Dec 13-16 trip part I and final notes

[DizMe]

Thanks to much information gleaned on the boards, my sister and I had another fabulous annual trip to DLR. This year, we weren't sure what to expect after not having done it since 2019. Overall, we had a wonderful time with many memorable and fun moments. There were some areas of concern and I'll be keeping an eye on those in hopes that they aren't permanent downgrades.

Part I: Hotel
We flew into SNA from Sacramento and arrived at 10:30 AM. We were picked up by a friend and off we went to GCH. My sister and I always choose GCH for our annual Christmas sister trip and we're always happy with that decision. I've lost track of how many years it has been, but I think something like 10, not counting the last 2 years when the parks were closed. It's just a gorgeous place at Christmas time and you simply can't beat that lobby with the giant tree, carolers, piano player, fireplace, etc.

I had debated whether or not to use mobile check-in, but decided not to use it and just go to the desk on arrival. I can't think of any advantage for guests to use the mobile system, as you still have to go to the desk to get your key and sign the paperwork (at least, that's what the people around us were being told). We wanted to be sure to get a specific type of location so opted not to even try the mobile system. When we arrived, the line stretched back pretty far, but it went fairly quickly and the guy ahead of us struck up a fun conversation so the time went by fast. We also had a very fun CM who was making sure everyone was in the right place. Her name was Mari (pronounced Mary) and she referred to herself as Magic Mari, and she was! She told us what our assigned room was while we were waiting in line and it was the opposite of what we'd requested. We had requested a room that had easy access to an elevator. We didn't care what floor or view or type, just wanted to be close to an elevator. She worked her magic and we got room 4001, which is almost as close to the main elevators as you could get, is over the lobby, and has a courtyard view. Even better, it was ready! The desk CM got our keys and was also extremely nice. Everyone was friendly and happy except one guy who was checking in next to me and apparently had something go very wrong because he was making quite a show of his displeasure.

We loved Hearthstone Lounge. We went around 11 one morning and had our pick of tables. We debated between one next to the fire (which is in a little alcove room) or the Christmas tree. We decided on the tree because we were waiting for friends to join us and there was an easy way to combine tables there, plus it was really pretty. Also, the room with the fireplace is really cold. There's a door there that goes outside that the CMs use. Anyway, our friends kept moving back their arrival time and we began to see the place filling up. We weren't going to hold a table for people who didn't have a set arrival, so after we'd eaten and had a drink (it was called something like Christmas Spice and it was amazing!), we moved to the couches that face each other. Four friends had joined us by then with 2 still unclear on their arrival, so we decided to go elsewhere since there was a line of people hoping to score a seat. Once Hearthstone begins to get busy, you can feel the eyes of people watching you, because it's a rather loose system and people really keep a constant eye out for those who look like they might be close to being done. Recommendation: go early, sit by the Christmas tree, and have the spice drink but don't try and meet up with anyone else!

We moved up to the large 3rd floor balcony that overlooks the lobby. There was a huge coffee table, couches, and chairs. We had a gift exchange, drinks, and goodies and nobody paid us any attention. It was wonderful, and a great time to catch up. We were circled around the table and it was a lot quieter than the lounge so better for conversation with our group.

We were told at check-in that the room would be cleaned every other day. Since we were only staying 3 nights, I guess they decided not to clean until we left. We had to call down for clean towels but otherwise it was fine. I don't mind it for myself, but I feel bad that the housekeepers who are left aren't getting paid much and the hotel is probably saving a lot but not passing that savings on to the guests or staff.

Santa had always been in the main lobby in previous years, but this year they put him in a really odd place IMO. He's in that hallway jog that goes from the lobby into the hallway that leads to the security point. It's cold and just a bit strange not to have him near the tree and decorations. They have a seat and some decor but it's still odd to me.

That's the end of Part I. Part II will finish up my thoughts on the parks and dining etc.

 

[Wesley815]

Everyone was friendly and happy except one guy who was checking in next to me and apparently had something go very wrong because he was making quite a show of his displeasure.

