lindsnlogansmom
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2008
The Zuniga Familys Disneyland Trip
May 9-12
Cast:
Me Jennifer 36
DH Michael 37
DS Logan 3
DD Lindsey 16
DM Marilyn 65
Arrival Day:
We were scheduled to get off work at 2PM on Thursday to head out to Disneyland by 3. Of course that never works out like it is supposed to. I got off work but every other thing got in the way of our scheduled departure. I am a little obsessive when I want to leave at a certain time but I held my breath because we were going to Disneyland!! Woo Hoo!
We left the house at 5:30 for a very uneventful drive to Anaheim. We live in Merced, CA which is about a 6 hour drive with some traffic. We made a quick detour through the Jack in the Box drive-thru in Bakersfield and again for gas and a Starbucks by Magic Mountain. Fortunately we didnt hit any traffic and
made it to the Grand Californian by 10:30..record time for us. I had to give hubby a hard time since I drove. J Oh I love the feeling of pulling up to a Disney Hotel. DS was still awake and very excited. This is his second trip his first trip was for his 3rd Birthday in February. DD 16 did not want to come on the trip hence the earlier drama and late departure time. We made her come because we didnt want to worry about her at home. She stayed in the hotel the entire trip so she wont be in this report very much. L
Ok let me give you a little background on our trip to help you understand our frustration with the GC. We have stayed at the GC twice before with great service. Our first trip was approx. 7 years ago and it was the most Magical experience we have ever had at a hotel. We loved the turn down service every night with the Mickey chocolates and our housekeepers left something special in our room every night. We booked the GC again in Feb 08 and it was great service but they had lost the special touches we had come to love on the previous trip. This time we booked a trip through Disney Travel staying at the Grand for 3 nights. Our original plan was to stop somewhere along the way for Thursday night since it was going to be late. Once I thought about hauling our luggage in and out of a random motel and trying to get to the park at a decent hour it seemed impossible for my family. We decided to book a second room for my mom and dd so we would all have our privacy. I called central reservations and explained the situation and we booked an additional room for Thur-Sun night. We requested adjoining but keep in mind that we are all staying in the room on Thurs with me, dh, and ds moving on Friday morning. My mother paid for the second room and it was booked under her name.
Back to the 10:30 arrival time .. I took my mom to check into the room after the valet asked me to please come out as soon as possible to give him the room number. The person that checked me in was not overly friendly but not horrible either. I seem to have issues when I arrive there with my very very excited ds3 and he does not get acknowledged in the least. BUT that could just be my issue. Anyway, she checked mom in and let us know that she would have to move rooms in the morning in order to accommodate our joint room request. That was no problem at all for us and she also let us know that mom would only have to come and get her room key because her credit card had already been run. In the meantime, we had been at the counter for a very long time so our valet who had been waiting for the room number came up to see us. He jokingly said I need their room number now! LOL and he was VERY OBVIOUSLY joking. She snapped back Do not talk to me like that! EVER! He looked embarrassed, got the room number and scrambled off. I felt bad for the guy. He had also told us that the valet fee would be waived since mom was handicapped. 17.00 a day definitely helps. Our bellman took us up to the room.
Day 1:
I wake up at my usual 5:00 AM and realize yahoo I am in Disneyland!!! I waited a little while before waking up my family and we all got ready for DCA. I decided with moving rooms it might be better to just hit DCA that day. We called the bellman who came up to get our luggage. I would like to add that the bell service at this hotel is above and beyond what I have experienced at other hotels. They are super fast, friendly and very, very helpful. We headed downstairs and decided to go ahead and check-in to our room in advance even though we knew it wouldnt be ready. We thought we might beat the afternoon crowds at the check-in desk. I sent hubby over since I was trying to get dm settled with her scooter and ds settled with a muffin. J Oh and dd was with us at this stretch. We had requested an early check-in considering that we had stayed the night before and we had my mom who was handicapped. We also tried to pay extra for a view upgrade but they would not accommodate us since according to them everyone checking in tries to get the view for free. We explained that we were willing to pay but they said they didnt have anything else. By the way, we had a last minute snafoo with moms scooter and I called Deckerts Surgical as soon as they opened that morning and they had a scooter as Guest Services within an hour. NO reservations. They are much less expensive than renting from the resort also.
