Gocanes0506
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Dec 16, 2023
- Messages
- 39
First off, I would like to thank the folks that were gracious enough to answer my questions in my other thread. I was able to make my wife’s 40th trip a greater success because of them.
Disclaimers: I will compare my experiences to DW to help other east coasters who don’t visit DL. Also, experiences may vary as I went on an off time and with the wildfires going on so I felt the parks were especially empty.
I was able to call the night before and get the military rate at DL hotel so I was able to surprise my wife with one thing when we got there. The ability to walk to both parks instead of waiting on transportation, like DW, is pretty awesome. There are non property options for walking too. Saves a lot of planning and time when you don’t have to worry about the bus schedule.
Thursday we checked out Downtown Disney. It was okay, definitely smaller than Disney Springs. We went to the brand new Parkside Market. Wife had fried chicken sandwich from the chicken shop. I had the pork belly bowl from Seoul sister. Both were good, the chicken sandwich was better. We enjoyed the meal in the 2nd story bar.
Friday was EE to DCA. For the DWers, people don’t lie when they say the park is a lot less busy until 10-11 am. EE rope dropping Racers was the way to go. We walked up as they had let the EE folks go and we still only waited 15 minutes. It does suck that they didn’t start the ride until 8. You lose 30 minutes elsewhere but the line for that ride is long during the day so it was worth it. We were able to squeeze in most rides with our LLMP before 11am. Kinda weird being “done with a park” at 11 am. We rode the trolley, did an animation class on drawing baymax. Stood in shorter lines to ride something again. Web shooters is a cool technology game that isn’t at DW.
We had lunch at Carthay Circle. We aren’t big fancy meal people and don’t eat at the fancy places in DW. That meal was our favorite of any we have had in all of Disney.
We tried the Key lime churro and maple bacon churro. MB churro was the wife’s and Is favorite of all the churros we tried.
We had Flo’s for dinner. She had the Fried chicken. Juicy. I had the Ka chessburger. Its a burger. Nothing special but our boys love Cars (even with one being 13) and we wanted to see cars land with the neon on. So we ate there after the lights came on.
We had the World of Color dessert part. Desserts were okay. 2 alcoholic beverages included. The wine was not a hit. The wife loved the spicy margarita. We had table 37, the view was good. Show was good.
Saturday, DL EE day. We knocked out most of what we wanted to ride early. We wanted to wait until it was warmer to ride Tiana’s but the LLs ran out for the good times by the time a scheduling window opened up for us. We did it Sunday instead. Knocked out everything else. We roped dropped Rise of the Resistance. Rise is identical to DW and Galaxy’s edge is near identical to DW’s. Even for a Saturday the park was emptier until 10-11 am. I got busier for 10-7pm. We did the Fantasmic dining. We had Rancho’s for lunch as a part of it. The shrimp tacos and carne asada offerings were good. The experience of Fantasmic was wet (and cold because of the time of year). The show was pretty good, similar to DW’s, but we got a lot of residual mist sitting right by a row from the railing. Be prepared to get a little wet. Although I got really wet during my DW viewing as it poured right before the show. We tried the 4 chili Mac and cheese bites. Those were good and spicy. We got a popcorn bucket. I don’t like that DL doesn’t do bucket refills, really discourages getting a bucket IMO. Had the must eat snacks of mickey pretzel and dole whip. I ate the Ronto wrap, pretty good. We tried the pork belly skewer since it was requested. It was good as well. We got a apple pie churro and a cookie butter churro for Cali churros. We were given a salted caramel because they accidentally made one as well. We didn’t eat all of the 3 churros on our walk back from downtown disney. The apple pie was easily the better of the 3 with cookie butter being second.
