Disneyland notes

Stuff that I didn’t tweet about at the time regarding our visit to Disneyland Resort in Anaheim.

We were there by the good graces of Ginger, who knows someone who’s got Club 33 membership, which we were able to make use of for the day. Admission to Club 33 for dinner gets you into the parks (both Magic Kingdom and Disney’s California Adventure) that same day. (That’s also why the club has a minimum food cost per meal of the price of admission, so folks don’t simply use it as a free pass).

After getting our Club 33 / Park tix (the Guest Services desk by Magic Kingdom is not what you want, which the little sign actually says if you go beyond the big “CLUB 33” text on the sign and read the smaller “go to Guest Relations by DCA’s gate text beneath it), we went into DCA.

This was actually my first trip into DCA — the time or two before that Margie and Katherine were there I was working. We only saw a fraction of the park, but I liked a lot of what I saw, at least as far as “show” goes. There’s a problem with lack of substance, I’m told, but both the feel of the place and the “substance” is at least as solid as Disney Hollywood Studios in Orlando.

We went in to DCA because Ginger wanted to ride Soarin’ (or “Soarin’ over California,” as it’s called in, um, California). Worthwhile doing. Jim and Ginger headed home at that point, and the three of us then went to Tower of Terror and the new Monsters Inc. ride. 

We headed across at that point to Magic Kingdom. Katherine wanted to hit the non-WDW stuff, so first we went to Space Mountain (ugh, grabbed FastPasses), did the Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters, grabbed a bite at Tomorrowland Terrrace, and then went on the Matterhorn and Storybook Land rides in succession.

From there we headed to the other side of the park, going to the (true) Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise, thence to Tarzan’s Treehouse (which I’d not been in since it was still the Swiss Family Robinson hanging out there), then Pirates of the Caribbean.

We nabbed some fritters, a mint julip, etc., then queued for the Haunted Mansion. Once through, we checked out the line for Splash Mountain — but standby was longer than we had before dinner, and FastPass was basically at park closure. So instead we paddled the Canoes around Tom Sawyer Island, hooked back up with Jim and Ginger (who rescued our change of clothes from the locker in front), and then went to Club 33.

Aaaaahhhhh … quiet and calm and good food and wine. We all went for the Vintner’s Dinner (except Katherine, who had some excellent choices off the “kid’s menu,” which was both pretty sophisticated in choice and well-made in substance). Delightful meal in genteel setting. Anyone makes you an offer for dinner at Club 33, take it.

Gorged, we three waddled over to Indiana Jones (finally cashing in a FastPass set for the day) and rode that. I honestly like the “show” stuff pre-ride better than the ride itself, which is just uncomfortably loud, flashing, and bumpy. Then, nabbing Jim and Ginger (and under cover of Fantasmic), we headed to Small World — which we got to just as the nightly fireworks were starting.

Much has been written (including here) of the latest renovation to Small World, specifically the insertion of Disney characters into the non-Disney setting. My impression of the ride: (1) the clean-up and repair and enhancement to the ride were excellent; (2) the Anaheim version outshines Orlando by a large margin (no even counting the exterior dress); (3) the new characters are, for the most part, subtle and well-placed, and the few exceptions (Ariel, various fish, Woody and Jessie) were not all that bad. I can very much appreciate the trepidation ahead of time; the results are, at worst, nothing to protest over any longer.

The fireworks were just wrapping up when we exited Small World, and we took pictures. Then we trudged over to Space Mountain to use those FastPasses with Kitten. It was about 10:30p by then, so Jim and Ginger took Katherine. We strolled over with our last set of FPs to ride Big Thunder Mountain.

At which point we were stuck. Fantasmic (second show) was delayed, so the hordes were still at the park. There wasn’t anything we felt we had to ride, and there was no point in staying to Midnight and the park closure. So we headed out, shopping at the Disney store in Downtown Disney for a couple of needed tchochkes, before heading home … and … to sleep.

So after having been at Walt Disney World so recently (and so many times in the past) vs. Disneyland, how do they measure up?

I tweeted yesterday:

• Wow – it’s really been eons since I was to Disneyland. Feels like a strange, small, parallel universe. With more shade. #
• Smaller, less grand, more worn and jumbled, but Disneyland Magic Kingdom has a dense, authentic richness, like Chinatown. #

And that’s pretty true. Disneyland Magic Kingdom is much smaller and tighter than WDW’s MK. That most apparent with the castle; Cinderella (WDW) soars, Cinderella Sleeping Beauty (DL) sort of … um … sits there, amazingly small (especially with taller trees showing behind it). There are a lot of places where newer stuff has sort of been crammed, chock-a-block, into any empty corner (the resurrected Astro-Orbiters is a good example here), and some areas (AdventureLand) come across as very crowded.

On the other hand — and I don’t think it’s just nostalgia — I find a lot of the rides in Anaheim better than their Orlando counterparts. That’s true for both the originals (Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain, Small World) and the transplants (AstroBlasters). DL still has Mr. Toad, it has the only Matterhorn, it has Canoes, it has a real Tiki Room (not the self-mocking version in Florida) and it doesn’t have the crazy traffic with Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain. It also has New Orleans Square, which provides some quiet shopping and eating spaces, and some nice non-Disney music.

Plus, it’s shadier for the most part. Not only do the trees have decades of advance work, but the narrowness of the passages means they are more likely to overhang the sidewalk. Outdoor queues are much more often shaded than in Orlando. Which is nothing trivial for either locale.

I think, given my druthers, I’d rather visit Anaheim than Orlando’s Magic Kingdom. Some of that is nostalgia (from which one I grew up at), but some of it is that I just think it’s a better park. Except for that darned castle. That is a bit disappointing. WDW as a resort is impossible to beat, with all the parks there, but I think on a one-on-one Magic Kingdom smack-down, the elder still beats the younger.