• Home
  • Blog
  • Info By Topic
    • Disney Armed Forces Salute
      • Disney Armed Forces Salute Full Details
      • Disney Armed Forces Salute FAQ
      • FAQ Friday Blog Posts – Your Most Asked Questions
    • Military Discounted Tickets
      • Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets
      • Regular Military Discounted Disney Tickets
      • Military Discounted Ticket Overview
    • Resort Hotel Information and Military Discounts
      • Resort Hotel Overview
      • Shades of Green – WDW’s Military Resort
      • Disney Armed Forces Salute Room Discounts
      • The Walt Disney World Resorts
      • The Disneyland Hotels
    • Walt Disney World Theme Parks
    • Disneyland Theme Parks
    • Dining Information and Military Discounts Overview
      • Dining at WDW for Military Families
    • Transportation Information and Military Discounts Overview
    • Disney Technology Information
      • Disney Technology Overview
      • PhotoPass and MemoryMaker Military Discount
      • Genie & Genie+ Service
      • Linking Disney Military Tickets and FastPass Plus Reservations
    • Outside the Parks Information and Military Discounts
    • Resources and Links for You
  • Info By Location
    • Walt Disney World
      • Walt Disney World Theme Parks
    • Disneyland Resort
      • Disneyland Theme Parks
    • Universal Studios
    • SeaWorld – Busch Gardens
    • Resources and Links for You
  • Shades of Green
    • Shades of Green Overview
    • Shades of Green Prices
      • Shades of Green Eligibility
      • Shades of Green Regular Prices
      • Shades of Green Discounts
      • Shades Of Green – Disney Price Comparison
    • Shades of Green Guest Rooms
      • Shades of Green Standard Rooms
      • Shades of Green Poolside Rooms
      • Shades of Green – Disney Value Resort Comparison
      • Shades of Green – Disney Moderate Resort Comparison
      • Shades of Green – Disney Deluxe Resort Comparison
    • Shades of Green Ticket Office
      • Shades of Green Attraction Ticket Sales Office
      • Shades of Green – Preorder Tickets
    • Shades of Green AAFES Store
    • Shades of Green Dining Overview
    • Shades of Green Transportation Overview
    • Shades of Green Pools
  • Get a Disney Quote
  • About MDT
    • Our About Page
    • Our Team
    • Roll Call (Featured In)
    • Support MDT
    • Contact
    • Brands & Advertisers
    • Bloggers/Writers
    • Disclosure Policy
    • Support Military Disney Tips
  • Updates
    • Newsletter
    • Facebook

Military Disney Tips Blog

By Military for Military

Ears of Experience Military Disney Vacation Experts
You are here: Home / Disneyland / Disneyland Military Family Trip Report

Disneyland Military Family Trip Report

By Steve 16 Comments

© Disney Sleeping Beauty CastleToday we feature a MDT reader trip report.

This report comes from Josh who is sharing about his recent family vacation to Disneyland in California.

Josh works in Air Force Public Affairs and has shared a very popular Disney Cruise Line trip report with us previously.

Thanks so much for taking the time to share this Josh!

Has Disneyland lost some of its magic?

By Joshua Strang

Blasphemy!

Let me begin by saying that we are not Disney snobs. I think of us more as well-versed Disney travelers. Over the years, we have been fortunate enough (thanks to military discounts) to be able to go to Disneyland, Walt Disney World and even take a Disney cruise. We have become pretty good in planning and executing a Disney vacation and have even helped a few people plan theirs.

We were fortunate enough to visit Disneyland for the first time since going there post-deployment in 2009. Since that time, we have done about 4 WDW trips and one cruise. We love the magic of Disney and were really looking forward to our trip. In the end however, it left us slightly disappointed, magic wise. Here is our trip report and observations from our adventure.

Our troop on this trip consisted of myself, my wife, our two daughters (9 and 5), and my mother-in-law. Our adventure really began on the drive. We are stationed a two-day drive away and most of the drive went pretty uneventful. When we were about three hours away my youngest bit into an apple and lost her first tooth. We told her this was a good thing because Tinkerbell would take over tooth fairy duties at the hotel. She seemed pretty happy about that, we just needed to make sure Ms. Bell knew she lost her tooth…

Additional Parking Cost

We arrived at the Grand Californian Hotel and check-in went well. One big thing I noticed right away was that Disneyland charges for self-parking. I was informed that parking would be $17 a day for our stay. I thought that was a bit pricey since we already paid a good amount to stay there but, it is what it is.

Note: The parking is across the street in a gated parking area. I felt it was secure but you do need to cross two cross-walks to get to and from the hotel. This was definitely a change from WDW. As a comparison, WDW does not charge for parking and Disney Cruise Line charges based on the length of your cruise.

