Disneyland 2024- Introduction and Index

Relaxed and Groovy
Or
Freakin’ California
 
We decided on a change of pace in our Vacation this time. For us that meant not going to our usual Disney Resort and visiting instead the Original Disney Theme Park (and its next door friend) in California. We had no idea how different that “pace” would be.
 
There are fundamental differences between our “home” Disney and this new experience which will help in the understanding some aspects of this trip. One issue I do not have a decent way to handle is: 

The Florida Resort Area is called Walt Disney World, and the main and most iconic park is called The Magic Kingdom, providing verbal separation. 

The California Resort Area is called Disneyland and the main and most iconic park is called… also Disneyland.
I have no decent way of verbal separation.
 
Note- We did have a fantastic time. The ranting is highlighted because it’s funnier that way.
 
Back to the differences- Many of these points tie strongly to the first fact.
 
A) Most Disneyland guests are regular, repeat customers. The Los Angeles area is HUGELY populous, and folks visit the parks many times, apparently often just to loiter around there. This changes a great deal of the dynamics and leads to a large number of areas to be structured more towards “hanging around a land for extended periods” rather than planning for specific things to happen at specific times.
 
B) The parks are SIGNIFICANTLY SMALLER but very dense. All of Disneyland’s boatload of attractions could fit inside EPCOT’s World Showcase Lagoon. (Granted, they would get wet.) This made us walk more. The reason- in Florida, if a character meeting or short line pops up on the other side of the Park, it is rarely worth crossing the entire distance to experience it. (I mean, we do anyway, frequently on some days, but that’s not the point.) In California, the close proximity of everything made those crossing jaunts far more frequent.
 
B1) A subsection of Park size makes it much harder to find a spot to watch parades. Not only is the route shorter, but they need to keep some sections the parade passes through free of spectators to allow Park pedestrian traffic to move at all.
 
C) Park hopping is MUCH EASIER. See “B” for the space situation. The Parks are “One Square Foot” as Anabelle says, they touch, and hopping is much cheaper. Our regular cross Park jaunts also included Inter-Park Jaunts on many occasions.
 
D) Character meetings are HIGHLY IMMERSIVE. This is likely due to the combination of the repeat customers and the wealth of out of work actors in the area. The App was rarely accurate or informative about who would be where and when. The amount of time a character was in an area was often miniscule, and sometimes they wandered around instead of meeting in a set location. However, individual interactions tended to be longer, more dramatic, and more interactive.
 
E) Wait times were LESS ACCURATE on the App but followed the same pattern as Florida. Low at rope drop, higher midafternoon, lower at the end of the night. Because of the “go there to hang around” mentality, this did not parallel crowd size like it does in Disney World. The crowds continued to grow all day until closing. The “Loiter in Disney” folks were a significant force.
 
While the Cast Members and Instant Disney Friends all maintained the Awesome Happy Disney Magic we’ve come to know and love, this quote sprang to mind many times on the trip.
 
“'The East Coast is kind but not nice, the West Coast is nice but not kind,' and East Coasters immediately get it. West Coasters get mad.” - Jordan Green
("Much of the rest of the country is hard to judge as they frequently use a faux polite, passive aggressive vibe." - Me)
 
As always, day names provided, at the most, last minute possible, in a sleep deprived college haze, by Anabelle.

"I did this at like 2:00 AM the other day because I couldn't sleep and just fixed it grammatically right now but I cannot stop laughing. Like, what was I smoking?"- Anabelle
 
Trip Index- "Disneyland 2024: The App is Uselss"
Day 1: We Have The Harrowing Realization that the App is Useless
Day 2: We Begin To Practice The Hippie Art of Manifesting Characters Because The App Is Useless
Day 3: 
Day 4: 
Day 5: 
Day 6: 
 
The planning was shorter, likely due to a combination of less Parks and less family. However, it was still extensive, because of the present in either coast’s Disney Parks… “It’s us!”
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Menu Interlude
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12
Part 13

Click here for other Disney Park Adventures (Below the 2013 Index)