I've mentioned a few times in this blog that the focus is almost exclusively on Walt Disney World, as opposed to Disney news at large. There are a few reasons for this - one, WDW is our "home" Disney resort and we've done it enough times to have a solid knowledge of things like crowd patterns, attraction orders, etc. It's also the most popular destination among Disney resorts, and probably has the most interest from readers. And expanding coverage beyond WDW would be a bit unwieldy for me personally - I don't have a lot of time to update this blog regularly (as you may have noticed!)
But we recently took a trip to Disneyland (that's the one in California, for those of you who don't know) and I felt that I would be remiss without at least making some posts about that resort. I didn't want to do a full review or even attraction or restaurant reviews individually, as they are not within the scope of this blog. But there are plenty of things to compare and contrast between Disneyland Resort (DLR) and WDW, so I thought there would be some value in putting this stuff done before I forget about them and it all blurs together.
Today's post is not going to focus on attractions, but rather on all of the external stuff outside of the attractions that might be important to a visit. If you are a WDW veteran and are considering a trip to DLR, I have some thoughts on things that are better at one resort as opposed to the other. Let's talk about them.
The biggest difference that you will find immediately relates to proximity. Walt Disney World in Florida has the "blessing of size" as Walt once said, but that blessing can also be a curse. Everything is very spread out, and you are at the mercy of Disney transportation if you want to go anywhere, including park hopping. In many ways, this can be a good thing, as you are fully inside the "Disney bubble" as soon as you get in the area. I've always marveled at the Disney machine, as everywhere you look, you see thousands of buses, hotels and cast members working to make a pleasant visiting experience.
Disneyland is quite the opposite in many ways. There are only two parks (as opposed to WDW's four) and they are quite literally across from one another, separated only by the Disneyland esplanade. We did not stay on property, but that's less important in California, as many third party hotels are set up within easy walking distance of the parks. I loved how easy it was to park hop here, and even pop over to Downtown Disney (which is equivalent to WDW's Disney Springs; in fact, the latter used to be called Downtown Disney as well). You go through security once as you reach the esplanade, and then you only need to show your ticket to get into the parks. It's simple and streamlined and allowed for more exploration time, particularly for meals or shopping outside of the parks.
Speaking of park entry, DLR recently instituted facial recognition when you scan your ticket. I was skeptical that this was going to be any quicker or more efficient than WDW's finger scanner but I was quickly proven wrong. The facial recognition is fast and offered almost no difficulties. Once you scan in for the first time, my feeling was that every other time we entered the parks, it happened so quickly that my face barely even appeared on the scanner before the gates opened. WDW should absolutely look into this for their parks - the finger scanners often create problems, and each scan takes longer than the facial scans at DLR. I would consider this program a success and see no reason for Disney not to bring it to Florida.
Sticking with the positives, let's look at park hours. Disney California Adventure was open from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. on the nights we were there and Disneyland's hours were 8:00 to midnight. Midnight! I've heard stories that Magic Kingdom used to regularly be open that late, but nowadays the best you'll find are 11:00 p.m. closings, with the default hours usually being 9:00-10:00. The other Florida parks have even worse hours, often closing by 9:00 p.m. or earlier (sorry Animal Kingdom).
Some of this is likely staffing related and some is demographic related. DLR's average guest is more likely to be a local, and would come to the parks after work to enjoy their evening (think the Florida locals going to Epcot). But whether that's the sole reason or not, a sixteen hour day at Disneyland is great for wait times and crowds. Disneyland has more attractions than any park in the country as far as as I know, and you could spend all day there without getting to everything (ask me how I know this). WDW often defaults to lower closing times and then having Extended Hours for deluxe resort guests or even paid After Hours events. It's nice to see long park hours included for everyone at DLR.
The flipside of this relates to all of the nighttime spectaculars at Disneyland. One of the things I like best about WDW's Extended Evening Hours is that by the time you get really late in the night, most guests have left and the park feels lovely and quiet. This is not the case when the parks are open late for everyone as in DLR. And a lot of that is exacerbated by the many nighttime events happening. Perhaps it was because we went during the 70th Anniversary Celebration, but once the sun went down, there was always something happening, making it more difficult to get around the park.