Sunday we started at DCA, roped dropped Racers again. We only waited 5 minutes this time as we got to the park a little earlier. Lost both races between the two days, boo. My wife rode GoTG again and incredicoaster again. GotG is a no and 1 time on incredicoaster is enough for me. We had tacos from Cucamonga and the ramen from lucky fortune. The tacos were better. Jumped over to DL. Rose Tianas. Squeezed in a few other rides a second time. We had drinks at Olgas with the bread and cheese (don’t remember the real name) and ate dinner at Carnation cafe. I had the short rib and her the cafe cheeseburger. Both were pretty good, not great. We ended the night with a cinnamon roll pretzel from refreshment corner. It was very good. No fireworks Saturday or Sunday due to the wind so that was a bummer. The show, which we saw after fantasmic, was alright. The DW shows are definitely better.
overall what to expect as a regular DWer going to DL for the first time:
Go early and knock out as many rides as possible before the crowds get crazy.
If you plan the time right, you can actually knock out a park in a day without being exhausted. Not something i have experienced in a DW park not named animal kingdom.
Expect to pay about 10+% more on food and about 15-20% more on merchandise. Cali prices kinda suck. DW makes me miss Tokyo disney, DL makes me very sad about the price difference.
The rides at DL are very similar to Tokyo Disney’s versions, for the most part. So they are a little different than the DW versions (outside of Rise and Smugglers).
If you are not a spicy food person don’t get anything that says spicy. Unlike DW its actually spicy in DL. As a spicy food person this was great as DW is disappointing when things say “spicy.” The spicy foods really beat up my wife’s palate. She is okay with DW spicy but she wasn’t ready for actually spicy.
Man is the castle really disappointing in DL after coming from DW. Be prepared to laugh a little at the size difference.
While i never fished for fast passes, there is a decent chance you will luck into at least one. Breakdowns seemed pretty frequent and could be lengthy. A lot of rides have the issues that Rise does in DW. The rides are rougher in DL compared to most in DW.
The last decent difference is the amount of the cue for the rides that are outside. At DW, if a cue is outside there is a decent chance the wait is really long. Not at Disney Land. The majority of the cue is outside or maybe even the whole cue. That likely sounds completely silly to the Cali folks. The amount of rain and heat in FL, most things are completely in doors so seeing the majority of rides and cues outside and uncovered was pretty foreign.
Thanks again to all the contributors. We’ll be back with the kids, eventually.
Disclaimers: I will compare my experiences to DW to help other east coasters who don’t visit DL. Also, experiences may vary as I went on an off time and with the wildfires going on so I felt the parks were especially empty.
I was able to call the night before and get the military rate at DL hotel so I was able to surprise my wife with one thing when we got there. The ability to walk to both parks instead of waiting on transportation, like DW, is pretty awesome. There are non property options for walking too. Saves a lot of planning and time when you don’t have to worry about the bus schedule.
Thursday we checked out Downtown Disney. It was okay, definitely smaller than Disney Springs. We went to the brand new Parkside Market. Wife had fried chicken sandwich from the chicken shop. I had the pork belly bowl from Seoul sister. Both were good, the chicken sandwich was better. We enjoyed the meal in the 2nd story bar.
Friday was EE to DCA. For the DWers, people don’t lie when they say the park is a lot less busy until 10-11 am. EE rope dropping Racers was the way to go. We walked up as they had let the EE folks go and we still only waited 15 minutes. It does suck that they didn’t start the ride until 8. You lose 30 minutes elsewhere but the line for that ride is long during the day so it was worth it. We were able to squeeze in most rides with our LLMP before 11am. Kinda weird being “done with a park” at 11 am. We rode the trolley, did an animation class on drawing baymax. Stood in shorter lines to ride something again. Web shooters is a cool technology game that isn’t at DW.
We had lunch at Carthay Circle. We aren’t big fancy meal people and don’t eat at the fancy places in DW. That meal was our favorite of any we have had in all of Disney.
We tried the Key lime churro and maple bacon churro. MB churro was the wife’s and Is favorite of all the churros we tried.
We had Flo’s for dinner. She had the Fried chicken. Juicy. I had the Ka chessburger. Its a burger. Nothing special but our boys love Cars (even with one being 13) and we wanted to see cars land with the neon on. So we ate there after the lights came on.
