My first DL experience!

[LovesDoomBuggies]

Just a couple of my thoughts, and you guys can tell me if my experience was typical or atypical. I was impressed by some things and not so impressed by others! I'm a WDW vet, BTW.

First of all, I was prepared for a small castle. It was really tiny! But beautiful. I didn't notice how pretty until we got closer.

LOVED the Haunted Mansion. I think I prefer the exterior of the one at WDW - the gothic as opposed to the plantation-style. But still loved it! And I really enjoyed picking up on the little differences between the two of them.

I also thought the DL it's a small world was far superior to WDW's. I like that it's tucked back in a corner and just thought the staging and the building and well, everything, was thought out well.

Was THRILLED by Mr. Toad! I took far too many pictures. I have always been disappointed that Mr. Toad was taken out at WDW to make way for Pooh, so getting to ride it here was a real thrill.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to do the Matterhorn. Blasphemy, I know! But we didn't get to DL until about noon and it looked like the line was about a two-hour wait... with such very limited time (we had to leave around 9) I didn't want to waste such a chunk of it in line. I am very sad about this =(

The bad things - I was stunned, really stunned, at how much trash there was floating around. Cups, food, drink boxes... maybe I'm having selective memory here, but it seems to me like they are really on top of that at WDW. At the Haunted Mansion, there is a big "stone" bird sitting on top of a ball and someone had taken a black sharpie and drawn bird droppings down the back of the ball. That really disappointed me.

The crowds! Even on my most crowded day at WDW, I still have room to move without stepping on people. I couldn't believe the wall-to-wall people.

Cast members. I didn't think they were as friendly as at WDW and didn't stay "in character" all of the time. Oh, and we had a quick lunch at the Carnation and it took us literally 30 minutes to get our bill. We just sat there doing nothing for 30 minutes. Our waiter wasn't even out and about circulating with other guests or anything.

So, are these normal things? Or was I there on an exceptionally busy day?

Overall though, I'm very glad we went! I wish we had more time to ride more things exclusive to DL. And I'd like to hit DCA one of these days.

 

[HydroGuy]

The CMs at DLR have experienced extremely high turnover the last couple years - in some areas over 100% per year. So the CM quality has suffered overall, which is not to say that the ones that are there are not trying hard. Many of them are asked to work insane amounts of overtime, and overall I think they do a great job. But the high turnover rate is showing. This is a management/labor issue that needs to be resolved, but some claim that management is clueless as to what is really happening. When I went to WDW in 2006 I was extremely impressed with the CMs - from park CMs, food CMs, hotel CMs, and transportation CMs. They were great. I do not have a lot of data points, but if you want to say that the WDW CMs are doing a better job than the DLR CMs right now, I would be inclined to agree. But I do not want this to sound like I am bashing the DLR CMs - most of them are great, and the CM issues at DLR are more management related rather than CM related.

I did not notice a difference in trash or grafitti - if anything, DLR has been kept up much better than WDW in recent years. So maybe you had some selective experiences.

DL is physically smaller (20-25%) than MK while supporting 30% more rides. There is less room to move around, and thus the same amount of people at DL will feel much more crowded. Even so, I have noticed this to be more of an issue mid-day and early evening.

Also, a couple of their huge "people eaters" are down right now. Splash Mtn handles 2100 an hour, and Fantasmic can handle 16,000 people per show (yes, I typed that right). Plus there are several other attractions down. When these are up and running, it gives people a place to be and makes other parts of the park less crowded.

ETA: And the Matterhorn has two lines. The one on the Fantasyland side is often longer than the one on the Tomorrowland side because most people see it first. The lines might have looked like two hours, but they rarely get above 45 minutes. We try to hit Matterhorn early morning or late at night when the lines are 5-10 minutes long.