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

[marscommander]

CAST OF CHARACTERS:
Me - Dad - CO-Planner of the trip
Mom - My awesome wife - Loves Disney
Mir - My 12 year daughter who loves to travel
Mr. Transport - My 9 year old, Monorail, Trolley and Train loving Son
Aunt S - My younger sister and wonderful aunt to my children - CO-Planner of the trip
Pappy - My dad and grandfather to my kids. Sole driver of the van to Disneyland from Ohio
Gram - My mom & grandmother to my kids. Excellent navigator and organizer of vans full of luggage

My family and I live in Kentucky and LOVE Disney. We have 2 children: my daughter is 12 and my son is 9. My wife and I started taking my daughter to Disney World at 2 1/2 years old in 2003. We have visited the world 4 time between 2003 - 2009. My parents have went with us to Disney World on the trips 2003 - 2009 and my sister joined us on the 2009 trip. Just my family cruised on Disney's Wonder, Dream and Fantasy cruise ships between 2010 - 2012 The opportunity came to go to Disneyland, so we planned for July 13th - 20th 2013.

I had been to Disneyland when I was 13. I don't remember much, because we did a great deal of other things on that trip and it was about 35 years ago. As I found out, Disneyland had changed.
My father, mother, sister and daughter would cross the country by van, stopping along the way. They would leave 1 week prior to our flight to LA and we would meet them in Anaheim, CA.

My son is not a traveller. He, along with my wife and I would board a non-stop Delta flight from Cincinnati to LA. The longest distance by plane we had travelled before was 2 hours to Orlando. So, this 4 hour flight was new to us. But, the plane was equipped with TVs on the backs of each chair, so we had something to look at and even got to see or position on the map as we flew. Flying out was fine and NO turbulence. We usually have a bumpy ride down to Orlando.

We deplane and get our bags. (At Disney World, there is a Magical Express that takes you to your Disney Hotel and Disney routes your bags to your room. - You NEVER touch your bags till you get to your hotel) We pull our bags out of the terminal and across a busy road to the median to catch the "Disneyland Express" Two things about this bus. 1- It is not run by Disney and it shows 2- A sign that says, "Board Bus Here" - does not exist.

The "Disneyland Express" bus will be taking us to our hotel in Anaheim (Carousel Inn and Suites) I had read that it may be a "little" hard finding where to board the bus. So, as cars, taxis, buses, vans, jet planes and an alien spaceship ZOOM by at breakneck speeds, I try to walk up and down the median to find a sign or information to board the bus. With no luck in finding a sign, I go back to rejoin my group.
There is another couple waiting for this bus as well. We watch everything coming down the road. We see vans with MICKEY's EXPRESS, not the right one. We see DISNEY SHUTTLE, not the right one. FINALLY, we see a big bus with a little, tiny sign that says, "Disneyland Express" HORRAY!!!
We board the bus, as the nice driver puts our bags in the underneath baggage compartment.
OFF TO DISNEYLAND!!! (after we check into the hotel)
End of Part 1

Interesting side note - LAX - very cool struture, but crazy busy airport

[chezp]

Great start!

Oh boy am I with you about LAX being crazy busy and it being a nightmare to find the Disneyland Express. Been there, done that!

[MayraLR]

Great start!

[lauriep]

Sounds like a fun crew for this trip!

[marscommander]

Finally, we are on our way to Anaheim and Disneyland!
I have heard the stories about LA and traffic, but sitting up front in a big bus gives you a good appreciation for it. As the bus driver struggles to get out into the traffic flow from the airport and we think we are going crash several times, my son is making loud GASP sounds.

Our first stop is at the Disneyland hotel. The driver tells us that a ticket agent will come on board and take our vouchers, coupons and our money. I found a 5.00 off per person coupon online and am able to use it when the ticket agent comes on board. Total round trip cost is 53.00 for all three of us.