Grand Californian Hotel

© Disney Grand-Californian

Grand Californian

The hotel overall was as nice as it was the first time we stayed there many years ago. I did notice that a number of the large lights were out. This is something I haven’t noticed at a WDW resort before. Sure, there may be a random light bulb out here and there but these were in the large chandeliers hanging overhead. 

Another thing I noticed is that one night when we were at the pool, the pool bar had closed well before we arrived at about 5pm. This was new since the last time we went to WDW, the bar was as late as the pool.

Overall, the hotel was still great and our kids enjoyed the pool and the nightly movie outside.

Disneyland Resort Theme Parks

© DIsney Cars Land

Cars Land

One of the things I really like about DL is the proximity of the parks. You can easily walk to all hotels, Downtown Disney and both parks with little to no trouble. In WDW, you are at the mercy of the bus/river/monorail system which can waste a lot of time in your day if you are there with a lot of other people.

We were excited to get our first look at Cars Land and we were not let down. That area is very well done! Overall California Adventure is very well done and we had a lot of fun there. At Disneyland Park, we were sad that a few of our favorite rides were closed but we had looked that up online well in advance so we already made our peace with that.

One thing we noticed is that there doesn’t seem to be as many characters roaming the parks. It seems that at WDW, you can’t turn around without a celebrity sighting whereas at DL, we only saw a few walking around. I did however thoroughly enjoy that Storm Troopers were checking people through the Star Tours ride.

© Disney Mickey-and-Minnie

Earlier that day, my youngest had completed the Jedi Academy which is a must do if your child loves Star Wars. When we were standing in line for Star Tours, a couple of Storm Troopers were trying to give people some trouble but when they tried to pass through my 5-year old, she stood her ground. Their “handler” told her she was very brave for standing up to them. When we went inside to board the ride, they were in there moving the line along and checking people out.

Another good experience we had was Chip and Dale’s breakfast at Storytellers Café in our hotel. Those characters did a good job with interacting with people and spent a lot of time playing around. Dale caused the most trouble though as he came over and pretended to pour our bottle of hot sauce in my wife and mother-in-law’s coffee and then stared them down and made them drink it.

One location in Disneyland that we feel needs a major makeover is Toontown. The whole place feels really dated. Not many of the younger generation know Roger Rabbit or Gadget and those are two of the main rides there. The entire area seems old and the paint has faded. It almost seems like they don’t even care about the condition of that area. Personally, I would love to see that entire place torn down and rebuilt as the Mos Eisley spaceport. The Roger Rabbit ride could be replaced by a T-47 Airspeeder ride as you repel AT-AT walkers on Hoth…are you listening Disney?

© Disney Toontown

Toontown

Toontown isn’t the only area in need of paint as we noticed a lot of areas around the park had chipping paint and needed a bit of an overhaul.

Disneyland also doesn’t do as good of a job of integrating Fast Pass users with the Stand By people. They would let an entire line of Fast Pass people in while the rest of us waited. At WDW, they let a few Fast Pass through, then a few Stand By and both lines seem to move with a nice flow.

MDT Note: Disneyland uses what Disney World regulars call the legacy FastPass system with paper tickets you have to go to the ride to get.

Disneyland Cast Members

We noticed a difference in the cast members working at Disneyland vs. those at Walt Disney World and the Disney Cruise Line. First off, about 90% or more of cast members all had California as their home of record on their name tags. This was a huge difference for us.

WDW and DCL do a great job of hiring cast members from all over the U.S. and the globe. I understand that with DCL and WDW’s Epcot World Showcase, but even in the other WDW parks and hotels you find people from all over. I think this is a great and have always had fantastic attitudes and service.

At DL, it almost seemed like most of the people just thought of their job as, just another job. I think the diversity that WDW and DCL has really adds to the experience. DL may benefit in hiring people other than just California locals.

One cast member actually made me complain! I am really easy going and never really complain about anything. If I get bad service, then I just don’t go back. On the first evening, we went to explore our hotel and to stretch our legs from the long two-day drive. We went in to the hotel store to check out the goods. We were looking at the Dooney and Bourke bags when the cast member working there came over. Our conversation quickly went from talking about the bags to being a protective dad. It then quickly went to him mentioning multiple times how he used to be a Marine sniper (which I highly doubt) and how he liked to hunt deer. This then went to how most people shoot them through the chest which causes them to bleed out but the way he shoots them, they die quickly. He also told us about telling his kids he was bringing a bunch of Bambi’s home. All of this was in front of my kids who, by the way, 30 min earlier had been excited to see Bambi on our shower curtain in our room. I quickly ushered my wife out the door and was left kind of thinking, did that really just happen? I was pretty tired at that point but just let it go. After sleeping on it, I decided that I handled that incorrectly and really should have said something to him and then guest services. After getting myself ready for the day, I headed down to report it to guest services. The look on the three 20-somethings faces lead me to believe that they had not heard that one before.

