My husband, 1.5 year old and I just got back form 4 days at DL. He and I had been once for half a day a few years back when in LA and this was a solo (no other family) trip for us. We had a blast!! Being WDW folks at heart, here's the things we took from it:
-DL is the original. As such, the CM's have such hard emotional ties to the place. Which is amazing. We saw janitors sweeping together talking about "back when this ride was here or that" it was so nice to see. We met a lovely CM who was at the park on opening day! Generations of families there come to work at Disneyland.
-That said, the setup for Disneyland, being surrounded by civilization, killed some of the effect for us. Not seeing a McDonalds next door or hotels, but watching CMs schlup off the buses nearby puffing cigarettes and the like. Watching them walk in and out with guests was kind of offputting. They're so well hidden and stick behind the scenes entering and exiting at WDW and that was totally not at DL.
-Cars Land, heck Cali Adventure in general was amazing. I think I had an idea in my head of what it would be and was expecting to be disappointed. Not at all. It was beautiful. All of it. I make CG feature films, so does my husband and we've come to hate Cars the movie. Nothing wrong with it, just not for us. But we were totally mesmerized by Cars Land. It was breathtaking.Overall Cali Adventure my husband summed up as "what would happen if Hollywood Studios got its act together and decided to be awesome" haha
-Radiator Springs Racers is Test Track with a heart behind it. Is it worth a 3 hour wait or a 20 minute first thing line just for fastpasses? No. But going on it at night is a billion times better than day. The best animatronics I've ever seen. Smooth as glass.
-World of Color is hands down the best thing I've ever seen at a Disney Park. It was gorgeous. My 1.5 year old was screaming happily and clapping the whole time. Everyone loved it. It is ridiculous how perfect that show is.
-Magical? Not as much. It's a cute fireworks show and I understand limitations with castle size and all, but it didn't get to me with the music and timing like Wishes or similar does. But Dumbo and Tinkerbell? Why oh why can't WDW do Tink the same? Up and down on the line so she really looks like shes flying. Beautiful. My baby waved to her when she showed up
- Trader Sams (at the Disneyland Hotel) I've been looking forward to going her since it opened. I was almost more excited to check it out than I was stuff in the parks!! We hiked it all the way to the hotel, got in and went "whoa...this place is TINY" it was early early afternoon(maybe like 2 or 3), and it was overrun with sloppy drunks. I waited in a corner for a table or barstool for half an hour and gave up. We went and sat outside. All that hoping to see it and no dice. We sat outside and had a drink and left. Really wish it was bigger and they'd have the sense to cut off the crazies when they're about to puke on the bar drunk so others could enjoy. Was really disappointed in this. That said, my drink was good.
-Fantasmic. We tried, we gave up. I've never seen, even at WDW, people so rude and crazy about seeing a show. The CMs even were pushy (I'm sure they deal with nuts all night every night over it) I heard about the locals showing up with blankets staking out spots but at 3 in the afternoon? Really? I'll wait til I'm at WDW and walk right in and see it next time.
-Cali locals. Yowza. Not all of them, most were quite pleasant and a few struck up convos with us. The teenagers. Wow. Most we saw were so incredibly rude! I felt terrible for the CMs interacting with them. We were at the Cozy Cone Motel getting a drink and some kids probably 13 or so ran in front of us and started yelling at the poor girl to give them stuff. She did her Cars schtick they have them do and they were laughing and yelling at her calling her names. The girl looked crushed and embarrassed. They literally threw balled up money at her and snatched the food and ran off laughing. I asked her if she was ok. That was one of many similar instances I saw. It was horrible. The adults were great. Very pleasant, but the unsupervised kids! Wow.Disney World is a destination you go out of your way to go to. Disneyland is a pitstop for a few hours in the afternoon for bored teens I guess. Sad.
-Single riders. Did I miss this in all my years at WDW??? Any bigger rides had single rider lines and most of them were not listed. With just my husband and I swapping with our baby, we used this more than childswap (which many CMs seemed annoyed we wanted to do for some reason) But it was so fast for certain rides (granted, I got stuck behind many a huge family doing single rider trying to skip line) but some rides you got the paper tickets, some you didn't and most you went up through the exit. It was very new for me and slightly confusing. Newer rides, they put the single rider line in, but for the older ones it was nice if not abused.
-Plaza Inn is the best character meal I've ever seen at a Disney Park. It is what all character meals should strive to be. I counted 10 characters+ when we had breakfast. Even Pinocchio! No princesses only or set list of characters. It was a cool surprise!
Overall, we had an amazing time. The rides are fantastic out there, as are the cast. Main Street has a charm there not quite as strong at WDW. It's the original. We both said we could absolutely see going and staying at a DL hotel (we were off site) and doing DL for a good week with family. There really is a ton to do.
