First time Disneyland Resort thoughts from WDW Veteran.

Brett Wyman

Legacy Guest
Joined
Mar 30, 2018
First let me say we had a wonderful time. We stayed for 4 nights 5 days at a studio villas in GC. My thoughts are based on direct comparisons to a place Ive been 20-30 times in the last 40 year. I don't mean them as negatives, they're just observations based on "what Im use to". Im sure DL veterans feel the exact same way(in reverse) when visiting WDW. They are also nothing anyone hasn't said before. Also let me say I live for the WDW Bubble. I don't even like to go to Disney Springs when staying a WDW resort as it pulls me out of the bubble : ). My childhood memories of WDW, memories I believe crafted my core character, are of a place that existed in a world of its own. Im sure you see where this is going.

1. Grand Californian is beautiful but is a little crowded on weekends with "non-guests". Much worse than any WDW resort Ive ever seen. People(i.e. non guests) were sleeping on the couches mid day. Thats pretty rude behavior when the place is PACKED. Im sure it happens at WDW resorts too but they have the lobby space to absorb it. The GC lobby, like everything at DL, is smaller than what we are use to. Restaurants were as good as anything at WDW. My daughter partook in the new Disney Princess Adventure at Napa Rose. This is basically Disneylands CRT and you pay for it like it was. We sent my daughter with just one adult to keep costs down and it was $265 after tip! We also did Story Tellers Cafe character buffet. Story Tellers was very good for the cost. Food was great and the characters saw us twice in an hour even with a full restaurant. Interaction was very good. Pools were just okay but I had already been warned about this and we knew if we wanted pools to stay at DLH. They really need to add zero entry and a splash pad for the little ones and it would be perfect. Quick entry to DCA was helpful during anytime except the morning rush.

2. Disney California Adventure. Man we loved this park. Maybe it was due to reduced expectations based on the parks history or maybe its some of the updates they've added. But we found at the end of the day this is the park we preferred to be in. And thats odd to say as Eisners cheap ways are still evident all throughout Pixar pier. But the re-theming really seems to have helped that area out(I say this based on no previous personal experience). We had a blast on the swinging Pal-a-Round and Incredicoaster and the littles loved the rides focused on their age group on Pixar Pier. Kudos to whoever designed loading on the Incredicoaster. They move people through that thing at a lighting pace. And WOW Carsland was amazing as expected. Theming was top notched and Radiator Racers may be one of my top 5 Disney rides ever. We rode it 4 times. The two kiddie rides here aren't super impressive but they are well themed and the kids loved them. We took advantage of EMH and road these when there were no waits. Later in the day the waits for 30-40 minutes for these 2 quickie rides, which is just silly. Watching a full size Mater and Lightening McQueen drive down the rode was definitely very cool. We loved the Grizzy Peak area as well. The kids play area was a great place to burn off the extra sugar and Soarin' while the same as in Epcot was just much better themed all around. We also enjoyed the Monsters Inc ride and Disney Jr Dance Party(identical to WDW one). Another highlight was of course Mission Breakout. I have ZERO issues with this re-theming, it seems like it fits in to Hollywood as well as any other attraction there. We rode this during EMH as well(since Maxpasses for this are gone after the first few park hours). Loved DCA. Great Park.

3. Disneyland. Ah Disneyland. Get ready to get your pitchforks. First let me say yes riding the longer Pirates and the much better Space Mountain was great. And riding the Matterhorn once was nice just to see it(not a thrilling ride though). Also the Indian jones ride is SOOO much better than Dinosaur. BUT man this park is too small(no matter where you were everything just feels squished), sorely needs wider paths(even 4-5/10 days feel crowded), needs Magicbands, their mobile food ordering is always "an hour out", and they REALLY need to add FP/MP to rides like PP, Nemo, and Autopia. For me the magic just wasn't there. The cramped areas was probably the biggest turn of to me. But the requirement for standby for so many rides didn't help either. Alice was 40 minutes on a Wednesday with no EMH for example. They also have a serious entry turnstyle problem. DL ADD MAGIC BANDS. It takes FOREVER for DL guests to enter the park. We waited 45 minutes on a non-EMH day at opening. Thats crazy. I wont linger here. I said my peace. To me MK is just much more magical. (They also need the vanilla swirl option in their Dolewhip).

4. Maxpass. I know people love the spontaneity Maxpass allows but I cant stand the fact that if you walk in at 9am and want to get a FP/MP for a popular ride(like RR or MB) you have to grab it right then, blocking you from booking any other FP/MPs for approximately 90 minutes. Thats its glaring flaw to me. You then have to either get in standby lines for something else or just kill time. Other than that its nice to stack them as the 90 minutes pass. But Id much prefer to pre book my 3 at 60 days, use them by 11am and then do the 4th FP for the rest of the day.