Disneyland has three different nighttime spectaculars currently happening - Wondrous Journeys (the fireworks/projection show on the Sleeping Beauty Castle), Fantasmic (the well loved show featuring Mickey Mouse and his imagination) and Paint the Night (a classic nighttime parade). There are also smaller things happening near it's a small world and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. Wondrous Journeys is only shown once a night but both Fantasmic and Paint the Night are shown twice, meaning that from 8:00 until nearly park close, there are large crowds congregating around different areas of the park.
The biggest issue I had with all of this is that it was nearly impossible to see Wondrous Journeys without either lining up for a front row spot hours ahead of time or standing in front of the castle for the parade and THEN moving into the street area to watch the fireworks, along with thousands of your closest friends. While the crowds for Happily Ever After at Magic Kingdom can get crazy, the area around the castle feels bigger and the castle itself is taller, meaning it's easier to see. Wondrous Journeys is a great show, but not a pleasant experience as it is constructed right now.
One of the other negatives I felt with DLR is in their use of the Lightning Lanes, particularly Lightning Lane Multi Pass (LLMP). The tickets we purchased included LLMP, which was great; WDW had tried something similar once but stopped that pretty early on. But the WDW system now allows for three attractions per day to be selected in advance; DLR has no such rule.
In a vacuum, that's not a big deal - up until recently, this was how WDW worked as well. However, the biggest difference here is what is required to book a Lightning Lane. At WDW, you could start booking right at 7:00 a.m., and then book a second attraction two hours after park opening or once you tapped into that first ride. At DLR, you can only book your first attraction after you've tapped into the park, whatever time that may be. This leads to people tapping in and then immediately pulling out their phones to book something. This is not always how I want to start my day.
Also, the biggest problem with this is that the best Lightning Lanes get scooped up by anyone in the park first (including early entry). In other words, for WDW, I used to be able to set an alarm for 7:00, make a selection and go back to sleep if we were getting a later start. But for DLR, you are almost forced to get there early no matter what if you want the best ride selections. This isn't always easy (we made it before rope drop one of the three days we visited, though we were close the other two days) because we often went to bed late the night before (did I mention that midnight closing time??). No system is perfect, but I found it harder to work within these constraints than I used to at WDW.
I do like that you can buy tickets with Lightning Lane attached in advance. I also like that these tickets come with Memory Maker, Disney's PhotoPass service that allows you to download all of your vacation photos. But I found that PhotoPass was not nearly as prevalent at Disneyland. We spent about fifteen hours there our first day and had only one PhotoPass series of photos done. I saw one other that we didn't wait on line for.
There were a few others there, and in fairness, California Adventure actually has more. But we're used to getting dozens of PhotoPass photos; at Magic Kingdom, you can walk down Main Street and stop every twenty feet for photos of the castle. I found them much more sparse in Disneyland. Combine that with the lack of ride photos and it was more of a disappointment than in Florida, even though the photos we did get are great quality.
One other minor quibble I had at DLR regards something silly - popcorn. We have taken it upon ourselves to buy a souvenir bucket of popcorn early on our first day at WDW, then have it refilled all week (I think it's up to $2.25 a refill now, which is still a bargain compared to just about any other snack there). But when we purchased our bucket at DLR, the first thing we were told is that there are no refills. No refills?? That's the whole point of the souvenir bucket.
Apparently this has been the case for a while (maybe forever?) which I learned via a Google search as we ate said popcorn. After thinking about it, my only idea as to why there are different policies on each coast relate again to the demographics. If locals more heavily visit DLR, they could always bring a popcorn bucket with them to refill on each visit, where in Florida, this is less likely to occur. But I still think there needs to be some wiggle room there - maybe only allow fill ups of buckets currently being sold at the park? A small thing, but a bummer nonetheless.
I'm going to end this post with one last positive difference, and one that Disney really has no control over - weather. Florida is often miserably hot and humid for many months out of the year. The weather in Anaheim in late July was exquisite, on the other hand. Yes, it was hot walking around all day in the sun, but not nearly the same level of discomfort in Orlando. We wore sweatshirts in the morning and evening, and had plenty of meals outdoors that were quite lovely. I wouldn't have even considered making this trip to WDW in July unless I wanted to pass out from heat exhaustion.
We had a great time on this trip and it was interesting to see how so many things were similar to what we were used to while still seeing so many operational differences. In the minds of many (non-Disney fans), Disney is Disney no matter where you go. But while this is true in many ways, DLR is definitely distinct from WDW and I'm glad we got the chance to experience that this year.
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