Hey everyone, it's Jacqueline for Pixie Dust PhD. I was lucky enough to be able
to go to Disneyland in January of 2022, and in planning for that trip I thought
it'd be pretty easy peasy since I feel like I’m pretty good at planning Walt Disney World trips.
I was definitely overconfident and I want you to learn from my mistakes. Obviously, the Disneyland
resort and Walt Disney World resorts are totally separate entities, but even just in planning
there's some key differences in how to approach things and things to think about. In the first
part of the series we discussed planning logistics around how you get to Disneyland, hotel options
and advance dining reservations. This video is the second part of Disneyland planning for Walt
Disney Worlders, and today we will touch on attractions and technology--stay tuned!
Before we dive in, I want to say thanks so much for being here, leaving a like on the video,
and subscribing to the channel. Once you're subscribed you can ring that bell icon to
receive notifications whenever I upload new videos. And while YouTube is generally the
best place to contact me, if you want to chat outside of YouTube you can find me on Instagram
and Twitter @PixieDustPhD. Let's get to those planning logistics. Starting with rides, obviously,
there is a lot of overlap between the Disneyland resort and Walt Disney World resort when it comes
to attractions. That being said, at least in my experience, most of the rides were not
exact clones. For example, both iterations of east coast and west coast Disney parks have Big Thunder
Mountain, Space Mountain, It's a Small World, Pirates, and many more. But my experience of those
rides was actually very different. Maximizing your time in theme parks is obviously a key concern,
but don't write off all of the rides that you've been on at Walt Disney World in Disneyland because
there are some key differences. And one thing I encountered pretty frequently in my planning was
there are also rides that aren't exactly the same, but they are built on the same system.
I did not fact check this, but apparently Radiator Springs Racers is basically Test Track,
and Indiana Jones is basically Dinosaur. That being said, I felt like both of these rides at the
Disneyland resort were way different than their apparent sister rides at Walt Disney World, so
to me it's definitely still worth making time to do. Now, I consider myself a pretty casual Disney
theme park fan. Of course, I enjoy going, but I really don't consume every single detail, I don't
know a lot of the history, that kind of stuff. If you are a casual theme park connoisseur like I am,
and are not so caught up in the details and history, there are some rides where I felt like
the ride was mostly the same. Maybe there were some small differences, but nothing major,
and/or like just the queue or the surrounding area was very different and that's what made
it feel unique. So if you were very pressed for time, to me I think you could probably skip these:
that would be the Peter Pan ride, the Ariel ride, the Winnie the Pooh ride, the Buzz Lightyear ride,
and Jungle Cruise--although because the skippers change, and they have
some leeway with what they say of course, every Jungle Cruise adventure is different.
I really did enjoy Critter Country though, and the whole theming around the Winnie the Pooh ride area
in Disneyland. It was super different from Walt Disney World. Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters or
Space Ranger Spin or whatever it's called, basically at Disneyland you can pick up the
guns to shoot your targets at Walt Disney World they are stationary and attached to the vehicle.
The Little Mermaid ride I honestly couldn't tell if there was any difference. The queue was super
different, but in the ride it felt exactly the same to me. And pretty much same for Peter Pan.
Though again, I’m a pretty casual fan. I definitely don't have this all memorized, so I could totally
be wrong. But if you're like me and the small details don't grab your attention, then you may
not notice that these rides are different between the two coasts. In contrast, some of those earlier
rides I mentioned, like Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean… I think there were some
pretty significant differences even though they're quote unquote the same ride. Additionally, for
rides I think are mostly the same I didn't really notice anything massive would be Soarin’--unless
the California version is going, it was not when I was there; I believe the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge
rides are clones--I only did Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, I didn't do Rise of the Resistance
out in Disneyland, but I believe they are the same; Toy Story Midway Mania we did a bunch of
times just because I love that ride, but it's it's totally the same--the queues are different, but
the ride is the same, I’m very sure of that; and I’m pretty certain Dumbo is the same… there's not
too much you could do to make that different--the areas are different, but the ride is… it's Dumbo.
And while there is significant overlap in rides between the Disneyland resort and the Walt Disney
World resort, the Disneyland resort of course has rides unique to it. This is not an exhaustive list
by any means, but rides that I prioritized because I knew I really wanted to experience
them out in Disneyland since we don't have them at Disney World included Alice in Wonderland,
the Snow White ride, the Storybook Canals, Mr. Toad’s, and the Matterhorn. Interestingly, in my
research and prep work I’d seen people compare the Matterhorn and Expedition Everest a lot.
I guess because the theming is similar in that they're both like adventure mountain coasters,
but the rides are super different. So if you've been on Expedition Everest don't assume
that's what Matterhorn is--they're they're very different ride systems. The other big thing about
attractions that I wanted to point out when it comes to Disneyland is the nighttime spectaculars.
Obviously things are still evolving on both coasts as they continue to staff back up following those
pandemic related closures. That being said, from the best of my ability from what I could tell
even pre the pandemic related closure, Disneyland did not necessarily have fireworks every night.
Disneyland is very much embedded in Anaheim with the local residents and businesses. From what I
could tell, in my limited research, it seems like for a while, pre-pandemic even, there
wasn't necessarily fireworks at Disneyland every night out of respect for those local residents and
businesses who are just there in Anaheim living their lives. Therefore, while you are planning
your Disneyland trip it's really important that you keep checking the schedule to see what the
nighttime spectaculars may or may not be. When I was there in January of 2022 we had Mickey's
Mix Magic every night, but there were no fireworks on the weeknights. I had theme park tickets for a
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, so I didn't have a single opportunity to see fireworks.
