Just wanted to share a short trip report of our recent Christmas time visit. We booked this trip last May, as it was the first trip with the WHOLE family and thus needed to be panned well in advance. There were 13 of us! Participants included my dh and dd(almost 11): My sister, bil, and niece(almost 8): My brother, sil, niece(2) and nephew(4); My mom and dad (nana and papa); and bil's mom.
Because this was such a special trip for us, we went all out and booked the Grand CA hotel. In the couple of months before our arrival, I called the hotel a total of 5 times...to check on rooms, order a scooter for my mom, clear up some misunderstandings...Even talked to them the night before we left as they had assigned us 2 bunk bed rooms, when we only needed one. I was assured that the problem had been fixed and the next morning we headed out bright and early for the airport.
After our on-time flight and ride from LAX on the Disney Express, we arrived at the beautiful Grand CA lobby only to find....You guessed it...we were booked in two bunk bed rooms. The bunk beds are not big enough to fit adults so this was not going to work for us...and after all the work I had done to try and prevent this, I was a bit frustrated.
So...after much discussion with the manager, we finally settled on one upgrade (two roooms on 5th floor) and the other two rooms about as far away as one could get (with a not so lovely roof line view) Not too happy, but it was the only solution they could come up with at the time. We left the front desk with promises of trying to fix the problem tomorrow and vouchers for a free character breakfast, which was nice. That took at least an hour, and we were hungry, so we all went over to Whitewater Snacks for lunch before heading into Ca Adventure for the afternoon.
We enjoyed the low crowds and rode TOT, Monsters, Soarin', Screamin', visited with characters, and did a couple Bug's Land rides before heading back to check into our rooms. The room situation was pretty disappointing to say the least, as being so for away from each other was not the purpose of the trip. We tried to make the best of it and all met in the lobby to head over to La Brea Cafe for some dinner on the patio. We sat next to the heat lamps and it was a lovely evening and we enjoyed our sandwiches and salads and the excitement of the begininning of our long awaited trip.
After dinner, we went into Disneyland and were totally wowed with the Christmasy beauty! This is the third time I've been to Disneyland at Xmas, and this was by far the most spectacular...The lights on the castle were amazing! So we made our way to the front of the castle and squeezed into a spot on the sidewalk to enjoy the parade. We only had to wait about 10 minutes, which was nice. The parade was festive and fun, as always...especiallly fun for us because of the little kids enjoyment.
Everyone was tired after the parade so headed back to the rooms...except for dh, dd and I. We decided to do a ride on Space Mountain...10 minute wait...Nice. Also caught a bit of the light show and snowfall on Main St. In fact, my bro told me that nephew(4) was amazed at the snowfall and took off his hat to catch some, exclaiming, "Daddy, it's raining soap!"...too cute.
Back at our rooms, we caught up with my mom and dad who had arrived that evening, and lamented over the room situation. We were tired and were planning on early entry so went to bed. I didn't sleep very well with all the excitement and the phone woke me bright and early with the front desk letting us know that they were changing us to new rooms. Yay? I mean I knew we wanted to be closer to each other, but the prospect of packing, storing luggage, and moving into a new room, not to mention making it to EE all with a splitting headache, was a bit daunting....but I managed it.....Because I knew I would be glad later.
My dad was not so convinced, but he agreed to move as well, and mom and dad skipped EE so that they could get organized, which was a good thing because bell services wasn't going to take our luggage until mom insisted. (I was told that we could leave it in the room and they would move it for us, to make the move as easy as possible)
Once we located coffee (the only place we could find open was the Compass bookstore) and I took some ibuprofen, things began to look up. We ended up taking the second train of the monorail (so we could drink more of our coffee) into the parks for EE...just a bit late. We were planning on Nemo, but it was down so we rode Space instead...soooo fun! Did a baby switch and some of us rode twice. Then we headed to HMH, as nephew was super excited to ride the Nigtmere b4 Xmas version. He was scared in the stretch room, but rode the rest with his two big-girl cousins and enjoyed it immensely. Nobody in line either, I took some pics of the kids on the porch of the mansion.
Next we rode Pirates, then Splash. It was nephew's first time on Splash and he loved it! Couldn't believe it...He's only 4! He told everyone it was his favorite ride. While we rode Splash, my bro took the baby on Winnie the Pooh, and guess what they found?! Yes, it was the dream team handing out Mickey Ear hats! So we all rode Winnie the Pooh next and wore our dream hats for the rest of the day! Magic!
At one point this morning, nephew was walking with his two cousins and told them, "Last night it rained soap...and it filled my heart with love!" How cute is that?
By this time, we were due to meet my parents at Goofy's Kitchen for niece's bday celebration. She turned two on friday. We took the monorail back to meet them and had our whole group picture done with Pluto when we arrived. Stay tuned for our Goofy's Kitchen experience...
