First time Disneyland Resort thoughts from WDW Veteran.

I agree with your review in many ways. I loved our visit to DLR and so many of the rides were better at DLR. But despite our staying across the street for a week with 5 day passes and eating primarily onsite, it just didn't have the same huge vacation resort feel that WDW has. Crazy to say...but I also missed the endless planning lol! We can stay two weeks at WDW and still not do everything we wanted to do. We did one week at DLR and were starting to feel like that was it. Mind you, we'd have no problems being locals with APs - we've had season passes to Cedar Point and never got bored. So not bored, but not the same feeling of endless things to do.

DLR was wonderful and I hope to go back one day, but my heart is still at WDW. My DH and kids like both equally though.
 
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.

Spot on. We went to WDW and DL within three months of each other back in 2015. I could not believe how unbelievably large, empty and soulless the WDW MK felt in comparison to Disneyland Park.

EDIT: also, I will say, if you go to Disneyland and you aren't willing to get up and be there at rope drop, yes, you are going to find the lines long and lots of FP return times that you don't want.
 
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I think it's unreasonable for WDW veterans to go to DL expecting a WDW experience. Likewise, it is unreasonable for DL veterans to go to WDW expecting a DL experience. They're different flavors of ice cream. They both taste great. But sometimes you want chocolate but you're eating strawberry and it leaves you feeling like "Bleh, I should have gone with chocolate."

The size of DL:
yes, it's small. I mean, it's like, what, 165-200 acres compared to WDW which is literally the size of Manhattan. LOL.

The Bubble:
DL has a bubble. It's just a different kind of bubble. Last summer, we went to WDW for a week. It was our 1st time there as a family (I'd been once ages ago as a kid). I never quite experienced that bubble effect while we were there.

Character meals:
The price of that Napa Rose character meal is pretty insane, isn't it? We really enjoy doing the Plaza Inn breakfast. Especially on a day when we're using Magic Morning entry at DL...ESPECIALLY if that MM/EMH hour is from 7-8 am. We're there for 7 am EMH/MM opening and go on rides all morning until 10:30 am. Then check in at the Plaza Inn for a 10:30 am reservation. And spend the next hour eating Mickey waffles and bacon while 7-8 characters come to our table. It's really great and usually by 11 am, things start to clear out, so the characters come around multiple times. We often have seen Tigger and Rabbit mess around with each other. It sends my kids into hysterical laughter.

CMs:
I think this is just a bit of luck of the draw on when you're there and who happens to be working. At DL, we've had, by and large, really great interactions with CMs. We've also had some not so great CMs. Including 1 CM driving a Toy Story parking lot bus. He totally skipped the last bus stop and the bus was half full of people waiting to get off. He had us all hop out right before he exited the parking lot, so we had to hike it back to our cars. Royal pain in the neck. At WDW, by comparison, there were a couple of CMs who were totally amazing and spectacular. By most of the CMs acted like they could care less. Nobody said anything about our First Visit buttons. CMs actively ignored us when we'd say hello and ask them how their day was going. Major attitude problems. But I brushed it off as "Oh, they're probably just having a rough day."

Max Pass:
I respectfully disagree w/you on Max Pass. I think it's a far superior system. On one day in March, my ODD & I were able to use Max Pass to get on 13 FP attractions one evening between 6:30 pm & 12:00 am. We will regularly use Max Pass to get about on about 8 FP attractions per day. The trick I discovered is that I set an alarm on my phone for the time that Max Pass tells you that you can grab another FP. Otherwise, honestly, I would forget. There were a few times when we had 3 or 4 FP stacked up by doing this. But if you're not starting your day in the park until 12-1 pm? Well yes, then, you are going to wait longer to get on just about everything.

The early bird gets the worm at DL
The trick we've found to happy DL trips is to get there at rope drop and ride the "slow loaders" first. This would be Fantasyland, for example. Or something like Autopia, whose queue can get long-ish once you're into hour 3 after park opening. If you take advantage of EMH while staying on site, then that's even better. You could get on 5 attractions in Fantasyland during a DL EMH morning. At DCA during EMH, you could get on RSR, Incredicoaster, Guardians, etc. On a day when we're starting at DL, we regularly can get through 12-13 attractions by lunch time. Then when the folks who slept in are strolling in around noon, we are leaving for the hotel. We head back late afternoon and stay past fireworks when all of the families with young children normally head out.