I wasn't sure what the cost would be, as their website was confusing on what the regular price would be. The money for the tickets is taken and we are asked what hotel we are going to. A few people were told to board the bus ahead of us, but most of us stayed on the bus. In the information on the net I read, this process was said to be the worst part of the journey, but I found it was okay.
After a few stops at hotels in the area around Disneyland, we arrive at our hotel. The bus stopped a literal bus stop about a 1/2 block from our hotel. We gathered up the bags and tipped this hard working driver and started off to the hotel.
>"Disneyland Express" Experience gets a B- grade (Add a sign at the Airport and clean the bathroom)

Carousel Inn and Suites
We picked this hotel for 2 reasons: 1: It offered a 2 bedroom suite that had 2 bathrooms 2: It is a stone’s throw away from Disneyland with a pool on the ROOF!
First impressions last forever. So, we maneuver our convoy of luggage from the bus stop to the hotel lobby. We enter through the supermarket automatic doors to a front desk and a large white plastic bag hanging on the right side of the lobby. Construction? Water damage? A statue unveiling? Who knows? A couple nice clerks take our information and tell us that the room is not ready, but we can leave our bags with Eduardo in the special locked room. So, we begin the process of removing our backpacks, purses and camera bags to consolidate everything so Eduardo can move the bags to the locked room.
During this process a younger woman from behind a podium begins to talk to us. She asks us questions like: What are your names? Where you from? How long are you going to be here? Are you going to Disney? Would you like 75.00 Disney dollars?
In my "almost at Disneyland" stupor, I mistakenly answer her questions. She begins to tell us about how she can arrange for us to have a "short" tour of their new facility (prison?) along with an awesome breakfast bar and 75.00 Disney dollars FREE.
It would only take like 360 minutes...

OK, I fell for this time share trap on our first trip to Gatlinburg, TN. So, I would NEVER, repeat NEVER do this again! I don't care if you gave me a fastpass to every ride and a visit to the Utilidors. I only have so much time on my vacation to do everything and I am not going to waste it on this. So, I try to be polite and tell the girl we are not interested. (Besides we get breakfast each day through the hotel) But she refuses to stop talking to us about this "GREAT DEAL". We leave.
It's now about 1pm PST and we are HUNGRY! We left home @ 7am EST and only had a little breakfast before we boarded the plane. Two doors down from the hotel is Mickey D's (not affiliated with Mickey Mouse), so we go there and get some lunch.

Off to Disneyland.
We walk down the street about a block and cross the street to a pathway that leads to both Disneyland on the right and Disney's California Adventure on the left - WOW!
Before we left, we were able to get 15.00 off each our Disney tickets plus get an extra day FREE. So armed with our 5 day voucher we head to the ticket booth. This is new to us. In Disney World, if you stay at a Disney hotel, they give you your park ticket with your room key. A very nice cast member takes our voucher and gives us our paper tickets. (Disney World has plastic cards type tickets) We head off to visit Disneyland!
Through the gate after our pictures are taken and our tickets are scanned we are finally here! There is no better feeling arriving at Disney! Of course the complete opposite feeling is when you exit through the gates for that last time on the last day of your trip.

My wife LOVES, not liked, but LOVES to take pictures on our trips. She is very good at this, so we let her keep this job. We want our picture in front of the train station and giant Mickey head before we enter the park. A Disney photographer is working in front and we ask him to take our photos. He is really nice and has us pose for various pics doing crazy things that they add later to the pics. He then takes pics with our camera (which I am so happy the do). We bid our goodbyes and he goes to the next group. We make our way through the tunnel and emerge on Main Street U.S.A.
As we cross into this famous place, we hear a train whistle blow. Mr. Transport, my son yells, "The TRAIN! Let's go on the TRAIN!" We scramble up the stairs to the top and the Disneyland train station. Inside there are pictures of Walt and all his trains. He was a train nut! The pictures show him with several different size trains during his life He even had a train running through his yard at his Hollywood home (which we saw later in our trip). I am trying to take this in as my 9 year old son is pulling my arm to get to the train. We just make the train and begin to take in all the sights of Disneyland.

Disney created 4 things for the 1964 World's Fair: It's a Small World, Moments with Mr. Lincoln, Carousel of Progress and Ford’s Magic Skyway (Audio-Animatronics dinosaurs) with the express agreement that after the fair he would be able to relocate them to Disneyland. On the train ride near the last stretch before you get back to Main Street Station, you get to see the Dinosaurs Disney himself created for the fair. Of course these dinos don't look like they came out of Jurassic park, but that is okay. You are taking in a creation by Disney from 1964. That is one of the main reasons I have travelled so far, not unlink a pilgrimage, to see the items that Walt Disney made himself. (Of the four items listed above, only Carousel of Progress is no longer at Disneyland - move to Disney World in 1975)

Having gone to Disney World many times, I am amazed at how small Disneyland looks. Not unlike visiting a Elementary School when you are an adult. The Matterhorn towers over the Castle. Disney World's castle has no competition in height, so it seems to tower over everything in the park.

