Linkura
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 13, 2017
Sorry for the delay- I'm still nursing a cold I got during the trip!
This was a first-time trip for both my husband and me- just the two of us. I'd been to WDW 10+ times before, and my husband went to WDW one time last year with me. He also went to Tokyo Disneyland once as a kid.
We arrived at DLR around 12:30 PM Sunday (made great timing- our flight landed ~10:30 at LAX!), and we flew out Thursday morning. No park time on Thursday so I didn't include it in the title.
NOTE: I am often pessimistic in my writing. I promise, though, I had a good time!!
I'm going to go through different aspects of the trip one by one with thoughts. If you don't want to see reviews of every restaurant/ride, then skip to the end.
TRANSPORTATION:
We used Lansky to get to/from LAX and our hotel. They were fantastic- prompt (early!), friendly, and helpful. They also drove safely as well. Would 100% recommend them.
HOTEL:
Hyatt House. We were very pleased with our stay. We had a King room and it was very spacious and clean. The room decor is beautiful and modern (the carpet in the hallways is SUPER UGLY though- what were they thinking?!). They met all of our requests (high floor, quiet, early check-in). The room was quiet except for some occasional kids running through the halls- can't be helped, and it wasn't frequent. We were very grateful for the microwave and fridge- both were large and worked great.
We thought the walk was fine, but if you're the type of person to go to and from the parks multiple times in a day, the walk might get tiring. For our touring style, it was fine. We really liked that there was a Walgreens right there (and a CVS across the street if you prefer). The Walgreens prices were insane, but we still saved a lot of money on getting >3 oz liquid items we needed there as opposed to paying for checked luggage. There's also a Starbucks, and they are currently building a Blaze Pizza!
Free breakfast was serviceable. I thought the bacon and sausage were good, and the potatoes were decent. The pancakes/French toast were awful though, and my husband thought the eggs were pretty meh. They do have plenty of cereal and fruit options, plus (watery) oatmeal and various breads, water, juices, coffee, etc. For free, it was fine and kept us full until lunch.
Overall, would definitely recommend Hyatt House. Again, only issue is it's obviously not across the street, but that wasn't a big problem for us. It was perfect as a hotel for an adult couple, and it'd be great for families too. We paid $150+tax per night, and I thought it was a very good value.
FOOD:
In-park (Note: We didn't eat anything at DCA, so this is all DL!)
Rancho del Zocalo: I had the chicken and my husband had the red chile enchiladas. It was pretty good for fast-food Mexican, though obviously not as good as a good sit down place. The portions are pretty big too.
Plaza Inn: We split the fried chicken meal. The chicken was great and we liked the sides too (though the biscuit was only ok). Plenty of food for the two of us. My only issue was that they opened several minutes later than the 12PM opening time, though we were served quickly once we got in.
Jolly Holiday: We had the combo (grilled cheese and tomato soup), a Matterhorn Macaroon, and a chocolate croissant. I liked the grilled cheese, but wasn't a huge fan of the soup. My husband liked the soup though, so it worked out! The Matterhorn Macaroon is delicious and very large for only $2.99. The chocolate croissant was your standard Disney chocolate croissant. though perhaps a slightly higher quality than usual. They let us and other customers order the lunch/dinner sandwiches at 10AM despite the menu claiming they were only after 10:30AM- probably because they didn't even open until 10AM that day!
Café Orleans: We shared the pomme frites, the gumbo, and the Monte Cristo. The pomme frites were nothing special, and we left more than half of them... to make room for everything else! The gumbo was delicious, and the Monte Cristo- our first time having it- was incredible. My husband was SUPER skeptical of the Monte Cristo, but he loved it as much as I did!
Hungry Bear: We only stopped here to try the Milk and Honey Funnel Cake. This was the first funnel cake either of us had ever had, and we thought it was great. It was too much for both of us to finish, though!
Churros: Got ours in Frontierland. Hot and fresh. My husband found that he doesn't really like churros that much though (it was his first ever).
Mickey Pretzel at Coke Corner: Meh.
Caramel Apple at Candy Palace: Your standard Disney caramel apple.
Mickey Bar: Still delicious, but expensive. Can't believe they're almost $5 now.
Dole Whip: Still delicious.
DTD:
La Brea Bakery: We needed something on the way out of the park our first night, and our way to Jolly Holiday was blocked by the parade, so we stopped here. I had the turkey mozzarella Panini, and my husband had the sausage pizza. It was fine, but a bit overpriced. Earl of Sandwich would have been cheaper, but it's all the way on the other side of DTD.
Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen Express: We had beignets for the first time here, and they were delicious!
