Random Disneyland impressions from an adult 1st-timer

I grew up in California but as a Bay Area kid from a family without much financial resources, my only childhood theme park experiences were with Great America and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - Disneyland was never on the table for us.

I’m now in my 40s and my son is a teenager, so we finally just did a long-overdue DL visit this weekend with some family who drove down with us. Here are some random impressions of both Disneyland and California Adventure:

  • The scale of the properties was incredible, both inside the parks and the surrounding areas like the parking structures
  • The parks seemed pretty packed throughout the day on Friday and Saturday, although I now understand that what I thought was “packed” was actually lighter than usual given the D23 convention happening. Sunday at DL seemed even busier somehow
  • With one noteworthy exception, the staff (are all the staffers “cast members?” or is that reserved for costumed performers?) was friendly and welcoming and professional. The only exception was an older woman working the admission gate at Disneyland yesterday (Sunday) - when I had some momentary issues getting the DL app to show that I’d reserved that park for the day, she was really rude and abrasive about kicking me out of line. I was genuinely confused and asking for help with the app, and her response seemed really out of alignment with the situation - I’m not just saying that, some other random folks in line with us were like “WTF?!” and left with us to move to another line just to avoid her. Thankfully, the staffer in the new line was warm and helpful and got the issue resolved in like 30 seconds
  • I’m so impressed by how CLEAN everything was! These parks are absolutely vast and there were hundreds of thousands of people milling around, and yet I don’t think I ever saw trash on the ground, an over-filled trashcan, etc. Same with the restrooms - despite how insanely busy they were, the paper towels and soap dispensers were always full, they were always clean, etc. Very impressive!
  • The rides were *fantastic!* Some of the more “classic” rides (i.e. Small World and the Little Mermaid undersea ride) were less than thrilling to my son, but I found them really charming and relaxing, and he enjoyed them enough to go back through with me for a second time
  • We were fortunate to basically walk directly into Rise of the Resistance when a lot of other visitors were occupied during the light show last night, and my whole group was completely, utterly astonished. The sense of immersion was like nothing I’ve experienced before. As a lifelong die-hard Star Trek fan, this ride REALLY makes me long for a Trek-themed equivalent - Star Wars fans have it so good!
  • More than anything, I desperately longed for a place where I could sit in a quiet, cool, dark space for a little while. I don’t know if such a thing exists and I’m just ignorant, or if it would be too contrary to the vibe they’re going for, but I would’ve happily paid extra for a space akin to a members-only airport lounge
  • The other guests at the parks were mostly great - I didn’t see much of the chaos stuff that you sometimes hear about with people misbehaving 
  • One interesting thing though: I was kinda surprised about how lax the dress code was. Granted it was pretty damn hot so no one was wearing a lot, but it was surprising to see how skimpy some of the outfits people of all genders were wearing
  • Similarly, I was surprised to see a couple dudes walking around in T-shirt with imagery that I would’ve assumed Disney wouldn’t allow in the park. For instance, there was a group of 20something guys ahead of us in one of the lines and two of them were wearing Playboy shirts with (mostly) nude girls on the front - pretty tacky given the family-oriented vibe
  • The first ride we did on the first day of our visit was the Star Wars-themed “Star Tour,” and I was randomly selected as the “rebel spy” - my family has been teasing me about that for days, it was such a fun and funny surprise!

Just on the random chance that anyone who was working at DL or California Adventure sees this: THANK YOU for making such a fun and memorable experience for me and my family - you are all amazing!