WDW for DL Native

[adSimba]

I'm from California, I've been to Disneyland loads of times, Was an AP for a few years, and can tell you more about anything there than anyone else I know, but I've never been to Disney World and have only recently even started trying to learn anything about it.

It has always seemed so big and overwhelming...

Anyway, On the DL boards, there are regularly posts from Disney World regulars who come to Disneyland for the first time, but I cant seem to find anything from the opposite prospective. Is anyone here someone who used to be a Disneyland only person? how does it compare? what was it like the first time?

 

[Accident]

Generally the opposite DL for a WDW posts are a comparison between the two so they can be useful

The key things in my mind to know are:
- it's huge as you mentioned. Things are not close to each other both in the park and between areas. It can take a little time to get between places, the monorail is transportation and not a "ride".
- the weather is different, most of the queues are indoors.
- some places to eat are fully booked 180 days in advance.
- fastpass is a pre-planned thing, some available the day off but generally not the good stuff or the time you want.
- most visitors are tourists who have been planning a long time to be there, AP holders and locals are the minority.

If you add all the attractions up at WDW, anaheim has more.. It's just bigger by land at WDW.

 

[hiroMYhero]

I'm from California, I've been to Disneyland loads of times, Was an AP for a few years, and can tell you more about anything there than anyone else I know, but I've never been to Disney World and have only recently even started trying to learn anything about it.

It has always seemed so big and overwhelming...

Anyway, On the DL boards, there are regularly posts from Disney World regulars who come to Disneyland for the first time, but I cant seem to find anything from the opposite prospective. Is anyone here someone who used to be a Disneyland only person? how does it compare? what was it like the first time?

Because you are just wanting to know about WDW rather than actually planning a trip, moving you to the Theme Park Community board.

 

[adSimba]

This is a perfect example of my lack of Disney World info, there are a total of three pages for Disneyland, it's easy to see where things go, in Disney World there are like 100, hence my need for guidance...

 

[hiroMYhero]

This is a perfect example of my lack of Disney World info, there are a total of three pages for Disneyland, it's easy to see where things go, in Disney World there are like 100, hence my need for guidance...

No problem at all.

I'm a native Californian and our first trip to WDW over 20 years ago took a lot of planning and Animal Kingdom hadn't yet opened!

I believe what made the biggest impact was realizing that you really did have to go to all parks to experience the equivalent of what was in DL. It's the size of the resort, as a whole, that is impressive and can be overwhelming if you are driving versus using the buses.

As Accident said, you have to plan out your meals well in advance. I have my WDW reservations set up for next month. In contrast, at DL last month at 5:00p I booked Storytellers Cafe for a 7:30 dinner that same night!

As you learn about WDW, check out the Resorts, Restaurants, and Theme Parks/FP+ forums. Have fun researching!!

 

[foleyfun]

We live in San Diego and have had DL AP's for the past 5 years. We love it! This summer we decided to do a Disney World vacation, we just got back last Friday actually. I knew it took a lot of planning and I knew it would be a lot different so I started researching about 5 months ago. I read every touring plan and article that I could find and then came up with my own plan and used my plan to decide on dining reservations and FP reservations. Overall my plan worked out perfectly.

In terms of my take on DL vs. DW ... Overall I like our DL much better. For the most part the 4 DW parks have what our 2 parks have. That means a lot less walking at DL and you can get a lot more attractions done in one day. When comparing the same ride at each park I think DL wins. In my opinion, DW rides were a generic version of the same ride at DL. I thought the DW parks were a lot dirtier than DL. The bathrooms were smaller and farther apart so there was always a line for the bathroom no matter where you were. The biggest thing that I liked better at DW was the dining. They had fantastic food choices and differently themed restaurants. I really liked the ability to book your FP in advance, but if you are a veteran of DL you know how to work their system to your benefit.

We are really glad that we did it, saw DW once, but we most likely wouldn't go back.

 

[adSimba]

We live in San Diego and have had DL AP's for the past 5 years. We love it! This summer we decided to do a Disney World vacation, we just got back last Friday actually. I knew it took a lot of planning and I knew it would be a lot different so I started researching about 5 months ago. I read every touring plan and article that I could find and then came up with my own plan and used my plan to decide on dining reservations and FP reservations. Overall my plan worked out perfectly.

In terms of my take on DL vs. DW ... Overall I like our DL much better. For the most part the 4 DW parks have what our 2 parks have. That means a lot less walking at DL and you can get a lot more attractions done in one day. When comparing the same ride at each park I think DL wins. In my opinion, DW rides were a generic version of the same ride at DL. I thought the DW parks were a lot dirtier than DL. The bathrooms were smaller and farther apart so there was always a line for the bathroom no matter where you were. The biggest thing that I liked better at DW was the dining. They had fantastic food choices and differently themed restaurants. I really liked the ability to book your FP in advance, but if you are a veteran of DL you know how to work their system to your benefit.

We are really glad that we did it, saw DW once, but we most likely wouldn't go back.

THIS is exactly the kind of opinion I was looking for, I do remember hearing once that DW is not as clean, I guess that comes with more space to clean... perhaps there seemed like less bathrooms because you know where they all are at DL?

 

[foleyfun]

Glad I could help! It's a possibility that it seemed like less restrooms, but the restrooms were definitely a lot smaller than most DL bathrooms and not as well kept. I always marvel at how clean DL is. Sitting on a curb waiting for the parade at DL even the ground is clean, it's amazing.