WDW's FP+ system:
I am a huge planner, but WDW's FP system requires way too much planning. I think it's ridiculous that you have to actually decide 2 months ahead of time what specific time you're going to go on a specific ride. And sure, a lot of stuff at WDW has FP available, even character meet & greets. But you know what really sucks? Waiting in line 30-60 min at a time to go on regular run-of-the-mill rides because you don't have a FP+ for it. I'm talking about stuff like Dumbo, Aladdin's magic carpet ride. At WDW, we found it to be very hard to find any FP+ available once our 3 pre-reserved FP+ were used when we were in a park that day. It just kind of sucks a lot of the joy out of it for me personally. But I'm glad that you really enjoy WDW. WDW has a lot of really great things about it and I'm glad that your family loves it so much!

Despite all of my own personal negatives about WDW, I still would love to go back again. I want to spend a night staying at the Contemporary Resort (it's a bucket list thing). I'd like to have a meal at California Grill. When that Star Wars hotel opens, I'd like to spend 1 night there. And I'd love to spend an entire week at Animal Kingdom Lodge with a savannah view room. That place is totally amazing.
 


We didn't do it wrong. We did it just like that and simply don't care for the "go ride the other stand by rides for 90 minutes part". I never ride standby lines with waits at WDW, never. I can always get a FP for all but the top tier rides(which would have been booked previously) instantaneously. You're right Maxpass is not hard at all. I just don't care for it. But it does fit Disneyland's day park mentality.

I think the thing that's being lost in translation here is that you shouldn't really need to be standing in standby lines with waits if you enter the parks in the morning. Ideal scenario is you enter the park at rope drop and get FPs for the earliest return times (I usually go for Space Mountain first). When you first enter parks, return times are only a few minutes out. So grab Space Mountain FP for 20 minutes out, ride Buzz and Star Tours (less than 5 minute waits since park just opened), then use Space Mountain FP. Then get another FP for something else that's only a few minutes out, and in the meantime ride the rides that are walk-ons. Repeat this cycle, riding rides back to back without ever really waiting in line, until about 10:30-11 am, when the parks start to get crowded. At that point I get a FP for something that may be later in the day (like RSR), go on a couple more rides with very short waits (I never get in a line that's longer than about 10 minutes) and then slow down a bit, since at this point I've been going non-stop since probably 7 am. Depending on time of year it may also start getting hot at this point, so I might do something indoors like check out Launch Bay, or go sit down and have an early lunch (since I got up early to make rope drop). By this time the 90 minutes are up and I can get more FPs and continue riding only the shortest lines standby. Or, if it's a particularly crowded day and there aren't really any short lines, I may go back to the hotel for a rest (grabbing another FP for later in the day at this time), then come back in the evening.

Basically, entering the parks at rope drop is a MUST. Doing that, the MaxPass system is amazing, and will allow you to ride practically everything you want to for the day by 11 am. By about 1 pm, MaxPass is less effective, but you still have the opportunity to grab FP for rides later that night, so that after coming back from an afternoon break you are all set to ride the major headliners again. I sometimes come back in with 3-4 FPs stacked for my evening.

This is making me miss DLR a lot right now!
 
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Basically, entering the parks at rope drop is a MUST.

DING DING DING. This is my issue. We don't usually RD with two young kids at WDW. Although as east coasters on Pacific Time it wasn't an issue at DLR. But I agree Maxpass works better for DLRs day-park mentality. Im glad Californians love that Disneyland is a day-park and Im ecstatic that WDW is a resort destination. Everyone's content.
 
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DING DING DING. This is my issue. We don't usually RD with two young kids at WDW. Although as east coasters on Pacific Time if wasn't an issue at DLR. But I agree Maxpass works better for DLRs day-park mentality. Im glad Californians love that Disneyland is a day-park and Im ecstatic that WDW is a resort destination. Everyone's content.

I guess Disneyland is more of a day-park, but I come from many hours away and stay for several days, so I don't necessarily agree that it can't be more of a destination trip. Doing rope drop every day is why I have to take those afternoon naps - in my normal life I despise naps! I don't have children myself, and I've always been a morning person, so I love this touring style. However my sister and brother-in-law have two young kids and sometimes they don't make it into the parks until later. It definitely changes the way they tour, and they don't even bother with MaxPass.
 


