It’s been about a week and I’m still not sure my brain has fully processed my whirlwind first trip to Disneyland. Well, I say first, but technically it was my second trip: as a fifteen year-old, I accompanied my family to southern California for a week, but spent most of that trip sick in the hotel with the flu. I was so desperate to see Disneyland then that I dragged myself to the gates one afternoon, only to enter the park, ride it’s a small world, and promptly leave again. I have no recollection of this experience whatsoever, save a fleeting memory of the iasw facade. So when a conference in San Diego gave me a chance to see Disneyland again last month, I jumped at it.

I spent only two and a half days at Disneyland/Disney California Adventure, but that was plenty of time in which to realize the many ways in which the California Disney parks experience is worlds apart from what I’m accustomed to in Florida. From the moment I set foot on property until the moment I tearily departed, Disneyland (we’ll lump DCA into this shorthand to save time) was a revelation. It tugged at my heartstrings – walking where Walt walked before was, in fact, quite emotionally moving – but also deepened my intellectual engagement with themed design generally and the Disney themed experience more specifically. And for all the talk that Disneyland is such a “small park,” 2.5 days wasn’t nearly enough to take in both it and DCA in the way I wanted. I’ll definitely be going back. Will it replace WDW for me? Probably not; after all, I’m an 80s kid who grew up at WDW, and those bonds are hard to break. But I feel like a better Disney fan and critic now for now having seen both, and having a new critical lens through which to view WDW will probably enhance future trips there as well.

While I certainly intend to write up a more narrative trip report, I wanted to offer my first impressions on what I think makes DL so different from WDW. Fair warning: it’s a bit text-heavy. I’ll have lots of photos coming up in the trip report if that’s more your thing.

First glimpse…and that’s basically when the tears started.

The blessing of size?  Since work and vacation take me to Central Florida sometimes upwards of 6-8 times a year, I have my WDW routine down pat: flight lands. Grab bags and rental car. Head to MCO south exit; jump on 417, which never has any traffic. On WDW property in 20 minutes; at the hotel/theme park of my choice in 30.

Let’s contrast that with my Disneyland arrival experience. I left San Diego a little before 4:30pm – on a Friday afternoon – and started working my way north on I-5. Traffic was a disaster. My GPS led me through a maze of freeways and back roads, until finally I found myself on Katella Avenue. Hey – I know that road, I thought. I’m so close! And then I proceeded to sit in gridlocked traffic for nearly 45 minutes, trying in vain to go the last mile to my destination.

When Walt Disney said the Florida project offered the “blessing of size,” he must have had a sense of what Anaheim would look like in 2014. There’s no quick highway access from the airport. There’s no giant welcome sign and miles of uncrowded property to greet you when you arrive on Disney property in California; one minute you’re in gridlocked local traffic; the next you’re on Disneyland Drive. It’s a bit of a jarring welcome. Even a bit of a stressful one.

That said, lacking the blessing of size isn’t entirely a bad thing. Once you’re on DL property and manage to find a place to park your car (on this particular night, the Grand Californian – where I was having dinner – was so full it didn’t even have Valet parking available, so I had to park across the street in a garage behind Paradise Pier hotel), you find yourself in a Disney environment that is far more walkable than WDW. This, to me, was one of the things I enjoyed most – you could easily spend a few days at DL without needing a rental car or – quelle horreur – a Disney bus. Not only can you zip back and forth between DL/DCA like they are one park, but you can also escape to DTD or the resort hotels – Disney or off-property – in far less time than you can in Florida. There are also thematic/experiential benefits to DL’s small size, but I’ll save that for later.

Life vs. Theater: Since I was very young, one of the things that made me look most forward to WDW vacations was the knowledge that I would feel completely immersed in its confines, almost as if I was really, truly living there. As the Vacation Kingdom grew to four parks, two water parks, Downtown Disney, and countless resort hotels, it was that much easier to keep yourself completely on property for days and days. How many people on Twitter have waxed longingly about their desire to live at WDW, lamenting the limitations on DVC ownership that prevent one from actually doing that?

