Our 2006 Grand Californian Resort trip report

[grimley1968]

Hello all.

I have been working on a trip report from our just completed trip to the Grand Californian Resort. I am not going to post it on the DIS, because I recently had a bunch of posts deleted by a mod who decided to delete a thread that got out of control because of 2 other posters. Instead of just locking or closing it, and just deleting the offending the posts, they poofed the whole thing. I don't want to risk that here.

Also, there is some language on there that might get asterisked out on here, and I also have a daily section where I vent about something or other, which tends to earn flames on here. So it just made the most sense to keep it off here, but provide a link to anyone who's really interested in reading it.

So here (http://tjrogers1997.googlepages.com/day1) is a link to my little website I made for our trip report. I hope you enjoy it.

Keep in mind that it is still a work in progress. I only have pictures up for the first 5 days of the trip, with 4 more days to go. But the verbiage is pretty much complete for the entire vacation.

I hope you enjoy it!

[stagemomx3]

Hmmm I've read day one, and I find it interesting that you would choose to rant about a woman who was bothered by your own child's rude behavior. I'm around kids a lot and if a child was kicking my chair on a four hour flight I would do more than turn around and look.

[AspiringCindy]

I LOVED your very honest trip report! It was both entertaining and informative! I know what you mean about woman without children...I'll leave it at that! ;) I would love to see some of your GC pictures because we will be staying there in two weeks!!

[krismom]

Loved the report! Finally, an honest account of a week at Disney- 4 letter words and all! And I'm so glad my kids aren't the only ones who have meltdowns and have to leave restaurants due to them. I loved the report style also- easy to read and the pics are great, what a beautiful family!
A few questions....
~Did the time difference have a bad effect on the kids the first few days? we are flying from NY -CA and I'm worried...
~What is the deal with the swim test in the pool at the GC? Do they really make the kid do a lap across before using the big slide? What If I'm there to "catch" her?
~Do you really need 6 park days? We are planning on 4 and a half in October- just at DL and CA though.
~ What in the heck contained you on Indy? I hate when people think they are "helping" my kids by talking them out of something-
~ I love your response to being called Jesus. Is that the best she could do? :smooth:

Thanks again for a great report!

[deekaypee]

Great TR. Funny, though, I didn't find it all that controversial. I'm sort of new here--does even a little criticism of Disney really evoke flames?

[Minniespal]

Enjoyed reading your report ~ Thanx for sharing.

[disneymouse]

Your report was alot fun to read. our kids are the same age so i can relate to alot of things things you talked about. it's not easy all the time but i think you guys have a sense of humor which helps :)
glad to hear about the SoCal weather..sounds great. we went to WDW around last month and were HOT and melting in the florida sun.
sorry to hear about your blue bayou experience too.

[grimley1968]

Great TR. Funny, though, I didn't find it all that controversial. I'm sort of new here--does even a little criticism of Disney really evoke flames?

Yep. Read the post above by stagemom who criticizes my remarks about the woman who looked at all the people with kids who were loud now and then. Not one comment about any of the rest of the 9 days, where I did some ranting, but also some praise of different aspects of SoCal and Disneyland and the resort. Also, she apparently didn't read my remarks very well. The woman wasn't just looking at my kids, but also any kid on the plane who made any sort of noise whatsoever. I think it's also unfair to characterize my children's behavior as "rude." That's not how I characterized it. I was honest in my report about what they were doing. If you've ever sat in front of a 2 YO on a flight, you know they kick. We try as much as possible to prevent it, but it's impossible to stop it completely. That's the nature of 2 YO's, but that still is not "rude", IMHO.

So stagemom, did you only notice my one rant about the staring woman on the flight? Or was there anything else at all in the 9 days of trip report I painstakingly wrote that you found the least bit comment-worthy?

That, my friends, is a perfect illustration of why I put it off of the DIS and only linked it from here.

