Teamubr
From somewhere outside StL
- Joined
- Nov 7, 2010
As promised, here is a mini report on our impressions of DL.
First, for those that weren’t reading in the other topics, I have been fortunate to spend 9 days at WDW and 2 weeks later, have our first ever visit to Disneyland. A Disney Double, so to speak. We only had time for 1 day in Anaheim, so we decided on the 1 day/1park ticket and it had to be DL. I don’t have anything against DCA, but I had to do the original. It made for a nice comparison to MK, which I know and love well.
Impressions? We loved DL. Amazingly intimate is the best way to describe it. There is so much packed into the park. Nothing is far from anywhere, but the theming and crowd flow is incredible. It all just works. As a single park, comparing it to MK only, I like DL better. We didn’t have time to do anything at DCA, but including everything there, WDW is a better overall experience. But DL is probably my favorite individual park.
DL opened at 8am this morning. We arrived at the security check point right at 8. It took 10 minutes to get through, so we didn’t technically make rope drop, but close. I’m not sure if today being a Monday made a difference, but there weren’t many people in the park until about 10. As a result, none of the rides had more than a 10 minute wait. We immediately rode Matterhorn (5 min). Being a DL only ride, it was fun and different. The Yeti animatronics were great. I had to doublecheck to see if it wasn’t a CM in a suit. AK should be embarrassed with what they have done in EE.
Next up was SpaceMountain. It is a minute walk “around the corner” from Matterhorn. It was nearly a walk on. I was surprised at the ride cars. You sit 2 to a row. The theming for the ride queue was fantastic. Much better than MK’s SM. This would be a theme that played out all day. While theming is really good at MK, it is incredible at DL. Just a step up. The SM at DL is much smoother, but also a lot more tame. I like the MK ride better, but the ride vehicles and theming at DL.
We started heading towards Adventureland to ride Indiana Jones. We saw Buzz Lightyear had a 10 minute wait, so we jumped in line to blast a few targets. Very similar to Buzz at MK. I think I liked the MK version better. I didn’t know what to expect with Indy. Once we saw the ride, we realized it was Dinosaur from AK. Indy was nearly a walk on. Again, the que is incredible with the theming. I liked the ride better than Dinosaur. Not as jerky and a better story.
Jungle Cruise is right next to Indy. In fact you can look into the boats from the Indy queue and the boat skippers make fun of the people in the queue for Indy. Overall, the Jungle Cruise is almost identical. We had a good skipper, but I’d call it a draw.
After Jungle Cruise we walked through New Orleans Square (really neat, but small area) and jumped on PoTC. It said a 10 minute wait, but it wasn’t that long. PoTC isn’t one of my personal favorites. Overall, the ride is themed a little better than MK and it is a bit longer. I almost missed the wench scene. I’m not sure what it used to be.
By now, we had rode 6 rides and it was just 9:20. Crowds were starting to increase and we hadn’t had breakfast yet, so we slowed down a bit. After getting a Churro and cinnamon rolls, we checked out some shops and decided to check out FP old school style. It was about 9:45 and the line for Big Thunder Mountain was getting long. FP tickets were saying 1040-1140. This is the only ride we FP’d all day.
I wanted to ride the Finding Nemo Submarines. Mostly because MK doesn’t have anything like it anymore. It was cute. We also rode the monorail. We received some pixie dust and got to ride in the tail car. The Mk VIIs are really nice. I took some neat pics from the tail that I’ll post tomorrow. It’s kind of sad to compare the monorails at DL to the aging ones at WDW. I know one is a ride and the other a transportation workhorse, but still.
We made a loop+ on the train, just because. This is one area where MK’s version is much better.
