The Bad and Good of Our 1st Disneyland Trip

[cep101]

I'll start out by saying, I can sometimes be a pessimist, and I might have gotten too grand of an idea for this trip in my head. I have also been to Disney World quite a bit, so it is hard to not compare. This is not meant to offend anyone who loves Disneyland, and I can be very blunt.

This was my husband and I's 1st trip to Disneyland. We live in Maryland, so we flew from BWI to LAX on, Saturday, September 17, 2016 and stayed until Wednesday, September 21, 2016. We stayed at the Disneyland Hotel. When it was all said and done this trip cost us about $4,000 total. This does include the flights, hotel, tickets, food, and purchases. We only bought a couple of souvenirs, so the 4K is about what it would have cost us even without adding our purchases to the total.

When we flew in to LAX we went to SuperShuttle, and encountered a very rude man who was not helpful. He didn't know when the Disneyland shuttle would be coming, and he said they only had the one van for Disneyland... After waiting a couple of minutes we didn't want to waste anymore time. So, we decided to order a Uber. Because they were encountering a "high demand" it was $90 from LAX to the Disneyland Hotel. We waited 15-minutes and it went down to being only $50 for the trip. We like Uber, and I would recommend it for anyone going to Disneyland. The Uber driver arrived within 6-minutes, and off we went to our hotel! Please note that if you do use Uber from LAX you have to be picked up in the arrivals area.

We arrived at our hotel, and chatted with the lady at the front desk. After explaining the not so fun start to our trip she decided to start the "magic" on our trip. She got us a firework view room even though we only paid for a standard! It was a corner room, so it faced the parks and the parking lot. The room was beautiful, and I really like that hotel. We were in the Frontier Tower which is an awesome place to be! The walk to the parks through Downtown Disney was like 7-minutes from our hotel.

The day we arrived we went into Disneyland. I was VERY excited for this. The original Magic Kingdom! I knew the castle was smaller, but I thought the charm would make up for it. Boy, was I wrong. Disneyland was opened in the 50's and since that time they have not upgraded the walking areas to accommodate for larger crowds. I understand they don't have the space, and the times were different back then. But dealing with this in 2016 is a pain in the butt. There is a perpetual sea of people in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. People are everywhere... and while it is like that at MK it doesn't feel as congested as it does at Disneyland. My feet got runned over by quite a few strollers on this trip! Not fun.

Another thing to note is that a couple of the older rides are quite dark and gloomy. I was pumped for the Snow White ride and it didn't go like how I am used to a Disney story ride going. Do not get me started on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. My husband and I were very confused by that ride, and if the ending doesn't scream gloom I don't know what does.

The demographic of people at the parks are different from WDW as well. A lot of them are California residents, and we seemed to notice that a lot of people used Disneyland like their own personal playground. We were touring Sleeping Beauty's Castle, and I was looking into one of the windows. I look down and screamed because someone was laying on the floor under the window. The castle is very dark inside, so I didn't notice him until I looked at where he was. It was a teenager waiting to prank a friend coming. His friends were a group of teenagers running around the castle.

A lot of Disneyland seemed outdated. For the older rides they only have a queue that can hold a 25-minute wait max. That was just odd in comparison to WDW. A lot of the wait lines are outside at Disneyland as well. That was another odd adjustment. We also were not fans of their Fastpass system.

On this trip we encountered a TON of line jumping by rude people, and when I say a ton I mean it. You literally will be waiting for a view of a show or parade, and people will push their way so they are in front of you even if you were there first. For Mickey's Soundsational Parade a women put her two young kids under the rope to stand in front of us even though we were there before them. She did ask after she told her daughter to go in front of us. Then she left her kids with us, and disappeared out of site only to come back some time later! Who does that?!

On a Disneyland happy note, I LOVED their version of Pirate's of the Caribbean. It was amazing!

California Adventure on the other hand was so much fun! We LOVED that park. It never seemed overly crowed because it was opened in 2001, and Cars Land is the best dang thing ever. I wish they would build it at WDW too! I guess we will just have to wait for Toy Story Land. We would literally hang out in Cars Land for hours. Going on the rides, getting food from the Cozy Cone and Flo's. The theming was amazing, and everything was better at night.

