Trip Reports
10-16-2005, 06:27 PM
* Time of Year: Winter
* Travel Method: Not Reported
* Resort: DLH
* Accommodations: Standard Room
* Ages Represented in Group: Adult
* Disneyland Experience Represented in Group: Rookie
* Comments: Stephen and his wife spent a little time at Disneyland on the side of a business trip. Although they've been to WDW several times, it was the first trip to DL for the Banks. Stephen makes several interesting observations about the Disneyland Hotel and the park.
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 19:24:07 -0600
Trip Report 01/15/00 - First Trip to Disneyland
Hi all - back from my first trip ever to Disneyland. Let the record show I'm a WDW pro and have stayed on site many many times. A business trip gave my wife & I the opportunity to visit Disneyland for one day so we took it.
Disneyland Hotel:
We stayed at the Disneyland hotel, it was ok - a bit pricey compared to some of the WDW resorts. It was about $160 per night and frankly couldn't compare even to a moderate at WDW. The amenities (new pool, etc..) were nice but the room was a standard Holiday Inn type of thing. Nothing to let me know I was on a Disney property (not even the Mickey soaps!). The monorail was under construction so we had to use the trams. They were ok. All in all Hotel was definitely mid range quality but open early admission made it worth the stay. Too much construction overall - really kind of spoiled the beauty but I know it's worth it in the long run. I think my biggest adjustment was staying at a regular "hotel" as opposed to staying at the WDW Resort - there's a big difference between the 2 in the areas of customer service and general issues. Once I adjusted - it was ok.
The Park:
First - my general thought was "if we could have a park that was DL & WDW combined - AHHHH that would be utopia - but I understand why DL has things that WDW doesn't and Vice Versa.
Main street was almost identical to what I know from WDW. It was very strange to look down main street and not see the Castle - kept freaking me out. First - the place was super crowded, hard to get around... for the mid of January that was very strange. As crowded as a summer day at WDW I'd say. I didn't like that - lines were very long and not enough Fast Pass. We only had one day for the entire park - limiting I know but we were able to pretty much do everything from opening to close. We skipped Fantasmic - saw it at MGM (i know its different here) and some of the other shows.
The park was a bit "dirty" in the sense there was a lot of litter and trash on the ground and in the ride lines. This bugged me a bit and I made an effort to kind of clean up - I think it was partly due to the large crowds. I have to say that the DL CM's didn't quite have the same positive attitude as WDW staff - no offense - just an observation.
Tomorrow Land - Rocket rods rocked... it was great. Loved it... Also nice to have Star Tours there. Space Mountain was closed - bummer. Smaller overall but still ok. A lot less to do than at WDW's tomorrowland. Not enough of the "tomorrowland" gears and spinning things.... We didn't spend much time there obviously. Didn't have a chance to see innoventions - next time.
Fantasy Land - nice... very crowded together though. Pinnochio was excellent.. also a wonderful treat to ride Mr. Toad again - thought I had seen the last of it. Alice in Wonderland was also neat... showing its age though. Matterhorn bobsleds was interesting - a bit wild... bumpy. Loved the storybook canal ride... it was charming. Snow White was longer, bigger, scarier - loved it. Liked the little entrance to the ride. I loved the difference between the DL & WDW rides. I could spend all day here.
Mickey's Toon Town - a bit faded... Roger Rabbit's spin was great. A real treat. It was super packed here. Gadget's Go Go coaster was a mirror of the Barnstormer more of less. Nice - but no lead into the ride... just a coaster. No real Gadget tie ins here. Didn't do much here - need more Fast Pass.
New Orleans Square - the Blue Bayou was great for dinner. We had seats right by the water.. food was good though expensive. The Pirates ride here was awesome. Being one of my favorite rides, it was longer, bigger and generally better. Haunted Mansion was more or less the same. The "house" you enter thru pales in comparison to Mickey's Haunted Mansion but the ride is almost the same. Line mgmt here was awful. Long wait outside.. just to get up to the bldg. Sitting by the water eating at the Blue Bayou was great - we had seats right next to the rail - very relaxing.
I'll list some of the ride from Adventure Land and Frontier Land / Critter country together here. Big Thunder Mountain railroad was cool. Seemed faster that at WDW. We rode the canoes - more fun than I thought it would be. Splash Mountain was about the same - seemed "wetter." This was a nice area.
Tarzan's Tree house should have stayed for the Swiss Family - it was a throw away tie in to the movie. Little or no interaction with the Tarzan cartoon. Yawn.
Aladdin's Story Time - charming... liked it - laughed a lot. They need this at WDW in fact they need a more of these everywhere - little kids love them - a chance to see their fav characters "in character" as opposed to merely standing on the street.
Indiana Jones - oh my god - one of the coolest rides I've ever been on. Simply excellent (can you tell I'm an Indy fan?) Rode it several times. I'd go back just to ride this!! I was hoping for some "ride' tie-ins for sale as as opposed to just basic stuff - I was ready to by "temple of the forbidden eye" merchandise but couldn't find any. We rode it twice but it broke on the 3rd try - that was interesting.
So all in all it was a good trip - I wasn't sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised by some of the differences and generally had no bad experiences. The massive construction effort was a bummer but I know its to make a better park.
