Which is better Disneyland or Disney World? Part 1 About This Page:

[chezp]

Originally Posted by WDW Novice

SPOILER ALERT




I loved that there were two different experiences on Radiator Springs Racers. The first time I rode, we got new tires. Imagine my surprise the second time I rode when we got a new paint job instead!

I didn't know that! Something to cool forward to the next time we're out there.

[marscommander]

Day 2 (Afternoon - Evening)

We had early dinner scheduled at 4:30pm at the House of Blues in Downtown Disney.
The plan was to go over to Disneyland and ride the Monorail over to the House of Blues.

We finished up at Disney's California Adventure (DCA) with three of our Disney World favorites: Soarin' Over California, Muppet Vision 3D and Turtle Talk with Crush. I would say Soarin' and Muppets were exactly the same as their Disney World counterparts. I had heard bad news that Muppets was going to be removed and a proposed Monsters Inc. roller coaster would take it's place. I love the Muppets and it's sad to see them go at DCA .

Turtle Talk with Crush was a blast at Disney's California Adventure. I think I found this a much better version than Disney World. DCA's version had comfortable theater seats for the parents to sit in while the kids sit on the floor in the front near Crush. The cast member that was running the show was awesome! He had the most underwater/fish related puns that I had ever heard at one time. He kept them going as we were leaving the doors of the theater. The interaction with Crush and the Audience was funny. We enjoyed this attraction.

We left DCA and walked over to Disneyland. Made our way to the Monorail and over to Downtown Disney. My sister (Aunt S) already has talked about the ease of access for people using scooters. Monorail cast members put a ramp down for Pappy to board the Monorail with ease. We made our way onboard and off to early dinner.

We ate at House of Blues in Downtown Disney. It was a little loud, but the food was good. The sweet tea wiped out my thirst. My son, Mr. Transport had seen the Lego Store the first time we rode the Monorail and was itching to go inside. When, he, Mom and I had finished our meal, we walked down to the Lego Store. There were cool lego sculptures outside and inside the store. After a little while, we managed to pull him away to re-board the Monorail and head over to Disneyland and more rides.

So, our party split into two groups: Mom, Mr. Transport and myself in one group and Pappy, Gram, Mir and Aunt S in the other group. I am sure that Aunt S can fill you in on what her group did. I will tell you what we did.

It was a nice evening to see the attractions and ride the rides. So we did. The three of us rode: Autopia, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Storybook Land Canal Boats and Casey Jr. Circus Train.

Autopia- on MUST SEE list as it was one of the original rides in Disneyland.
Mom and Mr. Transport were in one car and I in another. I had an open road and kept stopping to see if they would catch up. But they didn't come into view till the end, as we sat in a miniature version of a California traffic jam. Fun ride and seemed a little longer than Disney World's version.

Mr. Toad's Wild Ride - on MUST SEE list -
This is one ride that I remember as a kid barely... Disney World's version has been gone for awhile now, so I really wanted to ride this one. I was surprised to be able to almost walk right on the ride. The loading area must have been original as there was no safety gate before you boarded the cars. The cast member that was seated across the track from you held their arm out to make sure you would not step out before the car arrived. The good old days... This was retro fun with the minimal set dressing as you ride through Toad's world and end up in Hades. (We rode this later in the week with my daughter Mir. She was flabbergasted as to why a Disney ride would take you to Hades)

Storybook Land Canal Boats - on MUST SEE list -
First think I noticed on this ride was the width of the queue line. It was almost non-existent. I guess in 1955 people were not as wide or maybe they walked sideways like a crab though this queue line.
We kept bumping into the other patrons as we walked through the queue as we waited to board a storybook boat. It was after dark when we rode this ride. The cast member driving the boat would shine a flashlight on the little Disney themed fairy tale castles and towns along the route. I am glad I was able to cruise on the storybook boats, but found the ride lacking of real content. Plus, we had spent a great deal of time waiting to board, as it is a slow loading ride.

Casey Jr. Circus - on MUST SEE list -
I read that Disney and his work crew removed the stationary cars that were on the carrousel and added train wheels to make some of the train cars on Casey Jr. They have several different cars and some that are "cages" for the wild animals (patrons) to ride in. We got into one of the "cage" cars. I was amazed on how fast this little train moved. It was very cute and was made that a child and adult could enjoy this ride together. Mr. Transport loved this train.

