Are there Disneyland lovers who've tried WDW once/twice and hated it?

So, I see that once again, Disboards has generated a near unanimous consensus ;)

Well, jumping into the fire from the opposite coast - Our first family trip to DLR is in June. I’ve been a few days on a business trip, but never the family. As others have said, we will try to focus on the unique experiences of DLR, and rides that are supposedly better at DLR.

Looking at that in reverse (as you are for a trip to WDW), I would focus on a nice resort (if you can swing it) and experiences like Animal Kingdom. I keep seeing comments like “we like animals so we like AK”, but really, that park is gorgeous. It has so many fantastic little Disney touches that we are in awe of Disney’s artistic side. We feel the same about Animal Kingdom Lodge. We often walk out at the end of the day thinking Walt would be proud.
 
I'm gonna show my ignorance a little here, but what is the "bubble" everyone talks about with WDW? I have never been to WDW (obviously, and hence my ignorance) and I'm not sure if it's something I want to try- it seems so daunting! DLR is my home park, and to me has it's own magic.

Coming down the 5 freeway, seeing the Disneyland Dr/ Harbor Blvd exits gets me giddy every time! And seeing those big Disneyland signs every where on Harbor Blvd- so cool! "Did I park by Dumbo or Chip? I don't care! We're at Disneyland!" Riding the trams to the promenade. Or walking through Downtown Disney, almost skipping/running because you can see the ticket booths at the end. To me these things are pretty magical and seem very Disney. Guess I'm just a DLR fan.
Personally for me WDW has more of a bubble because I'm not passing by homeless people and a Dennys to get into the park lol.
 
I'm also reading this topic from the reverse side - we've been to WDW more than 20 times and went to DLR for the first time last year. We loved both (actually stopping by DLR for a day again this summer on the way back from Aulani), but there are clear differences between the two. However, that just makes each destination enjoyable in their own way.

In defense of WDW, I'll make a few points
-the planning sounds overwhelming, but it actually makes the trip easier once you understand what you need to do in advance. Getting the structure of your time (which park each day, where food is) helps to make everything so efficient, but there's always room for spontaneity when you want (blowing off scheduled park time for a half day to go home and rest and swim for example)
-when we go to WDW, we usually are there for a week, maybe even 8 or 9 days. I was disappointed when I realized there was no need to come anywhere close to that length at DLR (I believe the maximum ticket they sell is 5 days).
-I enjoyed dining at WDW more than DLR, probably because of the vastly higher number of options which makes it easier to find restaurants the whole family can agree on
-one underappreciated thing of WDW is all the out-of-park experiences that you can fill your time with. We've done fireworks cruises with Captain Hook, horseback riding at Fort Wilderness, in addition to many meals at resorts we're not even staying at.
-the bubble is a real thing. It affects my wife more than me as she just sends me to the grocery store during the trip because she doesn't want to see anything in the real world from start to finish.
-and then obviously, all the variety in the parks with attractions that far exceed the number at DLR. One of the reason we go so much is that we never can do everything we want each trip. Sure, we probably do all the headliners every trip, but other rides like Spaceship Earth, Dinosaur, Tower of Terror, Dumbo, etc. might can only be done every 2nd or 3rd trip.

Now again, none of that is to knock DLR. It has winning points of its own including the ease from park to park, unique rides, and the charm of being the initial version. But I can't imagine loving Disneyland, but just hating Disney World when you went to it, as long as you research a little and understand the planning shouldn't be that overwhelming.
 


Oh, that’s like the perfect thread for me!That just sounds like me... I really wanna go and try out WDW but I am just afraid that I regret spending my vacation and money there instead of good old and well tried DL... Flying from Germany means that the plane tickets will be a pretty expensive regardless where I fly to so that doesn’t help... and you need more time for WDW that’s why am a little scarred because it will be more expensive than DL...
but it will be a full vacation and it’s big and so many different things to see. So I really wanna go there but I am intimidated by the FP+ system because I love doing my favorite rides a couple of times and I am afraid I feel like I can’t redo a great ride often enough... and don’t even start me on weather or crowd calendars...every time I check those out to try and find „the perfect“ time or At least close to that to visit I end up thinking that there isn’t even any time that would remotely work because the weather doesn’t work at all for me (to cold, to rainy, to much hurricane season...) and crowds are always bad as well so better skip it all together...

