Just about ready to give up on Disneyland

[fosse76]

I definitely want to stay at one of the Disney Hotels. Undecided between Disneyland Hotel and Grand Californian. I love the rooms and look of the DLH, but the GC has a much better location and balconies (I believe).

I know I'm being ridiculous. I think a big part of it is I look so forward to our 2 week summer vacations. In California, I have NO desire to step foot off property. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to go to Knotts Berry Farm, Universal, Sea World and Six Flags, but have no desire to drive ANYWHERE in California.

Well, there's nothing wrong with that...but I think you're putting too much stock into the DLR Hotels. For me, I am perfectly content at staying at any of the hotels that are within walking distance (so long as it is clean and safe, of course). Some are closer to the park entrances than the DLR hotels.

And I get that about driving. I saty across the street from Disneyland and then don't venture anywhere but DLR. I think my next trip I might go to Knott's or Universal.

 

[TP2000]

It's not about the number of attractions. Your typical Six Flags has more attractions than Disney Parks. It's about the entire resort experience. I so love being in a completely different world at WDW. Looking at maps, and seeing all the buildings and cheap chain restaurants and motels around Disneyland, it just gives me pause.

The area around Disneyland changed dramatically during 1998-2001 thanks to a major urban renewal project facilitated by the City of Anaheim, the County of Orange, and Disney. The results were startling.

But here's some fun pictures that show what the area around Disneyland looked like in Walt's day back in the mid 1960's, versus the same areas today.

Here's Harbor Blvd. looking east as seen from the Disneyland Monorail in 1966, after the track was extended beyond the park and to the Disneyland Hotel in 1961. (The old Grand Hotel tower, imploded in 1998 to make way for the Pumbaa surface parking lot, can be seen in the distance)


1966 Anaheim Motels and Restaurants by Anaheim Historical Society, on Flickr

Here's the same view today from the Disneyland Monorail.

Here's what the streets along Harbor Blvd looked like in 1966.

And here's what they look like today. Is it Shangri-La? No. But it's clean and very safe and relatively attractive.

Over on the other side of the "Anaheim Resort District" is the Disneyland Hotel Monorail station. Here's what that area looked like in the 1960's when it was known as West Street.

And here's a photo taken from nearly the same location (about 50 yards north of the photo above and taken by yours truly), with the monorail station location and beamway unchanged since 1961, but the area around it changed dramatically. The heavily landscaped street the monorail passes over, once West Street, is now known as Disneyland Drive.


OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA by TP1985, on Flickr

The area all around Disneyland has changed a great deal, most of the change happening since 1998. It's fun to see the differences, especially for those of us who remember what it all looked like back in the 20th century! :lol:

 

[accord99cutie]

I went to Disneyland in October of 09. We stayed at a hotel about a half mile from the Disneyland entrance. Although in some pictures it may look like a beautiful roadway, in reality, it is still a busy street, lined with hotels and restaurants. I personnaly did not like that the second I walked out of the gates I was back in the "real world". If we ever went back again we would save up to stay at the GC because we enjoy our Disney trips when we can be in a bubble, and not be reminded of the "real world" every night after leaving a park.

 

[teacherlady19]

More on Anaheim

I've been to DL/DCA many times over the years. Thanks for the reminders in the photos about the way things used to be (the year before my first visit, which was in 1967) and the way things are now. I can understand the sentiment about wanting to be in a Disney bubble ... as we plan our first visit to WDW for this summer, this will be a new feeling for us. We've never stayed on a Disney property. We've stayed in an RV park twice (Tra-Tel back in 1967 and CC Camperland in 1977), and in various motels ever since.

Our recent favorite is Best Western Stovall's, located on Katella at the corner of Disney Way, I believe. It's a short walk to the park, up Disney Way, cut through the Grand Californian Hotel, through Downtown Disney, and to the parks' gates. I agree that early in the morning, that walk is a lot easier than it is after you've walked the parks all day.

Knott's is definitely for coaster and thrill ride lovers. Our daughters loved it. Universal is a studio lot. You can also see a backstage studio tour at Warner Brothers -- a 3 hour tour. Walking down the Hollywood Walk of Fame (with all the stars) is a freebie. Beaches are close by.

The San Diego Zoo is about a 2 hour ride down the freeway (I-5). The Wild Animal Park, now known as Safari Park but still owned and operated by the Zoological Society of San Diego, is also 2 hours but they are not next to each other (they're about 20 miles apart, as the Safari Park is located east of Escondido).

I too was afraid of Los Angeles area traffic, for a long time. I am no longer totally terrified of it -- now just deeply respectful. Go at the speed of traffic, NOT slower, and watch when you change lanes. Get a GPS going or someone who is really good with paper maps in the navigators seat, and you'll be fine. I agree that NJ and NY traffic is worse!

For those that have mentioned the major differences between WDW and DL -- thanks. We'll have to check those out! I can't imagine a Magic Kingdom without the Matterhorn, but I guess that will be our surprise.


Donna
reservations for Pop Century Jun '12
DL 1967 to 2010, many trips

 

[TP2000]

I too was afraid of Los Angeles area traffic, for a long time. I am no longer totally terrified of it -- now just deeply respectful. Go at the speed of traffic, NOT slower, and watch when you change lanes. Get a GPS going or someone who is really good with paper maps in the navigators seat, and you'll be fine. I agree that NJ and NY traffic is worse!

Ha! What a very funny line about LA traffic! Thanks for the laugh. :lol:

As a native West Coaster who has lived for many years in other cities back East or in the South, I marvel at how truly horrible and rude drivers in the East Coast cities of Boston, NY, Jersey, even D.C. or Atlanta can be compared to the laid-back but speedy drivers of SoCal.