Other observations. The Bubble. We knows theres no bubble at Disneyland but hearing ambulances on the streets while waiting to board Small Word definitely sucks. It makes it feel much more like a day park than a vacation destination(which I guess is the truth). Cast Members. OH GOD THE CMs HERE. Ive heard that they aren't the same as WDW CMs, but man thats an understatement. From hearing CMs chat casually about their daily lives while operating a ride, to seeing fully dressed CMs walking to the bus in Downtown Disney, to multiple CMs just not knowing the answer to anything, they just are cut from a different cloth in WDW. Downtown Disney was very nice. i think the compact nature is actually a benefit here. We had several good meals here. We toured DLH which looks like another great option though nowhere near as grand as GC. Pacific Pier looked like a dump!

Overall a great great trip. As a Disney fan so glad we saw it. Would I fly from the east coast just for it again? Nope. But if we are in Socal again Id drop in just for DCA.
 
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I've moved to the area last sept. (15 miles from DLR) and it took some time to adjust from my yearly visits for the past 25+ years of WDW. They really are two different animals. But once I got used to the flow of DLR, I find it just as magical. I find less irate/stressed people here than WDW. So many parents yelling at their kids at WDW. I rarely see that here. You'd think with the smaller space it would be the opposite. I also found the CMs to be nicer here. Haven't had one single bad experience. I noticed at WDW they walked all over in their costume/ride attire in the park and parking lots. They didn't in the distant past, but I see it at WDW.

If you're hearing outside noise, there's not much they can do. They didn't buy up tons of land like at WDW, which gives them that luxury of hiding the outside world.

I look at both DLR and WDW as similar but different. Each has their positives and that's what I focus on.
 
I find less irate/stressed people here than WDW. So many parents yelling at their kids at WDW. I rarely see that here.

Thats because WDW is full of so many "once in a lifetime" family vacationers who have to get everything right at all costs. If something goes wrong for DL guest they just come back another day : )

We are lucky enough to be WDW AP holders who live about 7 hours away. So we also don't get too stressed if something isn't right as we know we will be back soon.
 


The entry style does suck here at DL! If you haven't checked in for the day, everyone has to do their pictures. It adds so much time on high crowd days. That's one area I hope they figure out how to improve on.
I wonder if they would consider separate lines for returning guests vs first time entry? Of course it would have to be clearly marked and maybe need some CM assistance to make sure people were in the correct line.
 
If you're hearing outside noise, there's not much they can do. They didn't buy up tons of land like at WDW, which gives them that luxury of hiding the outside world.
I remember going from the time I was 5 years old (1956 when it had not been open for a full year yet). Seemed like we drove forever down Katella through the orange groves. And it was a game to be the first one to see the Rocket to the moon, which was the tallest thing in the park at that time. There was NOTHING around the park in those days. Too bad Walt could not have purchased more land for a buffer as soon as they saw what a profitable venture this was.
 
And it was a game to be the first one to see the Rocket to the moon, which was the tallest thing in the park at that time.
We did that in the 90s, but it was the Matterhorn. Whoever saw it first got to pick the first ride! But after the freeway changes, we can't see it anymore when taking the I-5 southbound (not complaining about that - the wider freeway is much appreciated).
I wonder if they would consider separate lines for returning guests vs first time entry? Of course it would have to be clearly marked and maybe need some CM assistance to make sure people were in the correct line.
I would definitely appreciate this, but I think people just wouldn't follow the instructions and would just get in whatever line they wanted.
 


I wonder if they would consider separate lines for returning guests vs first time entry? Of course it would have to be clearly marked and maybe need some CM assistance to make sure people were in the correct line.

Or a separate line for people getting their initial picture taken? Or maybe requiring that at the ticket purchase booth. I saw that slow up the process a lot. Also multiple CMs said the readers had a hard time scanning all the different mobile phones.
 
