The Maughan's
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Sep 16, 2003
First I wanted to thank all of you on the Disboards that helped make my vacation planning go so smoothly. You’re awesome!!
My DH and I headed down to DL for our Anniversary this last weekend. We left our five kids at home with Grandma. We have never been to DL without our kids and it was soooo much fun.
We flew down Friday Morning and arrived at LGB airport about 9:15 am. I headed over to the Alamo rental counter while my DH retrieved our suitcase. I got to the Alamo desk and the lady there told me that there were no cars currently available and that there were seven people waiting in front of me for their cars. WHAT??? I had a reservation??? She said it would be at least an hour for a car. I didn’t have an hour to waste since we had PS at the Blue Bayou for lunch. We ended up taking a TAXI to the Grand California Hotel and back to the airport at the end of our trip. This was the only bad thing that happened our entire trip…..but I will NEVER rent with Alamo again. The thing that really frustrated me was that the woman at the counter didn’t even apologize or anything. She just gruffly said that there were no cars and we’d have to wait. I understand that they overbook……but to have eight people waiting for cars is a little ridiculous. I didn’t let myself get that upset about it……I was headed to DL….and I wasn’t going to let a little setback ruin my trip. We just headed over to the taxi’s and tried not to think about how much more it was costing us.
OK….now we’ve got the bad out of the way…..we can focus on the rest of our wonderful trip. When we arrived at the GC gate….the security guard wished us a Happy Anniversary and gave us our welcome card. We arrived at the Grand California about 10:15 and concierge met us by the front door to take us up to check-in. He took some time and shared some trivia about the hotel before we headed up. It was very interesting. I checked in while my DH headed to the lounge to relax. They gave us Anniversary buttons to wear. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we checked our bags and headed over to the Blue Bayou for our lunch reservations. I requested a Riverside table when we checked-in….and within minutes we were seated at an awesome table right by the water. The staff was great and lunch was delicious. I had the salmon and my DH had the Prime Rib. DH also ordered the cookie boat for dessert and it was wonderful. Of course everyone was wishing us Happy Anniversary thanks to our buttons and we felt pretty special. After lunch we rode Pirates and did a little shopping on the way to meet our VIP tour guide at Town Hall. Our tour was scheduled from 1:00 – 6:00. It was so great. Our tour guide told us lots of interesting facts about DL as we went along and got us fast passes for everything we wanted. We tried to ride Lily Belle….but she wasn’t hooked up so we missed that. We checked back the next two days…..but she never was hooked up. We got reserved seating for Fantasmic….Fireworks….Electrical Parade…..Parade of Dreams….and Aladdin. We went to Fantasmic Friday night and the others on Saturday. Our tour guide was great and took lots of pictures for us and we felt very pampered. After the tour we headed back to the hotel for a little rest before we went back for Fantasmic. When we got to our room it was all decked out for our anniversary. There were rose petals all over our bed….chocolate covered strawberries….balloons and a signed pictured from Mickey and Minnie wishing us a Happy Anniversary. The view from our room was great. We were overlooking the pool and California Adventure. It was better that I could have expected. We headed back to DL after our rest and grabbed counter service for dinner and it wasn’t that great….but we were still pretty stuffed from our lunch and the dole whips and chocolate covered strawberries and other snacks we had consumed earlier. Our reserved seating for Fantasmic was awesome. We didn’t stay to watch the fireworks…instead we headed to Splash Mountain and the fireworks were going off just as we headed down the big drop. It was so great. As we headed back to our room for the night…..I was grinning from ear to ear. It had been a fabulous day.
