Combined DLR & Villas at Grand Californian Pretrip Report

[pepe3penelope]

Hello, all! This is my first PTR or even TR ever! I was inspired and encouraged by Denovagirl (thank you, by the way)!

Here's the back story:
My family consists of myself (DW), DH, DD (almost 6 1/2), DS (2 1/2).

We are booked for a 5 night "staycation" for Sunday, July 6 to Friday, July 11th. We will be staying at VGC.

We are locals of Southern California and we have been lucky to have grown up going to Disneyland. Our parents took us to disneyland every one to two years as young children. When my DH and I were dating in college, we would try to go (college student budgets). As adults pre-kids we went a few times. When we had our DD, we started our annual passes when she was one year old. Last year we didn't renew because of the cost so we took a break then had Legoland California passes. By November, I had SERIOUS Disney "withdrawals" so we're back.

I guess you can say Disney is in our blood. In fact, we went on our first Disney Cruise Line voyage October 2012 on Disney Wonder on a Pixar Pacific Coast Cruise! Totally awesome & quickly figured how people get hooked on cruises, especially w/Disney. My DH doesn't want to go on any other cruise line no matter the cost. Thus, we went on our 2nd cruise June 2013 on Disney Fantasy for our Western caribbean itinerary. It was on this cruise that we became Disney Vacation Club members!!! (On a side note, we are already booked for April 2015 for Fantasy's Eastern caribbean cruise!!!...will report on this in the future!)

Family's fave characters:
DW: absolutely without a doubt Ariel!!!
DH: Jack Skellington, Stitch
DD: Ariel (must be in her blood!!), Aurora
DS: Mater, Mickey, Stitch, Goofy

Will report more another time!

 

[Denovagirl]

Woohoo!!!! You're here!!

Great start! See! Told ya it was fun!

I didn't know about all your cruising! We are considering either WDW for Christmas 2015 or a Disney Cruise!

Can't wait to read more! Is it like WDW where you need to make ADRs and stuff at DL?

 

[pepe3penelope]

Sooooo happy you're following along!

Disney cruising is amazing!!!! We are totally hooked. I considered doing a 4 day cruise & WDW precruise, but we decided we love the relaxing pace of the cruise. $ was also a factor. We do DLR so we will wait to do the parks.

DLR does NOT have magic bands. There are fast passes but it works differently than WDW. You can reserve dining for certain meals ahead of time, but honestly we would only do it for character meals.

Thanks again!

 

[pepe3penelope]

Pretrip report Part 2:

So we are really excited about staying on property. Believe it or not, this is actually our first time staying at a hotel on property. AND it's going to be at the Villas at Grand Californian. The points required to stay there are crazy expensive but this way we don't have to worry about airfare. Our purpose is to really relax and enjoy the amenities of the hotel and villas.

At the 7 month mark, I was able to get a 1 bedroom villa for the 1st 3 nights and a studio for the last 2 nights. Again, our trip is from Sunday, July 6 to Friday July 11.

The first 3 nights Our plan is to relax at the hotel, enjoy the pools, visit Downtown Disney thus the 1 bedroom villa. On the last 2-3 days we will go to the parks so we only need the studio. I was looking forward for the 6 1/2 year old to try Pinocchio's workshop but she says she doesn't want to go if her brother isn't allowed (minimum age is supposedly 5 & he'll be 2 weeks shy of 3).

Plan to bring groceries from home and have bell services hold the luggage and groceries while we wait for the room to be ready. Plan to make breakfasts in the 1 bedroom and maybe dinners in the room (quick simple dinners).

Character dining: would love to try one character breakfast while there. However, I've been reading reviews and menus. Not sure what to do & I'm open to suggestions. Forgive me if I say the names incorrectly.
Goofy's breakfast: thinking 1st choice (hear you have variety of characters & food is good? Heard service can be questionable at times). Like variety of food choices.
Paradise Pier (can't remember the name): 2nd choice. Hear great for characters. DH & I would like the food but afraid picky children may not like the food options.
Storytellers Cafe: 3rd choice. Like food options. Wish the characters were more "traditional." Kids would only like Chip N Dale.
House of Blues Sunday Brunch: really like the food options and vibe, but so expensive. Also NO characters.

Any thoughts on these options?

On Monday we plan to attend the Royal Gathering for DVC members at the Disneyland. Hope it's worth it for such an early hour at 8am. Have any of you regretted attending? Plan to bring the kids and I'm assuming they are able to distract the kids with activities.

 

[Denovagirl]

Pretrip report Part 2:

So we are really excited about staying on property. Believe it or not, this is actually our first time staying at a hotel on property. AND it's going to be at the Villas at Grand Californian. The points required to stay there are crazy expensive but this way we don't have to worry about airfare. Our purpose is to really relax and enjoy the amenities of the hotel and villas.

At the 7 month mark, I was able to get a 1 bedroom villa for the 1st 3 nights and a studio for the last 2 nights. Again, our trip is from Sunday, July 6 to Friday July 11.

The first 3 nights Our plan is to relax at the hotel, enjoy the pools, visit Downtown Disney thus the 1 bedroom villa. On the last 2-3 days we will go to the parks so we only need the studio. I was looking forward for the 6 1/2 year old to try Pinocchio's workshop but she says she doesn't want to go if her brother isn't allowed (minimum age is supposedly 5 & he'll be 2 weeks shy of 3).

Plan to bring groceries from home and have bell services hold the luggage and groceries while we wait for the room to be ready. Plan to make breakfasts in the 1 bedroom and maybe dinners in the room (quick simple dinners).

