soaringirl
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2009
Visited from April 30th through May 5th, my family: DS10, DD12, DH and 1 MIL.
We stayed at a kids suite at HoJo.
This was our 2nd visit to SoCal, and since the 1st we became in love with DLR, but it was really this 2nd visit for us to finally be able to say we're also DLR fans
. I have to admit that during the planning process, I was missing WDW so much I was a little bit regretful not going there. But I didn't miss it one bit during my trip, it was so much fun!! Disneyland is such a pretty, amazing, fun park, that I don't understand how can someone miss another one. Not even Epcot, my once-favorite-now-second-place park. Even DCA, with all the boarding walls, was fun and pretty enjoyable, can't wait to see how it will look on June 15th (at least in pictures!).
Magic Moments:
There is always one moment when the Disney magic works. For us, it was thrice:
1) My MIL was feeling ill
and worried about her high-blood pressure (she forgot her pressure-thingy -sorry forgot the word- at home) and stay at the hotel room the first part of our 1st day. DH was very worried, so we took her to the First Aid to measure her blood pressure, it was high but no so much (she had medicine with her, so it was OK). The nurse was so helpful and giving us a lot of information, DH ask her if he owns her something and of course she said "Oh, nothing! It's on the mouse". 
2) After Jungle Cruise, we bought some fruit to breakfast, and I was eating a delicious pineaple when (after I ate 2 thirds of it) I dropped it. I was mad at myself because I was enjoying it so much, but what can one do? So I shrugged, and suddenly a CM appear in front of me with a brand new pinneaple. "I saw you dropped yours and brought you a new one". He was like 50ft away!! I was so, so grateful!
3) In the Soundsational Parade, I was sitting in the curve when the Peter Pan float arrived, suddenly, Peter sat next to me for a few seconds!! It was so so great!!!
Magic moments like that are what is Disney is for. Even so my MIL had to be pushed in a WC (DH is very strong, so he did it effortless) and was very tired all the time, we had a wonderful time. With 4 days, I though we were going to be able to accomplished everything, but it wasn't enough!! We did get to see World of Color. Amazing!! DH (who's usually very cool) was very impressed since minute one. We did follow Hidroguy's advice and arrive on time, and even so a large line was already there. But we went to the Wet Zone and had an excellent view. BTW, the coffee cart next to it.. don't go! the coffee is really, really bad and really, really expensive.
Two surprises (food wise) for us were Naples and Jolly Holliday Bakery. Naples was really good, and we had an excellent waiter, David. JHB is soo beautiful! and the food was so so good we ended here several times. DS10 wanted nothing but the cheese sandwich and tomato soup combo. Also, just sitting there and watching the life goes by, is priceless.
Rainforest Cafe and Cheesecake Factory were also very good experiences, everybody loved their food and service was right on.
Mimi's: we ate lunch one day, ordered food to go another, and had breakfast there. I didn't enjoy my lunch or the turkey dinner, but loved, loved their breakfast, it was actually much better (and cheaper) than La Brea's, which was also good but not as good.
HoJo: The kids suite was perfect for our family of 5, and we slept comfortably. The hotel is clean and well mantained, but there were 3 aspects I didn't enjoy: 1) The laundry is located in the basement, very poor choice indeed, it looked like a 1-star facility, terrible! 2) the bathrooms are very basic, and after staying at the Homewood Suites in San Diego, they paled in comparision. 3) The pool. For the 1st time ever, my kids disliked the pool. The waterpark was ok for 5 minutes, but maybe they're now too old for that. The worst thing really was the main pool. You know when you're swimming that sometimes, and against your will, you swallow some water? Well, it tasted salty. Salty! I really don't want to think why. DS10 stated his disgust without me saying anything, and didn't return. Wasn't too bad now that I think about it, we could enjoy the parks without kids shouting that all they wanted to do was hit the pool!
The walk by itself wasn't bad at all, I even thought it was kind of crazy comparing all the hotels, they all seemed pretty close to me. What I didn't like were the characters hanging around the street. Didn't fell unsafe at anytime, but we only walked the Disney side in the mornings, and the other side when returning.