[grimley1968]

Loved the report! Finally, an honest account of a week at Disney- 4 letter words and all! And I'm so glad my kids aren't the only ones who have meltdowns and have to leave restaurants due to them. I loved the report style also- easy to read and the pics are great, what a beautiful family!
A few questions....
~Did the time difference have a bad effect on the kids the first few days? we are flying from NY -CA and I'm worried...
~What is the deal with the swim test in the pool at the GC? Do they really make the kid do a lap across before using the big slide? What If I'm there to "catch" her?
~Do you really need 6 park days? We are planning on 4 and a half in October- just at DL and CA though.
~ What in the heck contained you on Indy? I hate when people think they are "helping" my kids by talking them out of something-
~ I love your response to being called Jesus. Is that the best she could do? :smooth:

Thanks again for a great report!

- The time difference was a positive when we first got there. Sure, we were tired by 6 or 7 PM Pacific time at first, but we were also easily able to take advantage of Early Entry one day, and were able to be there right about at park opening time on a few other days. We were even able to get up early enough and drive to Carlsbad in plenty of time to be there when Legoland opened. After 4 or 5 days, we were pretty well adjusted to the time difference, though. It was much, much harder coming back, actually. I'm still staying up way too late for eastern time.

- There is no "swim test" really at the GC. But the lifeguard at the top of the slide told us that no one was allowed to "catch" their kids right at the slide exit. The kids would have to swim in 4' deep water over to shallower water maybe 20 feet away, or to the ladder that allows re-queuing to the slide. Also, no life vests were allowed. Maddy could have done it without any problems, but we just couldn't get her to try.

- If DL is not too crowded, you won't need 6 days. You can do 3-1 or 2-2 DL/CA. CA is very easy to get around and generally has fewer rides with long waits. DL is more jam-packed with rides and the park seems to always be more crowded. However, if you can adjust to Pacific time well, it's usually open until midnight in the summer. You can do just about everything in 4 days, probably. By our 5th or 6th day there, we were mostly repeating stuff we'd already done.

- What contained me on Indy was sheer embarassment. I'm sure the CM thought I was some of child abuser, although Maddy acted in the exact same way about Haunted Mansion, Rock n Roller Coaster, Goofy's Barnstormer, Space Mountain, Splash, BTMRR, etc. I found Indy to be less intense than many of those other rides I mentioned. She would have been fine. But I wasn't going to sit there and yell at the CM and hold up the ride for everyone else. I'm sure her intentions were good, but they were misplaced in our case.

I'm glad you found our report honest! We love Disney as much as anyone on these boards, but aren't going to whitewash the negative experiences of our vacation.

Also, my "Most Ridiculous Item of the Day" was meant for humor, partially, and also a way to rationalize a good rant. You'll notice some of those rants are pretty petty, but that's because I had to put something in there, since it is a daily feature.

[amw]

I loved the thoroughness of your report! You didn't have to use a "disclosure" for your account... I think this is why there were a few negative remarks. They were probably looking for the negatives. :stir:

Frankly, I love the way you are upfront about when parents have tantrums. We all get tired, and hungry, and hot -- especially at Disney. :furious: You took ownership of that behaviour, and made us laugh at ourselves.

Some of your rants were too much! :p Talk about memories that last a lifetime... spitting in a jacuzzi... stolen strollers... being thrown off rides.

Glad you liked Legoland. We're planning our first trip to the West Coast next year: one week in Anaheim, and one week in San Diego (including Legoland), and I can't wait... only seven more months :teeth:

[stagemomx3]

I think it's also unfair to characterize my children's behavior as "rude." That's not how I characterized it. I was honest in my report about what they were doing. If you've ever sat in front of a 2 YO on a flight, you know they kick. We try as much as possible to prevent it, but it's impossible to stop it completely. That's the nature of 2 YO's, but that still is not "rude", IMHO.

