So after 30 odd years of visiting WDW I finally made it out to California to see Disneyland. I'm not much one for trip reports, but I do have a lot of observations I wanted to share.
1. It really struck me how small both of these parks are. People go on and on about how much smaller Disneyland is than the Magic Kingdom, but it doesn't really sink in until you're actually there that everything is really very miniaturized and crammed together. The castle in particular struck me as almost pitifully small compared to Cinderella at Disney World, though in a classic example of Disneyland's willingness to work with what they have, contains both two versions of the same attraction AND a shop.
2. The lack of size really hurts Disneyland's themeing in noticeable ways in that all the lands are crammed right against each other with no breathing room. Where the Magic Kingdom's various lands are separated by blended areas of sound and themeing, you've got abrupt collisions of theme in both parks, the worst of which being the 3-way juncture at Pirates between Adventureland, Frontierland, and New Orleans Square. Unless you were deep in certain corners of the lands, particularly Toon Town or Tomorrowland, there wasn't a whole lot of immersion. California Adventure does a much better job of this.
3. I wasn't expecting the train ride or the riverboat to be such fully-realized attractions. Neither the grand canyon diorama nor the primeval world get much attention these days, so they were both an almost complete surprise for me, which I loved. Same goes for the super-articulated A100 figure of the Indian chief on the Rivers of America. I can't believe they're letting a Spaceship Earth-quality figure just bake out there in the outdoors, but I guess in California's weather you can get away with it.
4. It was good to see Toon Town before its likely demise at the hands of Yoda and all them.
Place really needed one final coat of paint, though- it was looking very faded and a lot of the little effects in and around Gadget's Go Coaster weren't working. It's a nicer take on what Disney World did with Mickey's Starland and Birthday Land and all that, but it's clearly an area whose time has come and gone.
5. Everyone who says the Disney World version of Pirates pales in comparison to the original is totally right. Holy moly, what a difference all the extra darkness, space, and non-moving scenes add. The skeleton caverns and swaying timber scenes are awesome. I didn't even mind Jack Sparow's stupid Poochy appearances as much since they were spaced out so much more.
6. I regret riding Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey before having rode Indiana Jones and the Forbidden Eye, because Forbidden Eye surely was the world's most technically accomplished attraction experience before Potter. It's just a masterwork, from top to bottom, and Countdown to Extinction is a very, very poor substitute indeed. The central chamber and the way you make multiple passes through it was particularly interesting to see, especially when we went to Knott's Berry Farm the next day and did the Calico Mine Ride, which clearly inspired this one. On the downside, of the three times we rode it, the rolling ball effect only worked once, and only after we were stopped staring at Indy's silent, swinging feet for 2 minutes.
7. Disneyland's Tomorrowland is BUTT. UGLY. I'm excepting the submarine lagoon and the Matterhorn (which was closed) but everything else was just hideously painted, built, and arranged. It's the exact opposite of the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland, which is pretty to look at but has lame attractions. All the Disneyland versions of the rides like Buzz, Autopia, and Space Mountain were clearly superior, but the surrounding area was so terrible-looking that we spent as little time there as possible. This needs fixing in the worst way.
8. Maybe it was just may imagination, but it seemed like the Haunted Mansion omnimover chain was moving way faster than it did last time I saw the Magic Kingdom's. Wish I had timed my ride. I wonder if the omnimover speed is controllable by the cast members? Perhaps the Magic Kingdom's recent capacity problems are due to the ride speed being turned down to low? Curious.
Also, it's too bright in there right now.
9. Overall, the quality of the food at the two Disneyland parks is better way better and more interesting than that at Disney World. We usually struggle to find something interesting to eat at any park that's not EPCOT, but at Disneyland there's almost always something interesting and good available. Lucky Fortune for Korean Beef, Mole chicken at Ranco Del Zucaro, steak gumbo, the weird onion/bbq dog at Award Wieners... It's just better overall. The swordfish I got at Carthay Circle was possibly the best Disney meal I've ever had, though the ice sphere Manhattans I had at the bar downstairs didn't hurt. Honestly the only bad Disney food I had the whole trip was the Hawaiian burger from Trader Sam's, and even then the sweet potato fries that came with it were great.
Oh, and the dill pickle popcorn from the Cozy Cone. Avoid.
10. California Adventure is a really weird park. It feels like a combination of the second-best parts of MGM and Animal Kingdom, though with lamer rides. There are parts of it that really, really work, and a lot of parts that feel through-the-floor cheap. I kind of wish I had seen it when it was REALLY bad.
