I thought I would share about our first trip to Disneyland! We stayed at the DLH, and were there for 5 days.
Compared to Disney World:
-A LOT less photo pass photographers. We were at DCA at least once a day, for the magic mornings or for majority of the day. We only ran into 1 photographer taking pictures with Mickey's fun wheel!
-All the cast members were from CA!! So different compared to WDW! I was amazed when I saw someones name tag say somewhere besides CA
We made sure to take advantage of the extra hour in the morning to get the best value of the expensive, expensive, expensive hotel LOL. The extra hour is defiantly worth waking up for. One morning we went on Toy Story Mania 4 times in a row within 30 minutes.
The room in the hotel seemed huge, at least compared to the rooms at WDW hotels. It was nice being able to walk to the hotel, but after seeing how much close the Grand Californian was, I kind of regret not staying there even though its definitely not our style!
We used uber 4 times. Each time they had a problem finding the hotel. They would always ask "but which Disneyland hotel" We thought it was weird.
I learned bottles of water are cheaper at Jamba Juice in DTD then inside the park, and there is a DVC discount.
We did the DVC Soarin behind the scenes tour. It was awesome! It was 45 minutes, and we got to go on the ride. Once the tour was over, I checked the wait time and it was 70 minutes. So it was well worth the time!
DCA we only really needed one day to do each ride, but we went back several times to do our favorites and to watch Frozen.
I was pleasantly surprised with the crowds. It was spring break, so I was expecting it to be super busy! But it wasn't, at least not compared to Disney World. A lot of the rides were 20-30 minute waits, and if we used our fast passes wisely we didn't ever wait more than 30 minutes for a ride. The more popular rides were definitely busy, but we wanted to do every. single. ride. (and we did!)
We watched world of color once... kind of. 15 minutes in, it stopped. Technical difficulties.
We watched the fireworks twice.. first time we had a horrible view. We didn't watch the MSEP, so it made it difficult to find a spot. Couldn't even really sit out for one because the parade ended 20 minutes before the fireworks. The second time we were between the castle and walt statue, we waited in Tomorrowland until we saw the America float and went towards the castle. When they took down the ropes for the section, people left and there was a ton of room once they made everyone stand. We tried to watch it a 3rd time but it got cancelled due to wind (which didn't feel windy at all) weird how different it is than WDW!!
We are at Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast. Good variety of food, the character interactions were eh though. They seemed to be rushing. Probably wouldn't do it again. We WOULD eat at Cafe Orleans again. The onion soup, fries and beignets. Yes please.
Tigger tails, mickey beignets and mint juleps need to make their way over to WDW! Please!!
I would definitely go back, probably not for a few years. Hopefully the Matterhorn and Fantasmic will be running then. The flight is just waaaay too long from NYC
But I'm so glad we went, Disneyland Paris is our next Disney park we want to check off our list.
Compared to Disney World:
-A LOT less photo pass photographers. We were at DCA at least once a day, for the magic mornings or for majority of the day. We only ran into 1 photographer taking pictures with Mickey's fun wheel!
-All the cast members were from CA!! So different compared to WDW! I was amazed when I saw someones name tag say somewhere besides CA
We made sure to take advantage of the extra hour in the morning to get the best value of the expensive, expensive, expensive hotel LOL. The extra hour is defiantly worth waking up for. One morning we went on Toy Story Mania 4 times in a row within 30 minutes.
The room in the hotel seemed huge, at least compared to the rooms at WDW hotels. It was nice being able to walk to the hotel, but after seeing how much close the Grand Californian was, I kind of regret not staying there even though its definitely not our style!
We used uber 4 times. Each time they had a problem finding the hotel. They would always ask "but which Disneyland hotel" We thought it was weird.
I learned bottles of water are cheaper at Jamba Juice in DTD then inside the park, and there is a DVC discount.
We did the DVC Soarin behind the scenes tour. It was awesome! It was 45 minutes, and we got to go on the ride. Once the tour was over, I checked the wait time and it was 70 minutes. So it was well worth the time!
DCA we only really needed one day to do each ride, but we went back several times to do our favorites and to watch Frozen.
I was pleasantly surprised with the crowds. It was spring break, so I was expecting it to be super busy! But it wasn't, at least not compared to Disney World. A lot of the rides were 20-30 minute waits, and if we used our fast passes wisely we didn't ever wait more than 30 minutes for a ride. The more popular rides were definitely busy, but we wanted to do every. single. ride. (and we did!)
We watched world of color once... kind of. 15 minutes in, it stopped. Technical difficulties.
We watched the fireworks twice.. first time we had a horrible view. We didn't watch the MSEP, so it made it difficult to find a spot. Couldn't even really sit out for one because the parade ended 20 minutes before the fireworks. The second time we were between the castle and walt statue, we waited in Tomorrowland until we saw the America float and went towards the castle. When they took down the ropes for the section, people left and there was a ton of room once they made everyone stand. We tried to watch it a 3rd time but it got cancelled due to wind (which didn't feel windy at all) weird how different it is than WDW!!
We are at Goofy's Kitchen for breakfast. Good variety of food, the character interactions were eh though. They seemed to be rushing. Probably wouldn't do it again. We WOULD eat at Cafe Orleans again. The onion soup, fries and beignets. Yes please.
Tigger tails, mickey beignets and mint juleps need to make their way over to WDW! Please!!
I would definitely go back, probably not for a few years. Hopefully the Matterhorn and Fantasmic will be running then. The flight is just waaaay too long from NYC
But I'm so glad we went, Disneyland Paris is our next Disney park we want to check off our list.