Attractions:
Innoventions - Ironman suits and movie props from the Ironman movies. This is displayed in the building that housed the Carousel of Progress from 1967 - 1973 which was moved to Magic Kingdom in Disney World. My son really enjoyed seeing the suits of Ironman and playing with the many varied displays.

We were getting pretty worn out, so we made our way to the front of the park. On Main Street, Mr. Transport asked if we could go inside the Main Street Cinema and watch the silent Mickey Mouse cartoons. In the entrance to the theatre, we pasted the ticket booth with a mannequin named Lilly from Marceline, Missouri (Walt's hometown). Nice touch Disney! My son found the Steamboat Willie cartoon. For some reason, he really LOVES this cartoon, but had never seen the whole thing. So he stood there and watched and laughed at one of the cartoons that started this whole thing we are enjoying right now. Disney World had one of these theaters when I was a kid. I remember after watching the fireworks, my family and I would duck into the Main Street Cinema, until the crowds died down. I am glad I could share this little Disney gem with my son.

After we watched the 6 cartoons that run simultaneously, we made our exit. We ran into the rest of our group sitting on a bench in front of the train station. Mom and Mr. Transport started back for the hotel and I elected to stay and watch the fireworks with the rest of my family. It was a very nice evening to sit an watch the fireworks. The people kept coming in and people kept leaving, but from our position, we had a perfect view of the fireworks. After they ended, we made our way back to our hotel for the night. It has been a very long and fun filled day. I think my parents had gotten full use of their one day park hopper ticket.

Note: My wife LOVES the People Mover in Disney World. She was bummed to find out that Disneyland no longer had theirs running. Can any long time Disneyland fan tell me why this was removed?

End of Part 5

Please feel free to comment or post your experience with the rides or attractions or restaurants I mention in this trip report. Don't interrupt this as a one sided conversation.

Thanks for reading about my adventure.

[chezp]

I'm loving this trip report and all the comparisons to WDW. You're spot on about Turtle Talk with Crush - we preferred the Disneyland version because of the comfy seats as well and I was also surprised that Mr. Toad was pretty much a walk on. It just never seems to be that busy whenever we visit.

[WDW Novice]

A few notes: (Guess I could write my own trip report...but it feels more little sister-ish to tag along with yours.)

I enjoyed the food at House of Blues. The service was kind of meh. I think we were there during a shift change or something because we had a few different servers. Apparently Chef Aaron Sanchez is somehow affiliated with the HoB chain, or at least had a hand in creating the menu. (I only know of Sanchez because I am an avid "Chopped" viewer, and he is often a judge.) I had Aaron's Citrus Chicken, and it was quite tasty.

The four of us made it to a few attractions at Disneyland: Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, train from New Orleans Square to Tomorrowland, and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. We already talked about the differences between PoC and HM with their Disney World counterparts, so not much to say. My mom was a bit surprised that she got a huge splash on Pirates. She took it personally and blamed my niece and me, like we planned it!

We seemed to spend a lot of time in the outside gallery area of Lincoln. It was cool to look at the momentos from Disneyland's past. I especially liked seeing the bench from Griffith Park that Walt supposedly sat on while dreaming up the idea of Disneyland. We also enjoyed the video with Steve Martin.

I was at Disneyland several years ago and remember a totally different Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. I recall getting earphones, and at some point in the presentation Animatronic Abe got his hair cut by a Union soldier, and you could hear the scissors in your ear. I am now wondering if this was an hallucination caused by too much sugar after eating one of those giant Mickey head rice crispy treats because the current attraction does not include the great moment of Mr. Lincoln getting his hair cut. It was still good, but I was thrown!

We probably missed some elements of the fireworks display by sitting on a bench by the train station, but we were sitting on a bench, so it was a good tradeoff.

[marscommander]

Day 3 we took an Amtrak train from Anaheim to San Diego. We rode the Trolley and toured WWII aircraft carrier USS Midway.

Day 4 we toured Hollywood and Warner Brothers Studios (Look on Trip Advisor for these reports)

Day 5 Our objective for this day was to see the parts we had missed of Disney's California Adventure (DCA).

My parents had left at the end of day 4. So, only Mom, Mir, Mr. Transport, Aunt S and I remained near the happiest place on Earth West.

The vacation had caught up with Aunt S., so she slept in the morning hours on this day.

The rest of us ventured out to see DCA.

I really wanted to see all DCA had to offer. We had spent the better part of our day in Cars Land the first time we had ventured into DCA, so I wanted to explore the rest of the park.

