Cupcakesmum
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2014
My family of 6 + my mom are DisneyWold veterans. We absolutely love it and it’s always been a great vacation. However we were starting to get a little bit of the “been there, done that” vibe when planning our summer vacation when my husband threw out the idea of Disneyland. I was eager to have the kids visit a new state and also have the opportunity to visit Walt’s original park. I relied heavily on the Disneyland Forum when planning but there were a few things that were difficult to grasp until there so I thought I was share a quick summary and thoughts!
Who: Mom, Dad, Son #1 (14), Daughter #1 (13), Daughter #2 (11), Son #2 (9) + Nana
When: June 27-30th
What: 4 Park days - Disneyland, California Adventure, Disneyland, California Adventure
We flew in a few days early and did a Universal day and a tour of Los Angeles. We ended up doing a private tour with LA Tours due to our numbers and it was fantastic. It was great to go at our pace and not to wait for others or have others wait for us. It was $960 including tip. We used AirPort Express shuttles for all our transfers. They were on time and reasonably priced. Someone on this forum recommended them on a transportation thread. It was $165 plus tip from LAX to the Sheraton Universal, $195 plus tip from Sheraton Universal to Disneyland, and then $150 plus tip from Disneyland to LAX. This is for 7 people plus luggage as we wouldn’t fit in 1 taxi.
We stayed at the Element by Westin which was the perfect walking distance to the park. It wasn’t the craziness of the the right across the street hotels, but it was a a very straight forward 12-15 minute walk from hotel to front entrance. You could see the Guardians of the Galaxy ride from our hotel as well as the fireworks. It was also a very new, modern and clean hotel and they had spacious rooms that slept 8 and breakfast included. It was much nicer and cheaper than the Sheraton Universal. I highly recommend!!
As for the parks - I read tons of conflicting messages that they could be done in a day or two and the parks were so much smaller than Disneyworld. I respectfully disagree!! We had 4 days and we still didn’t experience everything! We didn’t purchase park hoppers and I’m glad as there really isn’t a need to go back and forth with 4 days and the parks are definitely big enough that there is still a lot of walking. They are more compact than DisneyWorld, but make no mistake, you’ll get your steps in!
We LOVED Disneyland. The whole vibe was just so much easier than DisneyWorld. It was refreshing not to have to wait for buses and be able to control your arrival time at the parks. It‘s also a lot of fun that the parks are right across from each other. The crowd also was more chill than the Florida crowd. Less “trips of a lifetime” and all the pressure that goes with it! We also spent a lot less money on souvenirs not having a hotel gift shop!! We would have loved to stay on property but given the prices there was absolutely no way to justify it except if we weren’t going to the parks and planned to stay in the room. We were out of the hotel all day.
Genie plus is SO MUCH better in Disneyland. Compared to our Florida trip last year, we got double the rides in with it. It’s really no issues to get 6 or 7 rides in with it and for next to immediate times - not necessarily hours out. We only did a few stand by lines. There are also more rides that don’t have Genie plus, but those rides tended to load much quicker. It really didn’t seem like they were checking hard when we scanned in for rides. They weren’t paying attention to the number of people vs the number of scans. They also take your picture at Disneyland so we don’t need to do the finger scan which was helpful because the kids usually forget which finger or it won’t scan for whatever reason.
Having the opportunity to go on new rides was a blast. Also the different versions of the same ride were also neat. I had no idea that the Guardians ride in Disneyland was a rethemed Tower of Terror. It made it slightly more fun and less scary having a light hearted theme.
The only slight criticism I have is that I found the quick service offerings subpar to those of DisneyWorld -although that may have changed in the past year. All the burgers are lettuce and sauce - no tomatoes or onions and tater tots seem to be a prevalent side moreso than fries. We also went to one place and my youngest had a kid chicken finger meal and they had no sauce - they suggested ketchup. It seemed a little off especially given how expensive everything was. They have 2 water sizes and one of them is $9.00 and not much bigger than the $5.00 water bottle. We opted for free water when possible, but it says a lot that they sell $9.00 water that is $3.00 at the corner store. There were a few hits but it seemed like a lot of the food was overhyped or cute looking but not great tasting. The upside is that once you got it out of your system you didn’t need to go back for another one the next day which was good for the waistline and pocketbook.
Okay maybe a second slight criticism - there were a lot of rides downs while we were there. We never got on the Matterhorn because it was always down - when we finally made it in line we got all the way to being buckled in and then quickly pulled out of the ride vehicle because it suddenly went down. We were bummed because we thought it we were just 5 minutes ahead we would have got through- then we realized there were quite a few people stuck on the ride so we were relieved not to have been stuck.
I also found a lot of the merchandise was less appealing. Years gone by there was so much I would have wanted, but now it seemed like it’s a little off the mark of what people would actually wear or actually use. Very fun to look but not compelling.
The fireworks and the World of Colour shows were amazing. We did the second World of Colour show and it was MUCH less crowded and easy to get a great view. There was lots of room in the area for the virtual queue even without a reservation. Well done shows and moving to watch.
It was also neat to see so many people expressing themself - I’m not sure if it was more pronounced because of PRiDE month but there were lots of individuals being true to themselves with a level of confidence most people can only aspire to. Given the current sentiments of Florida we were happy that Disney is a safe place for everyone to be happy.
