First trip to Disneyland

[NeedMoreMickey]

Just got back from trip to Disneyland and since I've been to WDW around 30 times there was a little comparison of the two parks. I loved the history of walking through the park that Walt actually walked in. We even took the tour Walk in Walt's Footsteps. Almost everything was wonderful but I was a little disappointed with Main Street and the castle. I thought the castle would be taller.

 

[Californian Elitist]

The height of the castle matches the scale of the rest of the park. A gigantic castle at Disneyland would be out of place. Not to mention the Matterhorn's height...a mountain looms over a castle, not the opposite.

Glad you enjoyed yourself.

 

[Kramerica]

As much as I love the Magic Kingdom's main street and castle, nothing hits home for me like Disneyland Anaheim. Forget the rich history and the fact that the man himself drove his firetruck down it. It just feels so real to me. The main street is less about show and more about authenticity. A true throwback to an idealized America in the turn of the century. The towns square and hub are smaller and more realistic to an actual slice of heaven on earth. Disneyworld's feels more as if it was designed to accommodate massive crowds first and to connect with you second.

As far as castles, that comes down to opinion. To me, I love seeing a small castle at the end of Main Street, kind of like the light at the end of a tunnel. Something that is quaint yet contrasting and draws you in, rather than a giant monolith that looms over you. To each their own, though! To me, I think this quote says it best "Disneyland hugs you, Disneyworld swallows you"

Either way, glad you had fun. As someone who was a Disneyworld only guy for the majority of my life, it took a couple trips to appreciate Disneyland Anaheim, but now that I do, I heavily prefer it. Only opinion though!

 

[Dizney Crew]

We'll be making our 1st trip to DLR in March, can't wait!! But it seems all the reviews of DLR compared to WDW are the same. WDW is bigger, better castle and better theming . All I ever here about DLR is small castle, super small park, its the only park Walt was in and it has an old feel to it. Unless things are that much different in person from everything I've seen on YouTube DLR looks 1000X better IMO, waaaayyy more rides, better versions of what we have in Orlando. I'll take rides over theming any day.

Also I never hear much about California Adventure, and from what I do hear its never much, cept for Carsland is cool and you have to see the night time show, thats it. Once again from what I see online CA looks better than EPCOT, HS and AK at least from a ride standpoint, am I missing something here?

Maybe since we're at the Orlando parks on a weekly basis we're just ready for something new/different. Looking forward to the trip and being able to hopefully provide a decent review for the folks back home who seem to be in the camp of WDW is the better park. March can't get here soon enough!!!

 

[BubbaQuest]

Also I never hear much about California Adventure, and from what I do hear its never much, cept for Carsland is cool and you have to see the night time show, thats it

I think the issue for some WDW regulars is that DCA is just a mashup of greatest hits from the other WDW parks with less overall theming. If you toss out the carnival attractions, DCA really only has 4 uniques (help me out people if I'm forgetting something):
1. Monsters Inc -- which I love, but only a C ticket.
2. California Screamin -- great coaster, but not any better than Everest or Rock-n-Roll coaster.
3. World of Color -- great, but ya gotta enjoy waiting for a show.
4. Carsland -- best of the best, but I could see how Test Track regulars might be a little underwhelmed.

Disney has made a lot of improvements to the park and I think DCA is great and I would visit it over DHS any day. However, if I had easy access to AK and Epcot, I might look at it differently.

 

[NeedMoreMickey]

Dizney Crew you will have a great time. After seeing the castle on the TV show when I was a kid I thought it would be taller. As we went through the park we could tell where the attraction was built first. WDW has taller Main Street and castle. Space Mountain in Disneyland was built after WDW and it is a better ride. It's like when the built the attraction the second time the problems were fixed. California Adventure flows much nicer than HS. Feel like I'm always coming to a dead end at HS. We stayed at Paradise Pier so we were supposed to be able to enter an hour early but unless you have breakfast reservations at Grand Californian you have to enter through Downtown Disney. The security gates didn't open until 9:00 so we wasted 25 minutes. We rode Soarin twice once 20 min wait and walked on Friday night around 8:00. I would love to go back if I could cut the plane trip down to 3 hours, I'm not a good flyer

 

[Dizney Crew]

I think the issue for some WDW regulars is that DCA is just a mashup of greatest hits from the other WDW parks with less overall theming. If you toss out the carnival attractions, DCA really only has 4 uniques (help me out people if I'm forgetting something):
1. Monsters Inc -- which I love, but only a C ticket.
2. California Screamin -- great coaster, but not any better than Everest or Rock-n-Roll coaster.
3. World of Color -- great, but ya gotta enjoy waiting for a show.
4. Carsland -- best of the best, but I could see how Test Track regulars might be a little underwhelmed.

