So we got back a couple days ago from our first trip to Disneyland. I wanted to thank everyone for all the great advise.
We had five day park hoppers with Max Pass, which probably would have been excessive if it hadn't been both our first time and the holidays. We were able to do pretty much everything--all the shows, tons of characters, all the rides, many of them multiple times. We had a great time and so many of the rides were much better than at WDW. We particularly enjoyed the holiday makeovers of HM (I think we did this nine times) and IaSW. POC is much better (and longer) as well. I thought Guardians was much better than ToT, but I suspect my husband will never ride either of them again. He was a sport and even rode Guardians a second time--when the ride finished that second time I looked over and honestly thought he might have had some sort of cardiac event. He was pretty shaken for a while...
We enjoyed the nighttime shows. We saw the fireworks three times from three different areas--Main Street, on the water screens over Rivers of America and from Batuu--and thought it was very cool how it seemed like a totally different show from each location. We did the WOC dessert party and loved it. Fantasmic! was fabulous, I mean really exceptional--we did the Blue Bayou package and were front row center. We actually don't even like the show at WDW and loved it at DLR.
We thought the food was great. There isn't nearly the variety of table service that there is at WDW but what we tried we really liked and the quick service options are really much better. As a side note since people's opinions seem to vary so much on this we thought Blue Bayou was very good--the service, the food, the ambience.
I tend to think that the cast members are more engaged and cheerful at WDW but I thought that was more than made up for by the fact that the patrons were much nicer at DL. The whole bubble thing didn't really bother me. Once I was in the park it was kind of hard to believe there was a regular city street just over yonder, and it was wonderful to be able to just walk back to the hotel in the evening.
All in all we had a really great trip, but I think we're probably still WDW people. I think this is mostly based on our style of vacation. Pretty much anywhere we go, we go for a week to ten days--New York, San Francisco, Paris, Puerto Vallarta, New Orleans, WDW. We're pretty much the only people we know who go to Vegas for a week when we go. And in the end there just isn't as much to do at DL as there is at WDW. I know there are roughly the same number of rides, but it's all the other stuff that makes it feel like you can spend eight days at WDW and still feel like you couldn't quite get to it all, plus I really kind of enjoy the planning. On the other hand if I only had three days I would jump at DL, while I wouldn't even consider going to WDW for that short of a time.
Again, thanks for all the help. It really was magical!
We had five day park hoppers with Max Pass, which probably would have been excessive if it hadn't been both our first time and the holidays. We were able to do pretty much everything--all the shows, tons of characters, all the rides, many of them multiple times. We had a great time and so many of the rides were much better than at WDW. We particularly enjoyed the holiday makeovers of HM (I think we did this nine times) and IaSW. POC is much better (and longer) as well. I thought Guardians was much better than ToT, but I suspect my husband will never ride either of them again. He was a sport and even rode Guardians a second time--when the ride finished that second time I looked over and honestly thought he might have had some sort of cardiac event. He was pretty shaken for a while...
We enjoyed the nighttime shows. We saw the fireworks three times from three different areas--Main Street, on the water screens over Rivers of America and from Batuu--and thought it was very cool how it seemed like a totally different show from each location. We did the WOC dessert party and loved it. Fantasmic! was fabulous, I mean really exceptional--we did the Blue Bayou package and were front row center. We actually don't even like the show at WDW and loved it at DLR.
We thought the food was great. There isn't nearly the variety of table service that there is at WDW but what we tried we really liked and the quick service options are really much better. As a side note since people's opinions seem to vary so much on this we thought Blue Bayou was very good--the service, the food, the ambience.
I tend to think that the cast members are more engaged and cheerful at WDW but I thought that was more than made up for by the fact that the patrons were much nicer at DL. The whole bubble thing didn't really bother me. Once I was in the park it was kind of hard to believe there was a regular city street just over yonder, and it was wonderful to be able to just walk back to the hotel in the evening.
All in all we had a really great trip, but I think we're probably still WDW people. I think this is mostly based on our style of vacation. Pretty much anywhere we go, we go for a week to ten days--New York, San Francisco, Paris, Puerto Vallarta, New Orleans, WDW. We're pretty much the only people we know who go to Vegas for a week when we go. And in the end there just isn't as much to do at DL as there is at WDW. I know there are roughly the same number of rides, but it's all the other stuff that makes it feel like you can spend eight days at WDW and still feel like you couldn't quite get to it all, plus I really kind of enjoy the planning. On the other hand if I only had three days I would jump at DL, while I wouldn't even consider going to WDW for that short of a time.
Again, thanks for all the help. It really was magical!