Over all, most of the cast members were very friendly but didn’t quite have the magic that we have experienced on other trips.

Other Guests

I’m not sure what it is, but we noticed a lot of people leaving their trash everywhere at Disneyland. In general, we never really notice it much at WDW.

One lady dropped an entire container of cheese on the ground which splattered everywhere. She looked at us, looked at her mess, and just walked away. Accidents happen, but don’t just leave it for the cast members to clean. Take some responsibility.

Everywhere we went, people routinely left their trash like Disney owed it to them to clean it up for them. We chose to use it as a teaching opportunity to our kids. See that kids? Don’t be rude. You made the mess, you clean it.

MDT Note: A very high percentage of Disneyland’s daily guest population are annual passholders. Something like 80 to 85 percent of attendance have APs.

Our Verdict

In the end, we still had a great vacation. We just feel that Disneyland as a whole felt a little tired and worn.

At first we thought we were being too hard but throughout our trip, we overheard many other couples in the park and our hotel say the same thing we were saying, there didn’t seem to be as much magic at Disneyland compared to WDW.

It is still worth the trip but we felt our money could be better spent at WDW or on a Disney Cruise first.

Thanks so much for the trip report Josh!

How about you?

Have you visited Disneyland recently?

Share your experiences in the comments below!





Planning a Disney Trip? Want to get the best military discounts that are available? Feeling a little confused?

See Our Great Disney Discount and Planning Info:

  • Disney Veteran & Military Discount Eligibility Guide
  • The Military Family’s Walt Disney World Comprehensive Vacation Planning and Preparation Guide 
  • Military Disney Tips Disney Packing Checklist 
  • Disney Military Tickets – Your Start to Finish Guide
Learn about the Disney Armed Forces Salute the best military discount that there is for Disney. See our Topic Overview Pages:
  • Resorts/Hotel Overview Page
  • Dining Overview Page
  • Transportation Overview Page
  • Technology Overview Page

Military Disney Tips' Recommended Disney Travel Agent

Save on your Disney Vacation With Ears of Experience

Ears of Experience Disney Only Travel Agency. Military family owned and operated! They know all the ins and outs of Disney military discounts!

 
 
 

   

Filed Under: Disneyland Tagged With: Disneyland

Comments

  1. pat says

    12 May 2015 at 18:51

    Sad to say, it appears that Disneyland has become the stepchild of the Disney family – all the innovation and effort seems to go to Florida. I do think there is more to do there outside of the parks and Disneyland has become more of a local park as opposed to a destination park, but it still deserves some attention.

    Reply
    • Steve says

      12 May 2015 at 19:02

      Thanks Pat, appreciate the comment!

      Reply
  2. Victoria says

    6 June 2015 at 19:17

    You should not have been charged for self parking.

    According to allears:.net: “Valet parking is available for $17/day. Self-parking is free, and the lot is located across Disneyland Drive. If you’re checking in and wish to self-park, it’s easiest to proceed to the resort’s entrance, tell the attendants you are checking in and wish to self park, then go inside and check in. After check in you can remove your luggage from the car and then move the car to the self-parking lot. It’s about a 5-minute walk to the hotel entrance. You will not receive a parking pass – to exit the parking lot either show your room key to the parking lot attendant or use it to operate the gate at the automated parking lot exit.”

    Reply
    • Steve says

      6 June 2015 at 22:35

      Thanks Victoria!

      Reply
  3. Amanda says

    6 June 2015 at 20:50

    I disagree with the comment that all of the innovation and effort have gone to WDW. Disneyland just premiered 3 brand new, state of the art night time shows for their 60th anniversary – Disneyland Forever (new fireworks show), the Paint the Night parade, and World of Color- Celebrate.

    In the last year (or so) Big Thunder Mountain Railroad received new effects and an upgraded experience, the Alice in Wonderland dark ride has received new state of the art effects, the Matterhorn has received new Abominable Snowman animatronics, the sophisticated Hatbox Ghost animatronic was added to the Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan is in the process of receiving new effects and reopening in July.

    Condor Flats in California Adventure was just completely rethemed to Grizzly Peak, and the Soarin’ films and tech updated to digital (presumably in preparation for a new Soarin’ film to come to both WDW and DLR in the not too distant future).

    There is *so* much happening at the Disneyland Resort this year with the 60th anniversary – both as special additions for it, and just upgrades around the park. Everything they are doing is a huge part of why we are taking a Disneyland trip this year instead of a WDW trip.

    I feel for the author of the article and the experiences he had that weren’t so magical. That would, of course, be disappointing to anyone. I hope he enjoys whatever Disney destination his family chooses next!