Saturday we got up early and headed to the lounge for breakfast. It was quick…..we wanted to get to the park early to hit the rides before the crowds arrived. We rode everything we wanted with little or no wait. We rode BUZZ many times……I kept trying to beat my DH scores….but he was just always a little better that me. I almost made it to 500,000 once….but other than that I was always between 100,000 and 200,000. We also went to California Adventure and rode all of the rides that we wanted there. We grabbed lunch from Whitewater Snacks for lunch and headed up to a balcony overlooking the pool and ate. No one else was there….so it was really nice. We got a French Dip sandwich and chicken nachos and split them. They were both very good. We relaxed and did some shopping in the afternoon. We watched the Parade of Dreams and rode a few more rides and then went to Steakhouse 55 for dinner. That meal was wonderful too. DH had the Prime Rib again and I got the Filet Mignon. The service was great and the food was soooo good. Then we headed back to watch the Fireworks. We were sitting there waiting for the fireworks when one of the VIP tour guides comes up and stands next to the reserved seating area. She just stands there and I wonder what she was doing. A little later I saw her wave to someone and two more tour guides and a group of five people come and sit in the reserved seating right next to us. I looked to see who it was and it was Brad Garret (Robert) from Everybody Loves Raymond. He was there with some friends. We saw him several other times on our trip due to the fact that he was staying in a suite close to our room.
Sunday we got up early and did the mad dash for Nemo. We were the 73rd and 74th people in line and made it on the 3rd sub of the day. In total….it still took us 1 hour from the time we entered the park to the time we got off Nemo. It definitely wasn’t worth and hour of our time….but I’m still glad that we did it. My kids asked us about it first thing when we got home. Extreme Home Makeover was there filming that morning….so I wonder if it always takes that long……or it they slowed things down a little. We saw the family they were filming and will have to watch the show for them. The rest of the day we rode Buzz a few more times and a few other favorites and then had lunch at Storytellers….which was good and then took a nap by the pool before heading for the airport.
All in all it was a great trip and a much different experience without kids. I noticed a lot more things at the park and on the rides than I ever had before…..because I wasn’t always taking care of someone. It was VERY relaxing and fun. Now I just have to get back to reality so the kids can start school on Wednesday.
Let me know if you have any questions!! I’ll try to answer them. Oh…the weather was great…..much cooler than here at home and the crowds weren’t too bad at all. We didn’t really have to wait for anything except Nemo.
My DH and I headed down to DL for our Anniversary this last weekend. We left our five kids at home with Grandma. We have never been to DL without our kids and it was soooo much fun.
We flew down Friday Morning and arrived at LGB airport about 9:15 am. I headed over to the Alamo rental counter while my DH retrieved our suitcase. I got to the Alamo desk and the lady there told me that there were no cars currently available and that there were seven people waiting in front of me for their cars. WHAT??? I had a reservation??? She said it would be at least an hour for a car. I didn’t have an hour to waste since we had PS at the Blue Bayou for lunch. We ended up taking a TAXI to the Grand California Hotel and back to the airport at the end of our trip. This was the only bad thing that happened our entire trip…..but I will NEVER rent with Alamo again. The thing that really frustrated me was that the woman at the counter didn’t even apologize or anything. She just gruffly said that there were no cars and we’d have to wait. I understand that they overbook……but to have eight people waiting for cars is a little ridiculous. I didn’t let myself get that upset about it……I was headed to DL….and I wasn’t going to let a little setback ruin my trip. We just headed over to the taxi’s and tried not to think about how much more it was costing us.
