Trip Report The “lets count the ways Land is greater than World” as seen through the eyes of the #noobsfromgeorgia.

Whelp, this may be a record start of a TR for me. I’m sitting in LAX right now waiting to board and doing my best to put off grading the 30 term papers I need to have done by Monday so why not start this report! There is no true PTR to reference for this trip other than the breadcrumbs I dropped over in the Deja Vu TR. The lowdown is as follows:
The crew: DW, DD, and Myself

Lodging: 1 night at Paradise Pier and 4 nights at The Grand Californian.
The plan: 2 days at Disneyland and 2 days at California Adventure in the following order CS/DL/CA/DL

Despite the title, I promise this wont be a dump on WDW TR but it was hard to ignore the things that DL does so dang well. That said, lets do this.

This journey starts with a night at the Holiday Inn & Suites Atlanta Airport-North. We’ve stayed here once before for a Disney trip and had a great experience. What is nice about this place is you get to park your car for the length of the trip just for staying the night at the hotel and they shuttle you to and from the airport. This is especially nice when you have an early flight, which we did. The accommodations are nice enough and serve the purpose.

We let yelp help us find dinner and found a fantastic taco stand located in a hole-in-the-wall in the bad side of town. Worth it!

As I said before we had to fly out at 06:13 which meant we had to get up early. Andrew W.K woke us up at 04:10 so we could get down to the lobby for the 4:40 shuttle. This was still better than the 3:00 wakeup call we would have had to do if we drove straight from home!

My naive mind had me thinking we would be the only folks at Atlanta’s Hartsfield–Action-Jackson- Atlanta International Airport and Spaceport. Yeah, it was hopping!

We had a mild wait to get through security and were soon enjoying some bagels at our gate with 30ish minutes to spare.

This was our first time flying American and I would absolutely fly them again! The complementary in-flight movies/TV on demand for laptops and iDevices was appreciated and every row had charges to plug your devise in! We got seated and I immediately had to embarrass the kid before watching The Avengers: Half Ya’ll Gonna Die.

 

[surfsupdon]

Your enthusiasm is fun. My first dLand trip was only 3 years ago and I miss it so much, but I want to wait for another runDisney event to get me out there again.

Who am I kidding, I'm trying to go this summer to SoCal so I am sure a visit to Disney will be in order.

Looking forward to hearing how Land beats the World, in your opinion. I agree--many things Disneyland does are superior. So far you have only mentioned the security checkpoints, and I agree. What else?

 

[CaliKris]

We had the bone-in filet, mashed potatoes and asparagus. All delicious! We love the mac&cheese as well. We are going to Yachtsman for the first time on New Years Eve. Can't wait now!

 

[lostpro9het]

05:45 came fast! I struggled with east coast time as I was awake at 04:30 and 05:30 before our actual alarm went off. Like always I was dressed, packed, and ready in about 3 minutes. The ladies, well, they took a little longer. Once all was ready we made our way down stairs. We dropped our bags off with bell services so they could transfer them to VGC for us and the made our way to CA. One thing I missed yesterday was the kids tv area that PP has. It was quite cute.

With that we said goodbye to PP and headed towards CA via DTD. We pretty much had the area to ourselves this morning. The Mickey's 90th Lego wall art was complete too.

We stopped into Starbucks to get our caffeine fix. They had a cool screen up that looked like a chalkboard that would draw whatever was in front of it. Simple things amuse me...

Soon we were at the entrance of CA, third in line. It was here where I noticed DLR invested in the same table technology as WDW.

Soon it was time and we were counting down to the open, so exciting. Now, here was where WDW does it better and at the same time does it worse. First time ticket holders at DLR have to get their picture taken to associate the ticket to an individual. You cannot do this until you are AT THE TURNSTILE ENTERING FOR THE FIRST TIME! We asked if we could do it ahead of time and was told no. Now, this doesn't sound like the end of the world unless you are depending on semi retired individuals who don't understand technology very well and then it becomes downright annoying. BUT once that picture is taken entering the park is a lot easier at DLR than WDW. Yes its easy at WDW to scan that finger the first time and enter. Its the subsequent visits where the guests forget which finger they used or decided to change magic band arms and slow up the lines trying to figure out a simple system. So first time at the turnstile goes to WDW every time after that goes to DLR.
[RANTTIME] Sending someone early to the front of the line to wait for your entire family and your friends entire family is a JERK MOVE. This is right up there with going to the pool at 06:30 and setting down 10 towels even though your crew wont show til around 09:30. We saw this happen every day, three days with the same family! To compound it is when that dude is holding a place in line for his 4 other family members and their 5 friends who are ALL FIRST TIME VISITORS! Now we gotta wait for grandpa joe to take ten pictures of folks that showed up 5 minutes before the park opens disregarding the 100+ folks behind them who got their out of bed in a timely manner.[/RANTTIME]

All things were immediately better when we saw this for the first time!