Stephen Banks
* Travel Method: Not Reported
* Resort: DLH
* Accommodations: Standard Room
* Ages Represented in Group: Adult
* Disneyland Experience Represented in Group: Rookie
* Comments: Stephen and his wife spent a little time at Disneyland on the side of a business trip. Although they've been to WDW several times, it was the first trip to DL for the Banks. Stephen makes several interesting observations about the Disneyland Hotel and the park.
Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2000 19:24:07 -0600
Trip Report 01/15/00 - First Trip to Disneyland
Hi all - back from my first trip ever to Disneyland. Let the record show I'm a WDW pro and have stayed on site many many times. A business trip gave my wife & I the opportunity to visit Disneyland for one day so we took it.
Disneyland Hotel:
We stayed at the Disneyland hotel, it was ok - a bit pricey compared to some of the WDW resorts. It was about $160 per night and frankly couldn't compare even to a moderate at WDW. The amenities (new pool, etc..) were nice but the room was a standard Holiday Inn type of thing. Nothing to let me know I was on a Disney property (not even the Mickey soaps!). The monorail was under construction so we had to use the trams. They were ok. All in all Hotel was definitely mid range quality but open early admission made it worth the stay. Too much construction overall - really kind of spoiled the beauty but I know it's worth it in the long run. I think my biggest adjustment was staying at a regular "hotel" as opposed to staying at the WDW Resort - there's a big difference between the 2 in the areas of customer service and general issues. Once I adjusted - it was ok.
The Park:
First - my general thought was "if we could have a park that was DL & WDW combined - AHHHH that would be utopia - but I understand why DL has things that WDW doesn't and Vice Versa.
Main street was almost identical to what I know from WDW. It was very strange to look down main street and not see the Castle - kept freaking me out. First - the place was super crowded, hard to get around... for the mid of January that was very strange. As crowded as a summer day at WDW I'd say. I didn't like that - lines were very long and not enough Fast Pass. We only had one day for the entire park - limiting I know but we were able to pretty much do everything from opening to close. We skipped Fantasmic - saw it at MGM (i know its different here) and some of the other shows.
The park was a bit "dirty" in the sense there was a lot of litter and trash on the ground and in the ride lines. This bugged me a bit and I made an effort to kind of clean up - I think it was partly due to the large crowds. I have to say that the DL CM's didn't quite have the same positive attitude as WDW staff - no offense - just an observation.
Tomorrow Land - Rocket rods rocked... it was great. Loved it... Also nice to have Star Tours there. Space Mountain was closed - bummer. Smaller overall but still ok. A lot less to do than at WDW's tomorrowland. Not enough of the "tomorrowland" gears and spinning things.... We didn't spend much time there obviously. Didn't have a chance to see innoventions - next time.
Fantasy Land - nice... very crowded together though. Pinnochio was excellent.. also a wonderful treat to ride Mr. Toad again - thought I had seen the last of it. Alice in Wonderland was also neat... showing its age though. Matterhorn bobsleds was interesting - a bit wild... bumpy. Loved the storybook canal ride... it was charming. Snow White was longer, bigger, scarier - loved it. Liked the little entrance to the ride. I loved the difference between the DL & WDW rides. I could spend all day here.
Mickey's Toon Town - a bit faded... Roger Rabbit's spin was great. A real treat. It was super packed here. Gadget's Go Go coaster was a mirror of the Barnstormer more of less. Nice - but no lead into the ride... just a coaster. No real Gadget tie ins here. Didn't do much here - need more Fast Pass.
New Orleans Square - the Blue Bayou was great for dinner. We had seats right by the water.. food was good though expensive. The Pirates ride here was awesome. Being one of my favorite rides, it was longer, bigger and generally better. Haunted Mansion was more or less the same. The "house" you enter thru pales in comparison to Mickey's Haunted Mansion but the ride is almost the same. Line mgmt here was awful. Long wait outside.. just to get up to the bldg. Sitting by the water eating at the Blue Bayou was great - we had seats right next to the rail - very relaxing.
I'll list some of the ride from Adventure Land and Frontier Land / Critter country together here. Big Thunder Mountain railroad was cool. Seemed faster that at WDW. We rode the canoes - more fun than I thought it would be. Splash Mountain was about the same - seemed "wetter." This was a nice area.
Tarzan's Tree house should have stayed for the Swiss Family - it was a throw away tie in to the movie. Little or no interaction with the Tarzan cartoon. Yawn.
Aladdin's Story Time - charming... liked it - laughed a lot. They need this at WDW in fact they need a more of these everywhere - little kids love them - a chance to see their fav characters "in character" as opposed to merely standing on the street.
Indiana Jones - oh my god - one of the coolest rides I've ever been on. Simply excellent (can you tell I'm an Indy fan?) Rode it several times. I'd go back just to ride this!! I was hoping for some "ride' tie-ins for sale as as opposed to just basic stuff - I was ready to by "temple of the forbidden eye" merchandise but couldn't find any. We rode it twice but it broke on the 3rd try - that was interesting.
So all in all it was a good trip - I wasn't sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised by some of the differences and generally had no bad experiences. The massive construction effort was a bummer but I know its to make a better park.
Stephen Banks