Travel Dates: 8/27-8/29/06
Travelers: (2) 40 something sisters traveling with three children (ages 8, 10 and 11)
Hotel: Disney Grand Californian Concierge Level Rooms 6324 and 6334
Park Tickets: 3 day Park Hopper
As a veteran Disney World and Disney Cruise traveler, I had some reservations about our trip to Disneyland. Would it be too small, too old or not as spectacular as the World? The answer is a resounding, no! We thoroughly enjoyed our three day trip at Disneyland and felt, if anything, we should have alotted a fourth day.
The Hotel: Disney's Grand Californian was a beautiful property. The pool area was huge and the kids really enjoyed the slide at the main pool. There were lots of pool towels and the pool area was kept very tidy throughout the day.
The rooms were very nice. My sister had a queen bed/bunk bed configuration (6324) and my daughter and I had two queens (6334). The bunkbeds also had a trundle which would have accomodated a third child if that was necessary. The rooms were spacious and had a nice balcony area. The rooms were very clean and I'm very picky about clean hotel rooms. We had the "resort" view to the Disney California Adventure which was nice. 6334 had a smaller balcony and was situated around the corner from 6324. 6324 had a big balcony and a full on view of California Adventure. We asked that the hotel lock the mini-bars since they are on sensors and we didn't want to run the risk of being charged. Although we requested that regular refrigerators be placed in both rooms, we never received them. However, since we had access to the concierge lounge, it was not that big of a deal for us.
The concierge lounge worked well for us in the morning before going to the parks. They had a nice selection of breakfast breads and bagels, cream cheese, cereal, fresh fruit, good coffee, milks and other drinks. They also had refrigerators with small plastic bottles of water and glass bottles of soft drinks. The tea time had finger sandwiches geared more to the adults (i.e., salmon, watercress, etc) and cookies. We missed the dinner time offerings, so I can't comment on what they were. We did catch the late evening desserts one night and they were nice. Although cordials were mentioned on the list that we received at check in, we didn't see them and assume that you have to request them if you want them.
If we return, I probably would not reserve concierge on a short trip because we did not use the lounge as much as we did at Disney World. Although the Grand Californian is situated in a very good spot with close proximity to California Adventure (with its own entrance) and to Downtown Disney and Disneyland, it wasn't as convenient as Disney World where you could easily take a monorail or bus back to the hotel.
The concierge staff, however, were very good and did provide us with a lot of good tips, printed out boarding passes for our flights home and were otherwise cheerful and helpful. It also saved time checking out with the concierge instead of waiting in the lines at the front desk on check out day. They also recommended that we take the Disneyland bus to LAX which worked out really well.
Since we had a 6 a.m. flight out of LAX, we took the Disneyland LAX bus to the airport for $35 for myself and my 10 year old. We were then able to transfer to a Marriott shuttle bus to stay at the airport Marriot until 3 a.m. and took the Marriott shuttle to LAX at 3:45 a.m. The Marriott was ok and the hotel shuttle was fine, but our non-smoking room reeked of smoke and I would probably not choose that hotel again if I had a choice of others.
Hotel Dining: We had several meals, including a character breakfast, at the Storyteller's Cafe in the hotel. The service was excellent and the food was very good. The character breakfast buffet was very nice, but the characters were limited to Chip and Dale, Timon (no Pumba!), Brother Bear and Balou. No Minnie or Mickey, so if that's important to you, you might want to do your character breakfast elsewhere. The characters did spend time with the kids, signing their autograph books and posing for pictures.
The only bad dining experience we had was at the Whitewater Snacks cafeteria in the hotel. You place your order for hot foods with the cashier who then places the order with the kitchen staff while you find a table. The cashier did not get our order correct. When they delivered the wrong food to our table and we requested that they correct the order, we got attititude rather than an apology.
The food, however, was pretty good for "fast food."
We also went to the bar on the last day and had drinks and dessert (warm brownie with ice cream to die for). The ambiance and service was nice there.
The Parks: Disneyland was virtually the same as the Magic Kingdom, but it what was a more compact and do-able space. The rehabbed Pirates of the Carribbean was very nice and the changes to the first half of the ride made a big improvement. However, it was like they pasted on a new beginning, but left much of the second half exactly the same. IMHO they should have rehabbed the whole thing, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
We also had dinner one night at the Blue Bayou which is adjacent to the Pirates ride Although pricey, we thought the dinner was nice and the servers were very good.
We also enjoyed California Adventure more than we had anticipated. Although some people say that you can do this park in less than a day, we spent one entire day there. The Aladdin stage show was the absolute highlight of this park. The performance was on par with shows we've seen on Broadway and on the Disney Cruise. We sat in the mezzanine and had a great view of the stage and the performance that goes on above the audience.
In sum, we really enjoyed our short stay at Disneyland and wished we were able to stay at least one additional day.