Character dining: would love to try one character breakfast while there. However, I've been reading reviews and menus. Not sure what to do & I'm open to suggestions. Forgive me if I say the names incorrectly.
Goofy's breakfast: thinking 1st choice (hear you have variety of characters & food is good? Heard service can be questionable at times). Like variety of food choices.
Paradise Pier (can't remember the name): 2nd choice. Hear great for characters. DH & I would like the food but afraid picky children may not like the food options.
Storytellers Cafe: 3rd choice. Like food options. Wish the characters were more "traditional." Kids would only like Chip N Dale.
House of Blues Sunday Brunch: really like the food options and vibe, but so expensive. Also NO characters.

Any thoughts on these options?

On Monday we plan to attend the Royal Gathering for DVC members at the Disneyland. Hope it's worth it for such an early hour at 8am. Have any of you regretted attending? Plan to bring the kids and I'm assuming they are able to distract the kids with activities.

Wow, the villa's sound amazing! Take lots of photos for us!

I haven't been to any of the dining in DL, but I do know that we've always enjoyed our breakfast buffets at WDW.... they are all usually just regular breakfast items, pastries, eggs, bacon, sausage, mickey waffles. Nothing that can be screwed up too much. So I don't think taking a shot on one would be a big risk, plus your kids will LOVE the character experience. I'd go with one that has lots of "must meet" characters so you can get their autographs and photos then and not have to wait in line for those later!!

I have eaten at HOB though, and the food was AMAZING!!! I have always wanted to try the Sunday Gospel Brunch, but I'll be honest, I'd hold off on this one until my kids were older or until I could go without them. It is sure to be an amazing meal, but like you said its very pricey and the kids would much rather see Goofy, I am sure!!

 

[pepe3penelope]

Pm

 

[pepe3penelope]

As a recap, we are booked for a 5 night "staycation" at the Villas at Grand Californian. We will spend time in the villas as well as Disneyland Resort & California Adventure. I LOVE DISboards and I am looking at my phone app MULTIPLE times a day. I love reading what people have to say. I like to get tips. I feel inspired by (and live vicariously through) other people's experiences. I am also a PLANNER when it comes to our family vacations. I am already looking into 2015 and our family is already booked for a Spring break Disney Fantasy 7 day cruise.

Here's my dilemma...the prices are so crazy expensive! It's incredible how much the prices have gone up. The rest of the 2015 dates have not been released and am afraid that in order for us to afford next year that we have to sacrifice certain things with this year's trip. We really miss cruising (last one was 2013 and we are really looking forward to going again next year). I've looked into other cruise lines as well as considered cruising from Los Angeles (where we are from) and San Diego. Problem is I've been reading reviews. I've been finding unsatisfied customers complaining of poor to subpar food quality, horrible service, quality of ships showing wear and tear, staterooms dirty, poor handling of complaints by crew members as well as management.

I was inspired to do this post because I was reading Denovagirl's post about how awesome DISNEY is. The only two cruises we went on were on Disney. This is NOT an exaggeration: THEY WERE THE BEST VACATIONS WE HAD EVER HAD IN OUR ENTIRE LIVES!!! The service was exemplary. Each CM goes above and beyond to make you feel special. It's amazing how quickly they remember your names and preferences. On Disney Wonder, DD and I kept running into Ariel (our absolute favorite princess). She remembered my daughter and personally invited us to a such a fabulous and awesome party that only included a few other families. We had one on one time with so many characters and princesses.

We loved the pace, the themes of the spaces throughout the ships, the details, the food (OMG...I still can't lose the weight from the 1st AND 2nd cruises!). Palo dinner and especially Palo brunch were to die for. The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique was such an awesome experience for DD when she got to do the princess and pirate packages. Fantasy is the only ship that does this and to me it's different than doing it at Disneyland. It was on Disney Fantasy last year that we signed up to be Disney Vacation Club members.

Overall, I am just venting. I LOVE DISNEY!!! I've always said that I feel it's in our blood. We love immersing ourselves in Disney. It's just getting sooooo expensive. But considering what we've experienced and what I've mentioned, I know it's worth it. The bottom line is I have to make it work. I love my family and love the joy in their faces when we have magical Disney moments.

Thanks for letting me get it out!

 

[pepe3penelope]

I haven't updated my PTR for DLR and the VGC in three months!!! Oh my goodness! I've been busy with trying to figure out cruising plans for next year and we had a water leak in the house at the end of April. A lot of setbacks and we are finally finishing the repairs end of this week and getting new carpet in our house!

Mid-march I booked Royal Caribbean because of their Kids Sail Free offer for Port Canaveral. But then DCL released their Summer 2015 dates so we are booked out of San Diego next May. Then the Fall 2015 dates came out and we are also going out of San Diego in October 2015. I will cancel RCCL later.

Now back to Disneyland!!!

Our house is a mess because we have items boxed up everywhere for the re-carpeting. I have a corner in the master bedroom with stacks of items set aside for next month! My goal is to unpack everything after the carpet is done then start seriously setting more things aside.
Checklist: (this is our first stay onsite so lots of on the list!)
1. Have to call DVC to confirm my room # requests are in The system (want high floor WOC view).
2. Confirm DVC Royal Gathering is still Monday mornings at 8am in DLH.
3. Call Lego store to see if they still have the free Tuesday event that DD and DS can do.
4. Inquire with VGC about the grand quest treasure hunt for kiddos, how Build A Bear private session works, ask about the early morning walk for California Adventure.
5. Make reservations for character breakfast (think we will do the one a PPH).
Maybe Goofy's Kitchen.
6. Later do grocery shopping for the trip. Considering doing Von's for delivery (I had signed up online and haven't used the free delivery yet).
7. Later pack, pack, pack!!!

Wow! Vacation is in a month!!! Hurray!