Characterize it all you want as 2 year old behavior, it's still rude to kick someone's chair repeatedly. Yes that is what children, especially young ones, do. That doesn't make it less rude just because it is typical kid behavior. However to complain about a person who finds this irritating and has the *nerve* to look back at your wife and child, is unfair. Especially since you claimed that and the fact that she apparently "glared" at a family with a crying child ment she needed to spend more time around children. As if she was the one behaving badly. I think it took an enourmous amount of patience and tact not to make one comment to your child that they stop kicking her chair. I would have turned around and told your 2 year old to stop it if no one else was going to. If it was my child doing the kicking I would be apologizing profusely to the person.


So stagemom, did you only notice my one rant about the staring woman on the flight? Or was there anything else at all in the 9 days of trip report I painstakingly wrote that you found the least bit comment-worthy?


Actually I read all of your rantings, and the rest of your reports, I had only read the first day when I posted. It is obvious that you love your children and have a lot of patience with them when they are not behaving at their best. I liked your honesty that you should not have reacted the way you did with the CM on the Indy ride, I think we have all had those moments we wish we could do over at DL.

You have a very "in your face" style of writing, and a strong sense of self depricating humor that showed through clearly in your writing. Do you always intend to be as antagonistic as your post to me came across as?

[grimley1968]

If it was my child doing the kicking I would be apologizing profusely to the person.

Actually, we did, but she ignored us, but still glared at our kids and every other kid who acted like a kid on the plane. It was actually kind of comical and many people who did not even have kids were commenting on her. And it's also not as though my DD was raring back and kicking with all her might. It was more like little pushes, although those would still be annoying, I'm sure. I know, I've sat in front of kids like that. But I knew better than to just turn around and glare at those kids and all the other kids on the flight behaving like, well, children. I really did not want to get into a debate on whether my kids were rude, or whether this woman was. I'm still confused why you are continuing to push this point. If you don't want my honest opinions about people I've come across or my impressions of the trip, you're free to click away from my site.


Do you always intend to be as antagonistic as your post to me came across as?

I'm antagonistic towards you? Are you serious? :confused3 Literally, the only thing you mentioned in your one post earlier was a criticism of my kids' "rude" behavior (your words, not mine), and a threat of doing more than turning around and looking if you came across them doing the same thing as on the plane, and you say I'm antagonizing you? That's rich. You can say you had only read one day of the report, but that doesn't mean you could not have read the rest of it before offering your opinion on my throw-away rant for that first day.

It still seems like you're only looking for the negative in my report. So are you going to next criticize my one petty rant about Legoland, even though 98% of the rest of that page was glowing in its praise of it?

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

Shout out to you Grimley! i'm lovin it! never being to DL, it's a good 'feel' for the park :)

I like everything out it! and it even drew out some out loud laughs :)!!

[grimley1968]

Shout out to you Grimley! i'm lovin it! never being to DL, it's a good 'feel' for the park :)

I like everything out it! and it even drew out some out loud laughs :)!!

Thanks, DMM. I fell into the usual trap on my trip report, where I compared it to WDW. It seems most trip reports about DL spend a lot of time comparing it to WDW, and I do the same. It's sort of unfair when you think about it, since DL is about 15 years senior to WDW. But the comparisons were impossible to avoid, since we're such long-time WDW goers.

I hope people get the humor in it. It's dry like a martini. ;) I'm a gin and tonic man myself, so my humor is hopefully drier than my choice of drink.

Believe me, I'm working on the pics for days 6-9. I have them all ready to put on there, but my page editing software pretty much sucks, so it takes longer than it should. Also, I have to choose some pictures not to make the cut, and that's hard. :guilty: I'd put them all in there, but I want the pages to load reasonably quickly. I've had some RL stuff to deal with, too, so I've not been able to work on it for a couple of days now.

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

well i hope your RL stuff gets better and it's okay, the words of the TR are enough color :)

i would have to say that i too would make comparisons if and when we go :teeth:

[grimley1968]

well i hope your RL stuff gets better

Sorry, I didn't mean to give the impression anything was wrong. I've just been busy with mundane stuff. Nothing wrong, except that the vacation is over. :sad:

[Grumpy's Wife]

Hey Grimley, good report so far. :thumbsup2 It seems like the lady in the plane could use a pair of your pretty mood pants. :teeth:

[disneymouse]

actually, i am impressed how well your 2 year old did on a four hour flight. the only way i could get my 2 year old to fly for that long is if she slept for most of the flight. way too much energy to sit still in her seat.
so grimley, yours sound like a little angel. the woman could have used one of your gin and tonics to help with the up-tightness abit.
looking foward to seeing your other photos!

