Disney Fun: Part 3

August 09, 2016

This summer we visited Disneyland in June for my Birthday and to get in the Disney mindset for an upcoming Disney World trip, I am so glad that we did that as Disneyland was still very fresh for our Disney World trip and I can safely say that I saw a lot of differences and similarities. So I am going to continue breaking down my thoughts for you here, in my favorite form - LISTS!!

1) Size - Disney World is huge. At 40 sq miles it completely dwarfs Disneyland at their measly 85 acres.

I always knew that DW was huge, but it didn't really hit me until we were checking into our hotel. The woman at the front desk (who I will never see again but she was one of the nicest/most helpful people I've ever met) told us to allot 30 minutes to get to Magic Kingdom. We realized that some of that time was waiting for the bus, but it was a good 20 minutes to get there on their bus. We were staying on property! I was shocked by the distances to different parks and hotels. We were at one of the Value Resorts (All Star Sports).

At one point on the trip I started to have heat stroke, when I started to get sick we were at the France pavilion in Epcot. I left immediately and it took me a half hour to walk to the front of the park and another half hour to get back to our resort. The entire time I felt like passing out. That is when I realized just how large DW really is. If I had the same experience at Disneyland at the clear opposite end of one of the parks, I could be in my room in a half hour (if I was staying at an on site or good neighbor hotel).

On the flip side, there is so much to do at DW. We were there for 8-9 days and there was still a lot more that we could've seen or done that we just didn't have enough time to get to. If you spent 8-9 days at DL you will have seen everything many times.

2) Price - When you start pricing a DW or DL vacation it can be overwhelming. It is not a cheap vacation by any sense of the imagination. A few years back we went to DL with the same friends as our DW trip. When we did the DL trip we stayed at a hotel approximately a mile from DL and had to drive to the park. With all the value resorts and different options that DW has to offer it would be silly not to stay on property. If you stay on property at DW they pick you up at the airport, deliver your bags to your room, and they have a bus service that goes to each park and Disney Springs every 20 minutes.

Renting a car for DW wasn't even a thought in our minds, however if you are flying into LA for DL you almost have to rent a car, it isn't the same situation.

When I total up both of these trips we took with our friends: DL probably comes out as more expensive; airplane, rental car, hotel, park tickets, food, souvenirs. When you plan your trip to DW you pay for it all in advance, they have all inclusive packages so we had to pay for; airplane, package, and souvenirs. For me it is so much easier to do a big trip when I have it all paid in advance, a vacation for me is budgeting before and not during. As I mentioned in the food post, paying for a food package gave us the freedom to eat at any restaurant that we desired in DW, while at Disneyland we never go to more than one table service-type restaurant per visit. It isn't cheaper at DW but when the money has been prepaid it is easier to spend even if it is the same amount of money.

3) Vacation Extras - Disney allows you to add many extras to your vacation, you can customize your vacation and add a little extra spark of magic. On one of my firsts trips to DL my Dad arranged for a tray of Mickey Rice Crispy Treats to greet us in our room. Another example is our friend surprising his wife with a tiara for her birthday at Cinderella's Royal Table, these are just two small examples of little extras to personalize your trip and make some fun memories.

My favorite vacation extra was the photo pass, this is available at DW and DL. Throughout the Disney Parks there are professional photographers who are stationed at all the photogenic spots and waiting to take your photo. They put you in the correct position and take 5-10 photos of you and they are the best souvenir you can get. After the photo is taken they load the photos onto your ticket, photo pass card, magic band or annual pass and you can go onto their website and order them at your pleasure. Additionally they have deals where you can get a download of every picture from your day at the parks or your vacation as a whole. In DL for my birthday weekend it cost us $39.99 for all of our photo pass photos, for our DW trip it cost $149.99 as we purchased this in advance. This was a wonderful purchase as we had 300 photos available for download. They also add some extra Disney magic to some of them.