DLR HOTELS:
Napa Rose: We did the chef's counter, already wrote about our experience in this thread: https://www.disboards.com/threads/napa-rose-chefs-counter-a-little-disappointment.3635989/ Summary: Great food for the most part, but almost everything we got was off-the-menu, NOT specially made for us. It was basically a randomization of the main menu. Some of the stuff we got we never would have ordered ourselves, for a reason.
OFFSITE:
Pizza Press: Delicious, and the employees were friendly and helpful. We ate half of our pizzas for lunch, and then had the other half for dinner! Great deal for $10 per pizza.
DISNEYLAND PARK RIDE COMMENTS:
Splash Mountain: It was the very first ride we went on when we arrived Sunday afternoon, after eating lunch at Rancho. We did single rider, and ended up riding together after about a 15 minute wait (standby posted at 45). Not bad. We also ended up in the front, which is rare for Single Rider! Probably because the rest of our log was two little girls with their moms.
I was worried about being in front, but it wasn't quite as bad as I expected, though my backpack did get wet from putting it on the floor of the log. It's definitely wetter than WDW Splash though, and the drops are more fun. The dark ride portions of the ride were super disappointing, unfortunately. Many of the animatronics had no lighting whatsoever on them- either they couldn't be arsed to change the bulbs, or they were trying to hide broken animatronics. It was really sad. I definitely prefer the WDW version, which I usually ride twice a day per MK day; this, we only rode the one time. DL's version is a water ride with some animatronics; WDW's version is a dark ride combined with a water ride.
Pooh: About the same as Disney World, and not very good. We only went on it due to the short wait and because we just wanted to have that area of the park done and over with so we wouldn't have to brave the insane NOS crowds to get there again. Travesty that this replaced Country Bear Jamboree/Mr. Toad in WDW.
Indy: We also did Single Rider for this. Standby was posted at 30, and we waited about that for Single Rider (which we were warned of by the CM, at least). We didn't get to ride together on this one, but not a big deal. I wasn't too impressed by this one; not a whole lot going on other than riding through various setpieces, and too bumpy. But it's certainly a heck of a lot better than Dinosaur at AK. My husband liked it more than I did, but to be fair, he got the front row spot with the wheel! We were going to ride this one again during the Halloween Party, but it broke down right before we got on! They claimed someone lost something on the ride- so they decided to shut down the whole ride instead of just telling the person tough noogies, we'll look for it after park close, which is absurd to me. Most people were waiting for it to get back up, but we needed to get a spot for the parade, so we left.
Jungle Cruise: About the same as the WDW version. My husband never went on the WDW version, and he was amused and baffled by the silliness. The day we planned to go on it, it was down for almost the entire day. We ended up going by it on a lark on our way to dinner and it was up. Despite both the app and the board at the front of the park saying it was down. More on that kind of stuff later.
Enchanted Tiki Room: I hadn't been on this even at WDW since before the New Management birds burned to death. It was a cute little break.
Big Thunder: Mostly the same as WDW, but for some reason I don't think I liked it as much as WDW's. No idea why. It's still a good ride though. Went on it twice.
Haunted Mansion Holiday: The line was absurd for this one- we even had a bit of a wait with FP. As many have posted here, not worth the standby wait, and barely worth the FP wait. Definitely feels like the overlay that it is. Doesn't do the movie justice, in my opinion.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Y'all are probably going to hate us for this... but we think this version is a little bloated. We're used to the WDW version, which is basically the "Greatest Hits" version of this ride. Other than the part at the end with the pirates on the cannons, which I think is a worthy part of the ride that should be in the WDW version, I think WDW's version took out all of the fat. Also, the wait for this ride was ridiculous most of the time. I think a lot of people planned on doing HMH, but chickened out due to the high wait times. So they thought, hey, let's do POTC instead, it's right nearby. And hence there were often 40+ minute waits for POTC during our trip. We didn't want to wait more than 20, so we ended up using a ride breakdown FP from when Space Mountain broke down (if you're in line/on a ride when it breaks, they give you FPs than can be used for non-FP rides). The CM seemed to think we were crazy for using it on POTC, but it worked for us.
Snow White's Scary Adventures: Y'all are probably going to think we are COMPLETELY insane, but both my husband and I LOVED this ride. I think it's the unexpectedness of it. Snow White is barely in the ride; The Evil Queen is the star. It's fast, it's dark, and before you know it, it's over. I can see little kids being really upset at this one. And I think that's why we loved it. We rode it every day of the trip because of the short line. It was our second favorite ride in DLR!
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride: This was my favorite ride at WDW as a little kid, before Splash Mountain came on the scene. It hasn't aged so well, but again, this is another insane ride just like Snow White. Who thought these rides would be a good idea for a family theme park?! I don't know, but God bless them. We went on this twice.
