So I went to Disneyland for the first time in 4 years..

[Model3 McQueen]

Hi everyone. So I went to Disneyland for the first time in roughly 4 or 5 years.

GENERAL OBSERVATIONS:
-The esplanade was very efficient. There wasn't a line for security checks or admittance that was longer than a few minutes. I'm happy to report that this was a pain-free process.
-The parks however were crowded. This hasn't changed much from what I remember. Lines were decent, the longest was Rise of the Resistance posted at 70 minutes. We got on within 40 though.
-People are meaner than I remember. Stopping in front of you and looking like it's your fault. Families fighting all over the place. Someone literally tried to prevent us from walking in the exit at Alien Pizza Planet, to meet with our party who already bought food. Like, what? On another note, people were coughing and sneezing all over the place without covering their mouths very often.
-Not to say we didn't meet some very kind people either. Lots of helping others pick up dropped items, and vice-versa LOL.
-Parks were cleanish. Aside from the occasional empty soap dispenser or brown stained toilet, things were pretty neat and tidy. A job well done, janitorial staff. (for the most part.. see the DCA post below).
-Park Reservations were fine, actually. Didn't have much of a complaint. Though for me this is easy, and you'll see why later.
-We were there when Bob Iger and Josh D'Amaro were walking around. We didn't see them but I realized it after seeing some social media posts about it.

ATTRACTION BREAKDOWNS & MAINTENANCE PROBLEMS WERE RAMPANT:
-This was insane. Multiple AAA attractions went down at the same time. Some of them often, some of them when we were in line. Monster's broke down when we were almost to the taxi cabs. Goofy's sky school, M:BO went to 120min waits, Space Mountain, HMH, Splash, Pirate, Indy.. etc. etc. every day multiple rides went down multiple times. I don't know if it's because of a newer operations team, if it's because of a lack of preventative maintenance, or what.. but a CM told me town hall had been very busy.

When rides did work, there were a noticeable amount of broken effects. Splash Mountain has been left to rot. Radiator Springs Racers the main AAA effects just weren't working correctly (Mater at the end, Luigi and Guido, Sheriff.). Broken cannons on Rise & laser effects looked weak. POTC, last Jack Sparrow scene, his mouth doesn't move. Here kitty kitty kitty pirate missing.

I can go on.. mainly smaller details but it's these details that make the magic.

Just my observation..

CM PERFORMANCE REVIEW:
-I'll start this off by talking about a random encounter we had with Vi Moradi in Star Wars Land. Fiance and I were looking for a way to Casey Jr when she snuck up behind us and said "where you all headed?". We interacted for a bit, then she gave us the most confusing directions ever using terms I don't even remember I mean we knew where to go but it was a special moment having an interaction with her.
-Jack & Sally were on point and fun as usual. They loved interacting with our 10-month old, who was just a tiny bit scared of them hahaha.
-non-character CM's were actually, generally polite and helpful. I held a conversation with a CM at M:BO for about 10 minutes. He was telling me all sorts of cool things.
-I made 3 CM's laugh (1 of them severely) when Monster's Inc was down and I told the CM's that the witch Chapek is gone let's get some rides working again. One of my dumb prouder moments
-We had a bad encounter with 1 CM who needed to chill the heck out, but that's it.

DISNEYLAND SPECIFIC:
-I finally got to experience Rise of the Resistance. I must say, I was thoroughly engaged and had an excellent time. It was the embodiment of what makes a Disneyland attraction a signature one. The 3 big cannons weren't working though - really the only effect I knew about. That AT-AT room is pretty freakin jaw dropping.
-Christmas decor and music was top notch, as usual. What an amazing time to be at Disneyland.
-Haunted Mansion Holiday.. never change. My 10 month old loved this ride and I had goosebumps the entire time from just that.
-Daughter loved pirates too. I was holding her during the drop and it made it 10x more thrilling not knowing how she was going to react.
-Can we please, PLEASE do something about Tomorrowland, Disney? The peoplemover tracks look dirtier and dirtier each time I visit. It's been sad for years. Leave Space Mountain and change the rest!
-About Splash.. like I said, it's in a pretty sorry state. They could've put some money into revamping the experience instead of changing it, but ultimately I must admit, splash is showing its age, especially when limping. Can Tiana's ride be as magical? Who knows but my hopes aren't high.

