Mintycake
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2015
- Messages
- 1,035
We just got back from a first-time trip to Disneyland. We are East Coasters and have been to Disney World before, so I wanted to note a few differences and what I loved about DL (and a few downsides).
First, we loved our vacation! We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel which I know sometimes gets a bad rap in reviews. We had a park view room so we could see California Adventure park. It was awesome! But we loved the intimate feel, we enjoyed eating at the Surf Lounge and had a good character meal at the Surf’s Up Breakfast! The interaction with Goofy, Minnie, Mickey and Stitch were great. Food was kind of meh but I don’t expect a lot at a character meal. I didn’t find the walk too long to the parks – it was 15 minutes and that’s at a pretty leisurely pace. I also liked walking through Downtown Disney in the mornings and going back to the hotel. I know there are hotels that are closer but we enjoyed the walk. The pool has a cool waterslide that my daughter loved, and the staff at the hotel was top notch. When we checked in, they asked my daughter which character she wanted to see. She told them Mickey and they went in to the back, and gave her a picture of Mickey in front of the castle that was signed and told her that he couldn’t wait to see her. The look on her face was priceless.
The weather was chilly so we had to dress in layers, but the upside was there was no rain, so that was fantastic.
I noticed that a lot more people at Disneyland wear Disney clothing…it seemed like it was rare to find someone not wearing Disney apparel of some kind. It was so cool to see!
The time change worked in our favour the first few days as it enabled us to get to the gate early without an issue, but as the week wore on, it was tougher to do and we were kind of wiped near the end of the week.
What I loved:
-the walkability of the park. It was so compact and it was awesome to park hop. We don’t park hop at WDW but it's a no brainer to do it at DL. And the ability to just stroll back to the hotel without relying on transportation.
- DCA, especially Cars Land. I’m not a fan of Cars at all and I was so impressed. Radiator Springs Racers was amazing! And Guardians of the Galaxy was so much fun. I was terrified but smiling.
- Random characters – we saw Pocahontas, Alice, Mad Hatter, Cruella De Vil, etc. just running around the park. One thing I thought was odd was that some characters did not have a “handler”. This was problematic sometimes, while we were waiting to meet Tiana, some guy was filming her while talking to her and spending ages with her. He was probably a vlogger but it was irritating, especially when there was a whole line of mostly kids behind him.
- rides you can’t find at WDW. Snow White, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad…so cool. Also we got to see the holiday overlays for Haunted Mansion and Small World which were so well done.
- Food in general seemed to be better quality for me with more vegetarian options (we are not strict vegetarians but we like the option). Also, not having to plan ADRs 180 days in advance is so nice. We ate at the Blue Bayou and we loved the food. Our other favorite meal was Ralph Brennen’s Jazz kitchen in Downtown Disney.
- MAXPASS – it’s so great! It forces you to go a little more with the flow and relax. To me, I feel like I must follow a plan at WDW with military precision. Also, we got to ride favorite rides multiple times which I think would have been harder to do at WDW (e.g. Soarin, Star Tours).
- Cast members were super friendly and helpful everywhere.
- Extra magic hour for hotel guests – a fantastic perk that we used. It was especially good at DCA – the park feels empty!
- we used the entrance/exit to DCA at Grand Californian a few times. Security told us it was fine if it was after 11am. We did get asked if we were guests of the hotel but we just told them we were eating there and they let us in.
- Toontown is so much fun for kids. My daughter loved it!
What I wish was different:
- Kind of annoying to have to wear a lanyard for our tickets and or scan the app for Fastpass. I do like the Magic band better. But that’s super minor.
- I wish they had Fastpasses for popular characters. We waited 40 minutes for the princesses at Royal Hall and 30 minutes for Anna and Elsa (I guess that’s the same as WDW). This was really irritating, and I liked the set up at Princess Fairytale Hall at WDW much better.
- No Carousel of Progress or People Mover. These two things are favorite attractions for my family at WDW.
- Crowds: Because of the compact nature of the park, crowds can bottleneck certain areas. New Orleans square was horrible at times. Heading to Paradise Pier at DCA was also bad. Also Main Street USA when trying to leave the parks in the afternoon was nuts, and after Fantasmic.
- Ride breakdowns: I feel like this happens more often at DL than at WDW.
But overall, I feel like both parks have a different vibe from each other, but are both great. I’m going to have to give a slight edge to Disney Land. It’s the original park, it’s walkable, easy to navigate, and much easier to plan a trip there than WDW (in my opinion). There you have it!