    Reply
    • Steve says

      6 June 2015 at 22:44

      Thanks for the great comment Amanda!

      Reply
  4. Andrea says

    6 June 2015 at 22:42

    No, they do charge to self park as well as valet. We are at Disneyland right now.

    I agree with all points but there are reasons for some of it. For example this is just a job for most cast members. WDW has the college internship program which attracts more enthusiastic young employees. I still love Disneyland but it was an adjustment from WDW. I like how compact it is and walkable. I also like that it’s on the west coast as we have two toddlers. Flying all day to FL isn’t happening for us.

    Reply
    • Steve says

      7 June 2015 at 09:46

      Great comments, thanks Andrea

      Reply
  5. Elizabeth says

    7 June 2015 at 01:05

    Wow I’m so glad you brought that up about the cast members! My mom and I felt the same way. We love seeing/talking to cast members at WDW from all over the world & I’ve seen teens looking happier working on the boardwalk down the shore than these CA residents working at Disneyland. We didn’t meet The Deer Hunter but that story doesn’t suprise me. We saw some very non-Disney behavior from DL cast members on our visits these past few years.

    However I think the other guests/tourists at DL are for the most part really nice and easygoing. We met some really great people while waiting in lines for different attractions and at downtown disney!

    Reply
    • Steve says

      7 June 2015 at 06:30

      Thanks Elizabeth!

      Reply
  6. Sarah says

    8 June 2015 at 07:16

    I agree about the lack of magic. I went to Disneyland for the first time April 2015 and stayed at the Grand Californian. I don’t think I’d call the cast members rude, but I encountered many that didn’t really have the great attitude that I usually encounter at WDW. There were many things I was disappointed in, but I’m not going to go through each of them here. I’ll just say that I was planning my next WDW trip in my head as I longed to be there while I was at DL.

    Reply
    • Steve says

      8 June 2015 at 15:34

      Thank you Sarah

      Reply
  7. Danielle says

    26 June 2015 at 11:28

    Thank you for the insight! We are a family of 6 that have been Disney World fanatics for over 15 years. We are currently stationed in San Diego so we’re at a pretty convenient distance to Disneyland. We’ve been here for 6 months but are a little wary of going to Disneyland because Disney World left some big shoes to fill. At least we could know what to expect and won’t try to compare to Disney World. Thanks again!

    Reply
    • Steve says

      26 June 2015 at 11:49

      Enjoy Danielle!!!

      Reply
  8. Brittni says

    2 May 2016 at 21:10

    I hate to say I feel completely opposite. I would much rather visit Disneyland over Disney World. I enjoy the laid back feel of Disneyland over the rush, rush, rush feel of WDW. I also enjoy several of the rides more at Disneyland. But to each their own. I don’t stay at the Disneyland hotels though and I will say that $17 is a little much.

    Reply
    • Steve says

      5 May 2016 at 07:50

      Thanks for your thoughts Brittni!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Our Most Popular Posts

How to Activate Your Disney Armed Forces Salute Tickets

The Best Rooms at the Shades of Green Resort at Walt Disney World

Top Ten Things You Need to Know About Disney’s Armed Forces Salute Military Discount Tickets

Your Guide to Orlando International Airport

Linking Disney Military Tickets and Theme Park Reservations

Disney Veteran Discount and Disney Military Discount Eligibility Guide

Universal Orlando Resort 2022 Freedom Pass – Military Ticket
Ears of Experience - A Fee Free Disney Travel Agent

Ears of Experience is a travel booking company specializing in Disney vacations. Military family owned and operated! They know all the ins and outs of Disney military discounts!

Military Discounts for You

  • Military Discounted Scooters/ECVs
  • Military Discouned Stroller Rentals

Subscribe to the Newsletter | Contact Me | Advertise | Webmasters/Bloggers

About Military Disney Tips | Resources and Links | Roll Call (Featured in)
If you found this site helpful, please consider supporting Military Disney Tips
Marketing Disclosure | Privacy Policy | Copyright Statement
Why are there ads on this site?
© Copyright 2007-2022 Military Disney Tips is a Magic Shell Media LLC Website
Other helpful MSM sites: Universal Orlando for Military & Universal Orlando Guide
U.S Military Veteran Owned Business

FTC Disclosure of Material Connection: In order for us to maintain this website, some of the links in the post above may be affiliate links.
Regardless, we only recommend products or services we use personally and/or believe will add value to our readers.
Military Disney Tips is not affiliated with, authorized or endorsed by, or in any way officially connected with: The Walt Disney Company, Disney Enterprises, Inc. or any of their affiliates, nor the Shades of Green Resort, NBC Universal, Universal Orlando Resort, or the Armed Forces Vacation Club.

Buy American!