Disneyland Resort

[Jerroddragon]

I'll do a Full write up later but....yes I just went to Disneyland 2 days in a row and one of the worst park is security during the holidays

Have 2.......2 people checking bags at rope drop during the busiest season is a JOKE. The entire point to the reservation system is to know how many people are coming about if your not going to staff for it...then its pointless

Whats always funny to me is Disney will have like 100 extra CMS for parades and other things, like they are pretty well staffed except secutry where they just want the most minimum amount of people unless they are getting paid like 3 times that of a normal CM no idea why its an issue but also if you dont want to staff then get machines

I'll praise USH for its pretty quick security 99% of the time I just walk through within 5 mins or less

 

[Mad Dog]

Disneyland was named Best Theme Park by Theme Park Insider. IOA came in second and Disney Sea was third.

 

[HandsomePete]

Even though I rarely post on Twitter anymore, this post seems to be getting some traction, so thought I'd share here

They have to be able to blow all that out to evacuate the parking garage in the event of an emergency… so your options are that or bike fence.

 

[Jake S]

I was at the park over the weekend with some family, including my 10-month-old daughter and my 2-year-old niece. It was, unsurprisingly, pretty crowded. And, perhaps more predictably, it is a lot more tiring schlepping around in the rain when you've gotta make sure the kids stay relatively dry. Did you know kids like to take off their shoes and throw them into puddles? Now you know.

Anyway, we still managed to have a good time. As the kids get older it's a lot of fun to see them experience it all. The rides are great, and Disneyland is perhaps the best park on Earth if you're looking for rides without a height requirement. But I want to emphasize how darn good the streetsmophere is at Disneyland, even as we rightly bemoan the empty theater at California Adventure.



It's not just that there are characters all over the place and that waits to meet with them are [mostly, relatively] short. It's how darn good the performers are at interacting with guests of all different ages and backgrounds. Avengers Campus is a drab, dumb land. But it is a drab, dumb land with amazing character meet and greets. From Ant-Man to Thor to Spider-Man (we even saw Wasp!), they do such a great job of making kids feel heard in their brief conversations.



Anyway, I know many of you already know all this. But it's this kind of entertainment, along with what feel like impromptu band performances and the vehicles on Main Street, that really make this park feel alive.



-Progress continues on the new Avengers attraction. It's been wild to see so much visible construction every time I visit. The exterior of the bathroom they're building on the Cars Land side of the passthrough looks complete, too, though I imagine there's gobs of interior work to be done before that opens.

-I finally caught the latest World of Color and uh, woof! The Muppets intro (and outro) is great, but the rest of the show is an absolute mess. I wish they had the courage to just make the whole thing Muppets, but alas, these are the times we live in.

-We went to Goofy's Kitchen for the character breakfast on Sunday morning and that was a lot of fun. The place looks exactly the same as it did when I last went in the early 90s. I am not sure if that is a compliment. But again, the characters were great and the food is not bad. I'd recommend Storytellers as the "best" of the three character breakfasts, though I'm a sucker for the Plaza Inn because you're actually in the park.

-In an effort to get out of the rain on Sunday, we snagged a reservation at Paseo, one of the new-ish Mexican restaurants in Downtown Disney. We were very happy with our food (we're also fans of Centrico, its sister restaurant in Downtown Disney). The guacamole was great and so was the "classic" margarita I got. It was all expensive and the margarita wasn't as strong as my body desired in the moment, so it wasn't perfect. Still good, though.



Radiator Springs at night absolutely rips. I'm happy to hear from any challengers, but it's my favorite theme park land at night.

 

[belloq87]

Radiator Springs at night absolutely rips. I'm happy to hear from any challengers, but it's my favorite theme park land at night.

Wasn't in Radiator Springs in the dark during my trip, but I can imagine it's great.

Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood Studios would be my favorite singular land at night, though the entirety of World Showcase at Epcot cannot be topped for nighttime atmosphere for me, especially if you spend some time in the various nooks and crannies of the countries.

 

[TheUniC6]

-I finally caught the latest World of Color and uh, woof! The Muppets intro (and outro) is great, but the rest of the show is an absolute mess. I wish they had the courage to just make the whole thing Muppets, but alas, these are the times we live in.

The general consensus is the OG WOC will always be the best.

 

[Mad Dog]

Wasn't in Radiator Springs in the dark during my trip, but I can imagine it's great.

Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood Studios would be my favorite singular land at night, though the entirety of World Showcase at Epcot cannot be topped for nighttime atmosphere for me, especially if you spend some time in the various nooks and crannies of the countries.

Yes, Sunset Blvd. in DHS is one of our night favs. Sometimes we dance in the street....or just sit on the bench and
people watch. Great atmosphere and ambiance....But we do miss the Citizens of Hollywood during the day. The park
seems lacking without them.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Fun Fact, WOC 1.0, and I can't find footage but the show had some small tributes to the what the OG show would be they cut an Alice and Wonderland part and Princess and The Frog/Dr. Facilier. You can look up the testing Videos to see the other differences as well. For me WOC has always been great but unlike Fantasmic my mind can't rememeber the entire show since hey kept adding and taking things away, which is a cool feature. Also yes, the Muppets is the best part of the new WOC, the new one is fine and one paper I like the movies and songs they use but....something about it just doesn't work as well as other shows...I liked the last one more and that one had moving images from Star Wars and Marvel, lol

World of Color - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Trip Report time