We see It's a Small World (IASW) from the train and my wife urges us to get off the train. My wife LOVES this ride. I take in this ride. Disney World's IASW entrance is under roof. Disneyland's IASW is out in the open all in white with fancy do-dads on it. We happen to arrive at 2pm as the clock starts to open and little figures come out as music is played. It was really beautiful. We waited in line and boarded the front of the boat. So, my wife is takes pictures, while I take all the videos. So, I film the whole ride, as I have done in Disney World's version. The main thing I noticed is that there are Disney characters scatter through the ride in their own home country (Aladdin in the Arabian area, Lilo in the Islands area, etc.) Fun ride and relaxing. Now if I was trapped in there for 2 hours with those little guys chiming on about a "small world", it may be a different story.
Mr. Transport has requested we make it to the Monorail. I consult my Disney app on my phone. (BTW: this is the first time we have iphones with Disney apps we can use in the parks - I highly recommend using one, if you can)
Even with a map, I find it hard to find the Monorail station. I ask a cast member and am directed to the ramp up. We reach the top of the station and make our way down to the end for the queue. There isn't a real line that we can tell.

*First MAGICIAL MOMENT"*
We engaged a very nice cast member working the Monorail as to were we need to be to board. He shows us the gate. He asks us where we are from. We get looks of surprise throught out the trip when reply Kentucky. This young man had recently visited Disney World and was blow away by the size in comparison to Disneyland. I mention that my son is a Monorail fanatic. With that the cast member asks us if we would like to ride in the very back of the Monorail. We reply YES! When the Monorail arrives, we are ushered to the back in our own private air-conditioned car. AWESOME!
From the top of the Monorail station, I spy 2 items on my list of MUST DOs - The Submarine ride (updated with Finding Nemo) and The Matterhorn.

End of part 2.

[chezp]

Great start to your time in Disneyland! I am loving reading all your observations, as I'm sitting here thinking that we had exactly the same thoughts on our first Disneyland visit too.

[WDW Novice]

"Aunt S" here! I'm enjoying finding out more details about what y'all did before I got there.

By the way, we had pretty good luck getting from the hotel to SNA with Super Shuttle, although they were 13 minutes late picking us up....

[FanOfMickey]

Great start to your trip so far. Can't wait to read more

[marscommander]

Thank you all for your nice comments. I really appreciate it.

Here is part 3:
During my trip to Disneyland, I am forever comparing my more familiar Disney World.

So, we had boarded the Monorail in our own private air-conditioned car. (I find out on a later trip that the Monorail is not air-conditioned in the rest of the train-bummer).
The Monorail takes us through tomorrowland and out of the park. We see the highway, our hotel, some bland buildings and we stop at Downtown Disney. My son, Mr. Transport spots the LEGO STORE! Besides trains, his other love in live is Legos. We decide to come back later and stay on the Monorail for a return trip to Disneyland.

We return to Tomorrowland and get a call from the rest of our party (Pappy, Gram, Aunt S and my daughter, Mir). They have made it to the hotel and have checked in. We meet them back at their room and Mr. Transport wants to swim. Pappy and Gram are only doing one day of Disney at Disney's California Adventure the following day, so they graciously offer to swim with Mr. Transport.

The rest of us return to Disneyland to eat and do the rides. We decide to dine in Tomorrowland at Redd Rockett's pizza port.
From the outside, Redd's reminds me of Pizza Planet in Hollywood Studios in Disney World. When you get inside, Redd's offers pasta and larger entree salads. Pizza Planet is just slices of pizza and single size salads. Redd's has a large dining area inside and through a magic door out the back has a more quiet dining area. I have notice over the years with Disney that if you look, you will find more quiet dining areas to eat. (AKA upstairs in the Columbia House in Magic Kingdom Disney World)
We eat and swap stories of how we got to this spot in time. We haven't seen our daughter, Mir for the last week, as she has been travelling across country. We are very glad to see her. Of course we are glad to see Aunt S too. (can't forget her as she reads this article) We decide to tackle the rides in Tomorrowland- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters, Space Mountain, and Captain EO.

Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters is a...blast! The blaster guns detach and can be aimed anywhere at the plethora of targets presented. It's easier to get a higher score in the Disneyland Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters with the blaster gun detached. In Disney World's version, the blaster gun is attached to the car and you must turn the car to aim. We all love this ride and have fun with the inter teasing of who got a higher score. Mir did some fancy shooting in my car and had a rather large score.