We had the World of Color dessert part. Desserts were okay. 2 alcoholic beverages included. The wine was not a hit. The wife loved the spicy margarita. We had table 37, the view was good. Show was good.
Saturday, DL EE day. We knocked out most of what we wanted to ride early. We wanted to wait until it was warmer to ride Tiana’s but the LLs ran out for the good times by the time a scheduling window opened up for us. We did it Sunday instead. Knocked out everything else. We roped dropped Rise of the Resistance. Rise is identical to DW and Galaxy’s edge is near identical to DW’s. Even for a Saturday the park was emptier until 10-11 am. I got busier for 10-7pm. We did the Fantasmic dining. We had Rancho’s for lunch as a part of it. The shrimp tacos and carne asada offerings were good. The experience of Fantasmic was wet (and cold because of the time of year). The show was pretty good, similar to DW’s, but we got a lot of residual mist sitting right by a row from the railing. Be prepared to get a little wet. Although I got really wet during my DW viewing as it poured right before the show. We tried the 4 chili Mac and cheese bites. Those were good and spicy. We got a popcorn bucket. I don’t like that DL doesn’t do bucket refills, really discourages getting a bucket IMO. Had the must eat snacks of mickey pretzel and dole whip. I ate the Ronto wrap, pretty good. We tried the pork belly skewer since it was requested. It was good as well. We got a apple pie churro and a cookie butter churro for Cali churros. We were given a salted caramel because they accidentally made one as well. We didn’t eat all of the 3 churros on our walk back from downtown disney. The apple pie was easily the better of the 3 with cookie butter being second.
Sunday we started at DCA, roped dropped Racers again. We only waited 5 minutes this time as we got to the park a little earlier. Lost both races between the two days, boo. My wife rode GoTG again and incredicoaster again. GotG is a no and 1 time on incredicoaster is enough for me. We had tacos from Cucamonga and the ramen from lucky fortune. The tacos were better. Jumped over to DL. Rose Tianas. Squeezed in a few other rides a second time. We had drinks at Olgas with the bread and cheese (don’t remember the real name) and ate dinner at Carnation cafe. I had the short rib and her the cafe cheeseburger. Both were pretty good, not great. We ended the night with a cinnamon roll pretzel from refreshment corner. It was very good. No fireworks Saturday or Sunday due to the wind so that was a bummer. The show, which we saw after fantasmic, was alright. The DW shows are definitely better.
overall what to expect as a regular DWer going to DL for the first time:
Go early and knock out as many rides as possible before the crowds get crazy.
If you plan the time right, you can actually knock out a park in a day without being exhausted. Not something i have experienced in a DW park not named animal kingdom.
Expect to pay about 10+% more on food and about 15-20% more on merchandise. Cali prices kinda suck. DW makes me miss Tokyo disney, DL makes me very sad about the price difference.
The rides at DL are very similar to Tokyo Disney’s versions, for the most part. So they are a little different than the DW versions (outside of Rise and Smugglers).
If you are not a spicy food person don’t get anything that says spicy. Unlike DW its actually spicy in DL. As a spicy food person this was great as DW is disappointing when things say “spicy.” The spicy foods really beat up my wife’s palate. She is okay with DW spicy but she wasn’t ready for actually spicy.
Man is the castle really disappointing in DL after coming from DW. Be prepared to laugh a little at the size difference.
While i never fished for fast passes, there is a decent chance you will luck into at least one. Breakdowns seemed pretty frequent and could be lengthy. A lot of rides have the issues that Rise does in DW. The rides are rougher in DL compared to most in DW.
The last decent difference is the amount of the cue for the rides that are outside. At DW, if a cue is outside there is a decent chance the wait is really long. Not at Disney Land. The majority of the cue is outside or maybe even the whole cue. That likely sounds completely silly to the Cali folks. The amount of rain and heat in FL, most things are completely in doors so seeing the majority of rides and cues outside and uncovered was pretty foreign.
Thanks again to all the contributors. We’ll be back with the kids, eventually.
Last edited:
It is amazing how the prices for those buckets have skyrocketed in the past couple of years.
