WDW vs. DL ?

SaraJR · Nov 23, 2015

Canadian dis'ers ! have you been to both parks? hows the cost of disneyland cali vs wdw and is DL worth it for us canadians?

rella's fan · Nov 23, 2015

We used to go to WDW every year and decided one year to try out DL and now I have no desire to go back to WDW - LOVE Disneyland!!! There's no transportation headaches, you can just stay across the street. There's no magic bands and there's a bunch of different great rides (Carsland, Indiana Jones, Roger Rabbit) But the biggest reason why I like DL more is the weather - just not a fan of the Florida humidity. As for cost, admission is not much different so it just depends on what type of accommodations you want and weirdly enough I find that flights to California are not much more than Florida.

SaraJR · Nov 23, 2015

at WDW we stayed in the values i havent looked to hard into DL yet in all honesty but we want to go for our honeymoon in 2020 so i know there is tons of time but just curious, i liked how easy it was to book rooms and tickets semi cheaply together at WDW but DL seemed from inital look to only have moderate+ resorts, is there anything youd compare to a value near by? or maybe we should just stay somewhere nicer i wish theyd send us the planning dvd but the DL one doesnt ship to canada

is park hopper more important there?

Aladora · Nov 23, 2015

We are on the West coast so DL is much more affordable than WDW, although we are heading to WDW for the first time in 2 weeks. While staying onsite at DL is lovely, there are a ton of reasonably priced motels right across the street. We've stayed at all 3 onsite hotels and while the walk from all of them is really quick, some of the motels on Harbor Blvd are even closer. Park Vue Inn and Desert Inn & Suites are our two offsite go to motels, both have their positives and we have stayed at both more than once.

We've been to DL 8 times so if you have any q's, please feel free to ask!

SaraJR · Nov 23, 2015

Aladora said:
We are on the West coast so DL is much more affordable than WDW, although we are heading to WDW for the first time in 2 weeks. While staying onsite at DL is lovely, there are a ton of reasonably priced motels right across the street. We've stayed at all 3 onsite hotels and while the walk from all of them is really quick, some of the motels on Harbor Blvd are even closer. Park Vue Inn and Desert Inn & Suites are our two offsite go to motels, both have their positives and we have stayed at both more than once.

We've been to DL 8 times so if you have any q's, please feel free to ask!

It looks like DL doesnt offer a dining plan, what is dining like at DL?

nervous1sttimer · Nov 23, 2015

There is less dining available at DL just by virtue of being so much smaller, fewer resorts, etc. Disneyland is wonderful, but it's not WDW. I would only go back to Disneyland as part of a larger California trip. The additional cost of the flights, the lack of a "bubble", the different vibe fed by the overwhelmingly local crowd and other factors all tip the scales into WDWs favour for our family. Although the FP+ haters will try to tell you the paper FPs make up for all of that.

The things at DL that ARE spectacular and worth making the trip to see at least once: Cars Land and World of Color. Both were amazing!

Aladora · Nov 23, 2015

SaraJR said:
It looks like DL doesnt offer a dining plan, what is dining like at DL?

I can't compare to WDW but I can say that there are some TS restaurants that IMHO are not to be missed.

Blue Bayou is a classic, where else can you eat INSIDE a ride? Tip for BB: book the first time slot for either lunch or dinner and ask to wait for a waterside table. We've gone 3 times for dinner and have always waited and been seated at a waterside table, well worth any extra wait!

Carthay Circle: If you are going to do a World of Color meal, go for this one! Lovely food, wonderful atmosphere and the WoC viewing area is great.

Napa Rose chef's table in Grand California Hotel. Our absolute favourite. On the expensive side for a meal and not one that you will want to take a child to but the food is wonderful. We have done this twice and would do it again in a heartbeat. I have a slideshow of our recent meal there that I can link if you would like.

CS is, according to most, better food at DL than WDW but fewer places to pick from. The fried chicken at the Plaza Inn is something we have every trip.

DL is the original and is the only park that Walt walked through, if that makes a difference to you. No FP+ to deal with and no transportation issues means that you can easily hop back and forth between the two parks.

minnie mum · Nov 23, 2015

We've been to both parks many times, although we've spent more time at WDW.

Transportation costs could differ significantly depending on where you live. When we lived in BC we could get reasonable flights or could drive down to DLR in 2 days. Same thing with WDW now that we live in Ont. But flying from TO to LA can cost a bit. Then there's the need for on site transportation. We don't use anything but WDW transportation in Florida, since we don't go off site. If you fly to DL, you need to pay for either a shuttle/taxi to and from the airport, or rent a car. Shuttles and taxis are inexpensive if you fly into John Wayne airport, but a rental car is a must if you are doing anything else besides the parks.

