Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful. Not perfect, still lots of little glitches, but what a wonderful addition Disney's California Adventure and the new Downtown Disney make to the original Disneyland Resort. I like the Downtown Disney at Disneyland BETTER than WDW, it was beautiful, more compact and accessible. Excellent restaurant and nightlife choices, excellent.
The biggest downside for me was that my son had several tantrums, so I had to leave early both evenings and missed out on a lot of fun. There is essentially no organized child care available to guests except at the Grand Californian, where they have slots for 12 kids in their kids' club from 5-midnight for GC guests only. Otherwise, they make you sign a waiver, then they hand you a piece of paper with some names of some babysitters and their phone numbers, and wish you luck. Eight names on the list - 2 are no longer doing this, 2 were booked already, the rest did not return calls.
They need to fix that, it should be centralized and coordinated if they expect this extension to draw people from out of town for a multiple day stay in an adult-appeal resort. I lost 12 hours of prime park/restaurant time over the 2 1/2 days.
Fortunately, we were with Dan Murphy of the Community Board, MaryJo of the Disneyland and Tech support boards, and others from the DIS who very nicely entertained my daughter while I went back to the hotel with my son. VERY nice people all of them. MaryJo and her kids are great, and our kids became fast friends.
Disney's California Adventure is relatively flat and even, with some slopes and ramps that might cause a bit of trouble for some of us. ECVs are $30 ($50 a day with a $20 refundable deposit), Wheelchairs are $7. They have the jogger strollers. It was raining cats and dogs, many attractions were down or closed, but I will be back.. it was beautiful!! I think they did a pretty good job of mainstreaming most of the rides, but not all rides will be totally wheelchair-bound accessible. If you are going to stay there and have limited mobility, do stay at the Grand Californian. The shuttle and tram services leave much to be desired, the GC is right there with direct entrances to DD and DCA, and a very shot walk to the Disneyland Main Gate. Disneyland Hotel would be another excellent choice, maybe another 3-5 minutes walking directly through a gorgeous, highly appealing Downtown Disney. If you have kids and they will want to hang out at a really cool pool, the Disneyland Hotel will be your better choice, because the pools at GC are not very appealing. The snack bar at the pool gets rave reviews for its burgers, though.
If the distances at WDW are a problem for you, and you want a more urban type of Disney experience rather than down time at resorts (I happen to appreciate my down time), then the extended Disneyland Resort complex will be perfect for you... and I am sure they will fix those glitches. (They had better!
)
I would be happy to answer questions.
"My brain takes a vacation just to give my heart more room..."
teri@iluvdisney.com
The biggest downside for me was that my son had several tantrums, so I had to leave early both evenings and missed out on a lot of fun. There is essentially no organized child care available to guests except at the Grand Californian, where they have slots for 12 kids in their kids' club from 5-midnight for GC guests only. Otherwise, they make you sign a waiver, then they hand you a piece of paper with some names of some babysitters and their phone numbers, and wish you luck. Eight names on the list - 2 are no longer doing this, 2 were booked already, the rest did not return calls.
They need to fix that, it should be centralized and coordinated if they expect this extension to draw people from out of town for a multiple day stay in an adult-appeal resort. I lost 12 hours of prime park/restaurant time over the 2 1/2 days.Fortunately, we were with Dan Murphy of the Community Board, MaryJo of the Disneyland and Tech support boards, and others from the DIS who very nicely entertained my daughter while I went back to the hotel with my son. VERY nice people all of them. MaryJo and her kids are great, and our kids became fast friends.
Disney's California Adventure is relatively flat and even, with some slopes and ramps that might cause a bit of trouble for some of us. ECVs are $30 ($50 a day with a $20 refundable deposit), Wheelchairs are $7. They have the jogger strollers. It was raining cats and dogs, many attractions were down or closed, but I will be back.. it was beautiful!! I think they did a pretty good job of mainstreaming most of the rides, but not all rides will be totally wheelchair-bound accessible. If you are going to stay there and have limited mobility, do stay at the Grand Californian. The shuttle and tram services leave much to be desired, the GC is right there with direct entrances to DD and DCA, and a very shot walk to the Disneyland Main Gate. Disneyland Hotel would be another excellent choice, maybe another 3-5 minutes walking directly through a gorgeous, highly appealing Downtown Disney. If you have kids and they will want to hang out at a really cool pool, the Disneyland Hotel will be your better choice, because the pools at GC are not very appealing. The snack bar at the pool gets rave reviews for its burgers, though.
If the distances at WDW are a problem for you, and you want a more urban type of Disney experience rather than down time at resorts (I happen to appreciate my down time), then the extended Disneyland Resort complex will be perfect for you... and I am sure they will fix those glitches. (They had better!
)I would be happy to answer questions.
"My brain takes a vacation just to give my heart more room..."
teri@iluvdisney.com
