I miss the "old" Disneyland

[DisneyJewel]

I also grew up going to Disneyland (LA native) starting in the 1970s! WAY pre-FP and DCA, When there were still ticket books (A through E rides, with a low admission rate), etc. But you know what, nostalgia is a powerful thing. When I think about it, the only time Disneyland was NOT crowded when I was growing up was when I went on a very rainy day in January for my birthday. And I'm sure my mom hated slogging around in the rain! It's easy to talk about the good old days. But the wait for the Matterhorn was always horrendous. There were always a lot of people there. And really, MANY Disneyland visitors don't read these boards.

Also, my advice, having gone to Disneyland since my kids were babies (and now living in Nor Cal, so it's a trip for us, though for many years we were unbelievably lucky to get free passes from friend who work for Disney corporate -- take what you can and leave the rest. If you can't wait for Fantasmic, don't! And don't worry another second about it. When I was growing up, people DID wait for hours for the Main Street Electrical Parade -- camping out for events at Disneyland is not new. We didn't do Fantasmic until my kids were about 8 and 11, and we could swing the dessert/reserved seating. I knew NO ONE in my family would want to hang out at Rivers of America, and no one cared about missing Fantasmic! Since I am the only ones who reads Disneyland boards, DH and my kids didn't even know what it was and didn't care. We've never done WOC for the same reason -- we are just not a family who is going to camp out for hours.

And you don't have to rush and do Fastpasses. If there are a couple of rides you know your kids will want to ride, and they have FP, it's worth it. If you know there are some characters your kids want to see, it's worth checking when they will be around if you can. And for us, the ideas here have been worth it, to save time on waiting -- some friends came with us last time, and they were amazed about how little they had to wait! They had never been to Disneyland before and had heard horror stories!

I miss the old Disneyland too, but really, it's nostalgia for my youth and what was. The new stuff is great too. Have fun! I hope you love taking your kids!

 

[GenGen22]

To be honest, I never use any of the "strategies" and I never have any issues. We spent the 4th of July at Disneyland this year and never spent longer than 25-30 minutes in line, aside from RSR, and to be fair that was about two weeks after the opening of Carsland. We got in the fireworks area about an hour before the fireworks started, and leaving the park took quite a while that night, but, you know, if was the 4th of July. Other nights I've shown up near F! half an hour or so before the show and found a decent spot for my daughter and myself, we watch parades from wherever we happen to be at the time (kind of awesome to be on the teacups during Soundsational, great vantage point and sometimes they stop the ride while it's passing) and all around just have fun.

I think if you are the kind of person who needs to plan everything out you can, but if you just want to go with the flow you can absolutely do that as well.

I agree with you... I like at DL I can do a more of a go with the flow vacationing unless I want a TS meal of course... but at WDW people made their ADR's six months out & for me kind of ruins my whole relaxing not being attached to a schedule vacationing style. So for RSR I'm gonna wing it & if we have to do single rider to get on the ride so be it. Vacationing isn't supposed to be about setting an alarm to get up like you do on a daily basis to be at RD to beat everybody to it.. of course this is just my personal preferance where as some people prefer everything scheduled. My everyday life is scheduled & I just want a break away from it. Staying up late sleeping in & just living fancy free while visiting the happiest place on earth