[princesslibby]

Hey! I loved your TR. I'd give it:
:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2
On a scale of 1-5. With 5 being the best.

[Sthronds]

Hey Grimley! That was a great trip report. I'm sorry you had to deal with DL when it was so crowded but I am glad that you enjoyed it. I didn't much like the Blue Bayou either, so you are not alone. Anyway, A+ report! :cool1: You have a beautiful family.

[grimley1968]

Thanks everyone for your kind words. I worked hard on getting this thing together, so it's gratifying that people enjoy it.

Anyway, I have updated Days 6 & 7 and they are now filled with pictures. That was a ton of pictures. I'm going to have to take a break for the last 2 days of pictures. I have a lot left to post on there. They're good pics, though, I think. The ones with Cruella are the best, though. :)

[Ready to go in Ok]

:thumbsup2

Way to go Grim! Loved it!

[fabumouse]

Hey Grimley! :thumbsup2

I sent you a PM on your board - don't know if it got through, hope that it did.

I loved your trip report and I personally enjoy a good Disney rant - I think otherwise reports tend to come off as "everything was great and perfect and I am Mr. Brady nicetomeetcha!!" when we all know that travel and the excitement of those parks can wear a kid down faster than anything. Give us the nitty gritty.

Great writing style, I felt like I was there with you.

And sweetie - you KNOW better than to feed the trolls. :clown:

[happypooh]

Thanks for a great report...we are going to GC in 9 days and can't wait! But I had a few questions? From what I can gather in your report you had a courtyard room (is that the standard one?) and were still able to see fireworks..I'd been trying to figure that one out as I'd like to see the fireworks from the room but thought you could only do that if you had a downtown disney view...I've booked a downtown disney view but would save alot of DVC points if we could do a standard room instead!
Also, were you able to take both daughters onto soarin? I have an 18month old...I thought there is a height restriction (Still haven't been on this ride!)
And last one (I promise!)..do you think there was alot to do a legoland for smaller toddlers? We are going to san diego for a few days and may take a trip to legoland for my 18month old to enjoy (and us as well!)
I am real sad that a montecristo costs so much....looks like I'll have to forego that and all the calories!

[grimley1968]

Thanks for a great report...we are going to GC in 9 days and can't wait! But I had a few questions? From what I can gather in your report you had a courtyard room (is that the standard one?) and were still able to see fireworks..I'd been trying to figure that one out as I'd like to see the fireworks from the room but thought you could only do that if you had a downtown disney view...I've booked a downtown disney view but would save alot of DVC points if we could do a standard room instead!
Also, were you able to take both daughters onto soarin? I have an 18month old...I thought there is a height restriction (Still haven't been on this ride!)
And last one (I promise!)..do you think there was alot to do a legoland for smaller toddlers? We are going to san diego for a few days and may take a trip to legoland for my 18month old to enjoy (and us as well!)
I am real sad that a montecristo costs so much....looks like I'll have to forego that and all the calories!

- We had a Standard View room, which happened to be the courtyard that the monorail went through. We got one of the courtyard view rooms that faces toward DtD. We could actually see a little corner of DtD and the World of Disney store. The Wishes fireworks explode high enough that they clear the roof on the opposite side of the resort. Finally, we were on the 5th floor, which certainly helped with the view. I list my actual room number on the report. While I wouldn't request a specific room, you can look at a GC map, see where the room is and then request that floor and side of the building. Can't hurt to try. The 6th floor is concierge.

- Only my eldest DD6 could go on Soarin'. I believe the height minimum was 40". My youngest DD, who is not quite 3, is only about 38", so no Soarin' for her. Soarin' does have child swap, but I frankly can't see how that's any better than just using Fastpasses.

