Day 3 - Continued
We walked over to the Fantasy Tower at the Disneyland hotel and went to the
DVC office. The person there said whoever we needed wasn't there right now. (Oh yeah, earlier in the trip, I stopped by the VGC DVC office and asked if we needed an appointment to get a tour and they said no.) But then this other person who looked like he was leaving (had his jacket and backpack on) said he could walk us over to the DVC tower so we followed him and chatted a bit.
When we got to the DVC building, he told the employee there what we needed and then he left. The guy at the counter said he would call someone to give us a tour and it would maybe be about 10 minutes so we just went to the little lobby area to wait. It really only ended up being a few minutes.
The lobby area was nice. Quiet and clean. I really liked the mural and the retro Christmas tree. They could have used a few more Christmas decorations but that's okay. It was still a nice little area. Not sure if any of the chairs are comfortable because I was sweaty and didn't want to leave a mark so I stayed standing.
The guide was super nice. He asked us a lot about our DVC experience so far and was especially interested in why we chose BRV over CCV. He was informative and not pushy at all. Oh, and apparently they aren't allowed to say ANYTHING about Lakeside Lodge. I just mentioned it when we were talking about future purchases and he just kind of smiled and said he can't even comment on that place at all.
First we saw 2 studios - Sleeping Beauty themed and Tiana themed. Then we saw a 1-bedroom. Those were the only room types we asked to see. I really liked them. They were so bright and clean. Especially the bathrooms. My favorite aspect of the 1 bedroom was probably the tile above the tub. I also liked the open layout of the kitchen a lot. Plus, purple and green are my favorite colors so I just liked the overall appearance of the room.
My dislikes - I wish they had regular railing on the balcony. The glass doesn't help my fear of heights on a higher floor! And I'm not a fan of the frosted glass door the toilet is behind. Would prefer a real door but at least there's a second toilet so not a big deal.
I wish I had actually sat down on the couch and bed to just get a "feel" of the space more than just walking around in it, if that makes sense. So I keep checking out the virtual walkthrough on the Disney site as well as videos to get a "feel" for it more.
After we were done, we walked back toward VGC. We decided to time our walk from the VDH lobby to the entrance into the Grand Californian. There was no line to get through security so the walk from points A to B on this map took us 6 minutes.
Later in the trip, we timed our walk from points B to C (DVC wing elevators) and it was 3 minutes. So essentially, the walk to the VDH elevators would be approximately 3 extra minutes from the parks if we stay there instead of VGC. (Though obviously if we take the monorail, that would cut it down.)
Anyway, we didn't go straight to our room. We stopped at Starbucks again. We did this every day before our break as a little treat for us.
Our son still seemed a bit cranky during break and I noticed his hand on his head in a way that wasn't typical for him. With this lack of language understanding, it's hard to get a real answer if you ask him questions like "does your head hurt" or "what hurts" or anything like that. He did say yes when I asked if his head hurt but there's no way to know because I could ask him that any day of the week and he'd likely say yes. But I had purchased some chewable tylenol before our trip and thought...it can't hurt to give him some. His first time with chewable instead of liquid...he wasn't a fan but he ate them!
And you know what...about an hour later, he seemed to be more like his usual self! So maybe he really did have a headache afterall. At that point, we decided to head to the parks. It was about 5:30. Park was pretty darn crowded this evening!
I love the tree on main street.
The first thing we did was grab a
DAS return time for Mickey and Minnie's railway. While waiting for that, we went on Pinocchio. Then we headed toward Toon Town.
Is there anything better than Small World lit up for the holidays??
After MMRR, we went to Pizza Port for dinner. Yes, we eat here a lot. All the tables were full so we took our trays and sat over near Tomorrowland Terrace. Our son did pretty well, ate some spaghetti with sauce this time, some teriyaki noodles (sad to see that yesterday these have been removed from the menu), and some oranges and carrots.
Next up was Alice with a DAS return. Our son's bad mood from the first part of the day was definitely gone at this point. Woohoo!
Then we did Star Tours with a DAS return. I was slightly nervous about going on not long after dinner but he did great and laughed the whole time. Then it was time for Autopia. Unfortunately, as we were put into our numbered spots....there was a problem with a car somewhere on the track. We ended up having to wait quite a while and our son was nearing his breaking point when it started back up.
Thankfully it got moving and he enjoyed the last ride of the night.
Crowds were nuts as we headed toward main street. We took the "behind the scenes" exit to the right of Main Street to get out a bit quicker. Not very scenic but definitely better when you don't want to get stuck in the crowds waiting for fireworks!
We were back in our room by 9:15. Ended up watching a bit of WOC again. kind of looks like the park is on fire here.
The second half of the day was much better than the first. Still no idea why our son was upset. Could have been any number of things. But he just gets like this sometimes on trips and we just try to roll with it.
