Really, it was kind of an anti-climactic way to leave Disney property.
Seriously ... especially because you were aware of the possibility of trouble. It's like ... pull out, nothing wrong, no trouble ... that's it?
Yes, I realize that we filled up with gas several miles farther away from the airport than we should. But I noticed how long it took for the needle to move off of full when we picked the car up. I figured I was safe. I know I see this question come up on the DIS from time to time, but I’ve never had a rental place ask me where I topped off or ask to see the receipt before. I was willing to take a chance to just have it done and not have to look for a station on the way.
I will admit that I'm not an expert on car rentals, but ... I'm guessing that you probably would have been fine filling up almost anywhere between Disneyland and the airport ... seeing as how it's like 20 miles - if you filled up all the way, I can't imagine they'd charge you for driving 20 miles. But what do I know...
And while I didn’t notice it on the way in, I was really struck by seeing the backside of the mountains of Carslands towering over a 7/11. It was just odd.
That sounds ... strange. I've never seen Cars Land from that angle (we fly in and out of LAX and I'm generally not paying attention anyway), but I'd imagine it's a very different view ... not necessarily in a good way.
We didn’t have any issues with traffic, race or otherwise. The only excitement we had on the way to the airport was me trying to figure out how to open the @#*% lid over the gas cap. I still don’t remember how I did it, but I had DW looking on Google on her phone. I just about reached the point where figured it was a rental and I was about ready to just find something to pry it open with when I finally found out how to get it.
The gas cap ... something that should be simple, but never is.
I entered our information and it couldn’t find us.
Odd…
I walked up to the counter and found a live person. She checked everything out and couldn’t find it either.
Uh-oh.
She asked what our flight number was. I told her.
She did some more typing, and then told us that the reason she couldn’t find us is because our flight is operated by USAir, not American. We’d have to go to the USAir desk to check in.
Want to guess which 2 airlines have their ticket counters at the far opposite ends of John Wayne Airport???
Ouch.
This may worse than my brother, who was on a Cathay Pacific flight booked through American and American found his ticket, but Cathay Pacific's online system couldn't find his ticket. At least he knew which airline to check in with at the airport! (Once he got to the airport he had no problem checking in, he just couldn't check in online for some reason and was freaked out because apparently Cathay Pacfic's US phone line isn't open on weekends except Saturday before 5, and this was after 5).
Ok, I’ll give them this. It did say somewhere in our information that the flight was operated by USAir. But I’ve flown flights (for example AA operated by American Eagle regional jets) where you check in at the counter of the airline through which you booked. And it only made sense to me that this is how this one would work since our ticketing material all said AA and AA owned USAir. But clearly, I was wrong.
Yeah, codeshares & flights operating under subsidiaries are always way more complicated than they need to be.
We finally made it to the USAir counter and quickly got checked in. We headed to security and the TSA agent who checked our boarding passes pulled us out of the line and let us go to the pre-check line. I didn’t see any marking on our boarding passes indicating pre-check, but there was nobody in that line so I think he was just taking mercy on us since we were balancing luggage and 2 kids.
Part of it may have been the luggage and kids. But part of it is just that they randomly assign people to precheck at security. I've never had precheck on my boarding pass and I've been through precheck 3 or 4 times. We get randomly sent there a lot ... I guess I don't look like a terrorist. It's usually random, but sometimes they'll do it just to take pity on someone with a lot of stuff and kids.
The TSA agent at the X-Ray machine was also great and talked to the kids while we were getting our bags back off the belt and he had Sofia stickers to give to DD and some Mickey stickers for DS! It was just something special that you definitely don’t expect to get at a TSA checkpoint.
That is awesome!!
On our way out of Chili’s we saw a couple who go to our church eating there. We stopped to say hi quickly. They were headed to Colorado to visit family.
So ... I'm guessing Dallas is a big layover place for flights from your home airport ... that or it's a really funny coincidence.
DD was getting restless and kept moving back and forth from my lap to DW’s, but all in all, the kids didn’t do too bad on our return flights.
I'm glad to hear they were better on the return flights than they were on the first set of flights. Would you consider flying with them again or were the flights to California just too much for you?
But honestly, I think I was happier with the service we had at WDW during these 2 trips. I think as always, you’ll find good and bad in both places. But overall, based on our experience on these trips, I give the nod to WDW.
We've had good CMs at both and not-quite-as-good CMs at both. There's definitely good and bad in both places.
Hotels - I think I’ve made that crystal clear. I loved the grounds of the hotels, both GCH and DLH, but having only stayed in one of them and not being overly impressed by the room itself I give the nod to WDW by a landslide. I loved our room and the grounds at AoA. I’d honestly pick it over GCH if I had to choose between the 2 of them right now.
