Back from 7 night stay...observations

[godalejunior]

Stayed at GC for seven nights....booked a standard room and asked for an upgrade at check in and was given a pool view room (could see some of the fireworks) in the new addition. Room even smelled new! Enjoyed our room and balcony, and yes we DID swim and use the pool for all of you that don't think you swim in January .

Saw Daisy the calico cat at WWS. She is very friendly and likes chicken from the nachos.

Ordered groceries from Vons and they were 3 hours late however they did call and let me know they were running late. I called the bell desk and let them know and they accepted the order for us and kept the items that need to be referigerated cool.

Ate at NR twice....DS went to Pinocchios the first time and we opted to take him to the chefs counter with us the second night for dinner after Chef Gloria told us he would enjoy it....and he did. Food was of course amazing and I wish I could afford to eat there everyday.

The only day we had any rain was Tuesday afternoon and the park was EMPTY. DH and DS rode Screamin 7 times in a row, not even having to get off on a few of the times. I rode Toy Story 4 or 5 times during that time.

Did lots of pin trading...this was hit or miss. Some days there were lots of Cms with pins other you had to hunt them down.

Sunday, Mon., Tues were the best for crowds. Thursday was okay and Friday was well...........Friday.

Also what was cool is that Jedi Training was cancelled on Tuesday afternoon due to rain and I did not know that if you hang out.......the photopass people are there and Darth Vader, Maul, storm troopers and Jedi cast all come out for meet and greet. WAY COOOL!!! Awesome pictures on our personal camera as well as photopass.

DS did Jedi Academy on Thursday with our Jedi Power sign and got picked pretty quickly. There were a couple other kids with signs as well.

Went to Knotts Berry Farm on Wed. for the day. I think there were only 100 cars in the parking lot. I swear we had the whole park to ourselves.....walked on to everything and even got to stay on the rides and ride them multiple times. Park was clean, everyone was friendly and we had a great time.

Did Surf's Up Mickey Breakfast and food was good. Flatbread was okay, was a little blah but the bacon made up for it.
We saw Mickey, Pluto, Minnie, Daisy and Stitch. Great character interaction and enjoyed the surf lessons.

Also we used the iphone app called Mouse Wait. LOVED IT! It was very accurate and even updated you throughout the day of interesting sightings, etc. Would highly recommend it!!!!!

Let me know if you have any questions. It is a sad day for me because we have been AP holders for the last four years and we have decided to let our AP's expire. I think we may do DW next January and we also have booked a Disney cruise in 2011. I am going to miss the Land.

 

[Eeyore's Wife]

Godalejunior,

Thank you for the wonderful information. My son loves your picture and quote. For the record we think evil has a funny flavor as well.

May I ask why you have decided to give up your annual passes?

 

[Kiann3]

Stayed at GC for seven nights....booked a standard room and asked for an upgrade at check in and was given a pool view room (could see some of the fireworks) in the new addition. Room even smelled new! Enjoyed our room and balcony, and yes we DID swim and use the pool for all of you that don't think you swim in January .

Saw Daisy the calico cat at WWS. She is very friendly and likes chicken from the nachos.




Was it cheaper to upgrade the room at check in?

You sound like you had lots of fun. We are going to stay at GC and I have PS for NR. WHat exactly is the chefs table?

Thanks in advance.

 

[godalejunior]

Stayed at GC for seven nights....booked a standard room and asked for an upgrade at check in and was given a pool view room (could see some of the fireworks) in the new addition. Room even smelled new! Enjoyed our room and balcony, and yes we DID swim and use the pool for all of you that don't think you swim in January .

Saw Daisy the calico cat at WWS. She is very friendly and likes chicken from the nachos.




Was it cheaper to upgrade the room at check in?

You sound like you had lots of fun. We are going to stay at GC and I have PS for NR. WHat exactly is the chefs table?

Thanks in advance.

The upgrade for the room was free! It doesn't hurt to ask....if you don't ask you don't get!!

The chef's counter/table are chairs that sit right next to the kitchen so you can watch the food being prepped and prepared and talk to the chef and the staff. It is very fun and interactive. I believe there are 12 seats, we usually request seats 5 and 6 as we have found these to be have the best view. It does not cost any extra to sit there and gives you a different dining experience then sitting in the dining room.

 

[godalejunior]

Godalejunior,

Thank you for the wonderful information. My son loves your picture and quote. For the record we think evil has a funny flavor as well.

May I ask why you have decided to give up your annual passes?

We gave up our passes as we live in WA state and for us to really capitalize on having them, we need to make two trips a year. DS has now been 5 times and we want to venture out to other vacation venues such as the cruise, maybe DW and we are doing Yellowstone this summer.

 

[Dizneydaz]

Glad you had a great trip! Also glad to hear you had a good time at Knott's. Knott's is a great place to go in January. No crowds and you can ride the rides so often you might just get sick! No, it's no DLR, but it's still fun. I've read some very negative comments on KBF lately and I have to say I've never seen the things others have complained about. Yes they are slow loading rides and yes the food and drinks at KBF is expensive. But most of the rides are good, if not great, and I've found most of the employees pretty friendly.