And while I’m sure 99% of you know that the castle in Disneyland is much smaller than the castle at
Walt Disney World, that's easy to prep for--in terms of the nighttime spectaculars, if there are
no fireworks and it's just like projections on the castle, which is what Mickey's Mix Magic is, well
there's projections elsewhere too but, you know, it's a light show and projections and fun music…
it's fun, it's a good time, I enjoyed it. But it definitely does not compare to something like
Happily Ever After, so just go in with correct expectations. When I was there in January of
2022 Fantasmic! and World of Color were not up and running yet. I have heard that those are
fantastic and you can absolutely hype yourself up. But if for whatever reason when you're there it's
similar to my situation where it was just Mickey's Mix Magic with projections, just go in expecting,
you know, to have a cute dance party and not too much more. Let's move on to technology.
First things first, security at Disneyland is the old school style where they search your bag.
When we rope dropped we would get to security more than a half hour in advance of park open, so the
lines really were not a problem. But I have heard that if you show up a little closer to park open
through maybe the first hour or so of the day that the lines can be quite long. So do plan for extra
time for security. Also, for now, there are no MagicBands at Disneyland so I did not even bother
to pack mine. Sometime in 2022 Disneyland is supposed to get MagicBand+ like Walt Disney World,
but it's still not clear how they will differ at the two resorts. But anyway, at least for now you
don't need to bring your MagicBand because it's not going to do anything. While you're taking
PhotoPass pictures around the theme park, since you can't just tap your MagicBand, basically they
are going to scan a QR code from your app. Instead of having to pull this up in the app every time,
I would highly suggest that you just take a screenshot of your QR code and save it to
your photos. If you wanted to be really efficient, you could save the screenshot as your lock screen,
but in general I found just pulling up the photo of that screenshotted QR code was much more
streamlined, much easier than fumbling through the app every time we were taking a PhotoPass picture.
And for most ride photos you would see the preview of your photo after your ride; there would be a
string of a few numbers or letters, and then you basically input that in to link your photo
to your account. I definitely missed the ease of MagicBands when it came to PhotoPass. And the
last big piece of the technology is of course the Disneyland app, and it does differ from My Disney
Experience in some small but important ways. The biggest thing I found to be confusing while I was
planning and impactful when I was on vacation was that there was no family and friends list.
So to add your party together you add in the other people's ticket numbers into your account. So in
my Disneyland app I had my ticket, and then I also inputted the ticket number for my partner and my
best friend, which I felt was super weird but whatever that's fine. I was hoping that all of us
having each other's tickets in our account would sort of create a party for us, and then we would
be linked. But incidentally, it really didn't work like that. So for the most part I made our ADRs,
and even though my best friend and my partner were linked in my account because I had their
ticket numbers in there and I was linked in their account too, they couldn't see the ADR.
Versus at Walt Disney World, if you have folks in your friends and family list you can assign
them to your reservation so it shows up in their app too. This isn't the biggest deal,
but I did find it frustrating, especially in the planning phase when we were trying to book things.
Because of course, I mean, I live with my partner so that's easy enough;
my best friend is across the country. We are three hours apart in time zone. So it would have just
been so much simpler if I could just check the app to see what everyone was up to, instead of,
you know, have to wait until we could respond or talk on the phone given the time difference.
And very similar to that, because you aren't sort of linked as a party, not everyone can
access photos. Once we were in the parks we would take a PhotoPass picture and one of us would have
the cast member scan the QR code, usually it was me. In that example where my QR code got scanned,
my best friend and my partner did not have the photos in their account at all. If you're in a
travel party and multiple members of that party want the photos in their account, then when you
take the photo that cast member has to scan everybody's QR code. There is no streamlined
sharing of your photos with your party in the app. Again, it's not the biggest problem, but I did
just find it a little bit silly and frustrating. And in a weird way this whole experience made me
thankful for My Disney Experience, which I’m not sure I ever would have said previously. Thankfully
this was not a problem when it came to Genie+. If you wanted, one member of your party could
purchase Genie+ for everyone. So on our first day of our trip Adam purchased all three Genie+’s
for us. Or, if you want, you can purchase them separately, which is what we did on the second day
of our trip--we just all individually purchased our Genie+. Then once you have Genie+ you are
able to see everyone in your party that also has Genie+. When I made a reservation for the three
of us for whatever ride at whatever time, everyone was able to see that. So that integrated well. I’m
not really sure why they can't integrate photos and dining reservations, but with MagicBand+
coming to the Disneyland resort sometime in 2022 hopefully this all gets fixed. But if you
are traveling to the Disneyland resort before my MagicBand+ is released for Disneyland, or if once
it is released it doesn't necessarily add these functionalities, it's just something to be aware
of: that the connectivity with your travel party is pretty limited. Those were the biggest snafu's
I ran into in my research and planning phase, as well as execution while I was at Disneyland
as a person who is mostly familiar with the way things work at Walt Disney World. If you have
any questions, let me know in the comments down below and I’d be happy to help as best as I can.
But just like with part one of this video, I’m not a Disneyland expert here, so I may refer you
out to some friends of the channel like Anaheim Park Tourist and Hyperion Adventures Podcast.
I genuinely hope this has been helpful for you. Most of the point of the channel, in my mind at
least, is to figure out some frustrations when it comes to Disney parks and Disney Vacation Club
and let you all know that so you can avoid that to the best of your ability. With the technology
side though, we kind of just have to live with what we're given... so just trying to prepare
you for what to expect! If you are planning a trip down to Disneyland or Disney World,
I would love to hear about it in the comments down below. And best of luck with your planning phase!
May the rest of your day be magical, and we'll see you real soon at Pixie Dust PhD.