The difference between the two parks was crazy. World of Color is also one of the BEST shows I have watched from Disney, so I highly recommend watching it. There is also a new drink out at Carthay Circle Lounge called The Drop. It is so delicious! It was created to commemorate the Tower of Terror. It has Midori, Bailey's, and grenadine in it. I know it sounds gross, but it was so good. I bought all the ingredients, so I can make it at home

 

[Carrie in AZ]

Big congrats on getting upgraded at DLH! Yes, DL is very different from the MK at DW and can seem very congested in the walkways. The differences we love are Pirates like you mentioned and being able to eat at Blue Bayou. We also love Cafe Orleans in that area, did you happen to eat at either? Small World and Haunted Mansion are so much better at DL in my opinion also. Did you enjoy Matterhorn? So glad you liked DCA, we love it there, too, and LOVE LOVE LOVE the lighting difference between day and night in Cars Land. Did you like Grizzly River Rapids?

 

[Frozen2014]

Thanks for the review. We are looking at going to Disneyland in the summer and have been to WDW once in Oct 2014. I've heard that Disneyland feels more crowded because of the space, but yet when I watched the wait times, the waits were shorter (aside form a few exceptions like Radiator Spring Racers).

After experiencing FastPass+ at WDW, and the fact that I'm a planner, I do wonder who I'll feel about the paper Fastpasses. I know it's a big debate, but I loved the fact that you could pre-book 3 FastPasses and have them even before you arrived. I also liked that you could choose your times vs pulling a ticket and "come back between x and y).

Cars Land sounds great (too bad my DS isn't Cars obsessed like he was when he was younger).

 

[heffalumpz]

The paper fastpasses work really well at Disneyland, IMO. A lot of locals don't mind long waits because they can just come back, so I've always had great success getting decent passes. The only two rides that are difficult are Space Mountain and Radiator Springs - the former isn't bad if you pull passes first thing, and the latter has a single rider line that moves quick if you're out of luck.

Fantasyland crowds weren't as bad when Big Thunder Ranch was still open - the walkway to Frontierland helped crowd flow. It does get congested without it. Tomorrowland, however, I'll never understand why Astro Orbiter was put smack in the middle of the walkway. It's NEVER easy to walk there, even if it's not that crowded.

However, the charm for me FAR outweighs any negative aspects, but I guess that's personal opinion.

 

[chickapin parterre]

sorry to read about your Odyssey.....but no mention of the big black monolith that everyone circles at Disneyland

 

[Kindermouse]

With the SWL closures the walkways are more crowded for sure. Imagine all the people that are flooding back down main street and trying to cross at the hub that would have previously walked through the big thunder trail. rerouting everyone through the hub to get almost anywhere is a big pain and I will really be glad when the construction is over.

You are also one of many to complain about the high volume of line cutters recently-which is funny since in my experiance we get less line cutters since some of the DL's in Asian countries have opened up and we have less foreign . The worst offenders years ago were tourist who didn't seem to understand the social construct of waiting in line and seemed to not understand that we don't just push to the front-but this wasn't necessarily intentional rudeness and disregard for the rules so much as it was a cultural issue. I imagine that if I went to China I would probably commit many social faux pas.

I am glad you got to enjoy our special rides that let the innovativeness and attention to detail that we have in DL shine through.

As for those with ques that are only designed to hold about 25 minutes worth of waiting guests I think that you missed the obvious conclusion that this is because in general these rides don't have very long waits. How awesome is it to have shorter wait times most often. and in such beautiful weather that you can stand outside and not worry about falling over from heat stroke (most of the year anyway) or getting soaked in afternoon downpours. We really are blessed at DLR to have such nice weather so much of the year.

As for FP it really is different strokes for different folks. I hate the very idea that I have to pick my FP in advance and then plan my days around them rather than being able to just have fun and do what you feel like doing when you feel like doing it. Also being limited to 3 FP's seems crummy since i usually do at least 5-6 a day at DLR. Planning ADRs 6 months in advance and then having to do FP months later that needs to work with the ADRS you have since by then its too late to switch them or you end up with nothing. and then the park hours change after all that planning and it all goes to he** anyway. That headache along with the WDW transportation horror stories has kept me from ever going to WDW and while I am finally giving it a try next year I am using a service to do all of the leg work for me-I just don't need the headache worrying at ADRs FP+ and other minutia months and moths before I ever get there. I wish WDW was still doing traditional FP so for every person that hates traditional FP there are many who feel the same about FP+.

