5 Things I Absolutely Loved About Disneyland

I have been to Disneyland once before. Sort of. I went to LA to visit a friend and the girl I was traveling with agreed to drive down to Anaheim for a day so I could visit Disneyland. However, we didn’t purchase a park hopper and it was Labor Day. Since the trip wasn’t really about Disney, I didn’t do much research besides looking up what MaxPass was and a few differences between planning a Disney World and Disneyland vacation.

This time, we were going to go out to truly visit Disneyland and even better, it was going to be over the holidays! I began planning and researching not just what Disneyland does for the holidays, but what are can’t miss attractions and activities in Disneyland.

I’m always excited to visit Disney, but this was something different. While I own an annual pass at Disney World and love it, Disneyland is still amazing. Yes you’ll see Mickey Mouse at both, but it was cool to get that Disney feeling of visiting somewhere for the first time.

Location, Location, Location

One of the things you notice first at Disneyland is its location. I don’t mean that it is in Anaheim. I mean that if you are walking to Disneyland’s gates you can see California Adventures gates as well. No waiting for the bus, boat, or monorail to get from park to park. Is park hopper worth it, is one of the most common questions people ask when planning a Disney vacation. Disney World it isn’t always a clear necessity, but for Disneyland I think it should definitely be added.

We stayed across the street, about a block and half away at The Anaheim Hotel. The hotel was inexpensive and perfect for our trip. Lots of space, updated, clean, and most importantly close. Being able to walk from park to park was amazing, but being able to walk home without waiting for a bus after a long day? Heaven. No wonder people pay extra at Disney World for a Deluxe Resort!

You can hop from park to park with ease! It is similar to Universal Orlando’s setup with City Walk. It was extremely simple to change up parks multiple times a day. The actual size for both Disneyland and California Adventure is about the size of Hollywood Studios. So even though you are going to multiple parks, it isn’t the same amount of walking as you’d do if Disney World had a similar layout.

You go through security before you enter the vicinity of the parks. This means whether you are going to Downtown Disney, Disneyland, or California Adventure, you only have to go through security once. This makes visiting multiple parks a lot easier. Security takes times. Time you don’t want to waste on your vacation.

The Original

Whether you want to admit it or not, the fact that Disneyland was the original Disney Park makes it pretty special. The history of the park is slightly humbling to think about. It started with a dream, and a mouse, and turned into a worldwide phenomenon.

Seeing a castle that isn’t Cinderella’s at the end of Main Street is a bit odd at first, especially because of the size of Sleeping Beauty’s castle, but it is still beautiful. There is history throughout the park in ways that Disney World cannot match.

California Adventure

I know it is slightly cheating to say one of the things I love from Disneyland is an entire park, but I can’t simplify it more. Disneyland is great, but clearly it is very similar to Magic Kingdom. California Adventure is really unlike any of the theme parks at Disney World. The closest we have is Hollywood Studios, but this is significantly better.

Yes I know Hollywood Studios has Toy Story Land, but between Pixar Pier, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Cars Land, California Adventure truly reigns supreme. We were lucky to go during the Festival of Holidays too. There were food booths with holiday treats and I love festivals. Epcot has Festival of the Holidays, so it would be easy to assume the booths are the same. Luckily, Disney didn’t take the easy way out. Both Anaheim and Orlando have different offerings for their festivals.

Guardians of the Galaxy was retrofitted in 2017 from Tower of Terror. I am a little sad I never got a chance to ride it as Tower of Terror to compare to the Hollywood Studios ride. If you had a chance to ride the Disneyland Tower or Terror before the change, or have ridden Disney World’s version, you will see the skeleton of the former ride. It was fascinating to me how I could tell what was changed and how seamlessly it worked.

I could go on for a while about California Adventure, but it was by far our favorite. It was unlike anything we could do in Disney World, which made it unique. The magic of Disney coupled with California influences make for a truly special park.

Restaurants

I like to eat if that hasn’t been made clear before. Eating at every Disney World restaurants is on my Disney bucket list! There are so many choices of cuisine, budget, atmosphere, you are bound to find something you love. If you have your heart set on eating at a special restaurant, your dreams can be quickly shattered when it is one of the hardest ADRs to get. Especially if you aren’t reserving 180 days before your vacation.This isn’t always realistic.

Disneyland you don’t have to make reservations until 60 days out, but more than that, the majority of restaurants are counter service. They don’t require a reservation. While Disney World counter service locations are always known for being amazing, I’m looking at you Tomorrowland Terrace, Disneyland somehow masters the art of mass producing food.

The Plaza Inn becomes a counter service location for lunch and dinner and has amazing fried chicken. It is delicious without the skin being greasy. The Jolly Holiday Bakery makes delicious baked goods that has standard favorites as well as seasonal treats.

MaxPass

While I haven’t decided if I prefer Disney World or Disneyland’s fastpass system better, they both have pros and cons. I really liked the MaxPass was reasonably priced ($10 a ticket/day). It allowed you to make your fastpass reservations on your phone rather than at a kiosk. The thing I liked most about it, however, was the lack of planning.

Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely a planner, especially Disney vacations. However, one of my favorite parts about a Disneyland vacation is the lack of planning in comparison to Disney World. It was nice to adjust what we wanted to ride the day of instead of going by a plan I had made 60 days prior.