OK….now we’ve got the bad out of the way…..we can focus on the rest of our wonderful trip. When we arrived at the GC gate….the security guard wished us a Happy Anniversary and gave us our welcome card. We arrived at the Grand California about 10:15 and concierge met us by the front door to take us up to check-in. He took some time and shared some trivia about the hotel before we headed up. It was very interesting. I checked in while my DH headed to the lounge to relax. They gave us Anniversary buttons to wear. Our room wasn’t ready yet, so we checked our bags and headed over to the Blue Bayou for our lunch reservations. I requested a Riverside table when we checked-in….and within minutes we were seated at an awesome table right by the water. The staff was great and lunch was delicious. I had the salmon and my DH had the Prime Rib. DH also ordered the cookie boat for dessert and it was wonderful. Of course everyone was wishing us Happy Anniversary thanks to our buttons and we felt pretty special. After lunch we rode Pirates and did a little shopping on the way to meet our VIP tour guide at Town Hall. Our tour was scheduled from 1:00 – 6:00. It was so great. Our tour guide told us lots of interesting facts about DL as we went along and got us fast passes for everything we wanted. We tried to ride Lily Belle….but she wasn’t hooked up so we missed that. We checked back the next two days…..but she never was hooked up. We got reserved seating for Fantasmic….Fireworks….Electrical Parade…..Parade of Dreams….and Aladdin. We went to Fantasmic Friday night and the others on Saturday. Our tour guide was great and took lots of pictures for us and we felt very pampered. After the tour we headed back to the hotel for a little rest before we went back for Fantasmic. When we got to our room it was all decked out for our anniversary. There were rose petals all over our bed….chocolate covered strawberries….balloons and a signed pictured from Mickey and Minnie wishing us a Happy Anniversary. The view from our room was great. We were overlooking the pool and California Adventure. It was better that I could have expected. We headed back to DL after our rest and grabbed counter service for dinner and it wasn’t that great….but we were still pretty stuffed from our lunch and the dole whips and chocolate covered strawberries and other snacks we had consumed earlier. Our reserved seating for Fantasmic was awesome. We didn’t stay to watch the fireworks…instead we headed to Splash Mountain and the fireworks were going off just as we headed down the big drop. It was so great. As we headed back to our room for the night…..I was grinning from ear to ear. It had been a fabulous day.
Saturday we got up early and headed to the lounge for breakfast. It was quick…..we wanted to get to the park early to hit the rides before the crowds arrived. We rode everything we wanted with little or no wait. We rode BUZZ many times……I kept trying to beat my DH scores….but he was just always a little better that me. I almost made it to 500,000 once….but other than that I was always between 100,000 and 200,000. We also went to California Adventure and rode all of the rides that we wanted there. We grabbed lunch from Whitewater Snacks for lunch and headed up to a balcony overlooking the pool and ate. No one else was there….so it was really nice. We got a French Dip sandwich and chicken nachos and split them. They were both very good. We relaxed and did some shopping in the afternoon. We watched the Parade of Dreams and rode a few more rides and then went to Steakhouse 55 for dinner. That meal was wonderful too. DH had the Prime Rib again and I got the Filet Mignon. The service was great and the food was soooo good. Then we headed back to watch the Fireworks. We were sitting there waiting for the fireworks when one of the VIP tour guides comes up and stands next to the reserved seating area. She just stands there and I wonder what she was doing. A little later I saw her wave to someone and two more tour guides and a group of five people come and sit in the reserved seating right next to us. I looked to see who it was and it was Brad Garret (Robert) from Everybody Loves Raymond. He was there with some friends. We saw him several other times on our trip due to the fact that he was staying in a suite close to our room.
Sunday we got up early and did the mad dash for Nemo. We were the 73rd and 74th people in line and made it on the 3rd sub of the day. In total….it still took us 1 hour from the time we entered the park to the time we got off Nemo. It definitely wasn’t worth and hour of our time….but I’m still glad that we did it. My kids asked us about it first thing when we got home. Extreme Home Makeover was there filming that morning….so I wonder if it always takes that long……or it they slowed things down a little. We saw the family they were filming and will have to watch the show for them. The rest of the day we rode Buzz a few more times and a few other favorites and then had lunch at Storytellers….which was good and then took a nap by the pool before heading for the airport.
All in all it was a great trip and a much different experience without kids. I noticed a lot more things at the park and on the rides than I ever had before…..because I wasn’t always taking care of someone. It was VERY relaxing and fun. Now I just have to get back to reality so the kids can start school on Wednesday.
Let me know if you have any questions!! I’ll try to answer them. Oh…the weather was great…..much cooler than here at home and the crowds weren’t too bad at all. We didn’t really have to wait for anything except Nemo.