We move onto Space Mountain. Only Mir, Aunt S and I are going on this one. Mom is not a rollercoaster rider. We find where you exit Space Mountain and she finds a place to sit/sleep there.
I must express that it is getting late in the day at this point. Mom and I have been up since 5 AM EST. and it is probably around 9 PM PST. Also, Mom can find a place to take a nap ANYWHERE at Disney. It's just one of her special talents.

Space Mountain: WOW! This one is fast. I love both versions of this Disney's space themed coaster, but I think Disneyland's version is faster! I also like the twin seat arrangement in Disneyland's version too. At Disney World's Space Mountain, they had just refurbed the queue area to include places for riders to play games as they wait. Disney World's version you ride 3 to a rocket with the seats behind one another. You feel like you the loneliest spaceman when you ride.
So- Disneyland's Space Mountain - FAST! Disney World's Space Mountain - Interactive Queue.
I would ride either one anytime. We pickup Mom who is sleeping on a sitting area with her camera strap wrapped tightly around her arm. We ask her why? She says, “Because that way no one can take it when I am napping".

Captain EO:...What can I say? It has Michael Jackson and Hooter in it.
Disney World no longer has Captain EO in Epcot. It was replaced with Honey, I shrunk the kids. So, it was on the MUST SEE list. Any ride that was original to Disneyland or not at Disney World was on the MUST SEE list. We entered the half filled theater and took a seat. It was science fiction, but could have been an episode on Mystery Science Theater 3000. It was like a Sid and Mary Kroft production with dancing and music. Mom, who is a Michael Jackson fan, did not care for it. Let's just say we were able to mark it off the MUST SEE list.
Moving on...

Day 1 was coming to a close and we had done so many things. We limped home to the hotel on our very tired feet to rest up for Day 2's fun at California Adventure in CARS LAND!
End of Part 3.

[chezp]

What a great first day. I can't wait to see what you think of Cars Land.

[WDW Novice]

You're back!

Let me just add that Mir and I (Aunt S) were tired, too, and had driven in from Las Vegas that morning, stopping in Yorba Linda to visit the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. We really needed a dose of Disney to wash our brains of all the debauchery and corruption we had witnessed/learned about in the previous 72 hours! Mir said, "Vegas was fun, but it feels good to be at Disney with MY people." (We were only in Vegas to see "Love," ride the Big Shot on top of the Stratosphere, and go horseback riding at Red Rocks canyon.)

Don't forget that we rode the Finding Nemo Sardine Can, I mean Submarines! I'm glad this ride has been revived and updated with the Nemo theme, but wow, it was quite the tight squeeze in there. By the end I didn't really care about finding Nemo as I was searching for some air.

I recall we also made it to New Orleans Square that night and rode Pirates and the Haunted Mansion. Of course, Disneyland's POC has the edge on Disney World's. And, I like the outside of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion better, although I'm not sure if anything inside is different.

Also, most of us rode Indy while someone slept outside on some rocks....

[marscommander]

Originally Posted by WDW Novice

You're back!

Let me just add that Mir and I (Aunt S) were tired, too, and had driven in from Las Vegas that morning, stopping in Yorba Linda to visit the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. We really needed a dose of Disney to wash our brains of all the debauchery and corruption we had witnessed/learned about in the previous 72 hours! Mir said, "Vegas was fun, but it feels good to be at Disney with MY people." (We were only in Vegas to see "Love," ride the Big Shot on top of the Stratosphere, and go horseback riding at Red Rocks canyon.)

Don't forget that we rode the Finding Nemo Sardine Can, I mean Submarines! I'm glad this ride has been revived and updated with the Nemo theme, but wow, it was quite the tight squeeze in there. By the end I didn't really care about finding Nemo as I was searching for some air.

I recall we also made it to New Orleans Square that night and rode Pirates and the Haunted Mansion. Of course, Disneyland's POC has the edge on Disney World's. And, I like the outside of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion better, although I'm not sure if anything inside is different.

Also, most of us rode Indy while someone slept outside on some rocks....

Yes, I would agree on the Submarine ride. It was on my MUST SEE list. I loved the subs as a kid and hated to see them go in Disney World. But after only a short time down in the bowels of Captain Nemo's sub, I felt like I was sinking into Davy Jones' locker full of smelly sweat socks. YUCK!

