Yup. It’s insane. If they ever build a resort that enters into a park at WDW I am THERE.
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Food review
OK, here’s where I feel like maybe DLR let me down a little. I think mostly that there is so much variety at WDW… it’s not terribly hard to find something you’ll like. DLR is just smaller, and so you’re choosing from, maybe all the EPCOT restaurants, instead of all the EPCOT spots plus 3 more parks and 20 resorts and DS.
Probably the best meals I had were two places I hadn’t even planned to try, but LINERS ARE AMAZING, and so I went to Bengal BBQ and Carthay Circle Lounge.
The yummy:
Bengal BBQ
Run do not walk to the pork belly skewers, but get the rice plate because the white rice and cilantro slaw are the perfect carby and light accompaniment to the fatty spice of the skewers. Didn’t know I needed this in my life, but might’ve been the best bite of the week.
Salt & Straw
FYI, the “flight” is not like a wine flight where you get mini servings. This was 4 legit scoops of ice cream (they call them jr scoops, but…). I went back for more of the salted, malted cookie dough later and I normally hate cookie dough ice cream because it’s just sub par vanilla with hard chunks of stuff. S&S… just try the cookie dough. Do it.
Carthay Circle Lounge
I got a walkup spot here and was had high hopes for this tomato and peach salad, which were thankfully exceeded. I ate every bite. I also ordered pasta, but didn’t take a pic. It was yummy but nothing crazy and I didn’t feel the need to eat more than a few bites.
Lamplight Lounge
You HAVE to go here if you like Pixar even a little. 12/10 for ambiance, and food was decent (and maybe better than that, but maybe I ordered wrong). I would definitely go here and try the chilaquiles, which is what it looked like everyone else was ordering.
The fine:
Craftsman Bar
Nachos are delicious. Decently made nachos poolside in the CA weather? Very delicious. This is definitely a 3 person dish but WTH, right? Everything on their menu looked at least decent, and a lot of it was available on the pool menu. I saw the stuff from here, Craftsman Grill (the quick service you could MO) and the pool menu coming out of the same kitchen.
Pym’s Test Kitchen
This looked really cool for the gram, but that’s about it. Meh. The tots breakfast looked much better. This is supposed to be “ever expanding french toast” but it’s a thin rectangle of bread pudding? Who knows. Def wouldn’t try again.
La Brea
I probably ordered wrong here and would definitely go again, and maybe my expectations were just too high, but this is just a good breakfast sandwich. Nothing to write home about.
Ghiradelli
I never go here at WDW because I am a hot fudge snob and theirs doesn’t do it for me, but for some reason a frozen hot chocolate sounded nice. It was good! Not great, but cold and didn’t taste too terribly fake. IMO, no reason to go if you usually go in DS.
Trader Sam’s
Much easier to get into than the one at WDW, same fun atmosphere, I saw some spirit jerseys with “Thirty-Three” spelled out so I guess that crew hangs here, food and drinks were meh. I didn’t take pics bkz of the lighting.
The nope:
World of Color Dessert Party
As discussed up thread, the $89 for WOC dessert party, $85 is for the seat and $4 for the dessert, and that’s being generous. I had a non-alcoholic specialty drink (I think it was sprite w/ grenadine tbh) and a hot tea because CA is cold and my beautiful new spirit jersey was still wet from GRR. I ate the overly sweet rice krispy treat and grapes but only because I was hungry. This is just straight up sad. Cabanas on DCL has better desserts, and that’s saying a lot.
You’ll notice you don’t see any of the big hitters here… Napa Rose, Storyteller’s, Blue Bayou, Wine Country… well, I gotta be honest. My stomach was a mess the whole time I was on the trip. Bad enough where I think it diminished my entire experience of the parks. I couldn’t stomach (heh) spending character buffet or signature money when I could barely eat. I ordered a decent amount but the only food I actually finished that you see in those pics? The peach salad and the pork belly skewer. I left most of the rest. One of my favorite parts about solo trips is usually eating whatever the f I want with no judgment, but this time, it was more like “okay, I’m supposed to be reviewing food, what can I tolerate?”
So based on this experience, WDW definitely wins, but I don’t feel I’m a good judge.
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It’s the best I’ve ever had. I’m not super keen on cookie dough ice cream - take it or leave it - but made sure to include this in my birthday 6pk from my auntie.
Next time. You absolutely must.
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Did you ever happen to experience any Golden Ticket luck at DLR??
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I did not, or at least I didn’t think of using my Anytime in that manner. So I can’t confirm whether it works the same as has been reported in WDW, though others have claimed it does.