Looking forward to hearing how Land beats the World, in your opinion. I agree--many things Disneyland does are superior. So far you have only mentioned the security checkpoints, and I agree. What else?

I'll get there!

We had the bone-in filet, mashed potatoes and asparagus. All delicious! We love the mac&cheese as well. We are going to Yachtsman for the first time on New Years Eve. Can't wait now!

I highly recommend the porterhouse for two, creamed spinach, and the truffle mac&cheese.

 

[flynnibus]

hrmm.. they didn't have cast members moving through the lines to take photos? When they started doing it (its all to combat partial ticket resale) they used to have CMs that would walk through the lines and ask people.. and take care of it before they hit the turnstile. It helped diffuse the congestion. Even tho the requirement is not new anymore, the impact on the lines mostly stays the same.. since the population it impacts will always be there (new ticket holders)

 

[lostpro9het]

hrmm.. they didn't have cast members moving through the lines to take photos? When they started doing it (its all to combat partial ticket resale) they used to have CMs that would walk through the lines and ask people.. and take care of it before they hit the turnstile. It helped diffuse the congestion. Even tho the requirement is not new anymore, the impact on the lines mostly stays the same.. since the population it impacts will always be there (new ticket holders)

No they did not, that would have been a great idea even 10 minutes before the park opened. I still dont get why the wouldnt let us take our picture the day before at GS or even the day of at GS.

 

[CaliKris]

Thanks for the recommendation at Yachtsman! Will definitely have to try them. Not sure if I can convince my husband to eat the spinach, though.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

I'm enjoying your take on Disneyland. We just got back this morning at 5:30 am, we flew in and out of LAX too. We have had hit and miss experiences with it and this time it was a miss for us. I'm glad you had good luck though. I'm also jealous that you got to try Salt and Straw, I really wanted to but whenever we walked past it we weren't hungry.

 

[lostpro9het]

So while standing in line I linked all our ticket to the DL app on my phone. HUGE difference in how well the DL app works compared to the WDW app. I had ZERO issues with the app whereas I regularly have frequent issues with the WDW app. Both apps are running on the same phone too. Now, we planned on something before we ever left the house and that was MaxPass. We figured we would use it at least once during CA and once during DL. Let me just say MP is AWESOME!

[The Cliff's Notes version of MP]
You pay $10/day per person to be able to select FPs during the day through the app. This saves you from having to walk to and locate the FP distribution machine. This is great if you just used a FP to enter a queue as you can immediately grab another FP for a ride across the park without leaving the line! Like the paper FP you make one as soon as you could use one so if I have a FP for Cars at 9:00 and its 9:01 but want to finish breakfast I can make another FP. Also, if you nab a FP for 4 hours later with MP you make your next FP selection in an hour and a half as opposed to the 2 hours the paper system requires. There is also no limit to the number of FPs you may hold provided none of the rides are the same. You may hold overlapping FP, i.e. we had an 8-9 Incredicoaster FP at the same time as a 8:10-9:10 GotG FP. Finally, all photos from the day are included. You may not purchase MP until you enter the park.
[The Cliff's Notes version of MP]

So, while we were walking towards Cars Land I was ordering our MP and immediately grabbed FP for Incredicoaster. As we turned towards Cars Land we were blown away by the detail of the theming. The pictures we had seen leading up did not do this place justice. This was our first taste of Disney jealousy. It was so amazing to see what Disney could do with a land then immediately thinking of how they don't do this in Orlando. Toy Story is a far cry from what this land is. This place is amazing. We followed what crowd there was to ride RSR.

 

[lostpro9het]

Like the land itself, this ride was excellent with tons of great theming. We obviously compared this TT and TT didn't stand a chance. We ended up riding this fella 7 times in two days.

 

[TheMouseFan]

You guys are Facebook stars!! I was scrolling and did a double take when this went by!