- Believe me, there are all kinds of things to do at Legoland, especially for toddlers. There are only a few rides that are really not suited for the littlest ones. The park is made for toddlers, IMHO. The toddler will probably get into those dioramas, if nothing else. And toddlers are free anyway.

- The Montecristo was pretty tasty, but I could feel my arteries clog as I ate it. Yuck.

[Jennifer70]

I loved reading your trip report. This is my first post although I lurked on here last year for my December 05 DL trip. Now I am planning January 08 WDW trip and have never been. So after coming back on the boards I forgot how much I enjoyed reading everyones stuff.

[SamIAm21]

I love DL and I am really loving your report. Great report!! You're telling it like it is! Every vacation has its tense moments. Also, just one small thing, Soarin is in Epcot, not MGM. Small detail, but you seem to like to keep things right, so I thought I'd mention it.

[happypooh]

Thank so much for your reply...unfortunately they are all sold out of the monorail views (which I know my son would love - he even knows the sign language for the word monorail!) Oh well, we have a downtown disney view and will get to see the fireworks - yippee!
We'll try and do legoland...I think it'll be fun!

[grimley1968]

I love DL and I am really loving your report. Great report!! You're telling it like it is! Every vacation has its tense moments. Also, just one small thing, Soarin is in Epcot, not MGM. Small detail, but you seem to like to keep things right, so I thought I'd mention it.

Good catch! Sorry about that. I fixed it. I've come across tons of errors, big and small. At one point I captioned a picture of Tigger and the girls with "Eeyore!". :) That's been corrected too.

By the way, I'm also editing the site in another way. Instead of mouse-over text, which goes away quickly, I'm incorporating captions for all of my pictures on there. It's a slow process, but I've updated the first 3 days' pictures this way. Hopefully, it will make for an easier browse.

[deekaypee]

I love that you're such a perfectionist and mindful of your readers. I'll be back to read more, as long as you keep posting.

[grimley1968]

Whew. I just got pages 4-7 updated with captions for the pictures. I'll try to get pictures up for days 8 & 9 sometime this weekend.

[fabumouse]

Whew. I just got pages 4-7 updated with captions for the pictures. I'll try to get pictures up for days 8 & 9 sometime this weekend.

Glad you added photos. Weird Looking Bird is Abby from the movie Chicken Little. :thumbsup2

[grimley1968]

Glad you added photos. Weird Looking Bird is Abby from the movie Chicken Little. :thumbsup2

Ahhh! See, I've not seen that yet. I still think I like my name for it better, though. ;)

[jtnsami]

:thumbsup2 Great TR! I'm only on page 6, but have loved the pictures and especially your "Most Ridiculous Item".

[newfamilyman]

Nice report. There is actually a swim test at the GC. My daughter failed the first time, and after she came back a few months later after lessons, she passed, and the lifeguards clapped. It was a nice touch.

The unidentified bird in your picture is Abby Mallard, the Ugly Duckling from Chicken Little.

[disneymouse]

i still think grimley's name is a more accurate name for the bird :)

[grimley1968]

Nice report. There is actually a swim test at the GC. My daughter failed the first time, and after she came back a few months later after lessons, she passed, and the lifeguards clapped. It was a nice touch.


That may be true that there is a swim test, but no one checked for that at the slide, either at the top or at the bottom. They only checked kids' height for the slide when we were there, and said kids needed to be able to swim over to the ladder from the slide bottom. It was definitely an honor system arrangement when I was there. Maddy is plenty tall enough, but was too afraid to go down the slide for fear of the pool depth at the bottom, and we just didn't want the scene that would have occurred had we tried to force her to go down it. She has since gone down much faster and scarier slides at our local water park, with a similar pool depth at the bottom. I'm not a child psychologist, so I have no idea what makes her think the slide at GCH is so much scarier than the taller and scarier slides here at home. :confused3

[dandee00]

I luv this report. Thank you for being so honest. :teeth:
he GCR is looking like a possbility for us.