Then there's the resorts. WDW has a full range of resorts from values up to grand villas on site, with plenty of resort amenities. Discounts are frequently available ( if you book at te right time). DLR only has deluxe resorts. But the nice thing about DLR are the number of good neighbour hotels and motels within walking distance. Most of these fall in the value to moderate range, with good rates that can also include breakfast. And there are "better" hotels a short bus ride away.The Disneyland board on the Dis has good info on these resorts and TripAdvisor is your friend when doing your research.

As far as the parks go, its difficult to compare. DLR crams as many attractions into 2 parks as WdW does in 3. Each has attractions that you can't find at the other, and even some that are in both locations differ in some respects from the other. But WDW has yet to come up with a land as compelling as Carsland. Well see how Toy Story Land and Star WarsLand stack up in the distant future.

There is no argument about the overall vacation experience. You can easily go to WDW for a week and remain inside the Disney bubble. And there is a lot to do outside the parks with all of the activities you can do. DLR, not so much. We've found that 4 days is all we need to do the parks. Other than that, and maybe a meal or 2 in DTD, and you're looking for things off site. We usually combine a DLR stay with some time at Universal or a trip down to San Diego.

DL has some good dining on site. And the nice thing is that you don't have to book ADRs 180 days in advance. In fact, you can't. DL doesn't have a dining plan ( except for some character dining). But you really don't need one.

The possibility of FP+ has reared its ugly head at DLR in the near future. I'm glad I had a chance to use the legacy system one more time this past summer.

dsneygirl · Nov 23, 2015

SaraJR said:
It looks like DL doesnt offer a dining plan, what is dining like at DL?

I think in some ways it's much better. There is no dining plan and really no need. QS has much better options and many places serve QS on real china and flatware (Flos, for one) No ADR insanity you can book a character meal about a week out and have lots of options. I also love that there is no DDP when people are ordering at QS and people take forever to make sure they have everything covered (drink, side dessert). Napa Rose is amazing, Blue Bayou is good. We liked Storytellers for the character breakfast. Lots of great snacks as well.

Last year we did 5.5 days in DL and saw everything twice. But we wanted to. WoC twice, Xmas parade (we were there in Nov).

There are tonnes of hotels in walking distance in every price range. We are DVC so used our points for Grand Californian. If you splurge and stay at a DL hotel you definitely are in the bubble. We only made 1 Target run and other than that spent all our time on resort.

Maddysdaddy · Nov 24, 2015

In the last 7 years, we have gone to DL 5 times, WDW 5 times, sailed DCL twice and bought into DVC. Have to tell you that a hundred times out of a hundred, we would pick DL over WDW (unfortunately it is so difficult to get Grand Californian reservations with our DVC home resort being Animal Kingdom, that we are forced to go to WDW).

In terms of total rides and attractions, DL has more in its two parks (really 1 park with two entrances about 60 seconds away from each other) than WDW has in all four of its parks, and you never have to spend (what feels like) half of your vacation riding buses or dealing with the TTC - at DL, you're right there (even if you stay at one of the non Disney properties across the street).

Please do yourself a favour and look on the Disneyland forum for a lengthy thread called Hydroguy's Guide to WDW visitors coming to Disneyland (or something like that), where he spent a great deal of time pulling together a thread with everything a WDW regular needs to know about visiting DL.

If you have the chance to visit during the 60th anniversary, please do so. The new fireworks, World of Color and Paint the Night are mind-blowing - PTN is basically the Main Street Electrical Parade multiplied by about a million. We were at DL two weeks ago and even I wanted to see it multiple times, it was that good.

The greatest difference we find between a WDW and DL vacation is that there is much more down time at WDW, where we go in the morning, hit the pool in the afternoon and go back at night, as opposed to DL/DCA where everything is bunched so close together, once you enter the park, you'll want to spend all day there. We spend longer at WDW because of this (7-10 days), but like that we can do everything at DL/DCA (multiple times) in 3-4 days and can spend the rest of our vacation enjoying SoCal (especially San Diego).

sk8jdgca · Nov 25, 2015

We stayed at the Hilton for Disneyland. Prior to Anaheim, we were in Long Beach and rented a car for that portion. Once we got to DL, I returned the car ( right across the road from the Hilton) The Hilton is located across the road from the DL parking lot. We just walked there and yolk the shuttle bus to the main gate....easy peasy. We used Anaheim tour company to do a tour of LA and Warner studios. It was a great experience and relatively inexpensive. They Also do an OC beach your that looks good.
I loved DL for a lot of the reasons above, no FPF+, easy of dining, you don't have to go to 3 parks to get the big rides, ease of park hopping. My kids missed the animals from Ak and the countries from Epcot

peacefrogdog · Nov 25, 2015

In agreement with other posters, we enjoyed DL more than WDW (although we've been to WDW so many times, it may be an issue of being too "familiar").
Being able to walk everywhere is the big appeal similar to the experience at Universal Orlando except parks are even closer together. There are so many hotel options across the street from DL that are affordable, let alone the Disney hotels.
If hoping to travel in the summer, the weather in Anaheim will be more tolerable than Orlando for sure.