Pinocchio's Daring Journey: I can't believe this ride is decades younger than Snow White, because it feels decades older. It even broke down on our first attempt to ride it, so we had to leave the line. Definitely the worst of the DL dark rides; it spends way too much time on Pleasure Island, when that makes up such a small percentage of the actual film.
Peter Pan's Flight: Because we had a pretty free plan after the second day, we did this first thing on our EMM day and waited 5-10 minutes. I can't believe people wait 40+ minutes for this in the hot sun. At least it has FP+ at WDW (and I much prefer the WDW version anyway- this one seems much more disjointed to me). I did like the dips the ride did, though; it doesn't do that at WDW, so I really wasn't expecting them.
Alice in Wonderland: This was cute, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would for some reason. Maybe it's because a good portion of the ride is outdoors with no scenery whatsoever. They also didn't devote as much of the ride/animatronics to the Unbirthday Party as I think they should have. We rode this first thing one morning; otherwise, the line was too long for us to bother riding again.
Mad Tea Party: This seemed a bit faster and wilder than the WDW version, though I could just be imagining things.
Casey Jr: We ended up riding in the caboose, backwards. It was cute and I'm glad we didn't have to ride in the cages. I think they really should have more than one train riding at once, though. We thought about doing the Canal Boats, but the line was always crazy based on the capacity. On the morning we tried to, they started them about a half hour late and with only one boat. So there was a huge backup, even when they added more boats. Ugh.
It's a Small World: Cute, and I actually kind of liked most of the Disney character additions. The façade is gorgeous. My husband still hates this ride and says he is not riding it again.
Roger Rabbit's Car-Toon Spin: A complete mess. Has almost nothing to do with the (awesome) film, and despite not really trying to spin the vehicle, it was almost always facing the wrong direction. We had to crane our heads all the time to even see anything.
Gadget's Go Coaster: Barnstormer without the uncomfortable seats. So, not bad for no wait like we had (went right when Toontown opened), but not worth any real sort of wait.
Star Tours: I didn't go on this because it makes me sick, but I stayed with my husband in the queue. He said he didn't like it as much as when he rode it at WDW because of the scenes he got. At WDW, his vehicle ran over Jar Jar Binks, which he loved.
Space Mountain (Ghost Galaxy): By far the best ride at DLR. This ride is phenomenal. When I last rode Space Mountain at WDW, knowing I'd be going on a trip to DLR soon, I told myself that this ride was going to be amazing if it was as smooth as everyone says it is- the WDW version is just way too jerky. And it is smooth like butter. We absolutely loved it, and rode it daily- twice on our last day due to the lack of lines during the Halloween Party.
Railroad: I didn't tell my husband about the Primeval World diorama. Boy was he surprised. I thought they did a great job with it too. Must have spruced it up a bit during the downtime.
Monorail: We were able to ride in the tail, and it was a nice, peaceful ride to DTD, where we watched a movie at the nearby theater.
DCA RIDE COMMENTS:
Toy Story Mania: This reminded me why I didn't like it at WDW, since it's identical and all. The abrupt spins are annoying, and the shooting mechanism is tiring. Once again, I had a much higher accuracy than my husband, but his score was much higher. I'll try to remember to skip this one next time.
California Screamin': I consider this a sister ride to Rock N Roller Coaster, so I'm going to compare it to that. CS is much jerkier; my glasses actually slid down my nose a little on the loop, which never happens at RNRC. I like that it's much longer, but it was too jerky for me to enjoy. RNRC is super smooth and has more loops.
Little Mermaid: Same thing as WDW. It's not an amazing ride, but I still enjoy it, mostly due to the music.
Radiator Springs Racers: I can see why this ride is so popular. I HATE the Cars franchise, so it had that hurdle to get over for me. But it really is a well-designed ride. It's smooth and the animatronics are great. The "race" section was fun.
Flik's Flyers/Francis's Ladybug Boogie: Went on these out of curiosity. There's a reason there's no line for them. Flik's is at least smooth, but Francis's... oh my god. It's supposed to be liked Mad Tea Party, but the turntables are MUCH rougher. I couldn't wait to get off, and it was a short ride. AVOID.
Redwood Creek Challenge Trail: Obviously not a ride, but still, an attraction. It was cute to go through. The highlight was Chip and Dale were managing the radios and they cajoled us into participating because the little kid on the other end didn't have anyone to talk to. They were adorable.