I think it's hard to top AoA. I've never stayed on property in California (hopefully September 2016!), but I like AoA more than some fancier hotels I've visited.
Parks - Let’s not even compare them. They are similar yet oh so different. I absolutely loved DL and DCA but I can’t even begin to compare them to any of the WDW parks in a one on one basis. Long story short, go see them yourself!
Yay! We're finally not comparing things!
Night time shows - Well, we didn’t get to see WoC. So DL would probably win if we had. But while DL has a better Fantasmic, we weren’t blown away by the fireworks. Wishes was a much better show. And WDW has Illuminations going for it too… I’ll call it a draw but DL probably would have received the nod had WoC been running and if we’d been there once this new fireworks show and parade for the 60th had started up.
In my experience, I'd give it to DL ... because WoC is one of my favorite things in the world. Taking out WoC, I think I'd give it to WDW. So I definitely get what you're saying here.
Live Stage Shows - DL does them better. Mickey and the Magical Map and Aladdin are both phenomenal shows. I like both of them better than any show I’ve seen at WDW. l love Indiana Jones. Beauty and the Beast is good. Lion King isn’t bad. But these 2 fantastic shows are head and shoulders above anything I’ve seen at WDW.
Yeah, I really need to make time to see these shows next time I'm at DL...
Attractions - Oh boy… WDW wins on volume. DL wins on quality. With very few exceptions, DL attractions tend to best their WDW counterparts. ToT is clearly better in WDW. Star Tours is better in WDW if only due to theming of the area outside the attraction. But aside from that, the attractions themselves tend to be better in DL.
Sort of agree ... WDW has more total volume, but less that you can get to in one day ... it's probably much easier to do every attraction in DL than it is at WDW because they're so close together. So I think there's a lot more to do in one day, which makes a difference to someone like me who might not hop at WDW. But I'd definitely give it to DL on quality as well.
Queues - WDW handles this issue far better. I like the DL queues being outside… to a point. But it does get hot standing outside in the sun, even in January. I remember waiting close to 20 minutes for the Storybookland boats and it was uncomfortable. I’d hate to do that on a really hot day! The fact that WDW has indoor, air conditioned queues for the most part is probably enough to win this battle. But WDW also has better themed queues and they are much wider and give you some room to breathe. With the exception of the Carsland attractions and Indiana Jones, the queues at DL are very tight and pretty boring.
Agree with this, but ... it's also the nature of the age of the park. Many things were built when today's daily visitors were about how many they expected in a year. Most of the newer stuff (but not all) is better. WDW was a chance to fix the mistakes they made at DL ... which includes the small and hot queues.
No matter what they do to the park, space is limited and it is like you’re stepping back in time. Fantasyland feels older and more warm and welcoming. And this could be said for a lot of the other lands as well. In fact, unless they bulldoze entire lands and start all over I don’t think this element of the park will ever change. It will always have that quaint, welcoming feeling and it will take you back to 1955 when Walt Disney’s dream came to fruition.
Part of that is what DL is supposed to be, but part of it is also what Walt Disney didn't like about DL. He hated that he had no room to expand, which is why WDW is as big as it is. It's nice that some things will never change ... but it's also hard for a park to keep bringing people in without changing. I think that a lot of things at DL will never change much and the overall feel of the park will stay the same ... but they do need to change things a little just to keep people from feeling that the park is dated - I think it's hard to find a balance where it feels timeless, not dated, and DL needs to keep finding that balance. Whereas WDW is just constantly refreshing because they don't want or need to feel timeless.
That said ... I still miss the old entrance to DCA (which was less than 10 years old when they changed it). But I'm weird.
It will be hard to go back. It just doesn’t make sense for us from a dollars and cents and time spent traveling standpoint. WDW will always come out ahead. But if I ever find myself back out on the West Coast I’ll definitely figure out a way to stop by Walt’s apartment once again and say hi.
It's definitely a harder trip to make for most people. For me, the airfare alone is almost twice as much going to CA. But I think it's worth it, if you can, to try and save up for another trip there in a few years, when the kids are older and can remember more of it. One of the things I'm grateful for is that I've had the opportunity to do both several times. I think they're very different experiences and everyone should try to do both if at all possible. So I really hope you can find a way to make another trip out to the west coast!
Thanks for sharing your trip with us - I really enjoyed reading about both parts and getting to see two of my favorite places in the world through your family's eyes. I hope you get to book your next trip soon!
Next time maybe you can grab a Slurpee on RSR.
I'm working on a Law of Airports theory. I'll explain further in my TR.
I've been going to DLR since I was 2
I, for one, always appreciate it when people space out their updates...since I feel like I'm perpetually catching up around here. 
. How cool that they gave out Disney stickers too!