What's interesting is that different wait times for some rides compared to WDW. At DL, line and wait for Star Tours was much longer than in DHS, whereas the line/wait for TSMM was less compared to DHS.

squirrel · Nov 25, 2015

I prefer WDW even though I live closer to DL. I have not been to WDW since they started Fastpass+ and the Magic Bands. Now I don't really care to visit. All the planning for meals was enough now adding in the FP's forget it.

At DL the most you can get is a 5 day ticket without purchasing an AP, WDW you can get a 10 day ticket.

At DL you don't need to stay at a Disney Hotel, the biggest perk is an extra hour each morning (not very important to have). There are a lot of cheaper options that are just as close or even closer than some of the Disney owned. They offer breakfast and some have suites so you can spread out a little. I don't stay at a Disney hotel for DL, I do for WDW.

DL does not have fireworks and parades every day like at WDW. They only do some of the entertainment on the weekends during slower times (even if you don't think it's slow).

There are a lot of ways to make DL a cheaper vacation since you can eat at restaurants outside the parks quite easily. Stay off property, no need for a car unless you want to visit other attractions.

Frozen2014 · Nov 26, 2015

I've thought about this too. Where in Canada are you? For us, we're in Ontario and so a much shorter (and I would imagine cheaper) flight to Orlando than CA.

PS - The poster above made a comment about no Magic Banks at DL, commenting liek they are negative. Personally i loved our magic bands. They held your park tickets, room key, restaurant ADRs, FastPasses, Photos. They were great....an all in one.

dsneygirl · Nov 26, 2015

Frozen2014 said:
I've thought about this too. Where in Canada are you? For us, we're in Ontario and so a much shorter (and I would imagine cheaper) flight to Orlando than CA.

PS - The poster above made a comment about no Magic Banks at DL, commenting liek they are negative. Personally i loved our magic bands. They held your park tickets, room key, restaurant ADRs, FastPasses, Photos. They were great....an all in one.

WE are in Ontario as well but always fly from BUF. Any time we've flown to LAX it's been about double the MCO price.

I love the Magic Bands I do not miss Fast Pass + from WDW at all. Only a tiny percent of DL guests stay on site so no Magic Bands as of yet.

Frozen2014 · Nov 26, 2015

dsneygirl said:
WE are in Ontario as well but always fly from BUF. Any time we've flown to LAX it's been about double the MCO price.

I love the Magic Bands I do not miss Fast Pass + from WDW at all. Only a tiny percent of DL guests stay on site so no Magic Bands as of yet.

Funny as we've always heard that people fly out of Buffalo but when we checked, it never saved us that much (vs Toronto). Maybe it's the time of year we were going.
Yeah...so guess when you ask what is more expensive...the double airfare has to be included.
But...you say it's for your honeymoon and if its somewhere you and your fiancé want to go (i.e. to DL), then go for it if its still in your budget.
Enjoy...whatever you decide.

starvenger · Nov 26, 2015

Well, just found out that my brother got a job in LA and is moving there, so I may just have to get a SoCal city pass and take a trip out west...

dsneygirl · Nov 28, 2015

Frozen2014 said:
Funny as we've always heard that people fly out of Buffalo but when we checked, it never saved us that much (vs Toronto). Maybe it's the time of year we were going.
Yeah...so guess when you ask what is more expensive...the double airfare has to be included.
But...you say it's for your honeymoon and if its somewhere you and your fiancé want to go (i.e. to DL), then go for it if its still in your budget.
Enjoy...whatever you decide.

There are so many factors. We also went last year and bought our tickets when the dollar was around 85-90cents. We also had enough Southwest points that we got 1 ticket free. We always prefer BUF. Even if the price was equal we would pick BUF for ease and SW great change/cancellation options. (we also live west of T.O. so it's only about 15min further to get to BUF)

kuhltiffany · Nov 28, 2015

The key to getting cheap Buffalo flights for us was to book the minute they were released by Southwest. We were often able to get flights for 1/3 of the price it would have cost us from Toronto!

Frozen2014 said:
Funny as we've always heard that people fly out of Buffalo but when we checked, it never saved us that much (vs Toronto). Maybe it's the time of year we were going.
Yeah...so guess when you ask what is more expensive...the double airfare has to be included.
But...you say it's for your honeymoon and if its somewhere you and your fiancé want to go (i.e. to DL), then go for it if its still in your budget.
Enjoy...whatever you decide.

SaraJR · Nov 28, 2015

i fly out of buffalo alsowe are in southern ontario

WDW vs. DL ?

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