Ok, I will respond in order to your comments for simplicity sake:
  1. It used to be a lot worse at the Grand Californian, but now that they require you to show your room key to enter from the street, it cut back a fair amount of this. Many of the people who are sleeping in the lobby are now people waiting for their rooms to be ready because Disney can't get their act together and get everyone's room ready by check in time. The Napa Rose breakfast is definitely not worth the price, I wouldn't even have suggested trying it, it is beyond CRT in price and you get even less bang for your buck. Best bang for your buck for character breakfasts is at Plaza Inn at Main Street.
  2. Many of us locals have actually liked California Adventure, even from the beginning, yes it needed work back then, which is has received, but really many of us liked the different feel of the park. I know there were also a lot that didn't, but the work that has been done has been nothing short of spectacular.
  3. While yes, wider walkways would be nice, we like the fact that our two parks combined have at least as many attractions (many times it is more) as all four parks at Disney World combined and given the substantially smaller amount of land to work with, that does indeed mean the attractions have to be closer together. CMs also tend to be a bit nicer at DL than WDW in my experience. As for the Matterhorn, it is quite literally the exact same track layout as Space Mountain at WDW, just the sides are flipped. Magicbands actually would be illegal in California, as they would violate state privacy laws due to the amount of tracking that they can do. It doesn't matter if they actually do track, but the ability is there and California would not permit that, especially since credit cards, etc. can be linked to them. But they do not need Magicbands to switch to a fingerprint system, remember WDW had a fingerprint system long before Magicbands. Also, due to the location of the parks, they can't eliminate the turnstiles, as the homeless population and locals without tickets would overrun the entry gates in seconds.
  4. I love the fact that I don't have to plan my FP around things, I simply get it when I decide I want to go on the attraction, there are very few attractions that run out of FPs at any point in the day, sometimes Gaurdians, Racers and very rarely Star Tours or Space.
As I said above, I tend to find the CMs much nicer and friendlier at Disneyland, but I do wish they would go back to the days where costumes couldn't leave Disney property, I don't like driving in and seeing CMs in costumes waiting for a bus, etc.

But you are right, Disneyland is indeed more of a day park for locals than a vacation destination for tourists and Disney needs to wise up to that fact and stop eliminating entertainment and other elements that keep the locals returning.
 
Or a separate line for people getting their initial picture taken? Or maybe requiring that at the ticket purchase booth. I saw that slow up the process a lot. Also multiple CMs said the readers had a hard time scanning all the different mobile phones.
Nah, just have fingerprint scanners with turnstiles that take tickets like they used to have at WDW before Magicbands, it works well and takes seconds to deal with.
 
I noticed Universal Orlando uses the fingerprint scanners also at the turnstiles. While these are not perfect, you would think it would be a slighter quicker system than taking the photos?
 
I definitely agree with you on many points and I am a die hard DLR go-er of maybe 35+ times in the past almost 34 years. The GC couch sleepers is definitely a problem. I was annoyed to no end about that. I am a DVC owner there so it definitely grinds my gears and it takes a way from the cozy escape that GC really is (or can be if they stopping people from doing this!). I also love DCA and find myself there a lot more than I used to- especially when I'm not with my kids. Also agree about GOTG (and I was a huge ToT fan!), etc.

Now, saying that... the CM's. I will say 95% of them are absolutely fantastic and magical. The only place I don't find this is actually in Fantasyland. I feel like the CM's on those rides hate their lives or something haha. But I have experiences so much Disney magic every single time I go by a CM. I love MaxPass- I would rather have that than scheduling my FPs 60 days out and sometimes never having a chance at FoP or SDMT at WDW. And I am a planner. But I also like to where if I want to do something, I have a good opportunity to do so. If I attend at rope drop, I can go on as many as 6-8 very popular attractions before lunch. Sometimes more. Impossible at WDW. Saying that, there are a few things WDW does than I wish DL would do so I'm not trying to be a totally biased DL fan.

But you are right, Disneyland is indeed more of a day park for locals than a vacation destination for tourists and Disney needs to wise up to that fact and stop eliminating entertainment and other elements that keep the locals returning.

YESSSSSSSS! Disney needs to get through their heads that they need to stop trying to appease locals so much and start acting like a tourist destination. Sure, it's close to actual residents and SoCal has so many people. But the monthly payments, SoCal resident ticket promotions are ruining the guest experience IMO. Not because locals are poor guests but because the millions of passholders are becoming where they don't appreciate the park as much (I'm generalizing, I know MANY are not this way and I myself am a passholder but not local). Disneyland is starting to feel like it's a right instead of a privilege or something to work towards. Whenever I suggest eliminating the monthly payments for CA residents, I can't tell you how many people say "then I can't afford to take my kids like I do now"... okay, totally get that. But who says your kids should go to DL 5-10 times a year? I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for this. And I totally get on a soapbox tangent about that. I just think Disney is afraid for the bad publicity the locals will give them for eliminating the monthly payments and no more SoCal pass. Or they no longer care about the guest experience. Okay I'm done. I hope I didn't offend anyone. It's just observations I have found over the past handful of years.
 