Disney has made a lot of improvements to the park and I think DCA is great and I would visit it over DHS any day. However, if I had easy access to AK and Epcot, I might look at it differently.

Hmmmm, interesting feedback....
1)Monsters looks to be somewhat comparable in length to our Little Mermaid ride, but once again Monsters seems like a better ride, more AA's and better original story.

2) California Screamin' looks like a great ride, but with little or no theming involved, so I guess I could see how Everest and RR would seem like better attractions.

3) Is WOC something we need to sit around and wait for to get a good spot, or can we just show up 20 mins before show time and have a decent view?

4) Interesting in that you say TT regulars might be underwhelmed with Cars. IMO TT is rather boring to look at, VERY dark and the interactive part with designing your own car rarely works the way it's meant to. Even the "Fast Track" section is OK at best. From the looks of it at least you get a decent dark ride on Cars before you actually get to the "Ride" if you will.

Also to me the "carnival" type rides actually add something to the park in terms of stuff to do, outside of MK this is something the other WDW parks severely lack. HS is a complete joke right now.

 

[Sunny Blueberry]

There may be a fair amount of cloning between the resorts, so if you're going to DLR just for completely unique attractions your going to be disappointed. With that being said I would say that each Disney Park has its own unique attractions and that California Adventure has more unique attractions than any other than Disney Park save for perhaps Animal Kingdom. For unique attractions, I like to say that Grizzly River Run is a first class rapids ride, and that Hyperion Theater hosts a stage show unmatched (in production value) from anything at WDW. If you're into meeting characters and make the effort, you can often spend more time than just a quick photo. A personal favorite of my mother's is to watch the Boudin Bakery sourdough bread loaves being made and then order a clam chowder sourdough bread bowl from the restaurant next door. As a Californian, when I visited WDW, I didn't avoid duplicate attractions, I just made it a point to hit every unique attraction at least once during the trip and had a great time! For WDW regular's, I recommend the that they tour with the same mindset.

p.s. Knott's Berry Farm is literally in the town next door and is worth considering as an unofficial 3rd gate.

 

[GiveMeTheMusic]

Hmmmm, interesting feedback....
1)Monsters looks to be somewhat comparable in length to our Little Mermaid ride, but once again Monsters seems like a better ride, more AA's and better original story.

2) California Screamin' looks like a great ride, but with little or no theming involved, so I guess I could see how Everest and RR would seem like better attractions.

3) Is WOC something we need to sit around and wait for to get a good spot, or can we just show up 20 mins before show time and have a decent view?

4) Interesting in that you say TT regulars might be underwhelmed with Cars. IMO TT is rather boring to look at, VERY dark and the interactive part with designing your own car rarely works the way it's meant to. Even the "Fast Track" section is OK at best. From the looks of it at least you get a decent dark ride on Cars before you actually get to the "Ride" if you will.

Also to me the "carnival" type rides actually add something to the park in terms of stuff to do, outside of MK this is something the other WDW parks severely lack. HS is a complete joke right now.

You might find this thread helpful in your planning:

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/guide-to-dlr-for-wdw-veterans.875596/

 

[Dizney Crew]

There may be a fair amount of cloning between the resorts, so if you're going to DLR just for completely unique attractions your going to be disappointed. With that being said I would say that each Disney Park has its own unique attractions and that California Adventure has more unique attractions than any other than Disney Park save for perhaps Animal Kingdom. For unique attractions, I like to say that Grizzly River Run is a first class rapids ride, and that Hyperion Theater hosts a stage show unmatched (in production value) from anything at WDW. If you're into meeting characters and make the effort, you can often spend more time than just a quick photo. A personal favorite of my mother's is to watch the Boudin Bakery sourdough bread loaves being made and then order a clam chowder sourdough bread bowl from the restaurant next door. As a Californian, when I visited WDW, I didn't avoid duplicate attractions, I just made it a point to hit every unique attraction at least once during the trip and had a great time! For WDW regular's, I recommend the that they tour with the same mindset.

p.s. Knott's Berry Farm is literally in the town next door and is worth considering as an unofficial 3rd gate.

We're planning on going to Knotts Berry Farm our last day, we were just going to park hop between DLR and CA our last day, but hearing how close they are we figured KBF would be something different. Good to hear that it's something you would recommend cause honestly I haven't heard too much good or bad about that park.

 

[Dizney Crew]

You might find this thread helpful in your planning:

http://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/guide-to-dlr-for-wdw-veterans.875596/

Thanks for the link!!

 

[EPCOTCenterLover]

Each resort- US or international- offers a different roster of attractions and amenities, making each unique. There are pros and cons to all. That said, knowing Disneyland was the first gives it a very special and warm history.