WDW vet DLR novice trip

[highlander]

Thanks for posting the links to good info! I need to lurk around these boards more. I learn something each time.

 

[haley's mom]

Loving this report so far. We are from PA and taking 1st ever West Coast trip in October. Doing DL, Hollywood, and Sea World in San Diego plus San Diego Zoo.

Keep the report coming. Would love to hear about SD also!

 

[seadd67]

So I guess what I ment was how long did It take to walk to the entrance,but thanks for the info I did not know any one had It down to feet!

 

[brymolmom]

Well, I pretty much finished up my DLR park days. I will do a quick overview of the rest of my time in CA followed by some wrap-up thoughts (a nice summary in case people don't wan to read all the detail).

Checked out of HOJO on Saturday but took care of nice(ish) weather to use the water park area before departing the area. Headed down to San Diego. We made a couple stops and planned to stop in La Jolla 'on our way' into town. We took the freeway that lines the water instead of 5 on the way down, it was very pretty - but a couple of detours made it take awhile. Well, not sure if it was the time of day - but we hit a lot of traffic as we neared. The last 5 miles took about 30 minutes or so. We finally got to La Jolla - saw the sea lions, it was GORGEOUS. Loved it!

Went to our hotel (California Suites hotel - I knew we weren't going to spend a lot of time at this one so I went for budget - and this was VERY budget - but OK). Went out to dinner. Next day was Sunday and we went to Sea World. Bonus was reading about Buy One adult get child free ticket on the S. Ca board the day before - when I inquired at the ticket booth - the very nice lady found and let me use the code. We saved $118! And honestly, I'm very happy. It is a great park - but not worth double what we paid, IMO. We had the nicest weather of our trip this day - which was nice since I got absolutely soaked on the Atlantis ride. Overall - had a great time - brought our lunch in a cooler in the car and went out the gate to the picnic tables there for lunch. LOVED the Shamu show and the Sea Lion (and Otter) shows!

Next day we checked out and headed up to Marina Del Rey. I wanted to be near a beach but also near the airport for our way out of town. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't nice enough to truly enjoy it there. We did rent bikes on the beach one day and that was a fun couple of hours.

One other topic I wanted to cover was our first stroller-less trip. The rule in our family is no stroller after 5. And dd is now 6. SO - I was very happy not to have it. Not as big a deal as I thought not having a place for our 'stuff' and was very happy not to have it on Friday night when the park was packed - would have taken forever to maneuver. DD was OK - I'd rate her a 6 out of 10. She did get whiney and pokey and said her feet hurt more times than I would have liked. But honestly this was when her timetable was still on Eastern time so I'm sure she WAS really tired. DH did carry her a few times (for about 5 minutes then put her down again). Hopefully next time she will improve on this rating. At least we know now that it is possible. I'm just glad we did it overall - would it have been easier at times with a stroller? YES! But was it better to start teaching her that she's big enough to do these things on her own? YES! I was happy with the decision.

So for the SUMMARY:
1) DLR is VERY DIFFERENT than WDW, but I like them both.
2) Make sure to go to the DLR parks early - they open the gates and sometimes the rides early (not sure if this is only in slow times or what - but it happened for us).
3) Bringing a cooler with food is very convenient - lockers outside the park mean that you can get it all stored even before gates open.
4) We had 3 full days to see the parks, with hindsight - I wish we had one more. This, however is MOSTLY due to the fact that we were all adjusting to Pacific time for the first few days and cut our days VERY short as a result. If we could have done more full days, it likely would have been enough. There were 3 - 4 things I really would have liked to do that I didn't get a chance to do.
5) TSMM has no fastpass - plan to ride it first thing as the lines are long even on slower days.
6) DLR is way more 'laid back' than WDW.
7) Much more difficult to find out wait times - make sure to ask the CM at the line start - accuracy varies.
8) Really liked HOJO, would stay there again, only wish they had a breakfast.
9) Kids LOVED BTMRR, Splash, Mickey's Fun Wheel and Muhulland Madness.
10) Again, With hindsight, I might have stayed right in Anaheim the whole time instead of moving around. It was kind of a pain to do the moving around. We would have taken a couple of day trips instead.
11) Budget-wise - about the same as WDW. We paid about $50 more pp for airfare but got one free with cc points. We had our tickets already paid for and had ALMOST all our food on DLR paid for with our Dinsey Rewards. Food outside the parks - I recommend sharing a lot. We didn't figure it out until many days in but especially because of the time change - our kids didn't really eat much. We had a LOT of leftovers, wasted or brought back to the room when possible.
12) Definitely look into finding a car rental deal. We didn't spend much more than we would have for shuttles for the 4 of us and we saved a bunch on buying groceries.

