was intended to. I think if the number one thing I had on my mind after returning from a Disneyland trip -- that included staying at a property hotel, no less -- was litter, than I would be feeling like I had failed at having fun.

It's a shame that the only positive things in this entire report were about the food.

And FWIW, I have found the parks to be extremely clean and the CMs to be very on top of making sure everything is in tip-top shape.

I heard that for a time a couple decades ago(?) the parks did cut back on maintenance and it was pretty terrible. But thankfully they learned that was a very bad idea and these days it's pretty nice. (Though to be fair, I haven't been since 2010 so I am hoping it isn't drastically different.)

I think that the CA and FL Disney parks do a much better job, maintenance wise, than other theme parks in the country.

And often whether or not someone enjoys their trip or notices every little 'flaw' really depends on their attitude in on their vacation. I know that for me, if I go looking for the bad, I have a bad time. So I try not to pay much attention to things like dust bunnies in the queue. Though I will notice something overly gross, like blood on the bathroom floor (I'm looking at you, Hollywood Studios!) Though even with that stuff, it's really not enough for me to hate a vacation destination and never go back. We've had good and bad things on every vacation we've ever taken. Life isn't perfect.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Fun fact, the term "duck tape" actually predates "duct tape" and both are actually correct.

I have nothing else to add to this thread, but I always liked that little fact.

I was always under the impression that original "duck tape" and modern day duct tape are not actually the same thing. Though I do know there is currently a brand called Duck Tape.

 

[Sherry E]

dennis99ss --

Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences with us. I am always interested to read about what other people think of DLR (especially if they are used to WDW), so I appreciate the review!

 

[Aladora]

I was always under the impression that original "duck tape" and modern day duct tape are not actually the same thing. Though I do know there is currently a brand called Duck Tape.

This gives a good background of the two terms.

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index...named-duck-tape-and-came-in-green-not-silver/

 

[Minnie Loves Mickey]

We were also there last week. My Husband and I were very impressed with how clean the park was and how good everything looked. We did not experience any ride closures, so that must just be luck, being in the wrong or right place at the wrong or right time. . As far as the CM directing traffic, we both felt that Disney has finally got this down right. After several visits during this week of the year, this was by far the first and best time they seemed to be able to keep the traffic moving. We had a Great time.

 

[dina444444]

We were also there last week. My Husband and I were very impressed with how clean the park was and how good everything looked. We did not experience any ride closures, so that must just be luck, being in the wrong or right place at the wrong or right time. . As far as the CM directing traffic, we both felt that Disney has finally got this down right. After several visits during this week of the year, this was by far the first and best time they seemed to be able to keep the traffic moving. We had a Great time.

I will completely agree with the traffic statement, except on NYE right after the 9pm fireworks coming from Fantasmic. They had the guest flow Main Street corridor that goes down by Jungle Cruise open however traffic was not moving coming out of Adventureland once you hit the Tiki Room as people were just not moving/following directions to go over there. Once I was in the corridor it was a quick walk to the front of the park and there was not traffic issues there. However as I was doing that walk I know a few CMs were working to fix the non moving traffic issues, which is nice to see them trying to make it seamless for people to walk from one place to another.

 

[chickapin parterre]

I was always under the impression that original "duck tape" and modern day duct tape are not actually the same thing. Though I do know there is currently a brand called Duck Tape.

So what will the Buckeyes use Monday night to fix their team???

 

[Gisele]

I was always under the impression that original "duck tape" and modern day duct tape are not actually the same thing. Though I do know there is currently a brand called Duck Tape.

Correct, the new, well, its been around for awhile now, anyway, the duck tape is named after the Duck Dynasty series. It was Willies idea to come out with a new line of tape. It works wonders apparently when fixing projects gone bad by his Uncle Sy. This line is available in a camo montage of rifles and ducks flying, then falling from the wide open yonder. Also available, designs that sport an awesome interpretation of TNT, frogs, moonshine, weaponry including civil war cannons and a homage to Uncle Sy's ice tea, which by the way, this coming spring Sy will be debuting his infamous, that is, famous, old fashioned with a twist ice teas. Coming soon to a super market near y'all.
Then, there are pretty pastel colors and designs, created especially for sissies and yuppies, or is that redundant? Anyway, those pretty powder puff colors are very popular with many a lady too. Stay tuned for the explosive release of new designs and colors. Something for everyone there will be no doubt!
See y'all real soon now ya' hear!

 

[TheLanes]

The OP is a huge liar. There has never been one piece of trash, a long line, crowded walkways, or broken down rides.

 

[Gisele]

The OP is a huge liar. There has never been one piece of trash, a long line, crowded walkways, or broken down rides.

Maybe he should be wrapped up in Duck Dynasty Tape and set afloat upon a termite infested raft (Raft optional) down the old bayou during a hurricane.
Honestly, I have not personally witnessed the OP claims. Matter of fact, even in the petting zoo, when Jane or one of her friends makes a deposit, before little Johnny can say "hey mommy, what is that?" said deposit is cleaned up lickety split!

 

[TheLanes]

Maybe he should be wrapped up in Duck Dynasty Tape and set afloat upon a termite infested raft (Raft optional) down the old bayou during a hurricane. Honestly, I have not personally witnessed the OP claims. Matter of fact, even in the petting zoo, when Jane or one of her friends makes a deposit, before little Johnny can say "hey mommy, what is that?" said deposit is cleaned up lickety split!

I was kidding, because if you haven't witnessed any of these things, you are drinking too much Disney cool aide. Folks need to give the OP a break, because I've seen all this happen on light days, so can't imagine heavy crowded days.

 

[bethwc101]

Maybe he should be wrapped up in Duck Dynasty Tape and set afloat upon a termite infested raft (Raft optional) down the old bayou during a hurricane.
Honestly, I have not personally witnessed the OP claims. Matter of fact, even in the petting zoo, when Jane or one of her friends makes a deposit, before little Johnny can say "hey mommy, what is that?" said deposit is cleaned up lickety split!

Sounds like somebody needs to learn a little about this thing called sarcasm.

 

[daisy_77]

I was kidding, because if you haven't witnessed any of these things, you are drinking too much Disney cool aide. Folks need to give the OP a break, because I've seen all this happen on light days, so can't imagine heavy crowded days.