But after finding out there are those 14 and 21 tickets for the UK+Ireland and as far as I have read you can book those as a German too at least for now... and I hope it continues after the BREXIT takes place...
It would really be a dream to have the option to be at WDW for 21 days... and with that much time I should be able to get a couple FPs and even if not I think I‘ll have enough time to do some rides with standby queue...

So despite all those worrys I loosely plan to visit WDW in 2021!
I guess that should leave me enough time to plan (I have a DL Christmas time trip coming up this year though so I can start planning till the beginning of next year and hope for some discounts ...)
(If those 21 day passes are discontinued or can’t be booked from Germany anymore I‘ll probably crack up though... keeping my fingers crossed...)

I think like all the previous posters have said you really can’t compare DL and WDW and if you take WDW as something different and new you will be fine! I mean lots of people don’t „redo“ the same vacation over and over again but switch to different places and countries...
 
Heading to WDW for the 1st time in 16 years. Disneyland is my "home" park. I go at least once a year.

So far the con for me is having to book everything so far in advance. It's seemed really crazy to me to book our December trip in January and buy Christmas party tickets in April. We booked the December trip to see the park at Christmas as well as to hopefully go when it's not too hot.

I actually ended up going with a travel agent cause it was so confusing trying to get 2 rooms on one reservation.

I am a little nervous about using the FP+ system but hopefully by staying on site we'll get on the rides we want to. Seems crazy to me that I'll need to get up at 4am to do my fastpasses. :(

I am looking forward to staying on site - I never stay on site at DL as I just can justify the cost.

As for the discussion on the Matterhorn - I love that ride. I have a system on riding that ride. It involves NOT learning back in the seat but riding it like a sled. My niece and I rode it 4-5 times in a row at the Halloween party one year.
 
Heading to WDW for the 1st time in 16 years. Disneyland is my "home" park. I go at least once a year.

So far the con for me is having to book everything so far in advance. It's seemed really crazy to me to book our December trip in January and buy Christmas party tickets in April. We booked the December trip to see the park at Christmas as well as to hopefully go when it's not too hot.

I actually ended up going with a travel agent cause it was so confusing trying to get 2 rooms on one reservation.

I am a little nervous about using the FP+ system but hopefully by staying on site we'll get on the rides we want to. Seems crazy to me that I'll need to get up at 4am to do my fastpasses. :(

I am looking forward to staying on site - I never stay on site at DL as I just can justify the cost.

As for the discussion on the Matterhorn - I love that ride. I have a system on riding that ride. It involves NOT learning back in the seat but riding it like a sled. My niece and I rode it 4-5 times in a row at the Halloween party one year.

Some of the early stuff is overkill. Sure, some hotels fill up, but I've made many reservations 2-3 months before a trip. Also, other than first and last days or Halloween itself, the Halloween/Christmas tickets rarely sell out more than a few days in advance, if at all.

For the FP+, I usually get up and do the 6 AM reservations (for me) out of habit, but it rarely makes a difference. If you're staying multiple days, you can get the big rides (Avatar, Slinky Dog, etc.) on day 3,4,5 at later that morning. For FPs that are on day 1 of the trip, even getting up at the start doesn't help you get the big ones because they've already been taken in the days prior by others whose 60 day window started earlier in the week.
 


Heading to WDW for the 1st time in 16 years. Disneyland is my "home" park. I go at least once a year.

So far the con for me is having to book everything so far in advance. It's seemed really crazy to me to book our December trip in January and buy Christmas party tickets in April. We booked the December trip to see the park at Christmas as well as to hopefully go when it's not too hot.