-DL is the original. As such, the CM's have such hard emotional ties to the place. Which is amazing. We saw janitors sweeping together talking about "back when this ride was here or that" it was so nice to see. We met a lovely CM who was at the park on opening day! Generations of families there come to work at Disneyland.
-That said, the setup for Disneyland, being surrounded by civilization, killed some of the effect for us. Not seeing a McDonalds next door or hotels, but watching CMs schlup off the buses nearby puffing cigarettes and the like. Watching them walk in and out with guests was kind of offputting. They're so well hidden and stick behind the scenes entering and exiting at WDW and that was totally not at DL.
-Cars Land, heck Cali Adventure in general was amazing. I think I had an idea in my head of what it would be and was expecting to be disappointed. Not at all. It was beautiful. All of it. I make CG feature films, so does my husband and we've come to hate Cars the movie. Nothing wrong with it, just not for us. But we were totally mesmerized by Cars Land. It was breathtaking.Overall Cali Adventure my husband summed up as "what would happen if Hollywood Studios got its act together and decided to be awesome" haha
-Radiator Springs Racers is Test Track with a heart behind it. Is it worth a 3 hour wait or a 20 minute first thing line just for fastpasses? No. But going on it at night is a billion times better than day. The best animatronics I've ever seen. Smooth as glass.
-World of Color is hands down the best thing I've ever seen at a Disney Park. It was gorgeous. My 1.5 year old was screaming happily and clapping the whole time. Everyone loved it. It is ridiculous how perfect that show is.
-Magical? Not as much. It's a cute fireworks show and I understand limitations with castle size and all, but it didn't get to me with the music and timing like Wishes or similar does. But Dumbo and Tinkerbell? Why oh why can't WDW do Tink the same? Up and down on the line so she really looks like shes flying. Beautiful. My baby waved to her when she showed up
- Trader Sams (at the Disneyland Hotel) I've been looking forward to going her since it opened. I was almost more excited to check it out than I was stuff in the parks!! We hiked it all the way to the hotel, got in and went "whoa...this place is TINY" it was early early afternoon(maybe like 2 or 3), and it was overrun with sloppy drunks. I waited in a corner for a table or barstool for half an hour and gave up. We went and sat outside. All that hoping to see it and no dice. We sat outside and had a drink and left. Really wish it was bigger and they'd have the sense to cut off the crazies when they're about to puke on the bar drunk so others could enjoy. Was really disappointed in this. That said, my drink was good.
-Fantasmic. We tried, we gave up. I've never seen, even at WDW, people so rude and crazy about seeing a show. The CMs even were pushy (I'm sure they deal with nuts all night every night over it) I heard about the locals showing up with blankets staking out spots but at 3 in the afternoon? Really? I'll wait til I'm at WDW and walk right in and see it next time.
-Cali locals. Yowza. Not all of them, most were quite pleasant and a few struck up convos with us. The teenagers. Wow. Most we saw were so incredibly rude! I felt terrible for the CMs interacting with them. We were at the Cozy Cone Motel getting a drink and some kids probably 13 or so ran in front of us and started yelling at the poor girl to give them stuff. She did her Cars schtick they have them do and they were laughing and yelling at her calling her names. The girl looked crushed and embarrassed. They literally threw balled up money at her and snatched the food and ran off laughing. I asked her if she was ok. That was one of many similar instances I saw. It was horrible. The adults were great. Very pleasant, but the unsupervised kids! Wow.Disney World is a destination you go out of your way to go to. Disneyland is a pitstop for a few hours in the afternoon for bored teens I guess. Sad.
-Single riders. Did I miss this in all my years at WDW??? Any bigger rides had single rider lines and most of them were not listed. With just my husband and I swapping with our baby, we used this more than childswap (which many CMs seemed annoyed we wanted to do for some reason) But it was so fast for certain rides (granted, I got stuck behind many a huge family doing single rider trying to skip line) but some rides you got the paper tickets, some you didn't and most you went up through the exit. It was very new for me and slightly confusing. Newer rides, they put the single rider line in, but for the older ones it was nice if not abused.
-Plaza Inn is the best character meal I've ever seen at a Disney Park. It is what all character meals should strive to be. I counted 10 characters+ when we had breakfast. Even Pinocchio! No princesses only or set list of characters. It was a cool surprise!
Overall, we had an amazing time. The rides are fantastic out there, as are the cast. Main Street has a charm there not quite as strong at WDW. It's the original. We both said we could absolutely see going and staying at a DL hotel (we were off site) and doing DL for a good week with family. There really is a ton to do.