HALLOWEEN PARTY:
I wrote a lot about this in the official 2017 Halloween Party thread. We went to the first party, and it was surprisingly not very crowded at all. Sure, they raised the ticket price, but they DEFINITELY decreased the number of tickets sold. It was fantastic for that alone. Space Mountain was a walk on. We found a nice spot on the Hub for the parade at 8:15, and could have gone even later if we picked a less prime spot. Other than one of the parade floats breaking down and causing the parade to come to a standstill (HUGE kudos to the performers who kept going despite not going anywhere for a half hour), and the fireworks to be 20 minutes late, it was pretty good overall. We did not do any characters or treat trails, as the lines were nutso. More rides for us. One highlight was seeing Donald/Goofy/Pluto/Chip/Dale on the Tom Sawyer raft dancing to Halloween tunes on the river with themed costumes- don't miss it, it's adorable. They also let us in Toontown 14 seconds before the Pre-Party closed (the CM was timinig it) to let us take a look inside. They let us stay longer than 14 seconds as there were plenty of people still in lines.
GENERAL PARK NOTES/THOUGHTS:
+We really liked how compact the park is, particularly DL. And of course, loved how the parks are literally right across from each other. We decided to do DCA a day earlier than planned and it was literally no problem at all with Hoppers.
+Maxpass worked great. I much prefer FP+ as it's easier to game, and it also lets you pick earlier/later times as opposed to just one time with MP, but MP still allowed us to get a ton done fast.
+Really enjoyed the roaming characters.
+We love the MINE seagulls at the Nemo subs ride. The ride was down for most of our trip (and we had no interest in the ride itself anyway), but they were still running the seagulls. My husband is a huge fan and he loved it.
+Weather was gorgeous. Temps were great, no rain, and mostly importantly, NO HUMIDITY!
-The crowds were sometimes borderline unbearable, particularly in NOS I don't believe we had particularly high crowd days, either. I can't even imagine how bad DL is on high crowd days, and how bad it will be when SWL opens. DCA is a bit more open, built much like the WDW parks, and can handle the crowds better. I don't know what they were thinking building SWL inside of DL Park instead of DCA or a third gate, other than they didn't want to pay for more land. I think they're going to regret it.
-Don't do Disneyland Park EMM on 10AM open days. Fantasyland was an absolute zoo. I'd imagine on 8AM and even 9AM open days, it's much better. But on the 10AM open/9AM EMM day we went, it was like the entire park was crammed into Fantasyland, which didn't even have all the rides open. It was awful.
-Park management really seemed like amateur hour compared to WDW. That's the simplest way to put it, but here's why I think that:
Posted times on the app and at the ride entrances varied wildly from the actual (and yes, I'd completely exit out of the app and then back in on the former), and there were often huge delays when showing a broken down ride as back up again on the app and on the hub boards. EXTREMELY frustrating considering the majority of attractions don't have FP. In fact, if you are tracking wait times before your trip like I did, I wouldn't bother doing it anymore. If someone told me that they just put a bunch of numbers on a dart board, and whatever numbers the darts would hit would be the posted wait time, I might just believe you. The lack of FP for many rides didn't bother me; it was the fact that the tools they give you are completely unreliable. As a planner-type personality, it ticked me off.
Photopass would have been a giant waste of money if it didn't come included with MP. There were very few photographers and locations compared to WDW, and they always had ridiculous lines.
Mobile & wifi coverage in the park was mostly terrible. At some places, I couldn't even get cellular coverage, let alone wifi. I mean, I can understand when you're inside a ride building like with Indy, but just walking around Fantasyland, for example, there were significant dead zones.
While there were a few good ones we encountered (security CMs were particularly friendly, as was the guy managing the Indy SR line), CMs were not nearly as friendly as WDW. One general example is that CMs at WDW often tell you to have a nice day or something when exiting the park. The DL CMs managing the exits just don't care to say anything at all. Another specific example is a CM was insisting that she put my Halloween Party wristband on my disabled left wrist (that has a large brace on it). I had to be firm with her that, no, I am disabled, and I would prefer that it go on my other wrist instead.
Rides and restaurants would open late without explanation (see above for more detail).
Ride breakdowns. Enough has been said on this site without going into any more detail here.
For all the "effort" DLR has been putting into trying to attract tourists as opposed to locals, they have a long way to go to really make it feel like a true tourist destination like WDW.
The trip was 3.5 park days, but we honestly ran out of stuff to do that we hadn't already done and wanted to do by Tuesday PM. We ended up watching a movie at DTD (Wind River, pretty good, but don't bring the kids) Tuesday afternoon before dinner. We didn't even go to the park on Wednesday until the party. Wednesday was entirely rerides and the parade/fireworks. Our trip definitely felt a day too long.
Overall, we are glad we went to DLR, and we had fun overall, but we don't think we'll be going back anytime soon. Certainly not considering WDW is half the distance from us. My husband isn't as much of a WDW nut as I am, but even he said he'd be willing to go back to WDW, but wouldn't want to go back to DLR. I mean, there's certainly a possibility we'd go back SOMEDAY, when there's a lot of new offerings, but in the next 10 years or so... almost certainly not.