Travelers: (2) 40 something sisters traveling with three children (ages 8, 10 and 11)
Hotel: Disney Grand Californian Concierge Level Rooms 6324 and 6334
Park Tickets: 3 day Park Hopper
As a veteran Disney World and Disney Cruise traveler, I had some reservations about our trip to Disneyland. Would it be too small, too old or not as spectacular as the World? The answer is a resounding, no! We thoroughly enjoyed our three day trip at Disneyland and felt, if anything, we should have alotted a fourth day.
The Hotel: Disney's Grand Californian was a beautiful property. The pool area was huge and the kids really enjoyed the slide at the main pool. There were lots of pool towels and the pool area was kept very tidy throughout the day.
The rooms were very nice. My sister had a queen bed/bunk bed configuration (6324) and my daughter and I had two queens (6334). The bunkbeds also had a trundle which would have accomodated a third child if that was necessary. The rooms were spacious and had a nice balcony area. The rooms were very clean and I'm very picky about clean hotel rooms. We had the "resort" view to the Disney California Adventure which was nice. 6334 had a smaller balcony and was situated around the corner from 6324. 6324 had a big balcony and a full on view of California Adventure. We asked that the hotel lock the mini-bars since they are on sensors and we didn't want to run the risk of being charged. Although we requested that regular refrigerators be placed in both rooms, we never received them. However, since we had access to the concierge lounge, it was not that big of a deal for us.
The concierge lounge worked well for us in the morning before going to the parks. They had a nice selection of breakfast breads and bagels, cream cheese, cereal, fresh fruit, good coffee, milks and other drinks. They also had refrigerators with small plastic bottles of water and glass bottles of soft drinks. The tea time had finger sandwiches geared more to the adults (i.e., salmon, watercress, etc) and cookies. We missed the dinner time offerings, so I can't comment on what they were. We did catch the late evening desserts one night and they were nice. Although cordials were mentioned on the list that we received at check in, we didn't see them and assume that you have to request them if you want them.
If we return, I probably would not reserve concierge on a short trip because we did not use the lounge as much as we did at Disney World. Although the Grand Californian is situated in a very good spot with close proximity to California Adventure (with its own entrance) and to Downtown Disney and Disneyland, it wasn't as convenient as Disney World where you could easily take a monorail or bus back to the hotel.
The concierge staff, however, were very good and did provide us with a lot of good tips, printed out boarding passes for our flights home and were otherwise cheerful and helpful. It also saved time checking out with the concierge instead of waiting in the lines at the front desk on check out day. They also recommended that we take the Disneyland bus to LAX which worked out really well.
Since we had a 6 a.m. flight out of LAX, we took the Disneyland LAX bus to the airport for $35 for myself and my 10 year old. We were then able to transfer to a Marriott shuttle bus to stay at the airport Marriot until 3 a.m. and took the Marriott shuttle to LAX at 3:45 a.m. The Marriott was ok and the hotel shuttle was fine, but our non-smoking room reeked of smoke and I would probably not choose that hotel again if I had a choice of others.
Hotel Dining: We had several meals, including a character breakfast, at the Storyteller's Cafe in the hotel. The service was excellent and the food was very good. The character breakfast buffet was very nice, but the characters were limited to Chip and Dale, Timon (no Pumba!), Brother Bear and Balou. No Minnie or Mickey, so if that's important to you, you might want to do your character breakfast elsewhere. The characters did spend time with the kids, signing their autograph books and posing for pictures.
The only bad dining experience we had was at the Whitewater Snacks cafeteria in the hotel. You place your order for hot foods with the cashier who then places the order with the kitchen staff while you find a table. The cashier did not get our order correct. When they delivered the wrong food to our table and we requested that they correct the order, we got attititude rather than an apology.
The food, however, was pretty good for "fast food." We also went to the bar on the last day and had drinks and dessert (warm brownie with ice cream to die for). The ambiance and service was nice there.
The Parks: Disneyland was virtually the same as the Magic Kingdom, but it what was a more compact and do-able space. The rehabbed Pirates of the Carribbean was very nice and the changes to the first half of the ride made a big improvement. However, it was like they pasted on a new beginning, but left much of the second half exactly the same. IMHO they should have rehabbed the whole thing, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
We also had dinner one night at the Blue Bayou which is adjacent to the Pirates ride Although pricey, we thought the dinner was nice and the servers were very good.
We also enjoyed California Adventure more than we had anticipated. Although some people say that you can do this park in less than a day, we spent one entire day there. The Aladdin stage show was the absolute highlight of this park. The performance was on par with shows we've seen on Broadway and on the Disney Cruise. We sat in the mezzanine and had a great view of the stage and the performance that goes on above the audience.
In sum, we really enjoyed our short stay at Disneyland and wished we were able to stay at least one additional day.
When they did finally clean the room they left the basket out front with nothing in it. Didn't understand why they didn't take it. Then the part that really got us is at 800am housekeeping knocked on the door to do cleaning. We couldn't get in our room until 530 at night and then they wanted to clean it at 800am. Crazy.