11. Cars Land was sort of a letdown after all the praise that had been heaped upon it. I don't know whether it was because "Cars" is my least-favorite series of Pixar movies or that I had already seen Diagon Alley in all its glory, but those who say that this is the best themed area in all of Theme Park-dom are out of their minds. To be honest, the aesthetic of intentionally-tacky reminded me a little of Chester and Hester's, though in a good way. Radiator Springs Racers is very, very cool, but it's no Forbidden Journey, or even Indy. Weirdly, I felt like Test Track, what with its "skidding" and slalom sequences are a much better demonstration of what these kinds of ride vehicles are capable of when it comes to simulating a theme park "car". RS Racers' layout was probably designed to be a lot easier on tires, but is consequently a lot less interesting and thrilling. On the whole, I was way more impressed with Grizzly Peak as an area than with Carsland.
12. Grizzly Peak rules. The themeing is really clever, its stores have the coolest merch, and using the Grand Californian as a backdrop is genius. Plus, the rapids are Kali River done right. Overall, the area felt a LOT like a similar "State Park" area at Dollywood, what with all the green-painted plywood. The place just made me happy.
13. I liked Paradise Pier and all of its rides a lot, but 2 things bugged me. First there's no fish in the water. I guess this is because they need it nice and clean to not interfere with the World or Color machinery, but large bodies of water with no fish in them always make me sad. Disneyland didn't have a lot of fish. Or birds, for that matter; just ducks. I guess that's what happens when you DON'T build your park in a swamp.
Second, I don't like Paradise Pier's music. I hated the old track, which seemed to be constantly coming up on streaming Disney radio channels, what with all its calliope takes on Beach Boys music, but the new loop isn't much better. It sounds exactly like Main Street USA music, which is just too boring and familiar. They need something else, though I can't exactly put my finger on what.
14. The Aladdin stage show was nice and all, but if would it have been possible for the Genie to crack some jokes that weren't based on female pop stars? It was like a kid's Broadway musical written by Perez Hilton.
15. World of Color was simply amazing. Ditto for the REAL version of Fantasmic (Holy smokes, that pirate ship fight!). Glad we paid for the dinner packages so that we didn't have to fight for good seats. Disney's gotta stop using the piano version of "Married Life" from UP in their montage shows, though. That song instantly criticals me every time.
16. Why aren't there any good T-shirts specific to the California Adventure park and its logos? Are people ashamed of it or something? I looked for one and couldn't buy it. Overall merch quality was high, though it was lame to see so many items that I had previously seen for sale in Florida.
17. The California version of Tower of Terror is definitely second-rate. Other than the lobby, which is unchanged, everything is worse, and usually too brightly lit. People who go off complaining about how bright the boiler room queue in Florida is have no idea how good they have it.
18. Knott's Berry Farm is an absolute must-do if you're in the area for Disneyland and California Adventure. The place has a lot of really unique coasters, a ton of classic ghost town activities and sights, and 2 positively unique and fascinating dark rides, both of which are built on an epic scale and have clearly influenced Disney's imagineers (Tony Baxter has admitted as much). The place is a real bargain too, if you buy your tickets online. They had possibly the best live talent I've seen in a theme park as well- cowboy villain types who are masters at improv comedy, stunt show performers who can throw a convincing joke and punch, Broadway-caliber singers in the saloon, and two exceedingly unique one-man Native American shows. The only letdown here, besides the confusing layout around Silver Bullet, is the food; we tried the Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant for the history of the place and as something of a fried chicken connoisseur I can confidently say that this chicken is substandard. Good cabbage though. And boysenberry ice cream. Maybe we just ordered the wrong stuff? Anyway, this place is TOTALLY worth it for a break from Disney.
19. You've also got to see the Pacific Ocean if you make the trip. We spent a day at Huntington Beach and it was a different world out there. While I was kind of disappointing at how "normal" most of Los Angeles and Anaheim looked to me, the sights and people along the Pacific Coast Highway were as uniquely and bizarrely Californian as I could have hoped for. I wish I had had 2 or 3 days to just drive up and down the highway in our rented Mustang. Just unreal, exciting, and splendid.
20. I feel like the biggest difference between Disneyland and Disney World that no one talks about is how different the attitude of the guests around you is at Disneyland. At Disneyland, there are far more locals, teenagers, and people just visiting for the day, rather than families who have saved for 3 years for a 5-day Disney vacation and lose their minds at the drop of a hat when anything goes wrong. Thus, everyone at Disneyland seems far more laid-back and just happier to be there. It rubs off on the cast members too, who aren't necessarily friendly or harder working than their Florida counterparts, but they do seem less forced about it and more casual. It made a big difference in our stay, and was one of the nicest surprises of the trip.
