BriannaRuth
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- May 29, 2012
- Messages
- 2,298
I'll be posting this in sections. Here's part 1!
Our family of four took our first December trip to DL from December 14 - 20, with 5 days in the parks. We were really excited to see Disneyland decked out in it's finest for Christmas!
Day One - Sunday, December 14 (Non-park day):
We had a mid-morning flight from SEA to SNA. Started out just me and my two daughters, who are 25 and 22. My husband isn't a huge DL fan so he joined us a few days later. While we were waiting for our flight in Seattle, I remembered I hadn't called to make a tower request from the DLH, so I did that while we were waiting. I just booked a regular room, so in an effort to avoid getting a parking lot view and because one of us was going to have an ECV, I wanted to request the Adventure Tower. Waited on hold just over 20 minutes. Unfortunately they said they couldn't make a same day request because it "wouldn't get to the hotel in time." I thought the number I called was the main number for the hotel, but evidently not as it was a call center.
Flight was on time and we took a Lyft from SNA to the DLH for $38 plus tip.
Once we arrived at the DLH, I requested the Adventure Tower. The CM said they didn't have anything available in the Adventure Tower and our room was in the Fantasy Tower. I said that was disappointing because it was our experience that the Adventure Tower was easier to navigate with an ECV. She asked if we needed an accessible room and I told her we didn't, just that the Fantasy Tower was difficult to navigate because it was more crowded and it could be difficult dealing with elevators. So she went and checked with someone else for a minute, came back and apologized but they just didn't have anything. So I thanked her for checking and about 30 seconds later the other CM came over and they talked again and let me know they had a room on a higher floor with a pool view available but it would be an additional $25 a night if we wanted it. Said we'd take it and we were off.
After settling in, one of my daughters and I walked to the esplanade to DAS services to request a DAS pass. This daughter has had DAS the past two times we've been to DL. In the past we've had to do a phone call from the park because we arrive a day early, but this time they let us talk to one of the CMs at the DAS building immediately. The CM acknowledged she could see that my daughter had been approved for DAS in the past and that we also had purchased LLMP, asked her a couple of pretty basic questions about how her disability affects her in the park, at school, etc., then approved her for DAS. Took maybe five minutes. I was very relieved as we'd heard a lot about it being much more difficult to get DAS since even our last trip. Maybe the record of having it in the past and the fact that we'd also bought LLMPs helped, not sure.
From there we walked across the esplanade to Harbor Blvd, where we picked up an ECV from D&R Mobility. They had offered to drop the scooter off for us at the DLH, but we would have had to be there at the time and I didn't want to risk not being there on time or waiting around, so we told them we'd pick it up since it was so close. Their office was closed by the time we arrived, but they left the key with the front desk at the Grand Legacy. Scooter was ready to go and was in great shape. We'd rented from Scooterbug before and had trouble with two different scooters from them, so we were glad there were no problems with this one.
By the time we were done getting the scooter, we were still about an hour out from our reservation at Centrico, so we just went early and were seated pretty quickly. We were able to park the ECV near Centrico, then waited for a table maybe 15 minutes at around 5:30. They accommodated our request for a table as off to the side as possible due to my daughter's disability without a problem. My other daughter was exploring DTD and didn't want to do Centrico, so it was just two of us. It was great, service was quick and friendly. Highly recommend the Guacamole with Pork Belly.
My daughter had the burrito and I had the shrimp chorizo tacos.
We each had two drinks, and one of hers was served in a snowman cup!
Dinner for the two of us, including two drinks each and a shared appetizer, was about $180 including tax and tip.
After dinner we decided to make it an early evening and just go chill at the DLH since we like to rope drop. Made a quick stop at the Disney store in DTD, then joined back up with my other daughter. Left the ECV in the lobby of the Adventure Tower to charge overnight because it's a little tricky to get it in and out of the elevators. The three of us decided to watch a Disney movie in the room and was surprised that we didn't seem to be able to do that unless we signed in to our own Disney+ account. Maybe I missed something on the TV menu, IDK. Signed into my account and we spent the rest of the evening watching Sleeping Beauty while enjoying our Disneyland lightup headboard with "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" music playing before turning in early.