We headed all the way to the back of the park to Toy Story Midway Mania! or Toy Story Mania! along the Paradise Pier boardwalk. Both Disney World and Disneyland's version of the ride are the same. Although it seemed that the Disneyland version was longer... Disney World queue for this ride is inside and has the coolest theme that makes you feel like a toy. Disneyland's version fits into the boardwalk theme.

Mir wanted to try Mickey's Fun Wheel on the outside sliding cars. We rode with a very nice woman and her son. We talked and found they were locals that had come down for the day. How nice would that be? We took a pic of them with their camera and they took a pic of us with our camera. I try to offer my help to people who want all of their party in the picture. Although, I am not a big fan of heights or the sensation of falling, I did love this ride.

The next ride we came to was the Golden Zephyr. What a cool ride! This was Mom and Mr. Transport's favorite ride. It was a gentle ride on big rocket ships. It was a great way to see the area. We rode this several times when we were in DCA.

We passed on several rides along the boardwalk and never had another chance to ride them during our stay: Goofy's Sky School, Silly Symphony Swings and Jumpin' Jellyfish.

We made it around to The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure. This ride was fun and relaxing. We all enjoyed it. I can't wait to ride this in Disney World next year.

My sister, Aunt S. made contact with us as we were exiting the Little Mermaid ride. She was entering DCA and wanted to know where we were at. Cell phones are a godsend when the party is split. About 95% of the time, I had no problem reaching anyone in my party by cell phone.

When Aunt S and the rest of us joined up again, we headed over to the fastpass machine for World of Color. The fastpass allowed us to have a closer area to stand in to view the show that night and it did not affect any other fastpass we had or would get for the rest of the day.

LUNCHTIME! – We took a tip from our friendly Trolley conductor, Larry and ate at TASTE PILOT’S GRILL in Golden State area of the park. The place was busy, but Bret the manager of the restaurant had a nice queue area setup inside the front to route the people to both sides of each cash register. Bret even got us an extra chair when we started to look for one. Excellent example of Disney magic! TASTE PILOT’S GRILL had good food and was a welcome stopping point in our day.

After lunch, we did A Bug’s Life and Heimlich’s Chew Chew train. Aunt S loved the lines Heimlich said as the train rode around. (“I’m going back for seconds.” That caterpillar could EAT.) We laughed as the train went through the half eaten items of food.

We all made our way over to Disneyland to see their 58th Birthday Celebration. When we planned our trip, we had no idea about this celebration. Just lucky happenstance we were there. It was a sight to see. They had the Mayor of Disneyland read the words that Walt Disney had said when they opened the park in 1955, “To all who come to this happy place: Welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future.” 58 Disney characters made their way down Main Street. Some of the characters are seldom seen at the park. It was crowded, but it was an awesome thing to see.

To avoid the crowd on the ground, we took the train to Fantasyland and encountered the great Steve. Steve was a train conductor that rode in our car as we left the station. Somehow my wife stuck her hand on the railing of the side of the train car. I guess Steve thought she had her hand out the window. He called her out and told her to keep her hand inside. Steve may have been kidding, but he looked really serious and mad about it. He kept his eyes on all of us, until we jumped off the train at New Orleans Square station. We saw the great Steve on the last ride and last day of our trip. He looked my wife right in the eyes and said, “Do you believe in happily ever afters?” My wife was speechless and had no time to react as the great Steve whipped out a button that said “Happily ever after” on it. The great Steve – who knew such a stickler for safety had a heart full of dreams?

The 5 of us rode the Small World and Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. Again I some how rode by myself on Mr. Toad's.
All of us ventured on:
Pinocchio's Daring Journey -on MUST SEE list-
This was a really neat dark ride of Pinocchio's adventure. Disney World does not have this ride, so I wanted to really see this one. Well worth it.

Alice in Wonderland -on MUST SEE list-
Another Disneyland dark ride that does not have a counterpart in Disney World. It was on my MUST SEE list! You ride in a caterpillar through Alice's adventure. I enjoyed this one too. It left the inside building and came outside onto a track on the building roof (no too far off the ground). I have never seen a Disney dark ride do that before.

DINNERTIME!
We were getting hungry and decided to try: Rancho del Zocalo in Frontierland.
Counter service restaurant with Mexican food. Not a bad place. Getting the food was a little disorganized. We sat outside and enjoyed our food.