DISNEY'S CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE SPECIFIC:
If you like DCA, maybe skip this section.

Heres a picture that basically captures the time I had at DCA:

-Now in full disclosure, I only was able to experience Incredicoaster, Little mermaid, monsters inc, RSR, and Goofy's sky school (we were still trying to get our footing down with the rider swap thing).
-Pixar Pier and Incredicoaster as a whole is as terrible as ever. JaCk-JaCk! jAcK-jAcK!! JaCk-JaCk!!! I think next time i'm throwing on headphones and playing the screamin soundtrack..
-I sort of wanted to experience M:BO again, but decided not to. I wasn't feeling all to well tbh. So I instead chatted with a CM at the M:BO store til my party was done. I won't knock Mission Breakout but I will say that I miss tower of terror a lot. It just holds a special place in my heart that can't be replaced.
-Here's an interesting story - when we rode through little mermaid, my fiance and I looked at eachother during the Ursula scene because it smelt like burning rubber. Like, doing a burnout in a car type of burning rubber. When we exited, we noticed the queue had been cleared in it's entirety. They shut the ride down for the rest of the day. I guess they allowed everyone in a vehicle to continue the ride but stopped loading sometime during our ride through. Yet another story of a broken down attraction.

-How is it that this park continues to get worse and worse? Like what's next, is the san froyosco area going to remove the boudin factory & Ghirardelli? I wouldn't put it past them..
Clearly Disney doesn't care about DCA. It's their dumpster for their IP. Why should we?

AVENGER'S CAMPUS:
Is a flipping joke. Even if you're a fan of Marvel, this land is like a foreign knockoff. They replaced 4 decent attractions (1 great show, 3 good rides for my daughter) with one subpar spiderman attraction (okay, that's a bit of a harsh dig.. I didn't get to experience spiderman so I can't speak to it's decency). But I'd take Heimlich's chew chew train over anything I saw here. What a waste of money, waste of space, waste of time.

On a positive note, I liked that little robo spider stuck in the web on the outside of the restrooms. So there's that..

USING THE DISNEYLAND APP FOR EVERYTHING:
-Mobile ordering and reservations are a powerful tool.. if you can remember to do them. I was under the impression that everything had to be done through mobile, but we found out this wasn't the case. You can still wait in line.
-It is incredibly cool that you can chat with a CM through the app, and they almost immediately get back to you. Great customer service.
-Genie+ is what it is.. a blatant upcharge for a limited number of rides, for something that used to be free. 2 members of my party got this for a day and they were cut off in the evening for using it too much, to everyone's surprise. I guess you can only use it so much that day.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:
-There is a heavy learning curve. So much has changed since i've last been here, and I felt sort of robbed out of my vacation until I truly got a grasp of the Disneyland app on the last day. That being said, had they been selling magic keys at the time we were there- no doubt in my mind I would've gone for it. I want to go back in March for food wine & soarin, May for hyperspace, october for halloween, december for christmas. But maybe just for that 1 year. I'm afraid I had a good time cause it's been so long, but I mean at its core, there actually still is plenty to love about disneyland.

If you made it this far, thanks for reading!

 

[Model3 McQueen]

One last note - pricing has become pretty high, no surprise to you all. I thought food prices were bad before. It was $18 for a wakanda forever alcoholic beverage.. without the alcohol, it was $8 for juice. You're telling me they pour $10 worth of vodka into the thing?

a bengal skewer (outside of Indy), which is maybe a small snack, costs over 6 bucks each. ouch. At carnation our bill was well over 100. I mean a cheeseburger itself is 18 dollars! I'd rather go to In-N-out.

 

[Californian Elitist]

Avengers Campus really is garbage. A poor execution of something that should have been spectacular, given the source material. A joke, indeed.

I went again in October for the first time in years as well. A lot of things were irritating me, but I still had a good time. If Disney 100 wasn’t happening next year, I wouldn’t go back for a while again. I’m planning to get the SoCal 3-day pass to use during the celebration. Not sure if you’re a SoCal resident, but that’s a potential option for you!

Thank you for sharing your thoughts.