Disneyland's Pirates was also a delightful surprise. I had read about how Walt originally wanted Pirates to be a walking tour with wax figures. Walt figured out that boats and audio-animatronics would work better. I like Disneyland's version better because it was the last ride that Walt worked on before he died and it has an interesting beginning with the bayou before you plunge down into the world of pirates!

We walked right up to the front door of the Haunted Mansion. There was no line. Guess it could have been because it was late in the evening. It felt like an episode of Scooby-Doo. I wanted to pull the mask off the unseen henchmen. I agree with my sister (Aunt S.) that the outside of the Mansion was much cooler and worked well with its surrounding than does Disney World's Haunted Mansion.

Before nights end, we had more adventure on the Jungle Cruise, but didn't find Skipper Dan (Weird Al Yankovic fans will know) We ended our night with me driving the truck/vehicle in the Indiana Jones ride. I LOVED this ride. In Disney World, we have the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular show, which is awesome. But there is something to actually being involved in the adventure. (But thankfully you weren't cast as Mutt Williams) 3 of us went on the ride and one of us slept on the rocks outside the ride. You may guess which of our party was on the rock. (See previous post as to who in our party can take a nap ANYWHERE)

[marscommander]

Part 4
Day 2
We got our tired bodies out of bed for new fun.
This was the first day we got breakfast at our hotel, Carousel Inn and Suites.

On their website, they advertised a breakfast which included hard boiled eggs.
Our group had fun with the notion of selling extra eggs at the gate of Disneyland to supplement our vacation budget. But much to our surprise, we were given vouchers for each day for breakfast at the Pizza Press and it did not include hard boied eggs.

The Pizza Press was just a few steps across from the hotel. We had 2 breakfast vouchers per room for each day. So, there is 5 people in our room and only 2 vouchers. I went to the front desk to ask about missing vouchers. They gladly stamped out 3 more vouchers for me. I told them that we have 5 people in our room (it was a two bedroom suite). Why could we not get 5 vouchers for each day? They said only 2 vouchers come with each room. So, do 3 people starve each day? Do we have to share? It wasn't like we had too many people in our room, it was a 2 bedroom suite. So, not understanding this, I took the vouchers for today and left.

We gathered at the Pizza Press. It opened at 7am. We got there about 10 mins till 7. We pulled on the door and it was open. There was a very nice young girl working the counter. She smiled at us and told us that the breakfast wasn't quite ready, but we could have a seat and wait.

Around 7am, we got in line to order our breakfast. We were pleasantly surprised that it consisted of: eggs, hash brown potatoes, waffle and choice of bacon or sausage. WOW! much better than a hard boiled egg (but little resale value). So, we sat and ate our nice hot breakfast before we went to Disney's California Adventure.

Now it's been a long time since my FIRST time at a Disney park. But today, I was a FIRST TIMER!
This was the only day my parents (Pappy & Gram) were going to spend at Disney, so I wanted them to get their money's worth. Once we got through the gates we headed to Cars Land to ride Radiator Springs Racers. We checked the fastpass line before we made our way back and found the regular line was shorter than waiting in the fastpass line. We breezed through the actual Cars Land to get to the ride, but I was blown away by how detailed it was and how much it looked like you stepped into the movie. AWESOME! Disney does details right!

We had to wait nearly an hour before we were able to get on the ride. It was worth the wait. The cars you ride in seem to be a much more jazzy version of Test Track cars. It was very cool to interact with the characters from CARS before the big race. The track and background mountains conviced you were in Radiator Springs. We had got the main ride in for the day, so we took a little time and examined in detail the town of Radiator Springs. [Side note: Radiator Springs Racers has a entrance in the main line for individual using scooters. You are able to board and it does not disrupt the regular boarding area. Very nice feature for those that are disabled or need a little extra help getting on and off the ride]

WOW! it was amazing the details and thought Disney had put into Cars Land. We made our way over to Luigi's Flying Tires. Again, the details had you floating on air. We laughed at the tire brands (Fettuccine Alfredo -white wall tires). I enjoyed the Radiator Springs Movie night list: "20,000 Leaks under the Sea", "Mary Poppin' Wheelie", "Peter Oil Pan", "The Dead Battery Society", "Truck Beds and Stick Shifts", "Toy Car Story", "The Hatchback of Notre Dame" and "Monster Trucks".