After dinner, we played a little bit at the Frontierland Shootin' Exposition. As a kid at Disney World, we never really got a chance to do this. We were usually running to the next ride, as we only stayed one day at the Magic Kingdom before we moved on to another attraction in Florida. The guns shoot infra-red light beams at the targets. When the beam hits the target, the target reacts. Skeletons may pop up from a grave, bottles shoot up in the air (along a metal rod) or a piano may play.
I found a gun with a full game on it and had fun shooting up the place. The original guns shot lead pellets, but the cost and effort at repainting the targets nightly became too much!

We moved along and got fastpasses for Indiana Jones as we headed off to World of Color.
This was one show I wanted to see at DCA. Disney World does not have this show.
Our fastpasses that we had acquired earlier in the day enabled us to be ushered into a roped off area to stand and wait for the show. As this was first come, first serve, we thought we should get there early. We found a nice area next to the wall and railing and plopped down. A really nice cast member told us the spot we picked would give us a good view and not get us wet. The wait seemed like it lasted a while, but the wait was well worth it. (Disney- please add chairs to sit on!)

The Wikipedia entry for this show states:
"The show uses more than 1,000 fountains that can shoot water up to 200 ft (61 m) in the air. Each fountain is equipped with an LED light ring. Other water features include a 380-foot (120 m)-long mist screen on which images are projected (similar but smaller screens are used in Fantasmic! at Disneyland and Disney's Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World in Lake Buena Vista, Florida). Fire nozzles/Fire whips are capable of shooting flames up to 50 ft (15 m) in the air.[8] Fog and lasers are used.[9] Projection domes emerge from the water atop telescopic masts and feature lighting effects and video projected onto the inside surface of the domes."
In layman's term - AWESOME, lights, fire and film clips with Mickey's Wonder Wheel blinking in time to the music! You have to see this show.

We decided to head over to Carsland to ride some more of our favorite rides. What a spectacular sight to see at night. When Lighting and the rest of the citizens of Radiator Springs turn on the neon lights, it is amazing! We took some pictures and video of the buildings lit up. Nice!
Mom, Mr. Transport and I went to Luigi's Flying Tires. Mr. Transport and I ran through the queue and got to ride this ride about 3 times and got to be the last guests on the ride for the night. BUT, after out last ride, the cast members jumped on the ride and it was blast to see them have such fun trying to knock into their fellow cast members. They all really knew how to get those tires moving FAST!

Meanwhile, Mir and Aunt S. went through the single rider line of Radiator Springs Racers. It took them about a half hour to get through the line. They were the last riders for the night.

Mr. Transport and Mom threw in the towel after that. They headed back to the hotel. Aunt S., Mir and I sprinted back over to Disneyland to get in just a few more rides...

We used our Indy fastpasses to ride again. I did not get to drive the truck this time and found the ride to be much more bumpier and jerky sitting in the rear seat.

We were running out of time... must see more before 12 midnight...

The Matterhorn Bobsleds - on MUST SEE list-
I could see this HUGE mountain looming in front of me, but I could NOT find the entrance to the ride!!! We kept going till we found a rope that began to form the queue line and followed it around the base of the Matterhorn. We finally got to the main line and there weren't too many in line. GREAT!
There are two bobsleds connected together and each bobsled holds 3 people. We were directed to the back bobsled and I took the last seat. Now I had rode this ride when I was 13 years old in 1978 with my cousins and Aunt. I didn't remember it being too bad back then. WELL... things change.

The bobsled made its way up into the Matterhorn at a slow pace in the dark. There were small, lit scenes along the way. We got to the top and started down with only gravity as our guide. I got bumped and banged as we made our way down. It was hard to see in the dark. You could not anticipate the direction to move with the bobsled, until it was too late. I was glad I got to ride the grand old ride made from the dirt taken out of the castle's moat, but it was surely a whole different ride than when I was 13.
Next time a ride during daylight hours might help.

15 minutes till Midnight!

Star Tours - the adventure continues
I was very familiar with Disney Worlds new upgraded version, as we were able to ride it during our 2011 visit. So, I had to check out Disneyland's version. The queue area was almost exactly like Disney World's queue with only slight differences. The ride was the same as experienced in Disney World. Disneyland's Star Tours delivered a great ride. I await any new Star Wars themed ride that Disney may be able to give us.

Mir, Aunt S. and I had been able to ride 3 rides within an hour with one of the rides on my MUST SEE list! We limped back to the hotel for a well deserved night of rest.