This trip exceeded expectations. We had a blast and loved the family time! The weather was so much better and slightly cooler than the Canadian weather we left behind and we appreciated both the lack of humidity and rain. It was blue skies everyday! I highly recommend and we are so glad we branched out this year for a taste of something different, but the same feeling of coming home!
Thanks to everyone who posted that gave us helpful information and tips when planning!
Who: Mom, Dad, Son #1 (14), Daughter #1 (13), Daughter #2 (11), Son #2 (9) + Nana
When: June 27-30th
What: 4 Park days - Disneyland, California Adventure, Disneyland, California Adventure
We flew in a few days early and did a Universal day and a tour of Los Angeles. We ended up doing a private tour with LA Tours due to our numbers and it was fantastic. It was great to go at our pace and not to wait for others or have others wait for us. It was $960 including tip. We used AirPort Express shuttles for all our transfers. They were on time and reasonably priced. Someone on this forum recommended them on a transportation thread. It was $165 plus tip from LAX to the Sheraton Universal, $195 plus tip from Sheraton Universal to Disneyland, and then $150 plus tip from Disneyland to LAX. This is for 7 people plus luggage as we wouldn’t fit in 1 taxi.
We stayed at the Element by Westin which was the perfect walking distance to the park. It wasn’t the craziness of the the right across the street hotels, but it was a a very straight forward 12-15 minute walk from hotel to front entrance. You could see the Guardians of the Galaxy ride from our hotel as well as the fireworks. It was also a very new, modern and clean hotel and they had spacious rooms that slept 8 and breakfast included. It was much nicer and cheaper than the Sheraton Universal. I highly recommend!!
As for the parks - I read tons of conflicting messages that they could be done in a day or two and the parks were so much smaller than Disneyworld. I respectfully disagree!! We had 4 days and we still didn’t experience everything! We didn’t purchase park hoppers and I’m glad as there really isn’t a need to go back and forth with 4 days and the parks are definitely big enough that there is still a lot of walking. They are more compact than DisneyWorld, but make no mistake, you’ll get your steps in!
We LOVED Disneyland. The whole vibe was just so much easier than DisneyWorld. It was refreshing not to have to wait for buses and be able to control your arrival time at the parks. It‘s also a lot of fun that the parks are right across from each other. The crowd also was more chill than the Florida crowd. Less “trips of a lifetime” and all the pressure that goes with it! We also spent a lot less money on souvenirs not having a hotel gift shop!! We would have loved to stay on property but given the prices there was absolutely no way to justify it except if we weren’t going to the parks and planned to stay in the room. We were out of the hotel all day.
Genie plus is SO MUCH better in Disneyland. Compared to our Florida trip last year, we got double the rides in with it. It’s really no issues to get 6 or 7 rides in with it and for next to immediate times - not necessarily hours out. We only did a few stand by lines. There are also more rides that don’t have Genie plus, but those rides tended to load much quicker. It really didn’t seem like they were checking hard when we scanned in for rides. They weren’t paying attention to the number of people vs the number of scans. They also take your picture at Disneyland so we don’t need to do the finger scan which was helpful because the kids usually forget which finger or it won’t scan for whatever reason.
Having the opportunity to go on new rides was a blast. Also the different versions of the same ride were also neat. I had no idea that the Guardians ride in Disneyland was a rethemed Tower of Terror. It made it slightly more fun and less scary having a light hearted theme.
The only slight criticism I have is that I found the quick service offerings subpar to those of DisneyWorld -although that may have changed in the past year. All the burgers are lettuce and sauce - no tomatoes or onions and tater tots seem to be a prevalent side moreso than fries. We also went to one place and my youngest had a kid chicken finger meal and they had no sauce - they suggested ketchup. It seemed a little off especially given how expensive everything was. They have 2 water sizes and one of them is $9.00 and not much bigger than the $5.00 water bottle. We opted for free water when possible, but it says a lot that they sell $9.00 water that is $3.00 at the corner store. There were a few hits but it seemed like a lot of the food was overhyped or cute looking but not great tasting. The upside is that once you got it out of your system you didn’t need to go back for another one the next day which was good for the waistline and pocketbook.
Okay maybe a second slight criticism - there were a lot of rides downs while we were there. We never got on the Matterhorn because it was always down - when we finally made it in line we got all the way to being buckled in and then quickly pulled out of the ride vehicle because it suddenly went down. We were bummed because we thought it we were just 5 minutes ahead we would have got through- then we realized there were quite a few people stuck on the ride so we were relieved not to have been stuck.
I also found a lot of the merchandise was less appealing. Years gone by there was so much I would have wanted, but now it seemed like it’s a little off the mark of what people would actually wear or actually use. Very fun to look but not compelling.
The fireworks and the World of Colour shows were amazing. We did the second World of Colour show and it was MUCH less crowded and easy to get a great view. There was lots of room in the area for the virtual queue even without a reservation. Well done shows and moving to watch.
It was also neat to see so many people expressing themself - I’m not sure if it was more pronounced because of PRiDE month but there were lots of individuals being true to themselves with a level of confidence most people can only aspire to. Given the current sentiments of Florida we were happy that Disney is a safe place for everyone to be happy.
This trip exceeded expectations. We had a blast and loved the family time! The weather was so much better and slightly cooler than the Canadian weather we left behind and we appreciated both the lack of humidity and rain. It was blue skies everyday! I highly recommend and we are so glad we branched out this year for a taste of something different, but the same feeling of coming home!
Thanks to everyone who posted that gave us helpful information and tips when planning!