I guess Disneyland is more of a day-park, but I come from many hours away and stay for several days, so I don't necessarily agree that it can't be more of a destination trip. Doing rope drop every day is why I have to take those afternoon naps - in my normal life I despise naps! I don't have children myself, and I've always been a morning person, so I love this touring style. However my sister and brother-in-law have two young kids and sometimes they don't make it into the parks until later. It definitely changes the way they tour, and they don't even bother with MaxPass.
We're coming from states away for the first time this year and are staying 5 days. It's definitely a vacation destination for us! We also chose DLR over WDW due to cost, convenience and walkability, and I am nowhere near ready to figure out FastPass+, lol. I guess we are lucky that our son us up by 6:00 am every day, so rope drop won't be an issue; though he also goes to bed early and we will miss all of the evening shows as a result. Ces't la vie.
 
DING DING DING. This is my issue. We don't usually RD with two young kids at WDW. Although as east coasters on Pacific Time if wasn't an issue at DLR. But I agree Maxpass works better for DLRs day-park mentality. Im glad Californians love that Disneyland is a day-park and Im ecstatic that WDW is a resort destination. Everyone's content.
Yeah I totally get that! Rope dropping, while is the best way to maximize time in the park, it is hard for a lot of people. I don't think I ever did rope drop until 2 years ago, and I've been coming to DL since I was really young. Looking back, there was no way my parents could get us there that early, and we are morning people LOL.
 
We're coming from states away for the first time this year and are staying 5 days. It's definitely a vacation destination for us! We also chose DLR over WDW due to cost, convenience and walkability, and I am nowhere near ready to figure out FastPass+, lol. I guess we are lucky that our son us up by 6:00 am every day, so rope drop won't be an issue; though he also goes to bed early and we will miss all of the evening shows as a result. Ces't la vie.

Yeah we are coming all the way from MA for our first visit in Sept for 8 days. We are excited to see the park that Walt built and 100% view this as vacation destination as well
 
I think the thing that's being lost in translation here is that you shouldn't really need to be standing in standby lines with waits if you enter the parks in the morning. Ideal scenario is you enter the park at rope drop and get FPs for the earliest return times (I usually go for Space Mountain first). When you first enter parks, return times are only a few minutes out. So grab Space Mountain FP for 20 minutes out, ride Buzz and Star Tours (less than 5 minute waits since park just opened), then use Space Mountain FP. Then get another FP for something else that's only a few minutes out, and in the meantime ride the rides that are walk-ons. Repeat this cycle, riding rides back to back without ever really waiting in line, until about 10:30-11 am, when the parks start to get crowded. At that point I get a FP for something that may be later in the day (like RSR), go on a couple more rides with very short waits (I never get in a line that's longer than about 10 minutes) and then slow down a bit, since at this point I've been going non-stop since probably 7 am. Depending on time of year it may also start getting hot at this point, so I might do something indoors like check out Launch Bay, or go sit down and have an early lunch (since I got up early to make rope drop). By this time the 90 minutes are up and I can get more FPs and continue riding only the shortest lines standby. Or, if it's a particularly crowded day and there aren't really any short lines, I may go back to the hotel for a rest (grabbing another FP for later in the day at this time), then come back in the evening.

Basically, entering the parks at rope drop is a MUST. Doing that, the MaxPass system is amazing, and will allow you to ride practically everything you want to for the day by 11 am. By about 1 pm, MaxPass is less effective, but you still have the opportunity to grab FP for rides later that night, so that after coming back from an afternoon break you are all set to ride the major headliners again. I sometimes come back in with 3-4 FPs stacked for my evening.

This is making me miss DLR a lot right now!

Going for my first time in Sept (actually I think you responded on the thread I started for food suggestions). So the best strategy seems to be to start with whatever has the shortest return time and just go from there? Is rope drop the best time to do the Fantasyland rides that dont have FP/MP. Because if im being honest, Im most excited for some quality Walt dark rides haha. Since we are staying on property, do you think it is beneficial to do the Early Mornings or whatever they are called or do the park that doesn't have it that day? I have found with WDW that is better to avoid the EMH.
 