 

[mjallemand]

If you think that the Snow White ride was dark and gloomy, you should look up the original version of the attraction. It's implied that the Evil Queen kills you at the end of it.

 

[JABRacingOne]

I am a WDW vet and will visiting DLR for my third time in a week. Here are my top 10 observations of both:
DLR Likes:
1. The original and still using Legacy Fastpass system
2. Compact and easy to get around on foot.
3. Pirates is way better.
4. Cars land
5. World of Color
6. Disney characters throughout It's a Small World.
7. Big Thunder RR is better with the newish effects.
8. Food is much better and of course the corndogs.
9. The weather. Usually no humidity or rain is a big plus for me.
10. Indian Jones is way better than Dinosaur

WDW Likes:
1. Backstage areas are "hidden" much better. It is very difficult to see anything backstage at WDW.
2. Foot paths are much wider and spread out.
3. Indoor queues.
4. Splash Mountain is much brighter and well maintained
5. New Fantasyland is beautiful.
6. Expedition Everest
7. The original Tower of Terror is way better
8. EPCOT Center
9. Festival of the Lion King
10. Cast Members are more magical


Please don't crucify me for this. Just quick observations. I love Disney Parks period!

 

[Mud_Shark]

I think we shared similar views to the OP on this. We arrived at DL on Monday Sept 12th and headed home on at Sep 17th. Our children are grown so just 2 adults involved so character meets are not a big thing (we did stand line to meet Chewy - surprised that my wife chose him above any other characters). We had last visited DL a few years ago when Cars land was just being built. That was also a September trip and the crowds were significantly lighter than this time. I have read that crowds have been building since the recession of 2008 and that there really is no off-season anymore and I think I believe it. Hmmm. We try to plan our trips to places like this (and WDW) for the off season - being willing to trade reduced park hours and sometimes increased ride maintenance closures for shorter lines a smaller crowds. I just wasn't that good a trade off for us this year.

This is just us, but 20 minutes is our cut off. It doesn't really matter if a ride has a 25 minute wait or a 60 minute wait - we simply are not going to join that line. There were far more rides this trip that advertised waits in excess of 20 minutes. Now, there were quite a number of secondary type rides that were 20 mins or less, but too many that we just looked at the line and said "na"

DL definitely felt crowded, even if the numbers were fewer than peak days. DCA did not feel as crowded at all. OP is right - Cars Land is a blast. But the fix is in! Too often we ended up in the right side lane and lost the race - with our competition thumbing their noses at us! (all in good fun). Luigis is also a cute little secondary ride. But BE WARNED - the Chicken Verde Cones at Cozy Cone are TOOOOOO HHOOOTTT!!!! We both lost all sensation in our mouths trying to eat those things. Tasty - yes - for the first bite - but after that it was all flame.

Oh we loved Soarin over the world! We both preferred it over the California version. And Frozen? Tears to your eyes. Olaf sounded exactly like he movie. That is a very good show. Toy Story is of course a hit, as is California Screamin. Other DCA rides are good and the line ups and wait times in that park were acceptable. Oh - and we still love the Bugs Life movie. The stinging Bees still caught us off guard.

Overall we spent far more time in DCA over DL just because DL just FELT too crowded. I don't think we will return soon as we are not crowd people.

Don

 

[ClaraOswald]

My comments while reading your post.....

"Disneyland was opened in the 50's and since that time they have not upgraded the walking areas to accommodate for larger crowds."

So what would your suggestion be? Bulldoze main street and rebuild it wider?? I don't really think that's going to happen. And fantasyland has much less area to walk in than the one at WDW. It also has more attractions so obviously there will be a lot of people.

"My feet got runned over by quite a few strollers on this trip! Not fun."

Have your feet never gotten "runned over" after WDW before? That would be surprising to me.

"I was pumped for the Snow White ride and it didn't go like how I am used to a Disney story ride going. Do not get me started on Mr. Toad's Wild Ride."

I agree with Snow White. We always have a good laugh about how abruptly it ends. As for Mr. Toad's Wild Ride...personally, it's one of my favorite. Are you not familiar with The Wind in the Willows?

