Hi - I hope mods don't move this over to the WDW forums because I want to hear specifically from Disneyland fans who have made the trip to Walt Disney World.
What did you DLR people love about WDW? I went to DLR last summer, and I was blown away. Magic just seemed to descend upon us. We walked onto Main Street, and Minnie Mouse was hugging us and giving us kisses. My kid hopped on the carousel first thing and was joined by a little brass band playing music. We didn't have a rigid plan and mostly roamed to whatever ride was nearby and had a short line. They all were so surprisingly delightful, and there were so many choices. Ride after ride exceeded my expectations, and we almost never waited longer than 15 minutes. 20 tops. Most were under 10.
Now we're planning WDW, and ... I have some hesitation. For instance, to meet characters at WDW you need to reserve a special meal months in advance or use a FastPass to jump in a line. They don't just come to you on the street. There aren't nearly as many rides in each park, and it looks like the lines get long really fast, so you need to choose those FPs wisely. So you end up learning all about the rides and about the whole park to figure out which rides you want to do and when you want to do them — so maybe there's not as much chance to be surprised? And if you're on a schedule (and committing a fair bit of each day to transit), do you get to just explore and follow your heart? At DLR, my kid would gleefully disappear into the Tarzan thing or Bug Land or whatever, and we'd follow along because it seemed like the park was built for exactly that -- exploring and being surprised and taking everything in organically. At WDW did you end up so tied to The Schedule that it turned into "No Billy, we can't ride the carousel twice in the morning because the other lines get too long. No Janie, you can't take off down that interesting animal trail because we have a Fastpass for Mount Everest"?
Or does everyone at WDW mostly end up abandoning their plans anyway? I can get myself in the mindset to do that. But WDW sort of pushes people to hyperplan everything — and with all the attractions divided among smaller parks, each with high crowd pressure, it really does seem like access to the must-dos requires that level of planning precision. I never once worried we might not get a chance to do Space Mountain in two days at Disneyland, but it sounds like any one of the big rides at WDW is kind of a one-chance, high-stakes thing involving a FastPass or a pre-dawn rope drop scrum or a really long wait (we aren't park-hopping).
How did you DLR folks find your magic at WDW? Did you have regrets about how you approached it? It doesn't sound like the magic there follows the same vectors that it does at DLR, and it'd be a mistake to hope that it will. But it is called The Most Magical Place On Earth, so I'm assuming its there!
What did you DLR people love about WDW? I went to DLR last summer, and I was blown away. Magic just seemed to descend upon us. We walked onto Main Street, and Minnie Mouse was hugging us and giving us kisses. My kid hopped on the carousel first thing and was joined by a little brass band playing music. We didn't have a rigid plan and mostly roamed to whatever ride was nearby and had a short line. They all were so surprisingly delightful, and there were so many choices. Ride after ride exceeded my expectations, and we almost never waited longer than 15 minutes. 20 tops. Most were under 10.
Now we're planning WDW, and ... I have some hesitation. For instance, to meet characters at WDW you need to reserve a special meal months in advance or use a FastPass to jump in a line. They don't just come to you on the street. There aren't nearly as many rides in each park, and it looks like the lines get long really fast, so you need to choose those FPs wisely. So you end up learning all about the rides and about the whole park to figure out which rides you want to do and when you want to do them — so maybe there's not as much chance to be surprised? And if you're on a schedule (and committing a fair bit of each day to transit), do you get to just explore and follow your heart? At DLR, my kid would gleefully disappear into the Tarzan thing or Bug Land or whatever, and we'd follow along because it seemed like the park was built for exactly that -- exploring and being surprised and taking everything in organically. At WDW did you end up so tied to The Schedule that it turned into "No Billy, we can't ride the carousel twice in the morning because the other lines get too long. No Janie, you can't take off down that interesting animal trail because we have a Fastpass for Mount Everest"?
Or does everyone at WDW mostly end up abandoning their plans anyway? I can get myself in the mindset to do that. But WDW sort of pushes people to hyperplan everything — and with all the attractions divided among smaller parks, each with high crowd pressure, it really does seem like access to the must-dos requires that level of planning precision. I never once worried we might not get a chance to do Space Mountain in two days at Disneyland, but it sounds like any one of the big rides at WDW is kind of a one-chance, high-stakes thing involving a FastPass or a pre-dawn rope drop scrum or a really long wait (we aren't park-hopping).
How did you DLR folks find your magic at WDW? Did you have regrets about how you approached it? It doesn't sound like the magic there follows the same vectors that it does at DLR, and it'd be a mistake to hope that it will. But it is called The Most Magical Place On Earth, so I'm assuming its there!
. Do not try to compare DLR with WDW, just enjoy them for their own uniqueness.
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