I actually ended up going with a travel agent cause it was so confusing trying to get 2 rooms on one reservation.

I am a little nervous about using the FP+ system but hopefully by staying on site we'll get on the rides we want to. Seems crazy to me that I'll need to get up at 4am to do my fastpasses. :(

I am looking forward to staying on site - I never stay on site at DL as I just can justify the cost.

As for the discussion on the Matterhorn - I love that ride. I have a system on riding that ride. It involves NOT learning back in the seat but riding it like a sled. My niece and I rode it 4-5 times in a row at the Halloween party one year.

Can't speak to FP+ because we haven't made ours yet and our last trip was before it existed, but I was feeling the pain when I got up at 3am to make ADRs at 180 days. (ADRs apparently are an hour earlier than FP!) I don't think it was really necessary - there was plenty left when I checked later that day, but I did enjoy getting all of the exact times I wanted. We're going in July, and at this point some of the restaurants we booked either have nothing at all or have horrible times.

Staying on site is one of the best things about going to WDW. We also can't justify the cost at DLR, but we love it at WDW!!
 
Hate is a strong word... we did not like that we felt we needed to do 10 days to “enjoy” everything. We also did not like all the freaking planning 180 days or more out... and being on the west coast, the trip across the US was a long one. I missed a lot of what DL has to offer. We did enjoy the resort experience... split our stay between Coronado and AKL. I had to do laundry on our pool day tho, so that was kinda a bummer. There are a couple rides I wished we had a version of (yes, just a couple... Everest, and now their Avatar land.). We go to DL for quick trips anymore... 2 or 3 park days... not really a vacation, but a break from reality. What we did love about Florida was Universal lol... has much more of a DL feel to us... two parks right next to each other, can walk from the hotel, and their express pass kicks WDW FP butt!
 
I'm also reading this topic from the reverse side - we've been to WDW more than 20 times and went to DLR for the first time last year. We loved both (actually stopping by DLR for a day again this summer on the way back from Aulani), but there are clear differences between the two. However, that just makes each destination enjoyable in their own way.

In defense of WDW, I'll make a few points
-the planning sounds overwhelming, but it actually makes the trip easier once you understand what you need to do in advance. Getting the structure of your time (which park each day, where food is) helps to make everything so efficient, but there's always room for spontaneity when you want (blowing off scheduled park time for a half day to go home and rest and swim for example)
-when we go to WDW, we usually are there for a week, maybe even 8 or 9 days. I was disappointed when I realized there was no need to come anywhere close to that length at DLR (I believe the maximum ticket they sell is 5 days).
-I enjoyed dining at WDW more than DLR, probably because of the vastly higher number of options which makes it easier to find restaurants the whole family can agree on
-one underappreciated thing of WDW is all the out-of-park experiences that you can fill your time with. We've done fireworks cruises with Captain Hook, horseback riding at Fort Wilderness, in addition to many meals at resorts we're not even staying at.
-the bubble is a real thing. It affects my wife more than me as she just sends me to the grocery store during the trip because she doesn't want to see anything in the real world from start to finish.
-and then obviously, all the variety in the parks with attractions that far exceed the number at DLR. One of the reason we go so much is that we never can do everything we want each trip. Sure, we probably do all the headliners every trip, but other rides like Spaceship Earth, Dinosaur, Tower of Terror, Dumbo, etc. might can only be done every 2nd or 3rd trip.

Now again, none of that is to knock DLR. It has winning points of its own including the ease from park to park, unique rides, and the charm of being the initial version. But I can't imagine loving Disneyland, but just hating Disney World when you went to it, as long as you research a little and understand the planning shouldn't be that overwhelming.
It's refreshing to read your thoughts. I'm in early planning stages for summer 2020. I'm nervous about so much to plan. And I'm leaning towards 2 weeks at a 3 bedroom time share at no additional cost over an onsite stay in a small hotel room. I believe this will make things easier on our family and therefore more enjoyable for my husband. This means that reservations may be harder to get and forget about FP+ for the most popular rides. But I'm hopeful it will all work out. We might still do the first few days onsite depending on how long we're in FL. I've considered that would also get is the magical express and magic bands. But it also means having to switch hotels while on vacation.
 