 

[godalejunior]

Glad you had a great trip! Also glad to hear you had a good time at Knott's. Knott's is a great place to go in January. No crowds and you can ride the rides so often you might just get sick! No, it's no DLR, but it's still fun. I've read some very negative comments on KBF lately and I have to say I've never seen the things others have complained about. Yes they are slow loading rides and yes the food and drinks at KBF is expensive. But most of the rides are good, if not great, and I've found most of the employees pretty friendly.

We went on a Wed. in Jan. 2009 and had a great day and experience as well. We ate at Johnny Rockets and burgers were good and so was the service. DS likes the thrill rides so it works out great. Also if you bring two cans of food (ordered the cans through our Vons order) you get in for the price of a child. So it was $24 each for us to spend the day there.

 

[preedymtnwest]

Thanks for the report!

I just read somewhere here that the Redwood and Fountain Pools at GC are down for refurb - did you see any sign of that?

We arrive 2/14 for 7 nights and the kids are looking forward to the slide, weather permitting of course.

TIA.

 

[godalejunior]

Thanks for the report!

I just read somewhere here that the Redwood and Fountain Pools at GC are down for refurb - did you see any sign of that?

We arrive 2/14 for 7 nights and the kids are looking forward to the slide, weather permitting of course.

TIA.

We found out about it about two weeks ago. We ran into the pool being down at DLH last year and switched to GC to avoid it. I did not want that to happen again so I called to check. Come to find out they pool went down a couple days before we got there. We were first told it would be down for 10 days, then one month...now the report is until the end of March. The Mariposa pool and hot tub are open and you can go to the other hotel pools. DS just used the GC pool and was okay with that. Since the weather was a little cooler than our previous trips he did not spend hours in the pool at a time.

The other thing I forgot to post above is that we did Ridemakerz in DTD. DH and DS had so much fun they were in there for an hour!

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Glad you had a great trip! Also glad to hear you had a good time at Knott's. Knott's is a great place to go in January. No crowds and you can ride the rides so often you might just get sick! No, it's no DLR, but it's still fun. I've read some very negative comments on KBF lately and I have to say I've never seen the things others have complained about. Yes they are slow loading rides and yes the food and drinks at KBF is expensive. But most of the rides are good, if not great, and I've found most of the employees pretty friendly.

I totally agree! We had a great time at Knotts last June and we never once saw what some others have complained about. I was shocked to read it. Of course it's not DL, but for what it is, it's great and we had fun.

We went on a Wed. in Jan. 2009 and had a great day and experience as well. We ate at Johnny Rockets and burgers were good and so was the service. DS likes the thrill rides so it works out great. Also if you bring two cans of food (ordered the cans through our Vons order) you get in for the price of a child. So it was $24 each for us to spend the day there.

Glad to hear you enjoyed your trip to DL and Knotts! They do have some good deals to get into Knotts. When we went last June we got a coupon from another Disboards member for up to 5 people to get in for $29 each. That's cheap too!

 

[disney-super-mom]

Glad you had a great trip! Also glad to hear you had a good time at Knott's. Knott's is a great place to go in January. No crowds and you can ride the rides so often you might just get sick! No, it's no DLR, but it's still fun. I've read some very negative comments on KBF lately and I have to say I've never seen the things others have complained about. Yes they are slow loading rides and yes the food and drinks at KBF is expensive. But most of the rides are good, if not great, and I've found most of the employees pretty friendly.

I agree as well. We go to Knotts almost every time we make a trip to Disneyland, and we've always had a fun time there......great rides, clean park, and friendly employees.

 

[preedymtnwest]

We found out about it about two weeks ago. We ran into the pool being down at DLH last year and switched to GC to avoid it. I did not want that to happen again so I called to check. Come to find out they pool went down a couple days before we got there. We were first told it would be down for 10 days, then one month...now the report is until the end of March. The Mariposa pool and hot tub are open and you can go to the other hotel pools. DS just used the GC pool and was okay with that. Since the weather was a little cooler than our previous trips he did not spend hours in the pool at a time.

The other thing I forgot to post above is that we did Ridemakerz in DTD. DH and DS had so much fun they were in there for an hour!

Thank you for the verification on the pools. Do you happen to know if you can still walk through the area to cut over to the DCA entrance? We'll be staying at the DVC villas at the south end of the property and were counting on being able to cut through the pools to get to the "back door."

My DSis told us recently about Ridemakerz and we checked it out online last night. My DSs weren't too thrilled about going to Build-a-Bear with their girl cousin while we're there, but they are all excited about spending time next door at Ridemakerz!

Thanks again.

 

[godalejunior]

The pools are fenced off and they were jackhammering inside the pools yesterday. You cannot cut across through the pool area to get over by WWS....you will have to go around. Obviously I am basing this information off of the last week...it could be different by the time you get there.

Ridemakerz cars started out at $15 a piece and went up from there. I would say you could "make" a car with accessories for around $25-$30...about the same price as build a bear.

 

[seadd67]

I seen you went to Knotts Berry farm, I have not been for about 17 years so I was debating wheather to take a day and spend It there.