I'm sorry that your Disneyland experience was so awful. But I truly believe a vacation is what you make of it. For my family...we love both WDW and Disneyland. I grew up going to WDW as a child and didn't visit Disneyland until adulthood but I fell in love with it! My husband was the opposite. He grew up with Disneyland and didn't visit WDW until he was 30 years old. He, too, loves both parks. They are different in many, many ways. They both have their good and their bad. But once you kind of know what to expect from each one, I really think it makes it much easier to have a good time.

For me, Disneyland has much more cute details and charm that WDW. Disneyland is like a "mom and pop" kind of place and WDW is like a chain store. (Though sadly, Disneyland is becoming more "chain store" these days too which sucks.)

 

[xlsm]

We visited DLR for the first time this year too, in June, the week Soarin' over the World premiered. We flew into John Wayne airport, rented a car, and stayed at the HoJo, so the travel portions of our trip were super easy.

However, we share some of your opinions on the parks themselves.

We preferred DCA to Disneyland for sure. It felt more like a Disney park, which seems really weird I guess, given that Disneyland is the original. We also dealt with line cutters which made me crazy, and also so. much. trash. in the lines. I definitely missed FP plus, because we like to tour in a circle and not criss cross.

Things I loved:
- the castle! I thought it was so beautiful. Everyone told me I would be disappointed in it because of the size, but I really, REALLY loved it.
- my meal at Carnation Cafe
- My Mickey macaron and the Matterhorn Macaroon
- It's a Small World
- everything at California Adventure
-character interaction at Minnie's breakfast at The Plaza (but NOT the food there)
-Kylo Ren at the Visa meet and greet
- Nemo subs
- the ease of getting to the parks, and the ease of hopping (although I think we only hopped once out of all 5 park days??)
- Disneyland Forever fireworks
- Soundsational Parade
- Paint the Night
- the dark rides...I'm a fan, I can't help it. We never got to ride Alice though


Things I was disappointed by:
- Space Mountain. Actually, it was the Hyperspace Mtn overlay. It had been so talked up as being much better than WDW and I was so excited to ride. I made a big deal out of it to my family, because my kids LOVE space mountain in the Magic Kingdom. It was a major let down. All of us got off saying, "that was it?" It was our first ride on our first park day and our magic morning, and it did not set a good tone for our first park day at DLR at all.

-playing roulette with FP return times. I'm not a fan of paper fast pass at all. I didn't like it at WDW either, though. I mean, of course I like shorter line waits, but it's so inconvenient.
- most of the food. If I didn't mention it above, it wasn't worth mentioning at all.
- I was not immersed in the magic there the way I am at WDW. No magic bubble. And I really don't think this had anything to do with staying off property either. I did not like the overall feel of the park
-the CMs. Only one stood out the entire trip, a photopass photographer by the Partners statue. He was the only one who made any effort to try to engage us in any kind of way. There were no smiles, no waves, no how are you todays.

Disneyland felt like a theme park to me, and California Adventure felt like a Disney theme park. I completely blame this on being a WDW regular. It's not Disneyland's fault. If I were a Disneyland regular who had never been to Walt Disney World, I 100% believe I would be a loyal Disneyland person.

Did we have a good time? Absolutely! Would we go back? Yes, but it would be because we were visiting Southern California (we love it there!) and adding on a trip to Disneyland, not a trip to Disneyland for the sake of Disneyland.

I loved our trip, I really did, but it just wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be. We are a WDW family, and that's ok! We still love Disneyland, just not as much, or in the same way.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I think we shared similar views to the OP on this. We arrived at DL on Monday Sept 12th and headed home on at Sep 17th. Our children are grown so just 2 adults involved so character meets are not a big thing (we did stand line to meet Chewy - surprised that my wife chose him above any other characters). We had last visited DL a few years ago when Cars land was just being built. That was also a September trip and the crowds were significantly lighter than this time. I have read that crowds have been building since the recession of 2008 and that there really is no off-season anymore and I think I believe it. Hmmm. We try to plan our trips to places like this (and WDW) for the off season - being willing to trade reduced park hours and sometimes increased ride maintenance closures for shorter lines a smaller crowds. I just wasn't that good a trade off for us this year.

