Just got home

[imusmg]

Just walked in the door from LAX at 7:30 p.m. PST tonight and my wife and I decided we needed to share our experience with others (Both the good and the bad). Unfortunatly at this time we are continuing to unpack and trying to get some laundry done and we both have to go to the dreaded W word tomorrow (Yes it is a 4 letter word too) WORK. I will post our trip details tomorrow night after I return from the bad place. I will say that I would much rather my vacation continued a little longer as any vacation beats work. Sad to say though our experience was not too great. Just wanted to get registered on the site tonight though and will post more tommorrow. Bye for now.

 

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

I'm looking forward to your TR, although I'm sorry you didn't have as great a time as you thought

 

[DisneyFan06]

Awww. I am sorry you didn't have the 'best' time. It is different for everyone. I still can't wait to read your report.

ETA: Welcome to the DIS!

 

[pumba]

welcome to the Dis.......sorry that your trip was unpleasant.....but it is always good to listen to others and learn from them too.......we went back to work today too after a week in Disney.........blahhhhhhhhhhh to that four letter word

 

[KathyRN137]

to The Dis!!

Kathy

 

[Bondfan531]

Awww, that bites that you didn't have a good time (or as good as you'd hoped)

 

[amy2girls]

look forward to hearing about you experiance!

 

[LMO429]

Sorry you didnt have a good time! curious to know why

 

[MTstitch]

Welcome to the boards and sorry you did not have a good time. I am also wondering why since I am leaving this week for our trip.

 

[GSD4ME]

Looking forward to hearing about your trip - the good and the bad. Just curious, though . . . was this your first trip to WDW and how much planning did you do? We're going on our third trip in September and I know I've done more planning for this trip than any other!!

 

[imusmg]

Ok, now I can give a report on our trip. Sorry I am a day late, but I work in a court room and Mondays can be bad as the police have those two days the courts are not open to arrest people and those Mondays get to be very busy with the bad people so I got home later than usual. And then when I did get home it was off to the store to get food as we had not been home for a week. Enough of that though. The trip. First of all, I guess I should have been a little more clear when I said our time was not too great. We did have a good time, we just left feeling a little bit let down. We are a family of 5, (my wife and I and our 3 girls 9, 13 and 16 years old) and we are from the L.A. area city of Arcadia (It's the city next to Pasadena, home of the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl). My wife and I have been going to Disneyland our entire lives (I am 40 and she is younger). We have been Disneyland Resort Annual Pass holders since 2001 and we love Disneyland and California Adventure as well as everything else that is Disney. Each time we go, which is about once a week, usually on Friday nights after work, my girls act as if it was their first time everytime. That is one of the reasons we keep buying the passes. As long as they love it we will buy them the passes. With that little bit of background information our trip was for the most part good, but we left The Disney World Resort less impressed than desired. In one sentence, bigger is definatly not always better. In this case we feel smaller is the way to go. For the Disney Corp. bigger works as they have all the space they could ever want, however for the guest it is not that big of a deal in my honest opinion. As I said, I have been going to Disneyland my entire life and never have I thought to myself that the park is too small. Disney does a great job with hte space they have and continue to bring great new attractions to the legion of fans out here on the west coast. Now trip details. Our hotel was fine, We stayed at the Doubletree Guest Suites Near Downtown Disney in the Disney World Resort, and as my wife works for A Hilton Company hotel and Doubletree is Hilton owned we got a great deal on our room rates so there was no complaint there as far as the hotel goes. As for the parks, I will cover these over the next few days in no particular order and then my last entry will be about our over all impression of the resort. Please remember that this is one person's opinion and I am not trying to start any arguments. Park 1-Disney/MGM Studios-The kids had a good time at this park. They liked Rockin Rollercoaster the best and of course Tower of Terror which I must say is much better that the West Coast version. I really don't know what Disney was thinking when they built the CA version. While the CA version is a good time, they really fell short compared to the MGM version. The Lights, Motor, Action show was great and I would tell anyone it is a must see. However the Indiana Jones Stunt Show put me to sleep. I found it to be more of a stage show with a few stunts than an actual "stunt" show. The backlot tour was sad to say for lack of a better word "pathetic". I guess we are spoiled by the Backlot Tour at Universal Studios Hollywood. Star Tours was as expected as was Muppet Vision. The one thing we were dissapointed about was Fantasmic, and as crazy as it sounds it was the seating. As someone that has now seen the DW version and the DL version I prefer the DL setting 10 fold. It is much more impressive that the entire show takes place on the Rivers of America, where during the day all the activities that take place end and the river comes to life and the crowd is right up next to it to experience the show, and that is the difference. At MGM it is not an experience as much as a "show" while it is an experience at Disneyland. Disneyland may be more crowded at show time, but again bigger is not always better and in this case it takes away from the experience. Overall, we liked MGM. According to my 13 year old, it was a 6 on a scale of 1-10 and the 2nd best park. Ok, tommorrow, Animal Kingdom. Time to help kids finish homework. Talk to you tomorrow

 

[OhMari]

As others said, welcome to the DIS.

I think anytime you make a comparison, there will always be something done right on one side and something done wrong on the other. I actually enjoy reading your comparison. I have never been to Disneyland in CA. One other DIS member "UtahMamma" just did a report and I really enjoyed learning about all the differences.

 

[soupy11]

Good report so far! It seems a bit odd to be critical of the size of the resort...the whole intention of WDW was to have tonnes of room for future growth which was limited at Disneyland. Anyways, really cool to see your thoughts and I agree with a couple of your MGM points - especially Fantasmic seating and Backlot Tours....

 

[LauraAnn630]

thanks for posting. I like to hear people opions on the differences between DL and WDW.

I havent been to DL in 20 years. Im hoping to take the family there in a few year.

We plan to do DL, Knottsberry Farm, US, Chinese Theater, the beach, Hover Dam, and Las Vegas.

Cant wait to read more!

 

[imusmg]

Sorry I have been so busy this week to continue my trip report, but I will get to it I promise. Taking the kids to Disneyland tonight so I should get more up this weekend. Just wanted to say about being critical of the size of WDW. My critisism of the size was just as I stated. It is a great thing for Disney, as they can build and build all they want, which is great for building new parks and resorts, but it does not always relate to a better experience for the visitor. Again, I will elaborate more as my report continues. Also, while it may seem I am comparing WDW to DL, my main goal is as to relate my experience as a consumer who while I had a good time, my expectationions were set much higher for WDW than DL due to all the advertisements and Travel Channel programming, but when it came right down to it, I just happen to be one of those people who find WDW overhyped. It was good, just not as good as it was made out to be. Again, bigger is not always better. More to come.

 

[OhMari]

Bump, it's been a month,k hope to hear from you again.