Dear Walt Disney World runDisney competitors,
Welcome to California.
Two things I have learned about those of you in the runDisney community are that you are good folks who know your way around Disney Parks, and that, for the most part, your parks are the ones in Orlando, Florida.
Now many of you have been to Anaheim before and those of us who call Disneyland our home park are glad to have you back for the Halloween races at the Disneyland Resort in September. But for those of you who are WDW park veterans and are less familiar with our parks here in California, there may be some culture shock, and, for you, I have put together a list of a few things that might seem different or strange or surprising to you.
Here goes.
We really don’t do the “Disney Bubble.”
With the four theme parks plus water parks and a zillion acres of land owned by Disney in Orlando, the ability to envelop your entire vacation in fairy dust is a key driver of Walt Disney World’s success and an important part of the experience. Here in California, we have a tiny fraction of the space, two theme parks, Downtown Disney (like an itty-bitty version of your Disney Springs), and three hotels. And that’s it.
While you could stay in one of the three Disney-owned properties and never see the rest of the outside world, you’d really have to work at it because the outside world is nearby in every direction. With this in mind, unlike in Florida, the Disney-owned hotels would be considered something of a luxury exception to the way most of us do the California parks.
We stay at the hotels across the street. Transportation is not locked down like it is at WDW and almost all of the dozens of the hotels you will find on Harbor, Katella, or Disney Way are within easy walking distance to either of the two parks. Even the most forgiving of us will admit that the walk is not always the nicest given the urban crowding in the area, but we all have to play the hand we’re dealt and the streets are generally pretty safe. Most of the hotels are quite nice.
While the Disney Bubble is an intoxicating model, its absence has some advantages. The range of hotel pricing is much more flexible as is the cost and variety of food and drink available on your vacation. Also, due to the surrounding area not being branded Disney resorts, the two Anaheim parks work a great deal harder on keeping the guests from seeing the outside world. If you’ve ever taken the Railroad at Florida’s Magic Kingdom and found yourself staring at hotel construction and parking lots, you’re in for a pleasant surprise at Disneyland.
Nothing is far away.
We see you. You’ve got your running shoes on and you’re going to rope drop Rise of the Resistance and then over to Runaway Railway; and then you expect that you may need to take a long rest with an oxygen tank.
Take a breath, my friend.
You can fit almost all of Disneyland and Disney California Adventure — Toon Town, Galaxy’s Edge, Radiator Springs, everything — into Florida’s Magic Kingdom. Oddly, this doesn’t mean that the parks are short-changed — Disneyland actually has significantly more attractions than the Magic Kingdom — but, rather, that every available inch of space is used. You won’t find long paved walkways slowly transitioning guests between lands, but you will find an intensity of detail like you’ve never experienced.
The great joy of Disneyland is that you will find so much interesting history packed into every inch of the place. And, even after all the years and all the changes, you will find a heck of a lot of Walt himself packed in there, too.
While Disneyland may seem like a one-day park, if you do that, you’ll miss what’s great about it. Take a day to visit all the big attractions you’ve heard about and then take another day to enjoy what the place was actually built for: a highly manicured, whimsical, family park for people to wander through at their leisure and enjoy.
But you want to hear about those attractions, don’t you?
By all means, experience the attractions you are looking forward to, but if you are an experienced Walt Disney World guest and you want to know what you can skip, here’s a cheat sheet. (If I don’t mention the attraction, it means that there’s something unique about the Disneyland version worth experiencing.)
Haunted Mansion has some differences, but is fundamentally the same and could be skipped.
Both Galaxy’s Edge rides are 100% identical.
Same with both flavors of Soarin’.
Jungle Cruise… This is tough. WDW has the Cambodian Ruins which is wonderful, but, without exception, I’ve found the Disneyland Skippers funnier. My experience is limited in Florida, though.
California’s Pooh attraction is weaker than Florida’s. Don’t bother.
While the outside of It’s a Small World is obviously astonishing in Disneyland, the inside is pretty much the same in both parks.
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway is identical except for that the queue in California is an attraction in itself. That said, if you use a Lightning Lane for it, you’ll miss some of that, so it’s a toss-up.
Big Thunder Mountain — Walt Disney World’s is far better. You can skip DL’s.
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage vs The Seas with Nemo & Friends — It’s pretty much the same deal, but Disneyland’s is in a submarine with some funny references to the original Submarine Voyage attraction. It’s a toss-up, though.
Mad Tea Party, Dumbo, Astro-Orbitor, Autopia: skip unless your kids demand them.
Genie+ and Lightning Lanes are VERY different experiences here.
For a number of reasons having to do with the schedule of when you can purchase Genie+ and start to book your reservations, as well as the demographic of the guests — far more local — you will rarely find that you need to book a reservation more than an hour before you intend to get on an attraction. Both Lightning Lane and Individual Lightning Lane reservations rarely sell out until late in the day, if at all. Gaming the system is far less necessary than it is in Florida and, at least as of this writing, PhotoPass is included in all Genie+ purchases.
Don’t dismiss California Adventure.
Disney’s smallest park is no longer the redheaded-step-child-who-stole-something of theme parks.
It has been through a fifteen-year-long rehab and can, now, hold its own with the best of them. It has one of the best themed lands of any Disney park, Cars Land, which is not to be missed at night; two of the best restaurants in any mainland Disney park: Carthay Circle and Lamplight Lounge; several world-class E-Ticket attractions — Radiator Springs Racers, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT!, Incredicoaster; the absolutely magical, especially at night, Redwood Creek Challenge Trail; and Buena Vista Street which, at this point, might out-Main Street Main Street U.S.A. itself!
Seeing the Dora Milaje march through Avengers Campus is a truly stirring experience and if you happen to catch the Suitcase and Dream musical number which occasionally erupts on Buena Vista Street, you’ll know you’re in a park that’s turned into something special.
There is stillness in these parks that can be transformative.
It does seem strange to talk about stillness and quiet in a place known for crowds and hubbub. But Disneyland, and its sister, DCA, have something about them that no other parks seem to have been able to reproduce: calm.
You just have to know where to look and be open to it.
Here are a few of my suggestions, talk to any Disneyland fan and you’ll hear others.
So that’s it. I hope that we in California can be as welcoming to the Florida runners coming our way in September as you were to me in Florida last January. I look forward to seeing you on the race course.
And, to quote the man himself:
“To all who come to this happy place… Welcome.” — Walt Disney
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Kelly McCubbin is a columnist for Boardwalk Times