 

[ProjectXBlog]

Thank you for sharing. Maintenance issues and unpleasant CM interactions were 2 of the biggest reasons I decided against renewing my key, so I am sorry to hear you also had to experience the former but glad the latter was better for you.
Agreed on Avengers Campus — that land (along with Galaxy’s Edge in my opinion) are missing any of the charm that Wizarding World has. It’s like they had a checklist of merchandising/instagramable opportunities to compete with Universal and everything else was an afterthought. I never got to see the bugs life area but I do know there was at least shade over there; Avengers Campus is physically uncomfortable to be in, especially if it’s hot enough.

 

[CaptinEO]

I will say, having been to Disney World recently the people (both cast and park goers) are a million times better than at Disneyland. I'm not sure what that is, the cast at World still go out of their way to make things special or greet you. It's the Disney difference that I had almost forgotten about. I forgot this is how Disneyland used to be.

Disneyland's cast hasn't acted like this in years. Maybe it's the cost of living difference of Orlando vs Anaheim. As for the park goers, maybe Disneyland visitors tend to take it for granted vs many of the World visitors are on once in a lifetime vacations.

 

[PiratesMansion]

I will say, having been to Disney World recently the people (both cast and park goers) are a million times better than at Disneyland. I'm not sure what that is, the cast at World still go out of their way to make things special or greet you. It's the Disney difference that I had almost forgotten about. I forgot this is how Disneyland used to be.

Disneyland's cast hasn't acted like this in years. Maybe it's the cost of living difference of Orlando vs Anaheim. As for the park goers, maybe Disneyland visitors tend to take it for granted vs many of the World visitors are on once in a lifetime vacations.

I don't know that I would say cast is better or worse at each, but I agree that at World they tend to be more proactive at greeting/approaching you, whereas at Land they tend to be perfectly pleasant and helpful, but you need to approach first. I feel like if DLR went full WDW in their cast approach, many would find it annoying because in general DLR visitors are more likely to be familiar with the parks. I think each approach makes sense for the respective property and that one is not inherently superior to the other, but to each their own.

But WDW guests: no way Jose. WDW guests are insane-partially because Disney's policies have made them that way, partially because of the "gotta see it all" mentality, partially because the climate (particularly in summer) brings out the worst in people, and additionally for reasons I can't fully comprehend or explain. The energy is very different from the other parks, and not for the better IMO. The sheer number of cheesy family T-Shirts with that horrid unofficial Disney font alone are offensive enough, but then some of the things you witness other people do there are just crazy. The difference in crowd behavior is stark, and not generally for the better in Florida IMO.

 

[CaptinEO]

I don't know that I would say cast is better or worse at each, but I agree that at World they tend to be more proactive at greeting/approaching you, whereas at Land they tend to be perfectly pleasant and helpful, but you need to approach first. I feel like if DLR went full WDW in their cast approach, many would find it annoying because in general DLR visitors are more likely to be familiar with the parks. I think each approach makes sense for the respective property and that one is not inherently superior to the other, but to each their own.

But WDW guests: no way Jose. WDW guests are insane-partially because Disney's policies have made them that way, partially because of the "gotta see it all" mentality, partially because the climate (particularly in summer) brings out the worst in people, and additionally for reasons I can't fully comprehend or explain. The energy is very different from the other parks, and not for the better IMO. The sheer number of cheesy family T-Shirts with that horrid unofficial Disney font alone are offensive enough, but then some of the things you witness other people do there are just crazy. The difference in crowd behavior is stark, and not generally for the better in Florida IMO.

Sounds like we had entirely different experiences! That being said I was in World in December so it was not summer (thankfully).

I feel that the way Disney World's cast interacts with people be it ride ops, hotel staff, dinining, etc is at the level Disneyland was at in 2015. Lots of waving, lots of talkative people, everyone going out of their way saying hello to you or "have a magical day". I was there a week and the cast was consistently great and went out of their way to be friendly.

Now I'm sure when it's 90 degrees out in Florida humidity this can change.

What I've seen at Disneyland over the years is cast usually just standing around or looking unhappy. In the few times I've been since the pandemic it's been especially noticeable.

I don't blame them, the job sucks and Anaheim is an expensive place to live vs the pay they are getting. It's not the problem of the CMs as individuals as much as it is Disney's, they either lowered their training standards or need to pay their cast more (or both).

The worst example is during my annual DL trip last year I went to store after store to find an item (was on a wild goose chase), each CM gave me a different place to check with each store saying they never carried it. Eventually I asked an employee in the final shop if they had this item and she said "let me check in the back" and then just never came back.