I’d argue that it’s not only WDW’s size that lends itself to this immersive feeling, but it’s also the degree to watch Cast Member comings and goings are concealed from the public eye. Utilidors, Cast Member buses, remote parking lots, and other devices help preserve the illusion that Cast Members are literally part of the WDW environment. In Walt Disney World, it’s easier to imagine that Cast Members never go home at the end of the day. In Disneyland, by contrast, you feel more like Cast Members are staging an elaborate theatrical production each day, and when the curtain goes down, you see them exiting through the stage doors in droves. For example, after closing down DCA on Saturday night, I walked back to my hotel on Harbor Boulevard, passing throngs of tourists scurrying to their own hotels and shuttle buses. But I also saw throngs of Cast Members – still fully costumed, still in name tags – heading out along side them, to their cars, to the local Anaheim city bus, to the bar. In fact, I got the distinct impression that the entire Cast of the Tower of Terror was headed out to get very, very drunk together.

Oddly, I didn’t really mind this. For some reason it felt comforting to know that the Disneyland/DCA Cast Members were in fact real people, with real lives outside of the theme park jobs they each held. So for me, Disneyland feels much more a transient occurrence than a permanent “place” like WDW, but that feels okay to me. There is a daily rhythm to DL that feels real, unlike the permanent un-reality I feel once I drive under the WDW gates.

Speaking of Cast Member differences…. Look, I have long wanted to pen an post on how the Disney College Program has been the downfall of certain quality standards at WDW. (But I don’t, because I’d like to retain followers and/or friends.) I don’t entirely pin the blame on DCP’ers themselves; there is only so much institutional knowledge and pride of position you can be expected to have if you’re in a job for only 3-4 months. Conversely, I’ve encountered plenty of full-time WDW Cast Members that were a little wanting in the friendliness/competency department, and they’ve been on staff for years and years. I had a completely different appraisal of (most) Disneyland Cast Members. Sure, there were a fair number of CMs who likely were in their first jobs, but a larger number were older, people who have probably been at the DL resort for years if not decades. In spite of these differences, I found them all to be far less obtrusive than their WDW counterparts. Friendly, yes, but overbearing, not at all. There were no bubble and hula hoop shenanigans. No one yelling HAVE A MAGICAL DAY! up in my face.  No gaggles of college-aged CMs huddled together gossiping or – worse – talking about guests, as I’ve seen happen in WDW. Maybe I just caught DL on a good weekend, but I suspect there’s something deeper at work here. Maybe it has something to do with….

Guest differences: People who say Disneyland is a local’s park certainly know of what they speak. Things missing from my Disneyland experience that I’d normally see in WDW in spades: park maps. Double-wide strollers. ECVs. Large coolers. Giant, confused families stopping dead in their tracks to argue/consult the map/take twelve photographs. Giant (Brazilian) tour groups. Sure there were a few people (like me!) who were newcomers to the parks, but by and large I found day guests who were very much in the know about all things Disneyland. Again, maybe I just got lucky picking a good weekend to visit, but the park experience was daresay pretty peaceful, especially considering how many fewer strollers and ECVs I had to dodge. (Full disclosure: I did get run over by a stroller one night far worse than I ever have in WDW, to the point of bleeding. But I still stand by my point.) Whether this contributed to the more mellow, unobtrusive vibe of Cast Members, I don’t know for sure, but I’d make an argument in that direction.

It’s a Scaled World After All. Okay, forgive a girl a bad pun, but we need to have a serious talk about Disneyland’s Main Street, to say nothing of other areas of the park where the scale of things feels just….perfect. Forced perspective has always worked for me in Florida, but in Disneyland, it’s that much more convincing. Disneyland’s Main Street feels cozy, intimate, and personal in a way that Walt Disney World’s just does not, likely because the castle at its end is so much smaller than its Florida counterpart. Everything is adjusted accordingly and the results are pretty stunning. Coupled with the overall smaller footprint of the park, the scale of Disneyland provided me with a sense of ownership that I’ve not found in WDW in over 30 years of visiting. To say I was impressed with this would be an understatement – Disneyland just gets the scale of things right. You need to experience it to really feel what a difference it can make in your ability to suspend disbelief.