This was a first-time trip for both my husband and me- just the two of us. I'd been to WDW 10+ times before, and my husband went to WDW one time last year with me. He also went to Tokyo Disneyland once as a kid.
We arrived at DLR around 12:30 PM Sunday (made great timing- our flight landed ~10:30 at LAX!), and we flew out Thursday morning. No park time on Thursday so I didn't include it in the title.
NOTE: I am often pessimistic in my writing. I promise, though, I had a good time!!
I'm going to go through different aspects of the trip one by one with thoughts. If you don't want to see reviews of every restaurant/ride, then skip to the end.
TRANSPORTATION:
We used Lansky to get to/from LAX and our hotel. They were fantastic- prompt (early!), friendly, and helpful. They also drove safely as well. Would 100% recommend them.
HOTEL:
Hyatt House. We were very pleased with our stay. We had a King room and it was very spacious and clean. The room decor is beautiful and modern (the carpet in the hallways is SUPER UGLY though- what were they thinking?!). They met all of our requests (high floor, quiet, early check-in). The room was quiet except for some occasional kids running through the halls- can't be helped, and it wasn't frequent. We were very grateful for the microwave and fridge- both were large and worked great.
We thought the walk was fine, but if you're the type of person to go to and from the parks multiple times in a day, the walk might get tiring. For our touring style, it was fine. We really liked that there was a Walgreens right there (and a CVS across the street if you prefer). The Walgreens prices were insane, but we still saved a lot of money on getting >3 oz liquid items we needed there as opposed to paying for checked luggage. There's also a Starbucks, and they are currently building a Blaze Pizza!
Free breakfast was serviceable. I thought the bacon and sausage were good, and the potatoes were decent. The pancakes/French toast were awful though, and my husband thought the eggs were pretty meh. They do have plenty of cereal and fruit options, plus (watery) oatmeal and various breads, water, juices, coffee, etc. For free, it was fine and kept us full until lunch.
Overall, would definitely recommend Hyatt House. Again, only issue is it's obviously not across the street, but that wasn't a big problem for us. It was perfect as a hotel for an adult couple, and it'd be great for families too. We paid $150+tax per night, and I thought it was a very good value.
FOOD:
In-park (Note: We didn't eat anything at DCA, so this is all DL!)
Rancho del Zocalo: I had the chicken and my husband had the red chile enchiladas. It was pretty good for fast-food Mexican, though obviously not as good as a good sit down place. The portions are pretty big too.
Plaza Inn: We split the fried chicken meal. The chicken was great and we liked the sides too (though the biscuit was only ok). Plenty of food for the two of us. My only issue was that they opened several minutes later than the 12PM opening time, though we were served quickly once we got in.
Jolly Holiday: We had the combo (grilled cheese and tomato soup), a Matterhorn Macaroon, and a chocolate croissant. I liked the grilled cheese, but wasn't a huge fan of the soup. My husband liked the soup though, so it worked out! The Matterhorn Macaroon is delicious and very large for only $2.99. The chocolate croissant was your standard Disney chocolate croissant. though perhaps a slightly higher quality than usual. They let us and other customers order the lunch/dinner sandwiches at 10AM despite the menu claiming they were only after 10:30AM- probably because they didn't even open until 10AM that day!
Café Orleans: We shared the pomme frites, the gumbo, and the Monte Cristo. The pomme frites were nothing special, and we left more than half of them... to make room for everything else! The gumbo was delicious, and the Monte Cristo- our first time having it- was incredible. My husband was SUPER skeptical of the Monte Cristo, but he loved it as much as I did!
Hungry Bear: We only stopped here to try the Milk and Honey Funnel Cake. This was the first funnel cake either of us had ever had, and we thought it was great. It was too much for both of us to finish, though!
Churros: Got ours in Frontierland. Hot and fresh. My husband found that he doesn't really like churros that much though (it was his first ever).
Mickey Pretzel at Coke Corner: Meh.
Caramel Apple at Candy Palace: Your standard Disney caramel apple.
Mickey Bar: Still delicious, but expensive. Can't believe they're almost $5 now.
Dole Whip: Still delicious.
DTD:
La Brea Bakery: We needed something on the way out of the park our first night, and our way to Jolly Holiday was blocked by the parade, so we stopped here. I had the turkey mozzarella Panini, and my husband had the sausage pizza. It was fine, but a bit overpriced. Earl of Sandwich would have been cheaper, but it's all the way on the other side of DTD.
Ralph Brennan's Jazz Kitchen Express: We had beignets for the first time here, and they were delicious!