There's so much to tell but I don't know how, I'm not a writer like some people here that are so good! But just wanted to share my experiences.
We stayed at a kids suite at HoJo.
This was our 2nd visit to SoCal, and since the 1st we became in love with DLR, but it was really this 2nd visit for us to finally be able to say we're also DLR fans
. I have to admit that during the planning process, I was missing WDW so much I was a little bit regretful not going there. But I didn't miss it one bit during my trip, it was so much fun!! Disneyland is such a pretty, amazing, fun park, that I don't understand how can someone miss another one. Not even Epcot, my once-favorite-now-second-place park. Even DCA, with all the boarding walls, was fun and pretty enjoyable, can't wait to see how it will look on June 15th (at least in pictures!).Magic Moments:
There is always one moment when the Disney magic works. For us, it was thrice:
1) My MIL was feeling ill
and worried about her high-blood pressure (she forgot her pressure-thingy -sorry forgot the word- at home) and stay at the hotel room the first part of our 1st day. DH was very worried, so we took her to the First Aid to measure her blood pressure, it was high but no so much (she had medicine with her, so it was OK). The nurse was so helpful and giving us a lot of information, DH ask her if he owns her something and of course she said "Oh, nothing! It's on the mouse". 2) After Jungle Cruise, we bought some fruit to breakfast, and I was eating a delicious pineaple when (after I ate 2 thirds of it) I dropped it. I was mad at myself because I was enjoying it so much, but what can one do? So I shrugged, and suddenly a CM appear in front of me with a brand new pinneaple. "I saw you dropped yours and brought you a new one". He was like 50ft away!! I was so, so grateful!
3) In the Soundsational Parade, I was sitting in the curve when the Peter Pan float arrived, suddenly, Peter sat next to me for a few seconds!! It was so so great!!!
Magic moments like that are what is Disney is for. Even so my MIL had to be pushed in a WC (DH is very strong, so he did it effortless) and was very tired all the time, we had a wonderful time. With 4 days, I though we were going to be able to accomplished everything, but it wasn't enough!! We did get to see World of Color. Amazing!! DH (who's usually very cool) was very impressed since minute one. We did follow Hidroguy's advice and arrive on time, and even so a large line was already there. But we went to the Wet Zone and had an excellent view. BTW, the coffee cart next to it.. don't go! the coffee is really, really bad and really, really expensive.
Two surprises (food wise) for us were Naples and Jolly Holliday Bakery. Naples was really good, and we had an excellent waiter, David. JHB is soo beautiful! and the food was so so good we ended here several times. DS10 wanted nothing but the cheese sandwich and tomato soup combo. Also, just sitting there and watching the life goes by, is priceless.
Rainforest Cafe and Cheesecake Factory were also very good experiences, everybody loved their food and service was right on.
Mimi's: we ate lunch one day, ordered food to go another, and had breakfast there. I didn't enjoy my lunch or the turkey dinner, but loved, loved their breakfast, it was actually much better (and cheaper) than La Brea's, which was also good but not as good.
HoJo: The kids suite was perfect for our family of 5, and we slept comfortably. The hotel is clean and well mantained, but there were 3 aspects I didn't enjoy: 1) The laundry is located in the basement, very poor choice indeed, it looked like a 1-star facility, terrible! 2) the bathrooms are very basic, and after staying at the Homewood Suites in San Diego, they paled in comparision. 3) The pool. For the 1st time ever, my kids disliked the pool. The waterpark was ok for 5 minutes, but maybe they're now too old for that. The worst thing really was the main pool. You know when you're swimming that sometimes, and against your will, you swallow some water? Well, it tasted salty. Salty! I really don't want to think why. DS10 stated his disgust without me saying anything, and didn't return. Wasn't too bad now that I think about it, we could enjoy the parks without kids shouting that all they wanted to do was hit the pool!
The walk by itself wasn't bad at all, I even thought it was kind of crazy comparing all the hotels, they all seemed pretty close to me. What I didn't like were the characters hanging around the street. Didn't fell unsafe at anytime, but we only walked the Disney side in the mornings, and the other side when returning.
There's so much to tell but I don't know how, I'm not a writer like some people here that are so good! But just wanted to share my experiences.
