I was totally going to call out Hotel Del but I see you ended up mentioning it by name in a later post. I was stationed at Naval Air Station Coronado for two years and drove past "California Grand Floridian" every day. I finally stayed there before I moved out of the area and ... wasn't impressed. The trade off for being in the cool historic building are tiny rooms and paper thin walls. There's also a Navy hotel on base that it just a couple miles down the island, with the same part of the Pacific ocean room views and I could have stayed there for nine nights for what I payed for one at the Del- I never mind spending pretty pennies on extravagances that are worth it. Won't be going to the Hotel Del again though.
Yeah, isn't it supposed to be one of the best hotels in the country or whatever? When we left I remember thinking we were probably one of the few parties to ever want to check out earlier...
For what we were paying (actually same price per night as what we paid at Paradise Pier), I was really surprised by the size of the room, like you said - our room at PPH was huge and we definitely got spoiled by that. And we happened to be right next to the stairwell, and just the sound of people going up and down the stairs was SO LOUD. And there were other little things I didn't like - no counter space in the bathroom (always a pet peeve of mine - I've had that happen at Disney took), and the fact that the bathroom door kept getting stuck. I thought I was going to be locked in the first time I used the bathroom. It just wasn't what I was expecting.
Did you do the chef's table at Napa? It will out you into a food coma but is so AMAZING! The price is the same as getting the prix fix menu but the chef comes over and talks about what you like and don't like and it's just a lot of fun to do. Don't know if it's always included, but we had hot chocolate and donuts as part of our dessert that they sent up to our room when we were too full so I guess I saved $15 on Napa Rose hot chocolate?
Nope, just did the regular menu. Maybe next time we will try the Chef's Table!
And yes, it does sound like you saved yourself 15 big ones.
Disneyland over busy periods is so bad. I think it's because the park is so small- when it's crowded it sets off a claustrophobia in me I didn't even know I had! The area around Indy in Adventureland always seems to be the worst. Ugh ugh ugh. And yay for making use of extra magic hours. The amount of benefit gotten out of waking up early- it's like an IRA- you can't make up for lost time! The things you can do early with no crowds you can't get that back once the parks start filling up!
OMG - you just reminded me of another low I forgot to mention. I was convinced Mr. A would love Indy. We got fastpasses, then got on the ride and it stopped right when you see the first Indy AA. We were stuck there for 25 minutes (seriously...the people sitting in the car behind us started eating sandwiches they'd brought with them), and Mr. A started feeling a little claustrophobic.
I thought we'd get evac'd but we didn't - the ride started up again, but with the lights on and pretty much no audio. So by the end we were totally over it and ready to leave - but then they wouldn't let us off and made us go through again, this time with everything working properly. I know that was their way to "make it right" after the first ride was sub-par, but we just wanted to GO by then. It was not fun and Mr. A freaking hated it! What a mess. Anyway, yeah...Adventureland was the worst. Fantasyland was pretty bad too.
We didn't figure out how important it was to get up earlier until morning #2 in the parks (of 4). That first hour was gold.
I'm sorry the trip wasn't perfect. It sounded like you got to do a lot of amazing things mixed in with a couple of doozies. But that's the cool thing about life. You learned some things for the next trip and if everything was always awesome, being awesome would lose its luster. I hope Mr. A enjoyed Disneyland. Did he have any major comparisons between the two coasts? What did YOU think of all the Christmas decorations and holiday ride overlays?
I think part of it is my fault - I was totally expecting too much out of this trip. We'd been planning ad looking forward to it for so long that there was no way it was going to live up. And I wanted SO badly for Mr. A to love Disneyland as much as I do, which is asking WAY too much since I am the Disney freak and he is not. He loves Disney, just not like I do.
I think Mr. A DID enjoy Disneyland, but it was tough having his first visit be the busiest week of the year. Good Table Service is really important for us during Disney trips, and we both felt that Disneyland fell short there. I think he prefers WDW just because there's more to DO...and after this trip I'd say the resorts are about even for me (where after Disneyland Half Marathon weekend I greatly preferred Disneyland).
I thought the holiday ride overlays were awesome. We got to do Jingle Cruise once, Small World Holiday once and Haunted Mansion Holiday twice (I think, maybe 3 times?). I was really surprised at how thorough the overlays were. They were so well done. And I loved the Christmas decorations...I know people say they lack this year compared to other years, but this was my first Christmas at Disneyland, so I thought they were great. Really wasn't impressed by the Winter version of World of Color though - I greatly prefer the 60th version.
Ugh, forgot skirt pics. I'm going to make an unpopular opinions and say that I don't think ANY of the blues match well enough to wear. From the pictures, it looks like the red matches the aquarium coral, so I like that. I also like how the yellow makes the fishies' tails pop. Those are my votes. Also, I know there's a company that makes magnets to hold onto race bibs so you don't make holes in clothes. I can't remember who they are, but I'm sure any magnet would work- it doesn't have to be runner-market specific
I'm definitely leaning toward not using any of the blues. I think my front-runner right now is the yellow skirt, followed by the green.
I took those pictures quite awhile ago so at some point I'll have to try my front-runners on again and see if I've changed my mind.
MagicalTeal: 2 votes
ShockingRed: 2 votes
StorybookYellowToo: 2 votes
PowerPurple: 1 vote
EnchantedGreen: 1 vote
I was able to sell all 4 of them pretty easily on Facebook for exactly what I paid, plus shipping - very important as part of the "mystery classics from the vault" promotion was that there would be no returns or exchanges. So I didn't lose any money on the deal, and now there are 4 ladies that are happy to have the shirts. Win-win for everyone.
In our Facebook group we use an "In Search Of" list and people were arguing with me like I was giving priority to the wrong people first. (It's a long, stupid story...but one of the admins of the Facebook group said I did it right, while the other said I didn't. Things have since been clarified...but I still think I was right 
And we're all in the InB Facebook group because we love the clothes. To make matters worse, the person that is the one that is actually buying the Lust top put my email address into PayPal incorrectly, so there's still a hold-up. Eh, whatever.
These capris are really hard to find, so I am really glad I have a pair! They are super versatile - they basically just look like capri-length blue jeans, but they're tech fabric.
Although that's better for my bank account anyway.