Well off we go to DCA thinking that everything is alright with our rooms. I had done Ride Max which I cannot recommend highly enough. The schedules we followed on our trip were right on and it made everything so much more relaxing. I tend to feel like I am missing something when I am running around aimlessly and this really helped eliminate that. We headed over the Grizzly for a fast pass and then straight over to pick up our fast passes for Soarin. Im sure you all know that you can hold these at the same time since the rides arent connected but thought I would throw that in. Once we were down with that we headed to Bug Land. I learned about Bug Land on this site we have been to DCA three times before and never knew! We all had a great time riding the rides but it was a little early for the water areas. Once we were done there we headed over to Californian Screamin. While dh and dd were on that me and ds rode the carousel 3 times. He has always been scared of carousels in the past for some reason but he loved the ones at Disney. We went into the store to shop for a new Buzz Lightyear, rode the Sun Wheel and headed over to Pacific Wharf for lunch. My dh, dd, and dm had the chili in a bread bowl and I went over the Cocina Cucomonga Mexican restaurant and had a burrito. For my burrito, rice and beans it was 13.50 in case anyone cares. We then headed over to ride Monsters Inc and Soarin. By this time it was 1:30 and we thought we would head back to the hotel to see if our rooms were ready. I was not feeling well for some reason and I hope it wasnt what I ate for lunch. Anyway, we get there and the rooms arent ready. We checked a few times and they kept saying that they were trying to accommodate our room requests. I thought they meant the adjoining rooms but we learned later that wasnt the case. We all camped out in the lobby and I fell asleep in a chair for the first time in my life..I was sooo sick to my stomach. The front desk didnt have a lot of sympathy for me though. L Well at 3:15, so much for early check-in, we got our rooms. The room that that we had supposedly requested and the reason for the wait was a very small queen, (I still think it was a double) and a bunkbed. Our ds has always slept with us so there is no way we needed a bunkbed, in fact, we had requested one king. With ds being three he tends to stretch out a lot and dh and I ended up rotating to the bunkbed for the entire trip. OH and that bunkbed was not comfy! I crawled into bed sick as a dog and waited for it to subside. Finally I dragged myself out of bed about 3 hours later and we headed to DTD to find dinner. Our ds had not napped and quickly fell asleep in the stroller. My dh returned him to the room with grammy and I went to Steakhouse 55 at the Disneyland Hotel to try to get us in. It turned out to be a spectacular dining experience. We both ordered the wedge salad and dh ordered the bone-in ribeye with their signature steak rub. I ordered the lobster tail it was the most awesome thing I have ever had and I am not even a huge seafood person. Dh ordered 1 beer and a glass of wine, I ordered a pomegranate martini and water. Our final bill ended up being 110! It was a great dinner though. We headed over to Marcelines Confectionary and bought all kinds of mouth watering goodies. We headed back to the room because I was still not feeling great and got ready for our first day in Disneyland! There is more to come with the Grand Californian also.
May 9-12
Cast:
Me Jennifer 36
DH Michael 37
DS Logan 3
DD Lindsey 16
DM Marilyn 65
Arrival Day:
We were scheduled to get off work at 2PM on Thursday to head out to Disneyland by 3. Of course that never works out like it is supposed to. I got off work but every other thing got in the way of our scheduled departure. I am a little obsessive when I want to leave at a certain time but I held my breath because we were going to Disneyland!! Woo Hoo!
We left the house at 5:30 for a very uneventful drive to Anaheim. We live in Merced, CA which is about a 6 hour drive with some traffic. We made a quick detour through the Jack in the Box drive-thru in Bakersfield and again for gas and a Starbucks by Magic Mountain. Fortunately we didnt hit any traffic and
made it to the Grand Californian by 10:30..record time for us. I had to give hubby a hard time since I drove. J Oh I love the feeling of pulling up to a Disney Hotel. DS was still awake and very excited. This is his second trip his first trip was for his 3rd Birthday in February. DD 16 did not want to come on the trip hence the earlier drama and late departure time. We made her come because we didnt want to worry about her at home. She stayed in the hotel the entire trip so she wont be in this report very much. L
Ok let me give you a little background on our trip to help you understand our frustration with the GC. We have stayed at the GC twice before with great service. Our first trip was approx. 7 years ago and it was the most Magical experience we have ever had at a hotel. We loved the turn down service every night with the Mickey chocolates and our housekeepers left something special in our room every night. We booked the GC again in Feb 08 and it was great service but they had lost the special touches we had come to love on the previous trip. This time we booked a trip through Disney Travel staying at the Grand for 3 nights. Our original plan was to stop somewhere along the way for Thursday night since it was going to be late. Once I thought about hauling our luggage in and out of a random motel and trying to get to the park at a decent hour it seemed impossible for my family. We decided to book a second room for my mom and dd so we would all have our privacy. I called central reservations and explained the situation and we booked an additional room for Thur-Sun night. We requested adjoining but keep in mind that we are all staying in the room on Thurs with me, dh, and ds moving on Friday morning. My mother paid for the second room and it was booked under her name.