Day 6 Mr. Transport and I visited LEGOLAND. Mom, Mir and Aunt S. toured the beaches.

Upcoming in Part 7 Day 7 - Tom Sawyer's Island goes Pirate!

[chezp]

Wow, you certainly packed a lot into that day!

[FanOfMickey]

Looks like a fun filled day

[OhToodles!]

Enjoying the trip report! We had talked about going to DL next year, but we're going to WDW instead. Thinking about going in 2016 now and my oldest DS will be 9 then - good to hear your 9 year old is having a great time!

[Tconst]

Thanks for the report! Thinking of heading to Disneyland for our 1st visit sometime soon.

[KimmyAnn1147]

This is my first trip report reading, trying to drown my post-disney blues. It helps, I think.....

Great to hear about your adventures. I can't want to read more. My recent trip was also with extended family (my family of 3, sister's family of 3, our mom and dad).

Ahhhhh, the Magic. Thanks for being part of my recovery!

[marscommander]

Part 7
Day 7 - Tom Sawyer's Island goes Pirate!
This was a last full day of our vacation. Aunt S. and Mir were getting up pretty early the next morning to catch their plane. The rest of us were leaving much later the next day to go home.

So, we wanted to get in the most of our remaining time with the entire group. We ventured over to DCA.

Mom was on the hunt for a scrapbook, so we found our way to the Animation Academy gift shop.

Inside this building we also found:
Animation Academy- attraction itself is a drawing session with a Disney animator who teaches guests to draw Disney character. Guests may take their own artwork home after the drawing session.

Sorcerer's Workshop
-Magic Mirror Realm:
Descend into the cavernous dungeon of a medieval castle and create your very own animated drawings. Interactive exhibits teach how the principles of persistence of vision trick the eye into believing that still images are in motion

-Beast's Library
Answer questions posed by an enchanted book and find out which Disney character your personality most resembles.

-Ursula's Grotto
Journey below the waves into the secret underwater grotto of Ursula, the villainous sea witch from The Little Mermaid. Ursula steals your voice and uses it in a classic Disney movie clip. Choose from a variety of famous scenes that feature either speaking or singing roles.

I can't tell you how much time we spent in this building. We had the most fun at this very over looked attraction. This is the same building that has Turtle talk with Crush.

Mom didn't find the right scrapbook there, so she was still on the hunt.

We spent some more time in Carsland soaking up the surroundings. Mr. Transport and I made one last run on Luigi's Flying Tires and Mater's Junkyard Jamboree while the rest of our party checked out the goodies at the Cozy Cone Motel. We especially liked Red's Apple Freeze which is the same drink in Gaston's Tavern in Disney World (Lefou's brew) no-sugar added frozen apple juice with a hint of toasted marshmallow, topped with all-natural passion fruit-mango foam. Yummy!

LUNCHTIME:
We made our way back to the Paradise Pier and found Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta. They had some good flatbread pizzas. We ate in their outside patio. It was very nice sitting outside at a shady table. There was a wooden gate next to Boardwalk Pizza & Pasta.

The Pixar Parade was forming up to come out the gate. So, we found a spot on the patio to watch the parade. We watched the whole thing and had a great view. It was an awesome parade!

After lunch, we shopped a little more. Mom and Mr. Transport made another ride on the Golden Zephyr while Mir, Aunt S. and I rode California Screamin’ rollercoaster. I really enjoyed this coaster and the whole feel of the Paradise Pier. (Great job, Disney!)

We headed over to Disneyland. We wanted to tackle Tom Sawyer's Island. As a boy at Disney World we explored Tom's Sawyer's Island once maybe twice, but had never had enough time to see it again. So, I wanted to see Disneyland's version on this trip.

Disneyland's version was like nothing I remembered Disney World's being. They had changed it to resemble Pirates of the Caribbean quality to it. There were many physical activities to do (pumping water out of a sunken ship for a look at the treasure, climbing up a tall tower and spelunking around pirate caves). Plus, many photo ops (posing near the bone cage, sitting on the treasure pile).

I really liked what Disney had done to Tom's Island. It was a real pleasant surprise.

Before we left Disneyland, Mr. Transport had to take the train one more time. We got to ride in the caboose and he was thrilled! The rest of our party took a quick nap till we pulled into the station.

We had 6:30pm reservations for Goofy's Kitchen and wanted to ride in style by way of monorail to dinner. We boarded in the front of the cab (sans Aunt S.) we had lost her in the shuffle (sorry – Aunt S.).