I think what scares people from back East is that the Great Southern California Freeway System is large and sprawling and designed from scratch by master highway designers working with huge budgets and sprawling tracts of virgin land. The result in SoCal is giant 16 lane wide superfreeways traveling at 75MPH or faster, compared to the cramped and hectic old toll roads and parkways and turnpikes of the East struggling to get to 60MPH.

This is the view I often see as I approach Disneyland on the Santa Ana Freeway from the south, and is typical of Orange County Freeways around the Disneyland area; it's big and there's lots of freeway options to merge to, but it's a pretty easy setup, especially with GPS or a simple printout of directions.


Interstate 5 Northbound Santa Ana Freeway Los Angeles left 4 lanes with Carpools on left lane approaches at Exit 103A - State Highway Junction Route CA-55 NORTH Anaheim/Riverside 2 right lanes EXIT ONLY followed by Exit 103B - SR-55 SOUTH Newport Beach se by RaymondYu, on Flickr

Just use your blinker, step on the gas, turn up the tunes, give a friendly wave when someone lets you merge in, go with the flow, and people will think you were a driver born and raised in California.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

^^^
That is actually kinda what I was thinking about the LA traffic: "Man, they really know what they're doin' out here!" Granted, I've never really done big city traffic (Buffalo is the city where you're "20 mins from everything" and rush hour is from 5-5:15), but I was super impressed with how the traffic flowed. I drove from Torrance to Anaheim every time we went to Disneyland, and it was great. I still remember the carpool-to-carpool exit from the 91 to I-5 and then a carpool exit from I-5 basically right to the Mickey & Friends parking garage.

The only thing that caught me off-guard were the ramps with the traffic lights on them to regulate the amount of people who can enter the highway. Never saw anything like that before. I definitely almost blew past a couple of them... I imagine the local authorities frown on that.

If anyone else is a country bumpkin like me:

 

[Hakunamatata]

The only thing that caught me off-guard were the ramps with the traffic lights on them to regulate the amount of people who can enter the highway. Never saw anything like that before. I definitely almost blew past a couple of them... I imagine the local authorities frown on that.

If anyone else is a country bumpkin like me:

Or the fact that you can't pull over on the shoulder of the road unless you are having an emergency. I was with a coworker who lives in SoCal and my GPS froze, so I pulled over on the shoulder to reboot. I thought he was going to come unglued. I told him where I am from, you can practically pull over, put up a tent and camp for the night if you want to. :ROFLOL:

 

[TP2000]

^^^
That is actually kinda what I was thinking about the LA traffic: "Man, they really know what they're doin' out here!" Granted, I've never really done big city traffic (Buffalo is the city where you're "20 mins from everything" and rush hour is from 5-5:15), but I was super impressed with how the traffic flowed. I drove from Torrance to Anaheim every time we went to Disneyland, and it was great. I still remember the carpool-to-carpool exit from the 91 to I-5 and then a carpool exit from I-5 basically right to the Mickey & Friends parking garage.

Ha! Great insight from an upstate New Yorker! (The Buffalo/Rochester area is a very pretty and pleasant place to call home, by the way. I enjoyed the few visits I've made to that corner of the world.)

In my opinion, the Orange County freeways are much better maintained and managed than the Los Angeles County freeways. We have a half cent sales tax here in OC called Measure M that has been pumping literally Billions of dollars into roads and freeways around Orange County for 20 years, with another 20 years to go on the tax measure.

The massive reconstruction of the I-5 freeway throughout all of OC, but in particular the stretch alongside Disneyland, was a huge project in the 1990's when Disney was gearing up for a second theme park and expanded Resort. Disney worked closely with CalTrans to mesh the two projects of Resort expansion and freeway widening together. The freeways and parking, along with Downtown Disney, were a few of the really succesful things to come out of the 2001 Resort expansion, even if the reason the expansion was taking place (DCA 1.0) was a real disappointment in 2001.

The specially built flyover lanes that lead directly from the freeway into the 10,000 space Mickey & Friends parking structure was part of that project, and mostly funded by Measure M tax money.


Southbound Interstate 5 @ Disneyland Drive in Anaheim, CA by Reto Kurmann, on Flickr

 

[nolatron]

I definitely want to stay at one of the Disney Hotels. Undecided between Disneyland Hotel and Grand Californian. I love the rooms and look of the DLH, but the GC has a much better location and balconies (I believe).

This made me chuckle a bit. Back in 2008, DW and I stayed that Grand Californian for a 3 night trip to Disneyland. We got a "Theme Park View" room and this was the view:

We laughed when we first opened the curtains, but we still liked it. Better than a parking lot!

As far as our trip. We loved it. We certainly love WDW more but we're glad we made the trip to experience the park firsthand. It was neat seeing how different and alike things were, how rides were different (ie: like DL space mountain blows WDW away, and WDW splash mountain is better than DL to us), being able to ride many of DL exclusive rides and more.

We seriously enjoyed being able to walk from hotel our right into the CA park or a little ways more to the DL entrance or Downtown Disney. That's probably the biggest the DL has going for it. Literally everything is in walking distance.

Would we go again? Probably not. We enjoyed it but WDW is our home and is an better vacation destination for us.

 

[teacherlady19]

Great photo btw (of the I-5 and CA-55 signs) -- but I hope it wasn't the driver that was doing the photography. I know that sign well -- get in the I-5 line towards the right and stay in it till you get to the Disney Way exit.

You're welcome, on the laugh, but that's exactly how I feel about it. I started to get more comfortable, yet deeply respectful, when I began to commute up to Burbank/Hollywood area for various reasons (autograph shows, professional workshops). I realized that it was just lack-of-experience with the heavier traffic.


Donna