1. It really struck me how small both of these parks are. People go on and on about how much smaller Disneyland is than the Magic Kingdom, but it doesn't really sink in until you're actually there that everything is really very miniaturized and crammed together. The castle in particular struck me as almost pitifully small compared to Cinderella at Disney World, though in a classic example of Disneyland's willingness to work with what they have, contains both two versions of the same attraction AND a shop.
2. The lack of size really hurts Disneyland's themeing in noticeable ways in that all the lands are crammed right against each other with no breathing room. Where the Magic Kingdom's various lands are separated by blended areas of sound and themeing, you've got abrupt collisions of theme in both parks, the worst of which being the 3-way juncture at Pirates between Adventureland, Frontierland, and New Orleans Square. Unless you were deep in certain corners of the lands, particularly Toon Town or Tomorrowland, there wasn't a whole lot of immersion. California Adventure does a much better job of this.
3. I wasn't expecting the train ride or the riverboat to be such fully-realized attractions. Neither the grand canyon diorama nor the primeval world get much attention these days, so they were both an almost complete surprise for me, which I loved. Same goes for the super-articulated A100 figure of the Indian chief on the Rivers of America. I can't believe they're letting a Spaceship Earth-quality figure just bake out there in the outdoors, but I guess in California's weather you can get away with it.
4. It was good to see Toon Town before its likely demise at the hands of Yoda and all them.
Place really needed one final coat of paint, though- it was looking very faded and a lot of the little effects in and around Gadget's Go Coaster weren't working. It's a nicer take on what Disney World did with Mickey's Starland and Birthday Land and all that, but it's clearly an area whose time has come and gone.
5. Everyone who says the Disney World version of Pirates pales in comparison to the original is totally right. Holy moly, what a difference all the extra darkness, space, and non-moving scenes add. The skeleton caverns and swaying timber scenes are awesome. I didn't even mind Jack Sparow's stupid Poochy appearances as much since they were spaced out so much more.
6. I regret riding Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey before having rode Indiana Jones and the Forbidden Eye, because Forbidden Eye surely was the world's most technically accomplished attraction experience before Potter. It's just a masterwork, from top to bottom, and Countdown to Extinction is a very, very poor substitute indeed. The central chamber and the way you make multiple passes through it was particularly interesting to see, especially when we went to Knott's Berry Farm the next day and did the Calico Mine Ride, which clearly inspired this one. On the downside, of the three times we rode it, the rolling ball effect only worked once, and only after we were stopped staring at Indy's silent, swinging feet for 2 minutes.
7. Disneyland's Tomorrowland is BUTT. UGLY. I'm excepting the submarine lagoon and the Matterhorn (which was closed) but everything else was just hideously painted, built, and arranged. It's the exact opposite of the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland, which is pretty to look at but has lame attractions. All the Disneyland versions of the rides like Buzz, Autopia, and Space Mountain were clearly superior, but the surrounding area was so terrible-looking that we spent as little time there as possible. This needs fixing in the worst way.
8. Maybe it was just may imagination, but it seemed like the Haunted Mansion omnimover chain was moving way faster than it did last time I saw the Magic Kingdom's. Wish I had timed my ride. I wonder if the omnimover speed is controllable by the cast members? Perhaps the Magic Kingdom's recent capacity problems are due to the ride speed being turned down to low? Curious.
Also, it's too bright in there right now.
9. Overall, the quality of the food at the two Disneyland parks is better way better and more interesting than that at Disney World. We usually struggle to find something interesting to eat at any park that's not EPCOT, but at Disneyland there's almost always something interesting and good available. Lucky Fortune for Korean Beef, Mole chicken at Ranco Del Zucaro, steak gumbo, the weird onion/bbq dog at Award Wieners... It's just better overall. The swordfish I got at Carthay Circle was possibly the best Disney meal I've ever had, though the ice sphere Manhattans I had at the bar downstairs didn't hurt. Honestly the only bad Disney food I had the whole trip was the Hawaiian burger from Trader Sam's, and even then the sweet potato fries that came with it were great.
Oh, and the dill pickle popcorn from the Cozy Cone. Avoid.
10. California Adventure is a really weird park. It feels like a combination of the second-best parts of MGM and Animal Kingdom, though with lamer rides. There are parts of it that really, really work, and a lot of parts that feel through-the-floor cheap. I kind of wish I had seen it when it was REALLY bad.