DLR HOTELS:
Napa Rose: We did the chef's counter, already wrote about our experience in this thread: https://www.disboards.com/threads/napa-rose-chefs-counter-a-little-disappointment.3635989/ Summary: Great food for the most part, but almost everything we got was off-the-menu, NOT specially made for us. It was basically a randomization of the main menu. Some of the stuff we got we never would have ordered ourselves, for a reason.
OFFSITE:
Pizza Press: Delicious, and the employees were friendly and helpful. We ate half of our pizzas for lunch, and then had the other half for dinner! Great deal for $10 per pizza.
DISNEYLAND PARK RIDE COMMENTS:
Splash Mountain: It was the very first ride we went on when we arrived Sunday afternoon, after eating lunch at Rancho. We did single rider, and ended up riding together after about a 15 minute wait (standby posted at 45). Not bad. We also ended up in the front, which is rare for Single Rider! Probably because the rest of our log was two little girls with their moms.
I was worried about being in front, but it wasn't quite as bad as I expected, though my backpack did get wet from putting it on the floor of the log. It's definitely wetter than WDW Splash though, and the drops are more fun. The dark ride portions of the ride were super disappointing, unfortunately. Many of the animatronics had no lighting whatsoever on them- either they couldn't be arsed to change the bulbs, or they were trying to hide broken animatronics. It was really sad. I definitely prefer the WDW version, which I usually ride twice a day per MK day; this, we only rode the one time. DL's version is a water ride with some animatronics; WDW's version is a dark ride combined with a water ride.Pooh: About the same as Disney World, and not very good. We only went on it due to the short wait and because we just wanted to have that area of the park done and over with so we wouldn't have to brave the insane NOS crowds to get there again. Travesty that this replaced Country Bear Jamboree/Mr. Toad in WDW.
Indy: We also did Single Rider for this. Standby was posted at 30, and we waited about that for Single Rider (which we were warned of by the CM, at least). We didn't get to ride together on this one, but not a big deal. I wasn't too impressed by this one; not a whole lot going on other than riding through various setpieces, and too bumpy. But it's certainly a heck of a lot better than Dinosaur at AK. My husband liked it more than I did, but to be fair, he got the front row spot with the wheel! We were going to ride this one again during the Halloween Party, but it broke down right before we got on! They claimed someone lost something on the ride- so they decided to shut down the whole ride instead of just telling the person tough noogies, we'll look for it after park close, which is absurd to me. Most people were waiting for it to get back up, but we needed to get a spot for the parade, so we left.
Jungle Cruise: About the same as the WDW version. My husband never went on the WDW version, and he was amused and baffled by the silliness. The day we planned to go on it, it was down for almost the entire day. We ended up going by it on a lark on our way to dinner and it was up. Despite both the app and the board at the front of the park saying it was down. More on that kind of stuff later.
Enchanted Tiki Room: I hadn't been on this even at WDW since before the New Management birds burned to death. It was a cute little break.
Big Thunder: Mostly the same as WDW, but for some reason I don't think I liked it as much as WDW's. No idea why. It's still a good ride though. Went on it twice.
Haunted Mansion Holiday: The line was absurd for this one- we even had a bit of a wait with FP. As many have posted here, not worth the standby wait, and barely worth the FP wait. Definitely feels like the overlay that it is. Doesn't do the movie justice, in my opinion.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Y'all are probably going to hate us for this... but we think this version is a little bloated. We're used to the WDW version, which is basically the "Greatest Hits" version of this ride. Other than the part at the end with the pirates on the cannons, which I think is a worthy part of the ride that should be in the WDW version, I think WDW's version took out all of the fat. Also, the wait for this ride was ridiculous most of the time. I think a lot of people planned on doing HMH, but chickened out due to the high wait times. So they thought, hey, let's do POTC instead, it's right nearby. And hence there were often 40+ minute waits for POTC during our trip. We didn't want to wait more than 20, so we ended up using a ride breakdown FP from when Space Mountain broke down (if you're in line/on a ride when it breaks, they give you FPs than can be used for non-FP rides). The CM seemed to think we were crazy for using it on POTC, but it worked for us.
Snow White's Scary Adventures: Y'all are probably going to think we are COMPLETELY insane, but both my husband and I LOVED this ride. I think it's the unexpectedness of it. Snow White is barely in the ride; The Evil Queen is the star. It's fast, it's dark, and before you know it, it's over. I can see little kids being really upset at this one. And I think that's why we loved it. We rode it every day of the trip because of the short line. It was our second favorite ride in DLR!
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride: This was my favorite ride at WDW as a little kid, before Splash Mountain came on the scene. It hasn't aged so well, but again, this is another insane ride just like Snow White. Who thought these rides would be a good idea for a family theme park?! I don't know, but God bless them. We went on this twice.