 

[sheriffwoody]

If ya’ll are curious as to what to get me for Christmas this year I give you the third most beautiful thing in the world:

I was just at Rhett's friend's house this weekend and he had 3D printed himself a Voltron It actually turned out really well! He said it was a pain the a** though. I admit, I had to ask what it was too

 

[lostpro9het]

RSR was great and we debated a reride but had to temper that feeling as we had a whole park to attack today! We made our way out of Cars Land only taking a few more picture along the way. We would be back later today/Wednesday to take more pics. Today was about checking everything off the list at least once before going back for seconds, third, and fourth.

You guys are Facebook stars!! I was scrolling and did a double take when this went by!
View attachment 328791

Oh my! PM me for an autographed head shot. ;-) All seriousness, The DVC Rental Store is 2 for 2 with us. Despite being DVC members getting VGC at the 7-month mark is tough, especially during a holiday week. They have been great to work with and even surprised us when they secured our week the same day we requested it.

I was just at Rhett's friend's house this weekend and he had 3D printed himself a Voltron It actually turned out really well! He said it was a pain the a** though. I admit, I had to ask what it was too

Jealous! Any male kid from the '80s has to be a fan. I remember getting the diecast Bandi set for Christmas as a kid, maybe the same year I got the Goonies board game. I played with that set until it fell apart. Ebay now sells that set for over $800.

 

[lostpro9het]

We made our way across the hub and into Grizzly Peak. There are just two rides over here and only one we would do this early.

We figured we'd see if the Soarin 1.2 was just as bad in California as it is in Orlando.

Spoiler: Spoiler

It is. #90degreeeiffeltower

The queue, IMO, is far more interesting to experience than WDW. You are essential in a large hanger with walls lined with aeronautical artifacts and famous pilots.

Our host, like WDW, was Captain Puddy.

The Soarin film for Cali is the same as in Orlando except for the final scene which retains the same Disneyland scene from the original film.

 

[lostpro9het]

We continued through Grizzly Peak and even though the theming was simple you really got the wilderness vibe walking through it.

The second ride in this area I spoke about was Grizzly River Run, think Kali River Rapids in the Pacific Northwest. We would eventually ride this but no way am I walking around wet for the rest of the day so it was an end of the night ride.

We also passed the Redwood Creek Trail which had been converted to a Santa M&G area. We opted to pass on this one today.

 

[lostpro9het]

We had a date with an Incredicoaster so we forged ahead only slowing for a couple of pics.

When Pixar Pier came in view we had to stop and enjoy what was in front of us. I just love this view and its even more impressive at night.

We finally passed under the PP threshold. We passed so quickly the first time through tat I missed one very cool detail of this archway. We would stop and appreciate more a little later.

 

[MerMom1981]

Yaas people! Another DL TR aka study guide for my June trip!

When you get just what you need without even asking

 

[Rista1313]

I would have tried the spiced goat cheese and pumpkin pie...

My hubby freaked out when he saw this at DS in May.... 80's boys LOL

I left PP covered in bites....at first I thought mosquito, but no.....bedbug.
My fault for not checking the mattress!

I hope you called Disney about this... this happened to a co-worker and they basically refunded almost all of her trip and they sent a company out to her house (with bedbug sniffing dogs) to make sure none came home with them.

 

[flynnibus]

wow.. I just connected the dots that you were there for 5-ish days. It would be interesting to hear your comments on the length of the stay.

One of the advantages of DL is the compact nature... which makes the duration choice very different from WDW.

 

[imahistorygeek]

wow.. I just connected the dots that you were there for 5-ish days. It would be interesting to hear your comments on the length of the stay.

One of the advantages of DL is the compact nature... which makes the duration choice very different from WDW.

We did 4 days of parks and alternated days based on EMHs. I think for our first visit, four was a good length. It gave us a chance to ride everything the first day of each park and then the second day was more relaxed and then we could take in some additional details.

For future visits, I could see us doing two days at DL and one at CA. If we went on a regular basis, maybe one day each.

 

[flynnibus]

We did 4 days of parks and alternated days based on EMHs. I think for our first visit, four was a good length. It gave us a chance to ride everything the first day of each park and then the second day was more relaxed and then we could take in some additional details.

For future visits, I could see us doing two days at DL and one at CA. If we went on a regular basis, maybe one day each.

Yeah, I try to tell people 3 day is a good minimum... I think you have to be the special Disney type to want to do 5 or more. 3 feels rushed for new people.. but at 4-5 you really get to do everything (including multiples). It's hard to explain to people convincingly how it has almost the same amount of attractions as WDW.. yet you don't need more than 3-4 days really to experience the majority of what you want