By noon, crowds were really picking up. Everything we rode early had at least 40 minute waits, some much longer. We tried out both CS and TS restaurants. Didn’t spend time to see any shows, but checked out most of the shops. I’ll post more on that tomorrow along with some pics. We left DL about 7:30. We were planning on staying for fireworks at 9:30, but we were getting tired and we still had to drive back to San Diego. It’s 10pm now and we are checked back into our San Diego hotel. We are going on a whale watching cruise in the morning, so I’m going to get to sleep.
j
First, for those that weren’t reading in the other topics, I have been fortunate to spend 9 days at WDW and 2 weeks later, have our first ever visit to Disneyland. A Disney Double, so to speak. We only had time for 1 day in Anaheim, so we decided on the 1 day/1park ticket and it had to be DL. I don’t have anything against DCA, but I had to do the original. It made for a nice comparison to MK, which I know and love well.
Impressions? We loved DL. Amazingly intimate is the best way to describe it. There is so much packed into the park. Nothing is far from anywhere, but the theming and crowd flow is incredible. It all just works. As a single park, comparing it to MK only, I like DL better. We didn’t have time to do anything at DCA, but including everything there, WDW is a better overall experience. But DL is probably my favorite individual park.
DL opened at 8am this morning. We arrived at the security check point right at 8. It took 10 minutes to get through, so we didn’t technically make rope drop, but close. I’m not sure if today being a Monday made a difference, but there weren’t many people in the park until about 10. As a result, none of the rides had more than a 10 minute wait. We immediately rode Matterhorn (5 min). Being a DL only ride, it was fun and different. The Yeti animatronics were great. I had to doublecheck to see if it wasn’t a CM in a suit. AK should be embarrassed with what they have done in EE.
Next up was SpaceMountain. It is a minute walk “around the corner” from Matterhorn. It was nearly a walk on. I was surprised at the ride cars. You sit 2 to a row. The theming for the ride queue was fantastic. Much better than MK’s SM. This would be a theme that played out all day. While theming is really good at MK, it is incredible at DL. Just a step up. The SM at DL is much smoother, but also a lot more tame. I like the MK ride better, but the ride vehicles and theming at DL.
We started heading towards Adventureland to ride Indiana Jones. We saw Buzz Lightyear had a 10 minute wait, so we jumped in line to blast a few targets. Very similar to Buzz at MK. I think I liked the MK version better. I didn’t know what to expect with Indy. Once we saw the ride, we realized it was Dinosaur from AK. Indy was nearly a walk on. Again, the que is incredible with the theming. I liked the ride better than Dinosaur. Not as jerky and a better story.
Jungle Cruise is right next to Indy. In fact you can look into the boats from the Indy queue and the boat skippers make fun of the people in the queue for Indy. Overall, the Jungle Cruise is almost identical. We had a good skipper, but I’d call it a draw.
After Jungle Cruise we walked through New Orleans Square (really neat, but small area) and jumped on PoTC. It said a 10 minute wait, but it wasn’t that long. PoTC isn’t one of my personal favorites. Overall, the ride is themed a little better than MK and it is a bit longer. I almost missed the wench scene. I’m not sure what it used to be.
By now, we had rode 6 rides and it was just 9:20. Crowds were starting to increase and we hadn’t had breakfast yet, so we slowed down a bit. After getting a Churro and cinnamon rolls, we checked out some shops and decided to check out FP old school style. It was about 9:45 and the line for Big Thunder Mountain was getting long. FP tickets were saying 1040-1140. This is the only ride we FP’d all day.
I wanted to ride the Finding Nemo Submarines. Mostly because MK doesn’t have anything like it anymore. It was cute. We also rode the monorail. We received some pixie dust and got to ride in the tail car. The Mk VIIs are really nice. I took some neat pics from the tail that I’ll post tomorrow. It’s kind of sad to compare the monorails at DL to the aging ones at WDW. I know one is a ride and the other a transportation workhorse, but still.
We made a loop+ on the train, just because. This is one area where MK’s version is much better.
By noon, crowds were really picking up. Everything we rode early had at least 40 minute waits, some much longer. We tried out both CS and TS restaurants. Didn’t spend time to see any shows, but checked out most of the shops. I’ll post more on that tomorrow along with some pics. We left DL about 7:30. We were planning on staying for fireworks at 9:30, but we were getting tired and we still had to drive back to San Diego. It’s 10pm now and we are checked back into our San Diego hotel. We are going on a whale watching cruise in the morning, so I’m going to get to sleep.
j
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