Brief trip report from June 18th to June 25th. We had 5 park days (hoppers), 1 day on an OC beaches tour and 1 day on a Hollywood/LA tour.
We really loved CA in general. Other than some cloudy/cool mornings our first couple of days, the weather was great. You definitely need that light jacket at night, though.
I'm glad I didn't buy
Genie+ with our ticket purchase because I only wound up purchasing it 3 days so that saved some money over purchasing it all 5 days with the tickets. We bought one ILL and that was for Radiator Springs Racers so we could all experience it as a family the first time. We rode it again another day using the single riders line when the standby wait was around 70 minutes and we literally walked right on the ride.
We stayed at the Residence Inn Anaheim Convention Center and it was perfect -- I think the MOST it ever took us was 15 minutes to security, but we're moderate/fast walkers. The hotel was great and I'd highly recommend.
It was a little disorienting at first being in DL if you're used to WDW/MK -- it kind of felt like a dream -- like all the surroundings were very familiar and basically set up the same way, but not exactly like how you know it. It was a nice change!
We all thought Space Mountain was better at DL. BTMRR was probably a little better too. POTC was longer, but does anyone know why the scents aren't piped in like on the MK version? Maybe they just weren't the two times we rode. Haunted Mansion...I think that one is a toss-up, but I liked being on a slightly different version. We had no hitchhiking ghosts either time, though. I loved being able to ride Mr. Toad again after all of these years of it missing from WDW (and Snow White). I enjoyed Alice. Indiana Jones was probably my favorite ride in the park -- so fun! At DCA, loved the Incredicoaster and Radiator Springs Racers. Monsters, Inc. was cute too. Terrible queue for TSMM. Webslingers was meh. But overall, I liked the park. LOVED World of Color. I didn't want to pay for a dessert/dining package, so we watched from Lamplight Lounge one night and the virtual queue another night. The virtual queue wins -- you really need to see it from the front.
Table service restaurants were: Blue Bayou, Lamplight Lounge, Cafe Orleans, and Carnation Cafe. Oh, and we also ate at Tortilla Jo's in Downtown Disney. Tortilla Jo's was so-so, but all the others were very good. Blue Bayou is too expensive, but I wanted to try it. I felt the counter service restaurants to be pretty pricey too (which I wouldn't mind as much if the portions were bigger), but I haven't been to WDW since 2021, so it may be the same there now too, I don't know. Churros are better at DL -- normally never get them at WDW.
That's about it. Will definitely go back out there again in the future. We didn't need 5 days. Three-day hoppers probably would've been perfect. LOVED California, though!