DINNERTIME:
Off to Goofy's Kitchen!

In Disney World, we always try to finish our vacation with a trip to Chef Mickey's. So, I thought that Goofy's would be the same dining experience we usually enjoy from Chef Mickey's - I was wrong. The layout of Goofy’s was well… Goofy! The tables were tight together and made it difficult for the characters to get around and for us to get good pictures with the characters. I found their food to be good and a variety of items to choose from, but some of my party found the variety lacking.

The one “un-Disney” moment came towards the end of the night. We had all finished with our meals and had see all the Disney characters except Minnie Mouse. Well, like all good folks that visit Disney – we want to see ALL that we paid to see. So, we asked several times when we would be seeing Minnie. Finally, our waitress whispered into my Sister’s ear, “Minnie’s on her smoke break”. Smoking? Minnie Mouse? Noooooo! So, not too long after that Minnie came by with the distinct smell of smoke on her mousy person. I found it ironic that we were forced to “look behind the curtain” on the site of the original source of “Disney Magic”. Goofy’s Kitchen was a slight disappointment, but it didn’t spoil our trip.

So, on Day 8 Mir and Aunt S. got up REALLY EARLY to catch their plane back to Cincinnati/Northern KY Airport. Mom, Mr. Transport and I did some last minute shopping at both Parks and rode Mr. Transports favorite rides – Trolley and Train. Our last day in California and it rained. The one and only time I saw rain on our trip. California was crying because we were going home.

Our flight was a late one 10:55pm PST – 6:11am EST Direct 4 hour flight. We were beat when we got into Cincinnati/ Northern KY airport, but we had one of the BEST Disney/ Hollywood/California adventures in our lives.

So, the question that everyone has asked me since I returned home - Which is better Disneyland or Disney World?

I love both places for different reasons.

With Walt Disney World you have S P A C E.... 4 theme parks, 2 water parks and Disney Quest in Downtown Disney. There is TONS to see and do. You never have enough time to see EVERYTHING!
If you stay on property in Disney World, you never have to leave the Disney environment. You wake up in a Disney bed, eat in a Disney restaurant, ride on a Disney bus and take in all that Disney has to offer.

Disneyland has 2 theme parks and Downtown Disney. We were able to see just about EVERYTHING in a week long stay in California. With only 2 parks we were able to fit other things into our schedule that we NEVER do when we visit Disney World. We did not stay in a Disney hotel, but we able to be within a 5 minutes walking distance from the parks. This is the CLOSEST we had ever stayed to Disney before. It was nice to not worry about finding a crowded bus to get us back to our hotel. Our hotel had a rooftop pool area that we were able to view the Disneyland fireworks.

Disney parks, like children - you can't have a favorite... You love them all the same.

Thanks for letting me share my journey with you.

[chezp]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip with us and your observations on the two different parks on either coast.

Wow, I cannot believe that comment about Minnie - unbelievable!

[OhToodles!]

Sounded like a good day - up until Minnie. What a shame!
Tom Sawyer's Island sounds fun!
Thank you for sharing your trip with us!

[FanOfMickey]

How awful about Minnie!! Not something Disney should except from a friend of the Character. I love both Disneyland and Disney World for each of their characteristics. I can't wait to go back and see Disneyland again.

[KimmyAnn1147]

I enjoyed reading! I'm wondering if you would have had a different experience if you had ridden during the daylight. In 1999 or so I went on this ride with a friend (we were both about 21) and we loved it so much. As adults with an appreciation for gardening, it was so lovely, all the little scenes made mostly out of tiny plants. I remember thinking it was kinda boring as a kid.

In December 2013 this ride was closed for renovation. I wonder what they are doing to it. I for one hope they aren't putting in plastic figurines from your favorite Disney movies. I hope they stick to the all natural look and the old old stories.

Oh, and we totally missed most of your favorite attractions at DCA-turtle talk (DS would have loved this, I think) and Animation Academy/Sorcerer's workshop. Maybe next time we need 5 day park hoppers!

To weigh in on the question in your title... DLR is my "home park" being from Oregon. I've been to WDW one time, and yes, it was great, but the MK at DLR is so .... something ... it's got a heartbeat. I didn't quite get the same feeling from WDW MK. My favorite there was Epcot.

It was a blast reading about your trip, and especially about the interests and enjoyment of Mr. Transport. Thanks for sharing!