Florida staff is proactive in greeting you or asking you if you have any questions. Where Disneyland the staff usually is just there. I really do feel around the 60th Disneyland was at a very high level of service when it came to CMs and it seems to have declined.

The comment about the family shirts with the off Disney font is hilarious and spot on.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I’ve only been to MK, but during my visit, only one CM stood out to me (she gave us free preferred parking, which was awesome)! DL CMs are more likely to be theatrical and interactive. One of my friends, who is a WDW “native,” said the same thing.

With that being said, I had no issues with WDW CMs. They were great, as far as I’m concerned. Then again, I’m not looking for extra stuff. As long as I’m greeted and served, that’s all that matters to me.

 

[Parteecia]

I’ve only been to MK, but during my visit, only one CM stood out to me (she gave us free preferred parking, which was awesome)! DL CMs are more likely to be theatrical and interactive. One of my friends, who is a WDW “native,” said the same thing.

With that being said, I had no issues with WDW CMs. They were great, as far as I’m concerned. Then again, I’m not looking for extra stuff. As long as I’m greeted and served, that’s all that matters to me.

I haven't been to WDW for a decade so I can't speak to that but I will say that since I got my Key and have been going once a week I've only had one problem with a CM, a mean and scary cafeteria lady at Plaza Inn yesterday when I asked if I could buy a fried leg ala carte.

It may be that the dour or nondescript CMs don't register and we only notice the people who interact and joke with us.

 

[Phroobar]

I think the difference in CM between WDW and DL could be age. It seems the WDW CMs have a lot more retired grandparents working there while Disneyland has right of high school first job kids. The older CMs are more likely to go out of the way to help guests while the kids are more annoyed by such requests. The older ones want to take care of you and help you have fun. The Zoomers just wants a paycheck.

 

[Californian Elitist]

I haven't been to WDW for a decade so I can't speak to that but I will say that since I got my Key and have been going once a week we've only had one problem with a CM, a mean and scary cafeteria lady at Plaza Inn yesterday when I asked if I could buy a fried leg ala carte.

It may be that the dour or nondescript CMs don't register and we only notice the people who interact and joke with us.

Yes, a CM would have to do something clearly rude and disrespectful for me to care. I don’t care if I catch a CM not smiling or not waving at me. I especially can’t stand hearing “have a magical day,” so any time I don’t hear it is a win. As an ex CM, and I bet you would understand, since you’re also an ex CM, it’s exhausting working at any theme park. I worked at both Disneyland and Universal Studios Hollywood, but Disneyland was especially taxing and stressful sometimes. Guest behavior contribute a lot to the exhaustion, as well as management. There were times where I was fully energized at the beginning of my shift, but by the middle of it, that energy would be drained. I wasn’t too concerned about smiling and being extra for guests, by that point.

The last time I went to Disneyland in October, I made it a point to talk to the CMs I came into contact with. I asked how their shifts were going, when they were off, and thanked them for the hard work they put in. I got on Snow White for my last ride and looked at the ride console (the machine that keeps the ride running) and could tell that I would not be able to get on immediately because the ride vehicles were not spread out enough. When it got to my turn, I waited behind the yellow line and the CM apologized and told me I’d have to wait a little longer. I let him know that I used to be a Fantasyland attractions CM, that I knew what was going on, and that it wasn’t a problem to wait just a little longer. He smiled and laughed and we briefly bonded over our mutual understanding. It was one of the best moments of my visit.

I’m going to try and make it a point to check in with the CMs more often during my visits.

 

[Parteecia]

I’m going to try and make it a point to check in with the CMs more often during my visits

Absolutely! One of our goals on our visits -- besides having fun ourselves -- is to see if we can make CMs smile or laugh. If I initiate a conversation I always start with "Hi!" and a smile, and a big "Thank you!" after. I try to keep interactions short so it doesn't get awkward.

For instance, in the Soarin' building, a CM stopped the line just in front of us so she could sweep up some popcorn. I said, "I was gonna eat that." Thank goodness she laughed.

 

[the_rich]

I went to wdw in August and just got back on Thursday from dl. I was pleased with all of my interactions with cms and did notice a few special gestures being made for other people. But I prefer the guests in dl; I think its partially due to the more relaxed(imo) pace of dl.