Most of the time it's adults who act worse than children at Disney. Yelling at an hourly CM won't make things better for anyone.... hopefully his ego feels better now that he's proven how big of man he is.

Santa had always been in the main lobby in previous years, but this year they put him in a really odd place IMO. He's in that hallway jog that goes from the lobby into the hallway that leads to the security point. It's cold and just a bit strange not to have him near the tree and decorations. They have a seat and some decor but it's still odd to me.

I was a little confused about that too, although the check in line and lobby gets packed in the afternoon (since reopening)- so maybe he's over there to avoid even larger crowds gathering.

Thanks for posting great report, look forward to Part 2!!

 

[DizMe]

Part II: Miscellaneous notes

CMs
The cast members, overall, were fantastic. There were so many energetic, engaging CMs and we felt that they were really trying to make it a pleasant experience for guests. It seemed to me as though they were more spontaneous than before, making comments that were off-the-cuff and engaging in a more personal (you might say natural) and unscripted way than previously. Sometimes it surprised me because I wasn't used to it, but it was fun! There were still the great CMs who make a point of performing their role with as much dramatic effect as they can. That's always something I love.

Shopping
I was shocked at the lack of merchandise. I mean, I've seen and heard about the ships stacked up and waiting to get into the harbor, but wow. There was soooooo much less to shop for than in any prior year I can remember, and some things, including the cabinet merchandise in Club 33, were from pre-pandemic. Some of the merch they did have was drastically degraded in quality but not price. For instance, I have a red canvas tote bag from 2019 that has Mickey and Minnie holding candy canes to form a heart. It has a zipper and I have my name and the year embroidered in a fancy font on front.

This year's tote is a plastic shopping bag. It has a snap closure in the middle instead of a zipper. The CM saw me looking at it and told me you could get your name embroidered on it in the back of the store (for a charge, but they charged for it before also). I'm skeptical that name embroidery would hold up well on cheap plastic, but I don't know. The cost? $24.95, which is what I paid for my beautiful canvas bag with the zipper, sigh.



The candy stores had very little to offer, although they did have a good stock of the gingerbread Mickey/Minnie head cookies. I love those, but I still prefer the old full-body version with chocolate ears. One of our days, they were making toffee and I love that but when we went back to get some the next day, it was gone.

Weather
Our weather was all over the place, but overall pretty chilly for DLR. It was very overcast the day we arrived and the high was somewhere in the 50s. The second day, Tues the 14th, it absolutely poured. I mean there was water everywhere and the rain was relentless all morning. On top of that, it was cold. We thought we were prepared, but in spite of our efforts we were miserable. There was water running out of the recessed lights in the shops, many of the rides were shut down, and we were cold and wet so we went back to the hotel. We bailed on our BB reservation and didn't have it in us to go all the way over there and tell them we weren't going to make it for our 11 am res. It really says something when I'm willing to forfeit $20 not to have to go over there. It would have been a terrible lunch experience. But the next day, we went over and explained why we didn't go and the host said, "You want to come in now?" so we did! We got a beautiful waterside table for an early dinner. We split the Monte Cristo, we each had a Hurricane (quite a yummy drink), and were going to have dessert but we were so full from half a MC and the drink that we stopped there. Very pleasant experience--no one rushed us and our table was ideal. But anyway, we had a great time at the hotel after getting cold and wet, and were able to go back in later that day (Tues) to enjoy the parks, which by then were much, much better. I'm glad I brought sweaters and a heavy coat, though, because it was often cold during our trip. Other than the Tuesday morning downpour, the weather was chilly but dry most of the time.

Food

We had some great meals and wonderful food. However, the options are, generally speaking, so much more limited now. In addition, in most places they wouldn't allow you to modify anything on the menu, which was kind of a shock. For instance, in Hearthstone Lounge, they offered pepperoni pizza, and margherita pizza with basil, but you couldn't get pepperoni added to the margherita or basil added to the pepperoni. At breakfast in both La Brea and Carnation, there was no granola or hot oatmeal (or any other cereal). There were about 4-5 options and I just didn't want a bacon and cheese croissant sandwich every day. Both places used to have a lot more to offer on the menu, and it seemed to be true pretty much across the board that options were limited on the menus.