OK I think that's it. Any questions??

Thanks for reading.... Karen

 

[HydroGuy]

6) DLR is way more 'laid back' than WDW.

I find it interesting when people say this. What is more "laid back"? The CMs? The hotels? The visitors?

I have found the opposite to be true. But that is because of how we tour. At WDW we know we are in for a marathon and take our time with lots of time off outside the parks at DQ, DTD, TL and BB.

At DLR we know we have limited time and we tend to sprint at top speed for a few days. Nothing laid back about it.

 

[brymolmom]

I find it interesting when people say this. What is more "laid back"? The CMs? The hotels? The visitors?

I have found the opposite to be true. But that is because of how we tour. At WDW we know we are in for a marathon and take our time with lots of time off outside the parks at DQ, DTD, TL and BB.

At DLR we know we have limited time and we tend to sprint at top speed for a few days. Nothing laid back about it.

I guess it is just a feeling I got - but let me try to explain. WDW - seems, to me, like the epitome of 'Disney-ness'. Like I said in one of my stories above, I definitely did not get the 'we are the experts in moving tons of people through lines in the quickest way possible' feel at DLR (in the parks). Maybe just because of my 2 or 3 instances of line 'issues' within the 3 days. But also, when I was entering lines with no wait time indications - the CM's made no effort to assist there. I had to specifically ask for wait times and the CM's seemed somewhat surprised a couple of times. We got very few CM's starting conversations with us and many even stood back and waited to be asked for help or questions. I've thought that MAYBE it is also a difference in the CM's themselves, I found very few non-local nametags in DLR, where at WDW they are from everywhere around the country - and even the world. So I would guess that a CM who comes and applies for a job across the country or world and is lucky enough to be hired - REALLY, REALLY wanted this job. Not that DLR CM's aren't nice and don't want their jobs, but to them it's just asking for an application at the amusement park down the street (or at least it could be, not sure). Definitely could be a different way of acting when getting those two different jobs.

Just the impression I got.

 

[HydroGuy]

I guess it is just a feeling I got - but let me try to explain. WDW - seems, to me, like the epitome of 'Disney-ness'. Like I said in one of my stories above, I definitely did not get the 'we are the experts in moving tons of people through lines in the quickest way possible' feel at DLR (in the parks). Maybe just because of my 2 or 3 instances of line 'issues' within the 3 days. But also, when I was entering lines with no wait time indications - the CM's made no effort to assist there. I had to specifically ask for wait times and the CM's seemed somewhat surprised a couple of times. We got very few CM's starting conversations with us and many even stood back and waited to be asked for help or questions. I've thought that MAYBE it is also a difference in the CM's themselves, I found very few non-local nametags in DLR, where at WDW they are from everywhere around the country - and even the world. So I would guess that a CM who comes and applies for a job across the country or world and is lucky enough to be hired - REALLY, REALLY wanted this job. Not that DLR CM's aren't nice and don't want their jobs, but to them it's just asking for an application at the amusement park down the street (or at least it could be, not sure). Definitely could be a different way of acting when getting those two different jobs.

Just the impression I got.

Thanks for the detailed explanation. Here is another observation I have made. I am so comfortable with DLR that I rarely notice the CMs. I rarely have a question for them. At WDW I am much more out of my element and ask lots more questions to CMs. In short I interact with CMs a lot more at WDW. So I notice the goods, bads and possible differences more when at WDW.

In any case, I have never found a big difference in the CMs. I get the impression that the ones at DLR are better informed - I have gotten lots of misinformation from well-meaning CMs at WDW. But that may be because I do not ask the DLR CMs very many questions.

Also, even if there are a lot of local CMs at DLR, DLR is a locals resort. That means they have a very concentrated fan base in SoCal. So there is a lot to draw from. I never worked at DLR but wish I had when I was younger in high school or college. I lived 40 miles away in high school and my grandparents lived 10. I could have done it in the summers. Anyways I am not sure the geography of the CMs explains that much.

Again thanks for sharing your observations. IMO the CMs at both DLR and WDW are excellent overall and I rarely come across a negative experience personally.