Back from Disneyland Trip - Had an amazing time!

[TuffyCatt]

Hey all!

I just wanted to let you guys know that we got back from our very first DLR trip late last night. We had such a wonderful time, and in no small part due to all the wonderful help and advice we got from you all here! If people would be interested, I would be happy to type up a trip report (plus it would be a good way to help me remember the trip in the future too!). However, since it was a 6 day trip, it may take me a little time to get everything typed up and to get all my pictures in order.

Until then, just a quick summary of our trip and some thoughts after getting home:

-We stayed at the Grand Californian, and absolutely loved it. We go to WDW every couple of years and stay at the Animal Kingdom Lodge (which is our home resort and will always be our home away from home), so we are used to long bus rides to and from the parks at WDW. To be so close to both of the parks and to be able to walk everywhere with no driving whatsoever was one of our favorite aspects about our trip. There is also a terrace (largely unadvertised, we just happened to stumble on it while exploring) on the sixth floor of the Grand Californian which looks right over Paradise Pier and gives you a spectacular view, including a birds eye view of World of Color. What a magical little place for Disney to build into their hotel.

-Disneyland is the real deal, what a truly wonderful place. I love Magic Kingdom at WDW (but Epcot is and will forever be my favorite park), but Disneyland is now easily my favorite of the two castle parks. It is charming and lovely, and absolutely packed from top to bottom with wonderful things to see and explore. Since I'm a huge fan of Disney and Disney park history, I was pretty much in heaven here. Yes it was crowded (it was July after all!) and yes some of the guests are a little crazy (but aren't we all to some extent?), but we just took our time and were able to enjoy the experience (and almost every single attraction).

-DCA is a great park! Of course I never saw it before its overhaul, but whatever they did, they did it right. I felt almost as much connection to DCA as to Disneyland on this trip, likely because it was the first park we went to, the close proximity of our hotel, and because of how much we loved World of Color. We spent the whole of the trip spontaneously singing "the world is a carousel of color!" because that song is so darn catchy! Plus the rides at DCA are just plain fun, with RSR and California Screamin' being some of my favorite rides of the trip. Also, as everyone and their mom has said (but it still bears repeating), Cars Land is awesome. Just awesome.

-Food - so good. Being WDW vets we couldn't help ourselves and had to make reservations. We got to experience Blue Bayou, Napa Rose, and Carthay Circle. All completely different dining experiences and all very good. The DLR vets would be proud to know that we also tried our hand at spontaneity and had lunch at the Carnation Cafe one day without a reservation (gasp!), which was also a great experience. We tried out a lot of counter service too, with some of the standouts being the Plaza Inn, Flo's, and Bengal BBQ. It was interesting to see how DLR handles counter service differently from WDW, they have very different systems, and I think they both work well.

I can't wait to share more with you guys! And thanks again for all of your help - it made our trip truly magical.

 

[teacherlady19]

If you decide to post a longer trip report, I for one would love to read it. I'm glad your experience with "our" park on the left coast was such a good one. Funny, you felt the need to reserve for meals -- last year, when we went to WDW, we felt hemmed in by the need to reserve. (I think we only reserved two; one at someplace in Epcot and the other at Fulton's in DD.)

Did you see any of the feral cats? My daughter said she did on Monday morning, in DD.


Donna

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

DL is awesome glad you had a good time. The food is pretty good there, and it is nice not having to stress about reservations.

 

[TuffyCatt]

If you decide to post a longer trip report, I for one would love to read it. I'm glad your experience with "our" park on the left coast was such a good one. Funny, you felt the need to reserve for meals -- last year, when we went to WDW, we felt hemmed in by the need to reserve. (I think we only reserved two; one at someplace in Epcot and the other at Fulton's in DD.)

Did you see any of the feral cats? My daughter said she did on Monday morning, in DD.


Donna

My mom does NOT like to wait, so having reservations for the majority of our table service meals worked out very well for us. The 30 minute wait for our Carnation Cafe lunch was a hard sell for her, but in the end she was glad we did it - we were all huge fans of the potato soup and the cherry chocolate sodas!

Unfortunately despite all our meandering around the parks we didn't spot any of the Disneyland cats. Maybe next time. We did enjoy all the ducks though, haha. We were joking that people spend hundreds of dollars to come to Disneyland, and then get very excited about crowding around and watching the baby ducks. But of course, being animal lovers, we did exactly the same thing!

 

[Californian Elitist]

I can't believe your trip is already over... That was quick!

I'm definitely up for a trip report. I enjoyed reading your quick summary, so a trip report will be nice. Take your time!

 

[Californian Elitist]

My mom does NOT like to wait, so having reservations for the majority of our table service meals worked out very well for us. The 30 minute wait for our Carnation Cafe lunch was a hard sell for her, but in the end she was glad we did it - we were all huge fans of the potato soup and the cherry chocolate sodas!

Unfortunately despite all our meandering around the parks we didn't spot any of the Disneyland cats. Maybe next time. We did enjoy all the ducks though, haha. We were joking that people spend hundreds of dollars to come to Disneyland, and then get very excited about crowding around and watching the baby ducks. But of course, being animal lovers, we did exactly the same thing!

Speaking of animals, did you guys visit the petting zoo of farm animals in Frontierland?

 

[TuffyCatt]

Speaking of animals, did you guys visit the petting zoo of farm animals in Frontierland?

We did! The petting zoo at Rafiki's Planet Watch at Animal Kingdom is a big favorite of my dad's so he was thrilled to find the petting zoo in Frontierland. While I queued up to get some pics with Woody and Jessie, he and my mom spent some time with the goats. My dad also really liked Clarabelle the cow over there.