11. Cars Land was sort of a letdown after all the praise that had been heaped upon it. I don't know whether it was because "Cars" is my least-favorite series of Pixar movies or that I had already seen Diagon Alley in all its glory, but those who say that this is the best themed area in all of Theme Park-dom are out of their minds. To be honest, the aesthetic of intentionally-tacky reminded me a little of Chester and Hester's, though in a good way. Radiator Springs Racers is very, very cool, but it's no Forbidden Journey, or even Indy. Weirdly, I felt like Test Track, what with its "skidding" and slalom sequences are a much better demonstration of what these kinds of ride vehicles are capable of when it comes to simulating a theme park "car". RS Racers' layout was probably designed to be a lot easier on tires, but is consequently a lot less interesting and thrilling. On the whole, I was way more impressed with Grizzly Peak as an area than with Carsland.
12. Grizzly Peak rules. The themeing is really clever, its stores have the coolest merch, and using the Grand Californian as a backdrop is genius. Plus, the rapids are Kali River done right. Overall, the area felt a LOT like a similar "State Park" area at Dollywood, what with all the green-painted plywood. The place just made me happy.
13. I liked Paradise Pier and all of its rides a lot, but 2 things bugged me. First there's no fish in the water. I guess this is because they need it nice and clean to not interfere with the World or Color machinery, but large bodies of water with no fish in them always make me sad. Disneyland didn't have a lot of fish. Or birds, for that matter; just ducks. I guess that's what happens when you DON'T build your park in a swamp.
Second, I don't like Paradise Pier's music. I hated the old track, which seemed to be constantly coming up on streaming Disney radio channels, what with all its calliope takes on Beach Boys music, but the new loop isn't much better. It sounds exactly like Main Street USA music, which is just too boring and familiar. They need something else, though I can't exactly put my finger on what.
14. The Aladdin stage show was nice and all, but if would it have been possible for the Genie to crack some jokes that weren't based on female pop stars? It was like a kid's Broadway musical written by Perez Hilton.
15. World of Color was simply amazing. Ditto for the REAL version of Fantasmic (Holy smokes, that pirate ship fight!). Glad we paid for the dinner packages so that we didn't have to fight for good seats. Disney's gotta stop using the piano version of "Married Life" from UP in their montage shows, though. That song instantly criticals me every time.
16. Why aren't there any good T-shirts specific to the California Adventure park and its logos? Are people ashamed of it or something? I looked for one and couldn't buy it. Overall merch quality was high, though it was lame to see so many items that I had previously seen for sale in Florida.
17. The California version of Tower of Terror is definitely second-rate. Other than the lobby, which is unchanged, everything is worse, and usually too brightly lit. People who go off complaining about how bright the boiler room queue in Florida is have no idea how good they have it.
18. Knott's Berry Farm is an absolute must-do if you're in the area for Disneyland and California Adventure. The place has a lot of really unique coasters, a ton of classic ghost town activities and sights, and 2 positively unique and fascinating dark rides, both of which are built on an epic scale and have clearly influenced Disney's imagineers (Tony Baxter has admitted as much). The place is a real bargain too, if you buy your tickets online. They had possibly the best live talent I've seen in a theme park as well- cowboy villain types who are masters at improv comedy, stunt show performers who can throw a convincing joke and punch, Broadway-caliber singers in the saloon, and two exceedingly unique one-man Native American shows. The only letdown here, besides the confusing layout around Silver Bullet, is the food; we tried the Mrs. Knott's Chicken Dinner Restaurant for the history of the place and as something of a fried chicken connoisseur I can confidently say that this chicken is substandard. Good cabbage though. And boysenberry ice cream. Maybe we just ordered the wrong stuff? Anyway, this place is TOTALLY worth it for a break from Disney.
19. You've also got to see the Pacific Ocean if you make the trip. We spent a day at Huntington Beach and it was a different world out there. While I was kind of disappointing at how "normal" most of Los Angeles and Anaheim looked to me, the sights and people along the Pacific Coast Highway were as uniquely and bizarrely Californian as I could have hoped for. I wish I had had 2 or 3 days to just drive up and down the highway in our rented Mustang. Just unreal, exciting, and splendid.
20. I feel like the biggest difference between Disneyland and Disney World that no one talks about is how different the attitude of the guests around you is at Disneyland. At Disneyland, there are far more locals, teenagers, and people just visiting for the day, rather than families who have saved for 3 years for a 5-day Disney vacation and lose their minds at the drop of a hat when anything goes wrong. Thus, everyone at Disneyland seems far more laid-back and just happier to be there. It rubs off on the cast members too, who aren't necessarily friendly or harder working than their Florida counterparts, but they do seem less forced about it and more casual. It made a big difference in our stay, and was one of the nicest surprises of the trip.
