Considering DL Trip

[SweetMagic]

We just visited DL in November and loved it. It was so much easier to do than MK, way less crowded. There were lines for Nemo's Submarine voyage, but nothing else was bad at all.

We ate at the Carnation Café for lunch and though it took ADR's, we walked right up with no problem. Food was great!

I did make a dinner ADR for Blue Bayou a couple of weeks in advance and got the exact time I wanted and only waited maybe 10 minutes to be seated at the restaurant. One word of advise on this restaurant though, the food is just "ok", you go more for the ambiance. It is very pricey, but they offer an option to split a plate of food. I believe the charge to split was about $5 and with that they give the second person there own sides (very yummy gumbo btw) and you only split the entree. This is a good option that I would highly recommend.

I like DCA as well, very laid back. We ate at Wine Country Trattoria and it was very good!

I think it's well worth the trip, you'll definitely enjoy it :wave:

 

[mouselvrmom]

I wish I had known that we could split entrees at the Blue Bayou. I couldn't even come close to finishing my entree and I didn't want to carry it around the park all day. :lol:

 

[SweetMagic]

^^ Yeah, I had found that info before we left, so I looked for it on the menu. It's there, but I think it was waaaay down at the bottom in smaller print :lol:

 

[primetime52]

We loved DL because it was our first Disney park and it was not overwhelming to our children. We were able to walk everywhere easily. We were also impressed with how clean the two parks were. If we dropped a few kernels of popcorn on the ground, a CM was there to sweep it up. Not that WDW wasn't clean but we noticed that little difference.

Funny how you mention that. The last time I was at DL, I was in line for Splash mountain and accidentally dropped a receipt that I was putting in my wallet. I waited a few seconds, but eventually began to bend over to pick it up, when I noticed that a Cast Member was already keeled over to scoop it up and throw it away. It was quite awkward actually, since the receipt only fell about 2 feet in front of me. Anyone looking at me at the time probably thought I was the laziest person alive, or at least a huge slob.

 

[gatorcard83]

The whole size thing is overrated, in fact in my opinion WDW's greatest strength and greatest weakness is in its size. Park hopping and getting from the onsite hotels to the parks and DD is so much easier at DLR than WDW. As for the parks themselves, even though I grew up with WDW I consider DL to be far superior to MK.

In terms of the attractions at DLR, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, and Space Mountain (still waiting for our update) at DL are far superior to the MK counterparts. You'll love the monorail actually going into the park instead of just outside of it and the lands overall are more intimate and detailed as well. Main Street at DL is better because it has more of the original stuff that Walt intended, while Main Street at WDW is just one long shop on both sides. New Orleans Square is the best themed land at either DLR or WDW and the Blue Bayou (make reservations early) is superior to any restaurant at MK. Small World is better at DL (why don't we ever get a holiday version?) and Autopia has more variety than Tomorrowland Speedway. Finally, DL has the Indiana Jones ride and Matterhorn which MK doesn't even have (maybe we can trade Indiana Jones for Epic Stunt Spectacular and Matterhorn for Stitch, lol). Finally, Parade of Dreams is a better parade in my opinion than Spectro, hopefully the rumors are true and POD will be coming to MK later this year.

As for DCA, they obviously have California Screamin', Grizzly River Run (gets you soaked compared to Kali River Rapids), and a lot of activities for younger kids that none of the WDW parks have. I do prefer the Studios ToT over the one at DCA, but the one at DCA is still very good. Soarin' is the same at both DCA and Epcot. I am not really familiar with the eating areas at DCA so I really can't compare.

Really the only things you will miss at DLR compared to WDW (if you even participate in any of these activities) are the Water Parks and Golfing, in essence the resort aspect of WDW. Other than that, I personally think the people in charge of WDW could learn a lot from DLR and I wish they would. Suffice to say, do not listen to the people who say DLR is not worth seeing, most likely those people have never been and most people who are used to WDW (myself included) are very suprised at what DLR has to offer. You are going to have a great time!

 

[Nicole220]

^ Nicely stated!

 

[primetime52]

^ Nicely stated!

WDW is an amazing place to stay for a week or 2, since there are so many other things to do outside the theme parks. You've also got water parks, golf courses, spas, and countless resorts with numerous different activities within (I love renting water sprites even though they are so slow). For LONG vacations there is no comparison to WDW.

However, if I could spend 2 or 3 days at either WDW or DLR, I would choose DLR 8 out of 10 times, for all of the quality reasons stated by everyone in previous posts. That's what it comes down to for me.