This is just us, but 20 minutes is our cut off. It doesn't really matter if a ride has a 25 minute wait or a 60 minute wait - we simply are not going to join that line. There were far more rides this trip that advertised waits in excess of 20 minutes. Now, there were quite a number of secondary type rides that were 20 mins or less, but too many that we just looked at the line and said "na"

DL definitely felt crowded, even if the numbers were fewer than peak days. DCA did not feel as crowded at all. OP is right - Cars Land is a blast. But the fix is in! Too often we ended up in the right side lane and lost the race - with our competition thumbing their noses at us! (all in good fun). Luigis is also a cute little secondary ride. But BE WARNED - the Chicken Verde Cones at Cozy Cone are TOOOOOO HHOOOTTT!!!! We both lost all sensation in our mouths trying to eat those things. Tasty - yes - for the first bite - but after that it was all flame.

Oh we loved Soarin over the world! We both preferred it over the California version. And Frozen? Tears to your eyes. Olaf sounded exactly like he movie. That is a very good show. Toy Story is of course a hit, as is California Screamin. Other DCA rides are good and the line ups and wait times in that park were acceptable. Oh - and we still love the Bugs Life movie. The stinging Bees still caught us off guard.

Overall we spent far more time in DCA over DL just because DL just FELT too crowded. I don't think we will return soon as we are not crowd people.

Don

This is why we always have park hoppers. If DL feels crowded we check our DCA.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I also prefer space mountain to the overlay.

We visited DLR for the first time this year too, in June, the week Soarin' over the World premiered. We flew into John Wayne airport, rented a car, and stayed at the HoJo, so the travel portions of our trip were super easy.

However, we share some of your opinions on the parks themselves.

We preferred DCA to Disneyland for sure. It felt more like a Disney park, which seems really weird I guess, given that Disneyland is the original. We also dealt with line cutters which made me crazy, and also so. much. trash. in the lines. I definitely missed FP plus, because we like to tour in a circle and not criss cross.

Things I loved:
- the castle! I thought it was so beautiful. Everyone told me I would be disappointed in it because of the size, but I really, REALLY loved it.
- my meal at Carnation Cafe
- My Mickey macaron and the Matterhorn Macaroon
- It's a Small World
- everything at California Adventure
-character interaction at Minnie's breakfast at The Plaza (but NOT the food there)
-Kylo Ren at the Visa meet and greet
- Nemo subs
- the ease of getting to the parks, and the ease of hopping (although I think we only hopped once out of all 5 park days??)
- Disneyland Forever fireworks
- Soundsational Parade
- Paint the Night
- the dark rides...I'm a fan, I can't help it. We never got to ride Alice though


Things I was disappointed by:
- Space Mountain. Actually, it was the Hyperspace Mtn overlay. It had been so talked up as being much better than WDW and I was so excited to ride. I made a big deal out of it to my family, because my kids LOVE space mountain in the Magic Kingdom. It was a major let down. All of us got off saying, "that was it?" It was our first ride on our first park day and our magic morning, and it did not set a good tone for our first park day at DLR at all.

-playing roulette with FP return times. I'm not a fan of paper fast pass at all. I didn't like it at WDW either, though. I mean, of course I like shorter line waits, but it's so inconvenient.
- most of the food. If I didn't mention it above, it wasn't worth mentioning at all.
- I was not immersed in the magic there the way I am at WDW. No magic bubble. And I really don't think this had anything to do with staying off property either. I did not like the overall feel of the park
-the CMs. Only one stood out the entire trip, a photopass photographer by the Partners statue. He was the only one who made any effort to try to engage us in any kind of way. There were no smiles, no waves, no how are you todays.

Disneyland felt like a theme park to me, and California Adventure felt like a Disney theme park. I completely blame this on being a WDW regular. It's not Disneyland's fault. If I were a Disneyland regular who had never been to Walt Disney World, I 100% believe I would be a loyal Disneyland person.

Did we have a good time? Absolutely! Would we go back? Yes, but it would be because we were visiting Southern California (we love it there!) and adding on a trip to Disneyland, not a trip to Disneyland for the sake of Disneyland.

I loved our trip, I really did, but it just wasn't quite what I was hoping it would be. We are a WDW family, and that's ok! We still love Disneyland, just not as much, or in the same way.