I to am facing this from a different view. We have been to WDW 5 times and I am presently planning trip #6 in 2021. But I plan 2 trips ahead so I was already planning #7 when my 18 year old came to me and said she had always wanted to see the panda's at the San Diego Zoo and she wanted to do Sea World in California so for our 2023 trip she wants to do Disneyland. I do not understand the views from people talking about the size or not wanting to plan. I am s Sr, IT Specialist/Analyst for the govt so planning is 2nd nature to me. I started reading these last night and asked the girls about transportation. Gwen said no trouble really next trip is the Poly so 2 of the parks are on the monorail. The only one with any travel is AK. As for everything else its easy. Each park has certain rides that everyone wants and they tell me where they want to eat and I just the marry the 2 together. We usually stay for 10 to 12 days doing AK,EPcot,HS 2 days each and MK for 3 and I usually park a water park/shopping day in there as well. So I have started researching Disneyland and the biggest issue I have seen is, how do I spend 10-12 days in California? So far I have SeaWorld 2 days, Zoo 2 days, Disneyland 4 days. And maybe Universal 1. If any locals can give me any ideas it would be appreciated. My girls have been bitten by the deluxe bug at WDW so we will be staying onsite.
 
how do I spend 10-12 days in California? So far I have SeaWorld 2 days, Zoo 2 days, Disneyland 4 days. And maybe Universal 1. If any locals can give me any ideas it would be appreciated. My girls have been bitten by the deluxe bug at WDW so we will be staying onsite.

Here are my thoughts, others will certainly chime in, but one could easily spend 10-12 days in Southern California alone -- you mentioned staying onsite, is that for the duration of the two weeks? Or could you stay a week in Orange County and a week in San Diego? That would be my suggestion so you can focus on the parks/attractions in each area and not spend ridiculous amounts of vacation time in traffic. We've vacationed to San Diego completely apart from Disneyland in the past so that we could focus on just that area.

I think one day for Sea World is plenty and likewise one day for the Zoo is sufficient (I personally can't imagine spending 2 days at either), but you could also do a day at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (located in Escondido), I am sure they have a package deal together. I think the Safari park is about 45 minutes away if memory serves me correctly. When we visited San Diego we visited: Mission Beach area (amusement rides) and boogie boarded, Sea World, the Zoo, the Safari Park, USS Midway and the waterfront, took a boat over to Coronado, spent a day at the beach snorkeling in La Jolla (BEAUTIFUL), Old Town and took a haunted San Diego tour. There's a week (or more) of things worth doing in this area alone. There are many beautiful hotels to stay that would appeal to your daughter's "deluxe" preferences :).

In Orange County, 4 days is probably sufficient for most people for Disneyland/CA and you could do a day at Universal as well. Also, beautiful beaches located not too far away and if there is any interest the various tours in the LA area.

I say, split your trip into two segments, San Diego area by itself, Orange County/DLR area by itself and if you need to fly into or out of the same airport (for cost purposes) the distance isn't so great between the two areas that it's prohibitive. I just think it would really be awful to try to go back and forth from one location more than once (or twice) other than to get to the airport. Hope that helps.
 
I do not understand the views from people talking about the size or not wanting to plan. I am s Sr, IT Specialist/Analyst for the govt so planning is 2nd nature to me.

I also have a career where planning and being organized is a requirement. It’s for this reason that I enjoy a vacation where I don’t have to do all that. I can just show up and follow my instincts around instead.

I think a piece of this that gets overlooked is that experience at DLR replaces planning for many of us. If it was someone’s first time, there probably should be some level of planning. Maybe not WDW levels, but at least learn the layout of the park and that RSR and Space Mtn FPs go fastest. Because it’s a locals park, the patterns and expectations are easy to learn and have for the most part stayed similar year after year.