Pinocchio's Daring Journey: I can't believe this ride is decades younger than Snow White, because it feels decades older. It even broke down on our first attempt to ride it, so we had to leave the line. Definitely the worst of the DL dark rides; it spends way too much time on Pleasure Island, when that makes up such a small percentage of the actual film.
Peter Pan's Flight: Because we had a pretty free plan after the second day, we did this first thing on our EMM day and waited 5-10 minutes. I can't believe people wait 40+ minutes for this in the hot sun. At least it has FP+ at WDW (and I much prefer the WDW version anyway- this one seems much more disjointed to me). I did like the dips the ride did, though; it doesn't do that at WDW, so I really wasn't expecting them.
Alice in Wonderland: This was cute, but I didn't like it as much as I thought I would for some reason. Maybe it's because a good portion of the ride is outdoors with no scenery whatsoever. They also didn't devote as much of the ride/animatronics to the Unbirthday Party as I think they should have. We rode this first thing one morning; otherwise, the line was too long for us to bother riding again.
Mad Tea Party: This seemed a bit faster and wilder than the WDW version, though I could just be imagining things.
Casey Jr: We ended up riding in the caboose, backwards. It was cute and I'm glad we didn't have to ride in the cages. I think they really should have more than one train riding at once, though. We thought about doing the Canal Boats, but the line was always crazy based on the capacity. On the morning we tried to, they started them about a half hour late and with only one boat. So there was a huge backup, even when they added more boats. Ugh.
It's a Small World: Cute, and I actually kind of liked most of the Disney character additions. The façade is gorgeous. My husband still hates this ride and says he is not riding it again.
Roger Rabbit's Car-Toon Spin: A complete mess. Has almost nothing to do with the (awesome) film, and despite not really trying to spin the vehicle, it was almost always facing the wrong direction. We had to crane our heads all the time to even see anything.
Gadget's Go Coaster: Barnstormer without the uncomfortable seats. So, not bad for no wait like we had (went right when Toontown opened), but not worth any real sort of wait.
Star Tours: I didn't go on this because it makes me sick, but I stayed with my husband in the queue. He said he didn't like it as much as when he rode it at WDW because of the scenes he got. At WDW, his vehicle ran over Jar Jar Binks, which he loved.
Space Mountain (Ghost Galaxy): By far the best ride at DLR. This ride is phenomenal. When I last rode Space Mountain at WDW, knowing I'd be going on a trip to DLR soon, I told myself that this ride was going to be amazing if it was as smooth as everyone says it is- the WDW version is just way too jerky. And it is smooth like butter. We absolutely loved it, and rode it daily- twice on our last day due to the lack of lines during the Halloween Party.
Railroad: I didn't tell my husband about the Primeval World diorama. Boy was he surprised. I thought they did a great job with it too. Must have spruced it up a bit during the downtime.
Monorail: We were able to ride in the tail, and it was a nice, peaceful ride to DTD, where we watched a movie at the nearby theater.
DCA RIDE COMMENTS:
Toy Story Mania: This reminded me why I didn't like it at WDW, since it's identical and all. The abrupt spins are annoying, and the shooting mechanism is tiring. Once again, I had a much higher accuracy than my husband, but his score was much higher. I'll try to remember to skip this one next time.
California Screamin': I consider this a sister ride to Rock N Roller Coaster, so I'm going to compare it to that. CS is much jerkier; my glasses actually slid down my nose a little on the loop, which never happens at RNRC. I like that it's much longer, but it was too jerky for me to enjoy. RNRC is super smooth and has more loops.
Little Mermaid: Same thing as WDW. It's not an amazing ride, but I still enjoy it, mostly due to the music.
Radiator Springs Racers: I can see why this ride is so popular. I HATE the Cars franchise, so it had that hurdle to get over for me. But it really is a well-designed ride. It's smooth and the animatronics are great. The "race" section was fun.
Flik's Flyers/Francis's Ladybug Boogie: Went on these out of curiosity. There's a reason there's no line for them. Flik's is at least smooth, but Francis's... oh my god. It's supposed to be liked Mad Tea Party, but the turntables are MUCH rougher. I couldn't wait to get off, and it was a short ride. AVOID.
Redwood Creek Challenge Trail: Obviously not a ride, but still, an attraction. It was cute to go through. The highlight was Chip and Dale were managing the radios and they cajoled us into participating because the little kid on the other end didn't have anyone to talk to. They were adorable.