Going for my first time in Sept (actually I think you responded on the thread I started for food suggestions). So the best strategy seems to be to start with whatever has the shortest return time and just go from there? Is rope drop the best time to do the Fantasyland rides that dont have FP/MP. Because if im being honest, Im most excited for some quality Walt dark rides haha. Since we are staying on property, do you think it is beneficial to do the Early Mornings or whatever they are called or do the park that doesn't have it that day? I have found with WDW that is better to avoid the EMH.

Do NOT avoid EMH..... go every single day. It is so beneficial; you will get so much done in those early hours....especially at DCA.
 
I guess Disneyland is more of a day-park, but I come from many hours away and stay for several days, so I don't necessarily agree that it can't be more of a destination trip. Doing rope drop every day is why I have to take those afternoon naps - in my normal life I despise naps! I don't have children myself, and I've always been a morning person, so I love this touring style. However my sister and brother-in-law have two young kids and sometimes they don't make it into the parks until later. It definitely changes the way they tour, and they don't even bother with MaxPass.

Yeah at Disneyland currently there aren't any "gone by 10am" Fastpasses. It just seems to be at DCA where if you aren't there by 10am you're riding standby for Mission Break out and Radiator Spring Racers.

Do NOT avoid EMH..... go every single day. It is so beneficial; you will get so much done in those early hours....especially at DCA.

Definitely we walked onto Mission Breakout with no wait during EMH.
 
I think the thing that's being lost in translation here is that you shouldn't really need to be standing in standby lines with waits if you enter the parks in the morning. Ideal scenario is you enter the park at rope drop and get FPs for the earliest return times (I usually go for Space Mountain first). When you first enter parks, return times are only a few minutes out. So grab Space Mountain FP for 20 minutes out, ride Buzz and Star Tours (less than 5 minute waits since park just opened), then use Space Mountain FP. Then get another FP for something else that's only a few minutes out, and in the meantime ride the rides that are walk-ons. Repeat this cycle, riding rides back to back without ever really waiting in line, until about 10:30-11 am, when the parks start to get crowded. At that point I get a FP for something that may be later in the day (like RSR), go on a couple more rides with very short waits (I never get in a line that's longer than about 10 minutes) and then slow down a bit, since at this point I've been going non-stop since probably 7 am. Depending on time of year it may also start getting hot at this point, so I might do something indoors like check out Launch Bay, or go sit down and have an early lunch (since I got up early to make rope drop). By this time the 90 minutes are up and I can get more FPs and continue riding only the shortest lines standby. Or, if it's a particularly crowded day and there aren't really any short lines, I may go back to the hotel for a rest (grabbing another FP for later in the day at this time), then come back in the evening.

Basically, entering the parks at rope drop is a MUST. Doing that, the MaxPass system is amazing, and will allow you to ride practically everything you want to for the day by 11 am. By about 1 pm, MaxPass is less effective, but you still have the opportunity to grab FP for rides later that night, so that after coming back from an afternoon break you are all set to ride the major headliners again. I sometimes come back in with 3-4 FPs stacked for my evening.

This is making me miss DLR a lot right now!

BINGO! This is exactly how we tour at DLR. Afternoons are for checking out Launch Bay/Turtle Talk/Lincoln, etc. At WDW, we rode our 3 FP+ rides and then were faced with long waits for everything else. At DLR ropedrop or EMH/MM, we can have entire Fantasyland done in an hour with practically no waits, etc. We know which rides to avoid in the middle of the afternoon, etc. I can't think of a time that we have ever waited more than 15 minutes for any attraction.

Another reason we prefer DLR for our family Disney vacation is the weather. I would take DLR weather hands down over WDW in July. It rained every single afternoon we were at WDW. And the muggy humidity, it was miserable.
 
Yeah at Disneyland currently there aren't any "gone by 10am" Fastpasses. It just seems to be at DCA where if you aren't there by 10am you're riding standby for Mission Break out and Radiator Spring Racers.

This really depends on the day. I have been at DCA on several occasions where there are still RSR FP available at 2pm. It's not that rare.
 
I have to agree with the idea that Disneyland needs to stop catering to tourists. Tourists will put up with bad food and poor entertainment because they don't come back for extended periods of time. Locals force Disneyland to keep changing and improving food options and entertainment.
 
I visit Disneyland at least once a year and drive from AZ. I don't want Magic Bands because I do not want to plan that far in advance. Max Pass has been fabulous the 2 visits that I've used it.

My husband and I went to Disney World for our honeymoon in 1997.
 

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