We had dinner at Napa Rose with 5 of our friends and it was awesome as usual. We had made individual reservations for a table of 5 at 8:00PM and a table of 2 for the same time. We found out we had the same time and place, and day of requested a table for all 7 of us if possible and we were able to do it, which was fantastic. The food was excellent and I've been a huge fan of the dessert hot chocolate for many years and that's what I ordered this time. They no longer use Scharffenberger chocolate but have switched to Valhrona. It was still delicious.

My sister and I ate dinner at Carthay Circle, and whoa. IT. WAS. FREEZING. I mean, the restaurant was frigid. We were seated quickly and hadn't really noticed the temp until we ordered wine and took off our coats. We quickly put them back on because IT. WAS. FREEZING!!!! When our waitress came back by, we brought it up and her exact words were: "I know!!! I'm dying!!!" It took almost an hour to get our wine, and meanwhile a couple was seated just to our left. They, too, were shivering with cold and we kind of laughed about the fact that we'd all covered ourselves in the linen napkins to keep warm. The guy had his ski coat zipped up with the flap over his face and his hood cinched down over his forehead, and hands stuffed in his pockets. The couple were hunched down trying to conserve whatever heat they had left in them, just as we were doing. I used an app to see what the temp was and according to that, it was 47 degrees and the cold air was blowing on us. The food finally came and we didn't even eat much because we just wanted to leave. Something was drastically wrong with the whole thing, from temps to timing to food. They brought us a lava cake-type dessert as a comp for the experience, which we didn't even want because we seriously just wanted out of there.

Carnation Cafe breakfast: it was ok. Not many options and we were seated in the ice cream parlor area, which was cold. The service was fantastic, though, and the best thing about it was that it was the morning when it was absolutely pouring and everyone was looking for someplace indoors to escape, so we were glad to be sitting there with our coffee and breakfast.

La Brea breakfast was good but again, my favorites from the menu were gone so it was disappointing. No salmon/cream cheese/caper bagel, no special granola, etc etc., just another bacon/cheese/egg croissant sandwich. Good service, good coffee, warm table though. They told us there's no penalty if you don't show up for your reservation, they just give it to someone else if you're not there in 5 min so we skipped our second one later that week.

Had no trouble walking into Black Tap for lunch without a reservation and getting right in. Good experience and good food.

We went to the MK terrace one early evening and that was fun. We enjoyed the views out over the pier area/fun wheel, had a beer and shared a cheese board. They actually let us switch out the bleu cheese for something else, which was nice, and the board had some really delicious purple grapes.

Had a reservation at Trader Sam's our last evening and that was a blast. We sat at the bar and watched the bartender do his thing. Everyone was singing and having fun, including us. We bought the Nutcracker Tiki drink so we could get the mug, but I'll have to admit it was NOT my favorite drink. They don't let you order anything else, though, if you want the mug.

We had a fun lunch at Club 33 on Wed. A funny thing happened that day. Our reservation was for 11:00 check-in, so my sister and I thought it would be fun to ride HMH first. We were in the stretching room when suddenly, everything went dark and silent. Then the elevator door opened into the portrait gallery, where there were some emergency lights that came on but the portraits and effects were all dark. They had us wait for some time to see if the power would come back on, but it never did so eventually they evacuated us out past the doom buggies and up some stairs. That was kind of fun and we were given a pass to come back later. BUT...it turned out that the power was out all through NOS, including Pirates, BB, and Club 33! We and the others who were set to check in at 11:00 kept looking around nervously, hoping to see some sign that the power was going to be coming back on. Some hostesses from the Club came out and were also very nervous because what do you do about all of the people with Club reservations if the power remains off? Shortly before 11, it did indeed come back on and everyone breathed a collective sigh of relief. Our meal was fabulous, the table beautiful (we were directly in front of the big window), and our friends were there as well. What fun! And so much food. This year, they offered a special Tom & Jerry set, which is a small punch bowl with 2 cups. You could also purchase extra cups. It came with a drink and man, it was delicious.