First, we loved our vacation! We stayed at the Paradise Pier Hotel which I know sometimes gets a bad rap in reviews. We had a park view room so we could see California Adventure park. It was awesome! But we loved the intimate feel, we enjoyed eating at the Surf Lounge and had a good character meal at the Surf’s Up Breakfast! The interaction with Goofy, Minnie, Mickey and Stitch were great. Food was kind of meh but I don’t expect a lot at a character meal. I didn’t find the walk too long to the parks – it was 15 minutes and that’s at a pretty leisurely pace. I also liked walking through Downtown Disney in the mornings and going back to the hotel. I know there are hotels that are closer but we enjoyed the walk. The pool has a cool waterslide that my daughter loved, and the staff at the hotel was top notch. When we checked in, they asked my daughter which character she wanted to see. She told them Mickey and they went in to the back, and gave her a picture of Mickey in front of the castle that was signed and told her that he couldn’t wait to see her. The look on her face was priceless.
The weather was chilly so we had to dress in layers, but the upside was there was no rain, so that was fantastic.
I noticed that a lot more people at Disneyland wear Disney clothing…it seemed like it was rare to find someone not wearing Disney apparel of some kind. It was so cool to see!
The time change worked in our favour the first few days as it enabled us to get to the gate early without an issue, but as the week wore on, it was tougher to do and we were kind of wiped near the end of the week.
What I loved:
-the walkability of the park. It was so compact and it was awesome to park hop. We don’t park hop at WDW but it's a no brainer to do it at DL. And the ability to just stroll back to the hotel without relying on transportation.
- DCA, especially Cars Land. I’m not a fan of Cars at all and I was so impressed. Radiator Springs Racers was amazing! And Guardians of the Galaxy was so much fun. I was terrified but smiling.
- Random characters – we saw Pocahontas, Alice, Mad Hatter, Cruella De Vil, etc. just running around the park. One thing I thought was odd was that some characters did not have a “handler”. This was problematic sometimes, while we were waiting to meet Tiana, some guy was filming her while talking to her and spending ages with her. He was probably a vlogger but it was irritating, especially when there was a whole line of mostly kids behind him.
- rides you can’t find at WDW. Snow White, Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, Mr. Toad…so cool. Also we got to see the holiday overlays for Haunted Mansion and Small World which were so well done.
- Food in general seemed to be better quality for me with more vegetarian options (we are not strict vegetarians but we like the option). Also, not having to plan ADRs 180 days in advance is so nice. We ate at the Blue Bayou and we loved the food. Our other favorite meal was Ralph Brennen’s Jazz kitchen in Downtown Disney.
- MAXPASS – it’s so great! It forces you to go a little more with the flow and relax. To me, I feel like I must follow a plan at WDW with military precision. Also, we got to ride favorite rides multiple times which I think would have been harder to do at WDW (e.g. Soarin, Star Tours).
- Cast members were super friendly and helpful everywhere.
- Extra magic hour for hotel guests – a fantastic perk that we used. It was especially good at DCA – the park feels empty!
- we used the entrance/exit to DCA at Grand Californian a few times. Security told us it was fine if it was after 11am. We did get asked if we were guests of the hotel but we just told them we were eating there and they let us in.
- Toontown is so much fun for kids. My daughter loved it!
What I wish was different:
- Kind of annoying to have to wear a lanyard for our tickets and or scan the app for Fastpass. I do like the Magic band better. But that’s super minor.
- I wish they had Fastpasses for popular characters. We waited 40 minutes for the princesses at Royal Hall and 30 minutes for Anna and Elsa (I guess that’s the same as WDW). This was really irritating, and I liked the set up at Princess Fairytale Hall at WDW much better.
- No Carousel of Progress or People Mover. These two things are favorite attractions for my family at WDW.
- Crowds: Because of the compact nature of the park, crowds can bottleneck certain areas. New Orleans square was horrible at times. Heading to Paradise Pier at DCA was also bad. Also Main Street USA when trying to leave the parks in the afternoon was nuts, and after Fantasmic.
- Ride breakdowns: I feel like this happens more often at DL than at WDW.
But overall, I feel like both parks have a different vibe from each other, but are both great. I’m going to have to give a slight edge to Disney Land. It’s the original park, it’s walkable, easy to navigate, and much easier to plan a trip there than WDW (in my opinion). There you have it!