Luigi's Flying Tires is fun after you master how to move. There are signs all over the place telling you where to seat the biggest person of three - in the middle. I saw a large man siting on the outside of the tire with his wife and son on the other side. He couldn't move and he was getting quite frustrated with it. My son, Mr. Transport, and I rode in one tire and we were able to get moving easily, but we had no control. After several tries in the next few days we were zooming all over the place in the tire. But kept running into everyone. I understand you need many tires for this ride to be a success. But with fewer tires, there would have been more room to move.

Mater's Junkyard Jamboree was our next ride in Cars Land. Woowee, I was happier to ride this than a tornado in a trailier park. This was a classic "whip" ride in tractor form. The queue was quite littered with Mater memorabilia of his past adventures. (from all the Car Toons Mater's Tall Tales)
I love the fact that Disney got Larry the cable guy to do the singing as Mater for the square dance type songs for the ride. If you get the chance when you are in line, listen to the lyrics. They are hilarious. This was my son, Mr. Transport's favorite ride under the Train and Monorail.

LUNCHTIME! We are getting hungry. We motor on into Flo's V8 Cafe. This was nice place to sit down and regroup. The food was very different than the normal burger and fries you usually eat. I had open face turkey and mashed potatoes with gravy. YUM!

We moved out of Cars Land to the Tower of Terror (ToT). Well, only 4 of us (Me, Mir, Aunt S. and Gram) moved on to ToT. The rest of the party stayed in Bugs Land. Disneyland's version of ToT is really good. But I would say that Disney World's version has more themed queue area to see outside. Disneyland's ToT is missing the hallway you move up through before you go up and down, but is still good.

The 4 of us came out of ToT and begin to look for the rest of the group. We hear a shout and turn to see them on the Trolley. My son, Mr. Transport and party has taken over the Trolley! Larry the Trolley conductor has held the Trolley for us to board. We ran into Larry several times during our stay and each time he remembered us and made our time there magical.

We make our way to the Aladdin Show. We had seen this same show last year on Disney Cruise ship Fantasy. This version seemed to have more people and stunning effects. You got to love that Genie.
Wonderful live show with some really talented actors. BRAVO Disney.

Next on the agenda is Monster's Inc. This is a fun dark ride of one of our favorite movies. Monster's Inc. has you going along with Mike and Sulley as they try to return Boo back to her home. Excellent and fun ride. Disney World has the Laugh Floor. It features Mike Wazowski as the Monster of Ceremonies and introduces new monsters from Monster's Inc. It's an audience participation show where the monsters make the humans laugh to extract energy. I would love for Disneyland to have their own version of the Laugh Floor.

End of Part 4

[chezp]

What a great start to your day - you really hit the highlights of the California Adventure. I'm so glad you were able to ride Radiator Spring Racers, it's amazing isn't it?

[WDW Novice]

Aunt S is back to add to your latest installment!

One note about accessibility at Disneyland and DCA: it is pretty good! Our dad has some difficulty walking due to a recent hip replacement and an impending replacement of the other hip, so he uses a motorized scooter for outings that involve extensive walking, like theme park visits. Many of the attractions allow the scooter to go through the queue. I was surprised that even the Tower of Terror lets scooters go all the way to the elevators (the scooter is parked in the little hallway between the boarding area and the elevator).

For Radiator Springs Racers, the queue did split off at some point for those in wheelchairs or scooters (or needing other assistance?), and on this day, there appeared to be two cars in a separate loading area dedicated to those riders. Our whole party went in that line, but because there were seven of us, we were separated. So, one group of three (including me) was put in with another group of three, and when we returned the rest of our group was ready to go, so I got to jump in the car with them for another ride! I thought this was a really great way to do it as the regular line was not really affected by waiting to load or unload those who need some extra time. Once a car was loaded, it was worked onto the track and drove through the regular loading area. The special loading/unloading area had a screen where riders could view their ride photos when they returned.

In Disneyland, we didn't get a chance to visit too many attractions with Dad, but for Pirates and the Haunted Mansion, the scooter had to go through the exit or the Fast Pass line. There was a special car on the train that he backed his scooter on via a ramp, and he couldn't exit at the Main Street station (I suppose the only way to exit that station is via stairs).

It was never a hassle to get in or out of attractions. Good job Disney!

Cars Land was amazing!! On our way to California, we stopped in Seligman, AZ, which was the supposed inspiration for Radiator Springs. I think Radiator Springs beats Seligman....

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!