Last year I got the egg nog set, which is beautiful, so I though it would be fun to have the T&J set as well They box it up beautifully and include a recipe card for the drink.


The Club bags are now plain, generic blue with no writing whatsoever and not the shiny blue with embossed lettering they used before. I sure hope they eventually go back to the classy bags.

Rides
We had planned to purchase Genie+ if it gave us a superior experience, but we simply didn't need it this trip. We did stand-by for everything and just timed it so that we didn't have long waits for the rides we wanted. Maybe it was the weather, but the waits were generally below an hour, and many were walk on-30 min. Incredicoaster and Soarin were easy waits. GOTG took a little longer but the longest we waited was about 45 min. We didn't spend much time in DCA, though. There just wasn't that much there that we wanted to do except eat and drink, ha ha.

Overall impressions
I was so happy to be back for Christmas. In spite of some glitches and the sense of still waiting for "normal," we had a fabulous time! Things I missed: having more dining options & easier access to restaurants, entertainment (though the Dapper Dans were really fun), and the quality and variety of merchandise that was previously offered. Nevertheless, it was a very happy and satisfying trip.

 

[Malcon10t]

Re: Club bags, they bounce back and forth. When they run out of the traditional bags, you get thee plain blue or black bags. Oh, and both sets are Tom and Jerry sets. I believe there have been 3 sets now.

 

[DizMe]

Re: Club bags, they bounce back and forth. When they run out of the traditional bags, you get thee plain blue or black bags. Oh, and both sets are Tom and Jerry sets. I believe there have been 3 sets now.

Thanks! I just went and looked at last year's set, and you're right, it was also a Tom and Jerry set. Don't know why I was remembering it as egg nog.

 

[DizMe]

A couple of pics of Club 33. I'm the one with glasses.

 

[DizMe]

I'm having trouble with my pictures coming up sideways. Not sure how to fix that. I uploaded them to my computer to see if that would help but they look fine there, just not once I upload them here.

 

[longtimedisneylurker]

I'm having trouble with my pictures coming up sideways. Not sure how to fix that. I uploaded them to my computer to see if that would help but they look fine there, just not once I upload them here.

Hmm...the pictures all look right on my browser.

 

[starlite_]

A couple of pics of Club 33. I'm the one with glasses.
View attachment 631917View attachment 631920

You guys look so happy <3

 

[DizMe]

Hmm...the pictures all look right on my browser.

Those are the ones that came up correctly

 

[DizMe]

Here's one of my sister and me, but I can't figure out how to make it turn the right way.

 

[DizMe]

Kind of dark, but this is in Blue Bayou.

Here's what the portrait gallery looked like with the power out and just the emergency lights on:

This is a sideways view of how we exited HM

 

[evilmommie]

So festive! Thank you for sharing your thoughts and pics!

 

[DizMe]

I made some crocheted gingerbread Mickeys and Minnies for my DL friends.

Cool pic of my sis and me

 

[Wesley815]

They also used that hallway when park first reopened with limited capacity, if standby line got to long for stretching room they would take groups of guests down directly to load area.

Love the crochet gingerbread!

 

[DizMe]

Trader Sam's

They also used that hallway when park first reopened with limited capacity, if standby line got to long for stretching room they would take groups of guests down directly to load area.

Love the crochet gingerbread!

Oh, that's awesome! Thanks for posting that video. I don't think they had all of those things when we went through. I'm not the most observant person. Here's the doom buggies with the emergency lights on

 

[DizMe]

We had a pre-party in our room the first night. Our local friend picked us up at the airport and brought eggnog and Tiki rum fixings! Just look at those fancy cups

These little beauties (lol) are found in Hearthstone Lounge and are called "Holiday Spice." Yum!

This is the Club 33 Tom and Jerry:

This is the magic key terrace

 

[DizMe]

I swear, I'm almost done posting! Just had to show you my sister and the guy sitting next to us at the freezing-cold Carthay restaurant.

 

[DizMe]



 

[Pluto468]

Thanks for the pictures and report! I'm so glad you had a wonderful time. Nothing like a sister trip! I'm supposed to go with one of mine this summer

Club 33 looks amazing.