Because this was such a special trip for us, we went all out and booked the Grand CA hotel. In the couple of months before our arrival, I called the hotel a total of 5 times...to check on rooms, order a scooter for my mom, clear up some misunderstandings...Even talked to them the night before we left as they had assigned us 2 bunk bed rooms, when we only needed one. I was assured that the problem had been fixed and the next morning we headed out bright and early for the airport.
After our on-time flight and ride from LAX on the Disney Express, we arrived at the beautiful Grand CA lobby only to find....You guessed it...we were booked in two bunk bed rooms. The bunk beds are not big enough to fit adults so this was not going to work for us...and after all the work I had done to try and prevent this, I was a bit frustrated.
So...after much discussion with the manager, we finally settled on one upgrade (two roooms on 5th floor) and the other two rooms about as far away as one could get (with a not so lovely roof line view) Not too happy, but it was the only solution they could come up with at the time. We left the front desk with promises of trying to fix the problem tomorrow and vouchers for a free character breakfast, which was nice. That took at least an hour, and we were hungry, so we all went over to Whitewater Snacks for lunch before heading into Ca Adventure for the afternoon.
We enjoyed the low crowds and rode TOT, Monsters, Soarin', Screamin', visited with characters, and did a couple Bug's Land rides before heading back to check into our rooms. The room situation was pretty disappointing to say the least, as being so for away from each other was not the purpose of the trip. We tried to make the best of it and all met in the lobby to head over to La Brea Cafe for some dinner on the patio. We sat next to the heat lamps and it was a lovely evening and we enjoyed our sandwiches and salads and the excitement of the begininning of our long awaited trip.
After dinner, we went into Disneyland and were totally wowed with the Christmasy beauty! This is the third time I've been to Disneyland at Xmas, and this was by far the most spectacular...The lights on the castle were amazing! So we made our way to the front of the castle and squeezed into a spot on the sidewalk to enjoy the parade. We only had to wait about 10 minutes, which was nice. The parade was festive and fun, as always...especiallly fun for us because of the little kids enjoyment.
Everyone was tired after the parade so headed back to the rooms...except for dh, dd and I. We decided to do a ride on Space Mountain...10 minute wait...Nice. Also caught a bit of the light show and snowfall on Main St. In fact, my bro told me that nephew(4) was amazed at the snowfall and took off his hat to catch some, exclaiming, "Daddy, it's raining soap!"...too cute.
Back at our rooms, we caught up with my mom and dad who had arrived that evening, and lamented over the room situation. We were tired and were planning on early entry so went to bed. I didn't sleep very well with all the excitement and the phone woke me bright and early with the front desk letting us know that they were changing us to new rooms. Yay? I mean I knew we wanted to be closer to each other, but the prospect of packing, storing luggage, and moving into a new room, not to mention making it to EE all with a splitting headache, was a bit daunting....but I managed it.....Because I knew I would be glad later.
My dad was not so convinced, but he agreed to move as well, and mom and dad skipped EE so that they could get organized, which was a good thing because bell services wasn't going to take our luggage until mom insisted. (I was told that we could leave it in the room and they would move it for us, to make the move as easy as possible)
Once we located coffee (the only place we could find open was the Compass bookstore) and I took some ibuprofen, things began to look up. We ended up taking the second train of the monorail (so we could drink more of our coffee) into the parks for EE...just a bit late. We were planning on Nemo, but it was down so we rode Space instead...soooo fun! Did a baby switch and some of us rode twice. Then we headed to HMH, as nephew was super excited to ride the Nigtmere b4 Xmas version. He was scared in the stretch room, but rode the rest with his two big-girl cousins and enjoyed it immensely. Nobody in line either, I took some pics of the kids on the porch of the mansion.
Next we rode Pirates, then Splash. It was nephew's first time on Splash and he loved it! Couldn't believe it...He's only 4! He told everyone it was his favorite ride. While we rode Splash, my bro took the baby on Winnie the Pooh, and guess what they found?! Yes, it was the dream team handing out Mickey Ear hats! So we all rode Winnie the Pooh next and wore our dream hats for the rest of the day! Magic!
At one point this morning, nephew was walking with his two cousins and told them, "Last night it rained soap...and it filled my heart with love!" How cute is that?
By this time, we were due to meet my parents at Goofy's Kitchen for niece's bday celebration. She turned two on friday. We took the monorail back to meet them and had our whole group picture done with Pluto when we arrived. Stay tuned for our Goofy's Kitchen experience...
I think it's always good when people talk about the good and the bad, the reality of kids getting sick on a trip and how a stuffed Disney animal can make it all better. Thanks for sharing your experiences! Have a Happy New Year and may your family be blessed in it.