Our family of four took our first December trip to DL from December 14 - 20, with 5 days in the parks. We were really excited to see Disneyland decked out in it's finest for Christmas!
Day One - Sunday, December 14 (Non-park day):
We had a mid-morning flight from SEA to SNA. Started out just me and my two daughters, who are 25 and 22. My husband isn't a huge DL fan so he joined us a few days later. While we were waiting for our flight in Seattle, I remembered I hadn't called to make a tower request from the DLH, so I did that while we were waiting. I just booked a regular room, so in an effort to avoid getting a parking lot view and because one of us was going to have an ECV, I wanted to request the Adventure Tower. Waited on hold just over 20 minutes. Unfortunately they said they couldn't make a same day request because it "wouldn't get to the hotel in time." I thought the number I called was the main number for the hotel, but evidently not as it was a call center.
Flight was on time and we took a Lyft from SNA to the DLH for $38 plus tip.
Once we arrived at the DLH, I requested the Adventure Tower. The CM said they didn't have anything available in the Adventure Tower and our room was in the Fantasy Tower. I said that was disappointing because it was our experience that the Adventure Tower was easier to navigate with an ECV. She asked if we needed an accessible room and I told her we didn't, just that the Fantasy Tower was difficult to navigate because it was more crowded and it could be difficult dealing with elevators. So she went and checked with someone else for a minute, came back and apologized but they just didn't have anything. So I thanked her for checking and about 30 seconds later the other CM came over and they talked again and let me know they had a room on a higher floor with a pool view available but it would be an additional $25 a night if we wanted it. Said we'd take it and we were off.
After settling in, one of my daughters and I walked to the esplanade to DAS services to request a DAS pass. This daughter has had DAS the past two times we've been to DL. In the past we've had to do a phone call from the park because we arrive a day early, but this time they let us talk to one of the CMs at the DAS building immediately. The CM acknowledged she could see that my daughter had been approved for DAS in the past and that we also had purchased LLMP, asked her a couple of pretty basic questions about how her disability affects her in the park, at school, etc., then approved her for DAS. Took maybe five minutes. I was very relieved as we'd heard a lot about it being much more difficult to get DAS since even our last trip. Maybe the record of having it in the past and the fact that we'd also bought LLMPs helped, not sure.
From there we walked across the esplanade to Harbor Blvd, where we picked up an ECV from D&R Mobility. They had offered to drop the scooter off for us at the DLH, but we would have had to be there at the time and I didn't want to risk not being there on time or waiting around, so we told them we'd pick it up since it was so close. Their office was closed by the time we arrived, but they left the key with the front desk at the Grand Legacy. Scooter was ready to go and was in great shape. We'd rented from Scooterbug before and had trouble with two different scooters from them, so we were glad there were no problems with this one.
By the time we were done getting the scooter, we were still about an hour out from our reservation at Centrico, so we just went early and were seated pretty quickly. We were able to park the ECV near Centrico, then waited for a table maybe 15 minutes at around 5:30. They accommodated our request for a table as off to the side as possible due to my daughter's disability without a problem. My other daughter was exploring DTD and didn't want to do Centrico, so it was just two of us. It was great, service was quick and friendly. Highly recommend the Guacamole with Pork Belly.
My daughter had the burrito and I had the shrimp chorizo tacos.
We each had two drinks, and one of hers was served in a snowman cup!
Dinner for the two of us, including two drinks each and a shared appetizer, was about $180 including tax and tip.
After dinner we decided to make it an early evening and just go chill at the DLH since we like to rope drop. Made a quick stop at the Disney store in DTD, then joined back up with my other daughter. Left the ECV in the lobby of the Adventure Tower to charge overnight because it's a little tricky to get it in and out of the elevators. The three of us decided to watch a Disney movie in the room and was surprised that we didn't seem to be able to do that unless we signed in to our own Disney+ account. Maybe I missed something on the TV menu, IDK. Signed into my account and we spent the rest of the evening watching Sleeping Beauty while enjoying our Disneyland lightup headboard with "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" music playing before turning in early.