[PrincessMira]

I'm a long time lurker, but wanted to let you know I loved your TR. Read every last page.

[grimley1968]

Thanks everyone for the kind words! I do appreciate it.

I also wanted to post that I have pretty much completed the TR as far as adding pictures and captions. I can't say I won't make some minor edits here and there to correct typos or wrong info, but I doubt any more photo edits will occur. I have pictures up now for all 9 days, and I've even added some photos to some of the earlier days as well.

Thanks again, everyone!

[NeverlandClub23]

This was the worst TR I've ever read. Filled with all of these big words and full sentences. Ridiculous. You better get your act together. Seriously. Posting such filth on this website. I hope you didn't expect everyone to love it. ;)


I've missed you!!!!!! :goodvibes :sunny: I've been so alone and lonely and by myself. :sad1: Nobody loves me anymore.

But seriously, great trip report. Your precious girls as beautiful as always. :love:

[grimley1968]

This was the worst TR I've ever read. Filled with all of these big words and full sentences. Ridiculous. You better get your act together. Seriously. Posting such filth on this website. I hope you didn't expect everyone to love it. ;)


We'll just chalk this up to more antagonism. :rotfl2:

Thanks for the other parts you said that I didn't quote. ;)

[Amy&Dan]

I really enjoyed your trip report! I love your potty mouth, it rivals my own ;) . We were at the GCH just before you guys (checked out on June 21) and it is a great hotel that looks just like WL. I am glad you got to go to Disneyland during the 50th and I agree every Disney fan needs to see it at least once. I really enjoyed your pictures, our room at GCH was facing that same courtyard but on a different side. Your girls are adorable. Glad you had fun at Disneyland!

[grimley1968]

I really enjoyed your trip report! I love your potty mouth, it rivals my own ;) . We were at the GCH just before you guys (checked out on June 21) and it is a great hotel that looks just like WL. I am glad you got to go to Disneyland during the 50th and I agree every Disney fan needs to see it at least once. I really enjoyed your pictures, our room at GCH was facing that same courtyard but on a different side. Your girls are adorable. Glad you had fun at Disneyland!

Thanks for everything you said! I agree, my girls are adorable. ;) I'm glad you appreciate my potty mouth, although it's much, much worse in RL. :sad2: The website is "cleaned up", as it were. :rotfl2:

To be honest, I'm not sure I could have requested a room with a better view in the standard category. We got extremely lucky apparently, and must have been one of the first families to check in the day we arrived. I can't imagine views like that in the standard category lasted much more than 30 minutes or so after our arrival.

[disneegrl4eva]

loved the TR...

[4girlsmom]

Thanks for the report! We will be sure to go on the Sun Wheel at night and during the day for the different views. My DH will appreciate seeing Angels Stadium, as he is a lifelong Angels fan transplanted in the Bay Area.

Loved the photo of your girls on Monsters, Inc. awaiting what was around the bend. Gorgeous. :)

[grimley1968]

Thanks for the report! We will be sure to go on the Sun Wheel at night and during the day for the different views. My DH will appreciate seeing Angels Stadium, as he is a lifelong Angels fan transplanted in the Bay Area.

Loved the photo of your girls on Monsters, Inc. awaiting what was around the bend. Gorgeous. :)

Thanks for the kind words about my beauties! That is one of my favorite photos too.

It's hard to top the view of Angels Stadium, especially since it was topped by the blimp overhead (it was the Dodgers-Angels series, so it had national coverage).

But if you're at all given to a queasy tummy, choose the non-swinging gondolas on the Sun Wheel. The swinging ones get pretty wild and scary for little ones.

[GailT]

Hey! I loved your TR. I'd give it:
:thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2
On a scale of 1-5. With 5 being the best.



DITTO! :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :cheer2:

[Disney owl]

Thanks for sharing :cool1: :cool1:

[grimley1968]

DITTO! :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :thumbsup2 :cheer2:

:blush:

Thanks again!