Speaking of that area, the Big Thunder Ranch was a gem to find. I'm glad we wandered over there to catch Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. I don't think the majority of the park guests know that area is over there, so it was quite quiet and peaceful, with lots of great characters and interactive cast members.

 

[Californian Elitist]

We did! The petting zoo at Rafiki's Planet Watch at Animal Kingdom is a big favorite of my dad's so he was thrilled to find the petting zoo in Frontierland. While I queued up to get some pics with Woody and Jessie, he and my mom spent some time with the goats. My dad also really liked Clarabelle the cow over there.

Speaking of that area, the Big Thunder Ranch was a gem to find. I'm glad we wandered over there to catch Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. I don't think the majority of the park guests know that area is over there, so it was quite quiet and peaceful, with lots of great characters and interactive cast members.

That's excellent. I had forgotten to mention it to you, and so I was hoping you guys found it. I love Clarabelle, too. She's one of my favorites.

I agree about Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. They are so funny!

 

[JPatton]

I enjoyed your remarks. It must be wonderful to see World of Color from your own balcony.

 

[TP2000]

Disneyland does it again for a WDW vet. And the only ones surprised are those who have never been to Disneyland.

Thanks for the post-trip comments! A TR would be great, but we all know what it's like to need to catch up with real life after a trip, so take your time.

 

[Magenta Panther]

I'll be heading out to Walt's park next year, probably in the fall. In the meantime, I'd love to read more about your trip, to tide me over until then...

 

[Wikkler]

Unfortunately Disneyland is not an option for us, since we are East-Coasters and it's expensive enough to go to Florida...

 

[tare]

Glad u had a good trip. dl is really awesome can't wait to go back in a couple months!!!!

 

[Pooh'sBuddy]

-Food - ... We tried out a lot of counter service too, with some of the standouts being the Plaza Inn, Flo's, and Bengal BBQ. It was interesting to see how DLR handles counter service differently from WDW, they have very different systems, and I think they both work well.

I can't wait to share more with you guys! And thanks again for all of your help - it made our trip truly magical.

I'm up for a trip report, too!

When you get a second or two, could you please explain what you mean when you say "DLR handles counter service differently?"

And I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your trip!

 

[TuffyCatt]

I'm up for a trip report, too!

When you get a second or two, could you please explain what you mean when you say "DLR handles counter service differently?"

And I'm glad to hear you enjoyed your trip!

Certainly! So from my experience at WDW, the majority of counter service restaurants there have you go in, wait in a line at a register, place your order at the register, and then have you move forward to a counter where you wait to pick up your food and beverages. Some restaurants at DLR work this way too - Flo's is the main one that I can think of that we went to.

However, at DLR, a large number of the counter service restaurants are more "buffeteria" (for the lack of a better word) style, and I can't really off the top of my head think of any counter service restaurants that work this way at WDW. So you go in, get your tray and silverware (which is often real silverware, not plastic, another big difference), and you go to different stations that are set up around the restaurant to get what you want. For example, at the Plaza Inn, there was a chicken station, a pasta station, a salad station, etc. The food is not self-serve like a true buffet, there are still specific meals you pick from, you just go to that specific station to order them. For example, at the Plaza Inn I knew I wanted the fried chicken meal (thanks to the brilliant suggestions from people here!), so I went over to the chicken station, asked the cast member for the chicken meal, and he served it up for me. Then you get self-serve drinks, and then go pay for all your food at a register before sitting down. A lot of the other counter service places we went to, especially at Disneyland compared to DCA, worked on some variation of this theme.

I think this way works for DLR because there are sooo many restaurant choices available that guests are really spread out. We often would go to grab lunch or dinner at peak times, which would have been disastrous at WDW, and the restaurants would be steady, but not swamped. The "wait in a line to order and pick up your food" method employed by most of the counter service places at WDW provides some much needed crowd control. I just can't imagine what would happen if you plopped a restaurant like the Plaza Inn in the middle of WDW - people would swarm the stations, there would be chaos, etc. I think they chose to use the line method at restaurants like Flo's because they knew that it was going to be busy. I went to Flo's for both breakfast and lunch during peak times, and the restaurant handled the crowds wonderfully.

Anyway, that's my two cents! The first counter service place we went to in Disneyland (Pizza Port in Tommorowland) had us a little confused with this new counter service layout, but we quickly figured it out!

Thank you all for the kind words - we really did have such a great trip and I'm excited that you want to read more about it! I'm working on a trip report right now and will maybe have a post ready later today to get it started! Warning - it's going to be long! As you can see from the above post - I tend to be on the wordy side, haha!

 

[Pooh'sBuddy]

Thanks, Tuffy! Your description helps me tremendously. I anxiously await your TR! Thanks for your putting it together, too.

 

[Zman-ks]

Glad you had a wonderful time!

 

[Californian Elitist]

The longer (and more detailed), the better.

 

[coachwnh]

We did! The petting zoo at Rafiki's Planet Watch at Animal Kingdom is a big favorite of my dad's so he was thrilled to find the petting zoo in Frontierland. While I queued up to get some pics with Woody and Jessie, he and my mom spent some time with the goats. My dad also really liked Clarabelle the cow over there.

Speaking of that area, the Big Thunder Ranch was a gem to find. I'm glad we wandered over there to catch Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. I don't think the majority of the park guests know that area is over there, so it was quite quiet and peaceful, with lots of great characters and interactive cast members.

Awesome!! When we discovered the Big Thunder Ranch last summer we loved it!!!! You are so right about the character interaction. I think the characters are on a different level in DL in general compared to WDW. Not sure what it is, but I totally see what you mean!!! Cant wait for to get back there this Sunday!!!!!