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Where did you find your pin? I’ve been on the hunt for a cute DL pin and haven’t found one I like as much as the one you got!
I LOVE that pin too.
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It’s so cute and I haven’t seen it anywhere!
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I have been wracking my brain trying to figure out where. Im pretty sure i got it on main st.
I’ve only seen it here and I think DFB showed it once.
I saw that pin in several places last time I was there. I bought it at a shop in DCA across the street from Elias & Co. - maybe Katz & Sons?
Oddly(for me) I ended up not liking it as much as I thought. I was going to leave it on a pin trader board, but either my DD22 or her friend nabbed it.
We’ve looked on Main St, we’ve looked at DCA, we’ve looked at World of Disney, and we’ve looked at the DLH gift shop. Apparently they’re all gone!
Bummer!
Try the Pin Trader store in Frontierland. It’s the first one on the right as you enter. They usually have a good decent selection. Also Little Green Men’s in Tomorrowland has pins too.
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Ok, so, three full weeks later, a few final thoughts:
I wasnt feeling 100% for a decent portion of this trip. Nothing infectious, just some chronic issues that zapped my energy and excitement a little along with a heaping, steaming pile of mom guilt exacerbated by the fact that the sitter keeping Annie had a pool at her house. She had all kinds of safety measures in place (double, high locked doors, etc) and has been watching annie since she was 8 weeks old and ive trusted her with my kids and a pool a million times before but… ya know. I also went during july 4 week on crazy crowded days.
I say all that to note that you may want to take my feelings about DL w a grain of salt.
I wanted to love it. I really did. But i think i just ended up realizing a) just how much i love AK and how integral it is to the overall feeling of magic i get at wdw b) just how important the castle is at the end of main street wdw to instill that sense of awe and magic
I mean i knew the castle was smaller at DL but when i saw it i thought “wtf?!” And not “d’awwww” One of disney’s strengths is their use of architectural techniques to invoke a feeling… of awe, of magic, of immersion, of being further away than you really are, etc., and the only place i got that in DL was in Cars Land. The castle at wdw gives you that wow and awe factor and you feel small and surrounded by magic. At DL the castle is… a nice thing to look at that gives off “back in my day” vibes.
Fantasyland felt old to me. I know it is, but it felt it. I can see how the old school dark rides would have some serious nostalgia factor for DL vets but without that it almost feels like carnival rides w IP. And that’s pixar pier as well, even w the refurb.
And the queues spilling out into the walkways was wild. Ive watched the videos on queue mgmt and always feel all deceived when the line keeps going after yet another blind corner but darn if i dont like the out of sight out of mind thing. It works.
There were aspects that i loved… the wandering characters, world of color, going from GCH to DCA, the ease of getting around, the superior versions of rides (space, rsr). Im glad i experienced it. Im not in a hurry to fly across the country to experience it or to take my kids.
Im sorry to those ive deeply offended. This is your resident East Coast millennial spitting ignorant drivel with no respect for tradition, and i get it. Sorry that you cant convert a file to pdf and that wdw is better. I dont know a tiktok from an onlyfans and can write in cursive. We all have our generational curses.
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No worries! I actually do not like the castle better in MK. To me it’s too much pavement, too big, too impersonal. I don’t get the feels like I do for Sleeping Beauty’s Castle, tiny as it is. I actually feel like MK is my least liked park. It falls so short of DL for me, so I get how it can be the opposite. But in the end, I like all the parks for what they are.
P.S. I’m a Gen X’er who absolutely can convert a file to a pdf, thank you very much!!! And WDW is different, but not better. 
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Lol i need that sarcasm font! Plus, i think my opinions had a lot to do with how i was feeling at the time and less to do w the park itself.
But there is no AK, and that is an irreconcilable difference for me.
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Oh and also i am a geriatric millenial, apparently, which is almost a gen xer 
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Well, I am the oldest of the Gen X’ers, but I will never claim Boomer status!!!
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I love this honest review! Another geriatric millennial here. 
We got back two days ago from our first ever DLR trip and I have to say we enjoyed it a lot but WDW is still #1 in our hearts. We loved the ease of walking to the parks from DLH. The weather was beautiful (we’re from Texas and it’s utterly miserable here right now) and I liked the castle and the FL dark rides well enough, but we only felt the need to do them once in our three days. You said you were missing AK, and I kept saying to DH “This is fun but I just really miss Epcot.” We did really enjoy WOC, Mission Breakout, Fantasmic!, the Blue Bayou, Indiana Jones, and the loaded dole whip (what’s stopping them from offering this in WDW??). Oh, and Pirates was better and so much fun. Overall, we’d go back, but definitely not nearly as often as we’ll go to WDW.
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