From here to there. Since I’m not one to reinvent the wheel, I’d like to defer to Epcot Explorer here. Please allow me to quote gratuitously:

With all of this said about the physical methodology of containing thematic attractions, by nature of a magic kingdom park, almost equal value must be attributed to how Disneyland gets you from one place to another. Disney World is a master at this. Brief and subtle stylistic changes of architecture take affect as you walk through a land, and by the time you find yourself in the next one, your surroundings have been transformed to match the thematic intent. The Magic Kingdom changes for you as you move through it. Disneyland does this, too, but in a way that is compromised well for the size of the place. Disneyland’s transitions are not abrupt or jarring, but they do happen in an unconventional manner, when compared to how I feel that Disney World tackles the same challenges. Rather than a gradual shift of aesthetic styles, I feel that Disneyland melts several areas at their borders so as to ease the change of setting and mood.

Walt Disney World’s “blessing of size” allows one thematic area to blend into the next quite imperceptibly, whereas transitions in Disneyland have to work a lot harder – after all, they are making major thematic shifts in perhaps 1/6th of the space found in WDW. Disneyland does this job quite well, but if you’re a WDW vet, it will take some getting used to. One of my first thoughts upon entering Disneyland was that I couldn’t get over how close Astro Orbitor sits to the Hub. Similarly, Disneyland lacks the square footage to take you from Hub to individual lands via long bridges and gradual transitions. Some might read Disneyland transitions as abrupt; I thought they were incredibly well done given the space constraints.

The joy of serendipity. Even 30-odd years later, I still vividly remember being a kid at WDW and stumbling upon Disney characters out in the Magic Kingdom: no handlers, no long lines, just….there. Of course, there was a bit of scuffling involved to keep other kids from cutting you or shoving their autograph books under Mickey’s nose, but you couldn’t beat that feeling of turning a corner and discovering a character you’ve been dying to meet. I was so pleased to see that this phenomenon still exists in Disneyland; while characters do have attendants nearby, they are far less obtrusive in DL than in WDW. Moreover, I can recall dozens of occasions where characters simply materialized from backstage, and then began cavorting with guests, Cast Members, and each other in a way you rarely ever see in WDW.

Got your tail!

Buttressing the happiness I felt from these serendipitous character moments was the sheer unexpected joy of encountering live – and good! – entertainment all throughout Disneyland. I use the term “entertainment” broadly, but to illustrate the point, take my last morning in the park: while walking down Main Street, the trolley, omnibus, and several Main Street cars were operational; the Disneyland band was playing; the Dapper Dans were putting on a performance further down the street; and in front of the castle, the Pearly Band serenaded Mary Poppins as she danced with Bert. Add to this stage performances, live bands, and even – yes – the Mad T Party, and I think Disneyland blows WDW out of the water in terms of its live entertainment offerings. Conspicuously absent: character dance parties. Think about that for a second.

Jazz Band in New Orleans Square? Yes please.

Food. That is all. There’s no point in trying to be witty or coy about this: Disneyland just has better food than WDW, period. Okay, let me parse this out: I’d argue that Disneyland/DCA have better in-park food than WDW; WDW still wins in my book for the depth and breadth of dining options at the resort hotels. In two days I could barely scratch the surface, but it was obvious that Disneyland offers better, more varied food than you’ll ever find in a WDW park. (Epcot might come closest, but I’d need to do DL again and sample a lot more food to say for sure.) One particularly important difference was the availability of quick-service breakfast food; in WDW, you’re lucky to get anything beyond a pastry if you’re looking for breakfast in the parks. In Disneyland, I had a pretty delightful french toast/eggs/sausage platter for around 11 bucks, and that was one of many breakfast options available to me.

Fresh Mickey pancakes…quick service….in a park? No, you’re not dreaming.

My dinner at the Grand Californian’s Napa Rose was exceptional, from the high quality and thoughtful preparation of the food to the absolutely impeccable service.  If the Disneyland resort had as many deluxe hotels as WDW – and therefore as many signature restaurants – I’d bet the food in California would be better, too.

Dinner at Napa Rose, one of the best meals I’ve had recently, period.

More thoughts to come. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from those of you who have been to parks on both coasts – am I off base? Giving WDW the short shrift? Feel free to school me in the comments, or on Twitter @WonderlandNerds.