When I show up, I mostly know what to expect and the flow is something I can just go with. I’ve never missed out on something at DLR because of it.
 
Yes the planning is a pain for West Coasters whole will be getting up very early in the morning to make reservations for FP and dining.

But I do echo others in saying that once you are there it is much more relaxed. Even stacking FP after the first 4 isn't bad since your options will be more condensed by that point.
 
Here are my thoughts, others will certainly chime in, but one could easily spend 10-12 days in Southern California alone -- you mentioned staying onsite, is that for the duration of the two weeks? Or could you stay a week in Orange County and a week in San Diego? That would be my suggestion so you can focus on the parks/attractions in each area and not spend ridiculous amounts of vacation time in traffic. We've vacationed to San Diego completely apart from Disneyland in the past so that we could focus on just that area.

I think one day for Sea World is plenty and likewise one day for the Zoo is sufficient (I personally can't imagine spending 2 days at either), but you could also do a day at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (located in Escondido), I am sure they have a package deal together. I think the Safari park is about 45 minutes away if memory serves me correctly. When we visited San Diego we visited: Mission Beach area (amusement rides) and boogie boarded, Sea World, the Zoo, the Safari Park, USS Midway and the waterfront, took a boat over to Coronado, spent a day at the beach snorkeling in La Jolla (BEAUTIFUL), Old Town and took a haunted San Diego tour. There's a week (or more) of things worth doing in this area alone. There are many beautiful hotels to stay that would appeal to your daughter's "deluxe" preferences :).

In Orange County, 4 days is probably sufficient for most people for Disneyland/CA and you could do a day at Universal as well. Also, beautiful beaches located not too far away and if there is any interest the various tours in the LA area.

I say, split your trip into two segments, San Diego area by itself, Orange County/DLR area by itself and if you need to fly into or out of the same airport (for cost purposes) the distance isn't so great between the two areas that it's prohibitive. I just think it would really be awful to try to go back and forth from one location more than once (or twice) other than to get to the airport. Hope that helps.
Thank You. I am planning on onsite for Disney and I am researching hotels around the other venues. My job requires a great deal of project management so spreadsheeting and planning is 2nd nature for me. This is for the girls I have had no interest in going to California (other than a short training stump at 29 Palms a long time ago).
 
Thank You. I am planning on onsite for Disney and I am researching hotels around the other venues. My job requires a great deal of project management so spreadsheeting and planning is 2nd nature for me. This is for the girls I have had no interest in going to California (other than a short training stump at 29 Palms a long time ago).

As a person who grew up in the South with the "California is bad" mentality and figuring I would never visit, I actually live in Nevada now, vacation in California regularly, and I love it, at least as a great place to vacation. Don't knock it on preconceived notions, is all I'm saying.
 
The point of my statement is that there are pros and cons for travel to the parks at both DLR and WDW.
Yes. Agreed. Not sure why you chose my comment to add that to though lol. The original post was about the bubble so I talked about why some people might consider WDW to have more of a "bubble" sorry if that wasnt clear.
 
Bit late to the thread but I did my first WDW trip last year and while I enjoyed it, I prefer DLR in California as it requires less planning, everything is walkable within the resort and there is more opportunity for spontaneity. You also don’t have the time commitment you do in WDW as 3 days usually makes for a good visit and you can do a lot in that time. The other thing about Disneyland is there are so many other places to visit with some incredible scenery and attractions you can incorporate a 1, 2 or 3 week road trip with a visit to DLR. in Florida, the parks are the main game. I have to say though that the Orlando Universal Parks are excellent and I liked the closeness of everything such as onsite hotels, Citiwalk and the parks themselves which makes the Universal area walkable, much like DLR is.
I’ll go back to WDW someday, maybe, but not for a few years. Been from Australia, the flights are pretty unpleasant as well so that does colour my decision. My next DLR trip is this Christmas then probably again in 2021/22.
All the best.
 

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