Now, saying that... the CM's. I will say 95% of them are absolutely fantastic and magical. The only place I don't find this is actually in Fantasyland. I feel like the CM's on those rides hate their lives or something haha. But I have experiences so much Disney magic every single time I go by a CM. I love MaxPass- I would rather have that than scheduling my FPs 60 days out and sometimes never having a chance at FoP or SDMT at WDW. And I am a planner. But I also like to where if I want to do something, I have a good opportunity to do so. If I attend at rope drop, I can go on as many as 6-8 very popular attractions before lunch. Sometimes more. Impossible at WDW. Saying that, there are a few things WDW does than I wish DL would do so I'm not trying to be a totally biased DL fan.
Only 6-8 attractions? I think my record was 12, but an average is 10 before lunch if I hit rope drop and try hard enough.


YESSSSSSSS! Disney needs to get through their heads that they need to stop trying to appease locals so much and start acting like a tourist destination. Sure, it's close to actual residents and SoCal has so many people. But the monthly payments, SoCal resident ticket promotions are ruining the guest experience IMO. Not because locals are poor guests but because the millions of passholders are becoming where they don't appreciate the park as much (I'm generalizing, I know MANY are not this way and I myself am a passholder but not local). Disneyland is starting to feel like it's a right instead of a privilege or something to work towards. Whenever I suggest eliminating the monthly payments for CA residents, I can't tell you how many people say "then I can't afford to take my kids like I do now"... okay, totally get that. But who says your kids should go to DL 5-10 times a year? I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for this. And I totally get on a soapbox tangent about that. I just think Disney is afraid for the bad publicity the locals will give them for eliminating the monthly payments and no more SoCal pass. Or they no longer care about the guest experience. Okay I'm done. I hope I didn't offend anyone. It's just observations I have found over the past handful of years.
I am actually saying the opposite, they need to stop trying to cater to tourists, they aren't their bread and butter, especially when the economy goes south, they need to do more to appease the locals.

Part of me does wish Disney would eliminate the payment plans, simply because then they would have to lower the pass prices back to more reasonable levels. But this new flex pass is an interesting concept that may indeed solve many issues, time will tell.
 
I enjoyed your review. I think you are exactly right on many fronts. I live in Northern California and have been to DL more times than I can count. I have been to DW 6 times now and I find DW as a vacation destination and DL as a weekend getaway. That is why we do CS for food at DL and all sit down at DW and the food quality of CS at DL is far superior in my opinion. I also enjoy that rides with the same name our different at each park and I wish they wouldn't put identical rides at two or three different parks. Glad you enjoyed Southern California and hope you had time to enjoy other aspect of our great state while visiting.
 
Glad you enjoyed Southern California and hope you had time to enjoy other aspect of our great state while visiting.

We did three nights on Balboa Peninsula as well. Had a blast there and in Laguna.

Enjoyed the post, Brett. We are headed to DL in about 3 weeks for our first time. We will only have 2 days at the park(s), so I’m trying to figure out how to make the most of it.

I think a park a day is your best bet. Of course you’ll have SGE uncertainty to deal with :)
 
Whenever I suggest eliminating the monthly payments for CA residents, I can't tell you how many people say "then I can't afford to take my kids like I do now"... okay, totally get that. But who says your kids should go to DL 5-10 times a year? I know I'm going to get a lot of flack for this.

If by "a lot of flack" you mean "a chorus of amens" then count me in!
 
You can’t appreciate Disneyland if you go into it with a bigger is better mentality. That’s just not what it is about and never will be about. It physically cannot be larger than it is now. If you don’t find charm in the small intimacy of it then you just don’t dig Disneyland.
 
I am actually saying the opposite, they need to stop trying to cater to tourists, they aren't their bread and butter, especially when the economy goes south, they need to do more to appease the locals.

Tourists are the bread and butter now. Locals spend a couple hours at the most, pay $30 a month for a pass. Do you think most merch, dining reservations, hotel property stays, etc are being spent by locals? And the locals live in SoCal... if they are making monthly payments on a DL AP, will they continue to do so with skyrocketing rental prices to still pay? I'm totally seeing what you're saying (and you could be totally correct in the future when the economy hits the skids), but I think the tide has turned in terms of the type of park Disneyland is now. It's not a locals park and with everything they have in store, it won't change anytime soon regardless of economy. Just my personal opinion and I know it's not shared by all. :)

Saying that, I've taken this way off the point of the post so I apologize.
 

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