I finally have something I can say I'm not a fan of at Disneyland. I think generally they are the best at most things (exception being the boring over priced after night events)
But I think Disney does a good job of having the rides up, many shows, amazing nighttime entertainment and characters everywhere

This time they started it off with both days I went the security booths were overwhelmed. I rope dropped toy story and within 15 mins the lines were being stopped and forced to wait in another area as we slowly went through our check, they just need more people in the morning and the next morning it was worst at the hotel where...they just treat guests coming in from the 500+ dollar hotel like crap. Two.....two people were checking bags near the hotel on one of the busiest weekends of the year. Just a joke change your system, it sucks Disney and needs to be just you put your bag down and they check it like at USH and if you need to take something out they pull you aside and keep the line moving. Also no idea why their isn't a no bag line

The other thing I noticed is they do try to keep the nighttime shows going it was raining here and there but the fireworks still happened but....the Encanto show and other day time shows those they cancel I think with too little rain. USH has B modes for its shows and even if they can't do much they make it work and respect you coming to the park in the rain and go with it

But when the Jazz show isn't happening but its under cover....I just don't get it. I think Disney needs to come up with some B modes, if USH can do it then Disney can as well

Now on for the park

I only saw a handful of characters because of the rain but they had characters out when they could

The best time to ride the Mark Twain and Train because of how Green and clean everything looks. Also heads up on the trains, they seem to start pulling them inside after 10 PM. So heads up only one train is normally going around the park the last hour, it seems

Alice was closed most the two days I went because of rain

One day I rope dropped SM and it had just an insane line, so if you have LL and even if its for 8:45 AM...get that and go get on other rides and come back because still took 40ish mins even rope dropping SM. (this is not normal but on busy days)


We saw WOC because of the rain, we got lucky and they let people into the VIP section so we had the best spots.

Saw Deadpool show and he made a joke about the natural sounds of Anaheim as cop sirens went by

We had to skip the Increacoaster, the LL line was out to the Ice Scream shop because the ride was going down all day

End the second day with 5 Fantasyland rides within 30 mins (Pinocchio, snow white, Dumbo, Casey jr at night and carousel)

We got on over 30 rides and shows....which is not bad considering the crowds and shows being not available

While I head WDW crowds were light, Disneyland seemed to have light crowds at night because of the rain but people wanted to be here and Disneyland is just an insane park, it can cost a lot to go to but the value is there. The theming, shows, characters, and rides many of which can just eat people in ways I wish more parks tried.

But just a heads up if its the holidays and unless its insane rain most of the day will still be packed

 

[Jake S]

Yeah, the reality is that with the new reservation system in place it's just not as enjoyable to be at Disneyland in the rain as it used to be. Lots of people still show up, especially Magic Key holders that might otherwise have bailed in the past. I don't think it's worth it for these California parks to do a lot of infrastructure work for what is often 10 days of moderate* rain a year. What used to feel like a free hit at the park is now ... well, not.

*By California standards. Leave us alone.

 

[ladiesman217]

Yeah, the reality is that with the new reservation system in place it's just not as enjoyable to be at Disneyland in the rain as it used to be. Lots of people still show up, especially Magic Key holders that might otherwise have bailed in the past. I don't think it's worth it for these California parks to do a lot of infrastructure work for what is often 10 days of moderate* rain a year. What used to feel like a free hit at the park is now ... well, not.

*By California standards. Leave us alone.

On this note, I used to have a MK back in 2023 and, if you remember, there was once a supposed 'really bad storm/hurricane' headed our way here in Anaheim in August of 2023. The day of the storm comes, everyone is terrified, even my job site closes for the day and I quickly decide to snag a reservation for Disneyland since there were some available. I kid you not, it was DEAD. Not a single soul. I zipped straight to Mission Breakout and got about 20 rides in a row, never having to wait more than a cycle for each ride. It was so dead that on one cycle, I got an entire gantry lift to myself (its such an enjoyable ride when you dont have anyone screaming in your ear and you just get to enjoy the music). Best rainy day ever.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Yeah, the reality is that with the new reservation system in place it's just not as enjoyable to be at Disneyland in the rain as it used to be. Lots of people still show up, especially Magic Key holders that might otherwise have bailed in the past. I don't think it's worth it for these California parks to do a lot of infrastructure work for what is often 10 days of moderate* rain a year. What used to feel like a free hit at the park is now ... well, not.

*By California standards. Leave us alone.

Agreed but its a trade off

90% of the time lines don't get over 90 mins now

Like just to remind people before covid Indy, Space, Racers and so on would most days get HUGE lines and now many days SM gets to 90 mins but most the day its 45 mins or less

So its a trade off, its not a perfect system but I will say with the exception of the end of the year....I went last year so many times and just had no issues walking on many rides the first few hours and then seeing shows in the afternoon and having a pretty good time

My only issue with reservations is they don't have enough on certain days and that is BS, like I could not get days when my pass was about to expire because of the time of year making the pass useless and would be nice if there was a system for people leaving to give up there reservation, so another MK can come in. Seems also like a way for Disney to make more money so not sure why they haven't tried this kind of program yet but I think it would just make them even more money because if I'm leaving at one....why not allow me to give up my spot and get someone else who might buy something into the park

 

[Andysol]

They have to be able to blow all that out to evacuate the parking garage in the event of an emergency… so your options are that or bike fence.

Couldn't they do retractable large metal vehicle poles like they have in many downtowns (or in front of stores). They have some that retract hydraulically or you can manually remove them.