Back to the 10:30 arrival time .. I took my mom to check into the room after the valet asked me to please come out as soon as possible to give him the room number. The person that checked me in was not overly friendly but not horrible either. I seem to have issues when I arrive there with my very very excited ds3 and he does not get acknowledged in the least. BUT that could just be my issue. Anyway, she checked mom in and let us know that she would have to move rooms in the morning in order to accommodate our joint room request. That was no problem at all for us and she also let us know that mom would only have to come and get her room key because her credit card had already been run. In the meantime, we had been at the counter for a very long time so our valet who had been waiting for the room number came up to see us. He jokingly said I need their room number now! LOL and he was VERY OBVIOUSLY joking. She snapped back Do not talk to me like that! EVER! He looked embarrassed, got the room number and scrambled off. I felt bad for the guy. He had also told us that the valet fee would be waived since mom was handicapped. 17.00 a day definitely helps. Our bellman took us up to the room.
Day 1:
I wake up at my usual 5:00 AM and realize yahoo I am in Disneyland!!! I waited a little while before waking up my family and we all got ready for DCA. I decided with moving rooms it might be better to just hit DCA that day. We called the bellman who came up to get our luggage. I would like to add that the bell service at this hotel is above and beyond what I have experienced at other hotels. They are super fast, friendly and very, very helpful. We headed downstairs and decided to go ahead and check-in to our room in advance even though we knew it wouldnt be ready. We thought we might beat the afternoon crowds at the check-in desk. I sent hubby over since I was trying to get dm settled with her scooter and ds settled with a muffin. J Oh and dd was with us at this stretch. We had requested an early check-in considering that we had stayed the night before and we had my mom who was handicapped. We also tried to pay extra for a view upgrade but they would not accommodate us since according to them everyone checking in tries to get the view for free. We explained that we were willing to pay but they said they didnt have anything else. By the way, we had a last minute snafoo with moms scooter and I called Deckerts Surgical as soon as they opened that morning and they had a scooter as Guest Services within an hour. NO reservations. They are much less expensive than renting from the resort also.
Well off we go to DCA thinking that everything is alright with our rooms. I had done Ride Max which I cannot recommend highly enough. The schedules we followed on our trip were right on and it made everything so much more relaxing. I tend to feel like I am missing something when I am running around aimlessly and this really helped eliminate that. We headed over the Grizzly for a fast pass and then straight over to pick up our fast passes for Soarin. Im sure you all know that you can hold these at the same time since the rides arent connected but thought I would throw that in. Once we were down with that we headed to Bug Land. I learned about Bug Land on this site we have been to DCA three times before and never knew! We all had a great time riding the rides but it was a little early for the water areas. Once we were done there we headed over to Californian Screamin. While dh and dd were on that me and ds rode the carousel 3 times. He has always been scared of carousels in the past for some reason but he loved the ones at Disney. We went into the store to shop for a new Buzz Lightyear, rode the Sun Wheel and headed over to Pacific Wharf for lunch. My dh, dd, and dm had the chili in a bread bowl and I went over the Cocina Cucomonga Mexican restaurant and had a burrito. For my burrito, rice and beans it was 13.50 in case anyone cares. We then headed over to ride Monsters Inc and Soarin. By this time it was 1:30 and we thought we would head back to the hotel to see if our rooms were ready. I was not feeling well for some reason and I hope it wasnt what I ate for lunch. Anyway, we get there and the rooms arent ready. We checked a few times and they kept saying that they were trying to accommodate our room requests. I thought they meant the adjoining rooms but we learned later that wasnt the case. We all camped out in the lobby and I fell asleep in a chair for the first time in my life..I was sooo sick to my stomach. The front desk didnt have a lot of sympathy for me though. L Well at 3:15, so much for early check-in, we got our rooms. The room that that we had supposedly requested and the reason for the wait was a very small queen, (I still think it was a double) and a bunkbed. Our ds has always slept with us so there is no way we needed a bunkbed, in fact, we had requested one king. With ds being three he tends to stretch out a lot and dh and I ended up rotating to the bunkbed for the entire trip. OH and that bunkbed was not comfy! I crawled into bed sick as a dog and waited for it to subside. Finally I dragged myself out of bed about 3 hours later and we headed to DTD to find dinner. Our ds had not napped and quickly fell asleep in the stroller. My dh returned him to the room with grammy and I went to Steakhouse 55 at the Disneyland Hotel to try to get us in. It turned out to be a spectacular dining experience. We both ordered the wedge salad and dh ordered the bone-in ribeye with their signature steak rub. I ordered the lobster tail it was the most awesome thing I have ever had and I am not even a huge seafood person. Dh ordered 1 beer and a glass of wine, I ordered a pomegranate martini and water. Our final bill ended up being 110! It was a great dinner though. We headed over to Marcelines Confectionary and bought all kinds of mouth watering goodies. We headed back to the room because I was still not feeling great and got ready for our first day in Disneyland! There is more to come with the Grand Californian also.