HALLOWEEN PARTY:
I wrote a lot about this in the official 2017 Halloween Party thread. We went to the first party, and it was surprisingly not very crowded at all. Sure, they raised the ticket price, but they DEFINITELY decreased the number of tickets sold. It was fantastic for that alone. Space Mountain was a walk on. We found a nice spot on the Hub for the parade at 8:15, and could have gone even later if we picked a less prime spot. Other than one of the parade floats breaking down and causing the parade to come to a standstill (HUGE kudos to the performers who kept going despite not going anywhere for a half hour), and the fireworks to be 20 minutes late, it was pretty good overall. We did not do any characters or treat trails, as the lines were nutso. More rides for us. One highlight was seeing Donald/Goofy/Pluto/Chip/Dale on the Tom Sawyer raft dancing to Halloween tunes on the river with themed costumes- don't miss it, it's adorable. They also let us in Toontown 14 seconds before the Pre-Party closed (the CM was timinig it) to let us take a look inside. They let us stay longer than 14 seconds as there were plenty of people still in lines.
GENERAL PARK NOTES/THOUGHTS:
+We really liked how compact the park is, particularly DL. And of course, loved how the parks are literally right across from each other. We decided to do DCA a day earlier than planned and it was literally no problem at all with Hoppers.
+Maxpass worked great. I much prefer FP+ as it's easier to game, and it also lets you pick earlier/later times as opposed to just one time with MP, but MP still allowed us to get a ton done fast.
+Really enjoyed the roaming characters.
+We love the MINE seagulls at the Nemo subs ride. The ride was down for most of our trip (and we had no interest in the ride itself anyway), but they were still running the seagulls. My husband is a huge fan and he loved it.
+Weather was gorgeous. Temps were great, no rain, and mostly importantly, NO HUMIDITY!
-The crowds were sometimes borderline unbearable, particularly in NOS I don't believe we had particularly high crowd days, either. I can't even imagine how bad DL is on high crowd days, and how bad it will be when SWL opens. DCA is a bit more open, built much like the WDW parks, and can handle the crowds better. I don't know what they were thinking building SWL inside of DL Park instead of DCA or a third gate, other than they didn't want to pay for more land. I think they're going to regret it.
-Don't do Disneyland Park EMM on 10AM open days. Fantasyland was an absolute zoo. I'd imagine on 8AM and even 9AM open days, it's much better. But on the 10AM open/9AM EMM day we went, it was like the entire park was crammed into Fantasyland, which didn't even have all the rides open. It was awful.
-Park management really seemed like amateur hour compared to WDW. That's the simplest way to put it, but here's why I think that:
Posted times on the app and at the ride entrances varied wildly from the actual (and yes, I'd completely exit out of the app and then back in on the former), and there were often huge delays when showing a broken down ride as back up again on the app and on the hub boards. EXTREMELY frustrating considering the majority of attractions don't have FP. In fact, if you are tracking wait times before your trip like I did, I wouldn't bother doing it anymore. If someone told me that they just put a bunch of numbers on a dart board, and whatever numbers the darts would hit would be the posted wait time, I might just believe you. The lack of FP for many rides didn't bother me; it was the fact that the tools they give you are completely unreliable. As a planner-type personality, it ticked me off.
Photopass would have been a giant waste of money if it didn't come included with MP. There were very few photographers and locations compared to WDW, and they always had ridiculous lines.
Mobile & wifi coverage in the park was mostly terrible. At some places, I couldn't even get cellular coverage, let alone wifi. I mean, I can understand when you're inside a ride building like with Indy, but just walking around Fantasyland, for example, there were significant dead zones.
While there were a few good ones we encountered (security CMs were particularly friendly, as was the guy managing the Indy SR line), CMs were not nearly as friendly as WDW. One general example is that CMs at WDW often tell you to have a nice day or something when exiting the park. The DL CMs managing the exits just don't care to say anything at all. Another specific example is a CM was insisting that she put my Halloween Party wristband on my disabled left wrist (that has a large brace on it). I had to be firm with her that, no, I am disabled, and I would prefer that it go on my other wrist instead.
Rides and restaurants would open late without explanation (see above for more detail).
Ride breakdowns. Enough has been said on this site without going into any more detail here.
For all the "effort" DLR has been putting into trying to attract tourists as opposed to locals, they have a long way to go to really make it feel like a true tourist destination like WDW.
The trip was 3.5 park days, but we honestly ran out of stuff to do that we hadn't already done and wanted to do by Tuesday PM. We ended up watching a movie at DTD (Wind River, pretty good, but don't bring the kids) Tuesday afternoon before dinner. We didn't even go to the park on Wednesday until the party. Wednesday was entirely rerides and the parade/fireworks. Our trip definitely felt a day too long.
Overall, we are glad we went to DLR, and we had fun overall, but we don't think we'll be going back anytime soon. Certainly not considering WDW is half the distance from us. My husband isn't as much of a WDW nut as I am, but even he said he'd be willing to go back to WDW, but wouldn't want to go back to DLR. I mean, there's certainly a possibility we'd go back SOMEDAY, when there's a lot of new offerings, but in the next 10 years or so... almost certainly not.
