Getting out of Utah. Trip report from February at VGC

[wbl2745]

Villas at the Grand Californian, Disneyland Resort
February 15 - 17, 2011
Participants: Self (Disney fanatic!), DW, DF1 (husband), DF2 (wife)

Planning

In December DW and I, along with my brothers and their wives spent 12/1 through 12/7/2010 at WDW staying at the Animal Kingdom Lodge. (You can read the trip report here.) This ate up a lot of our points, but we had a few left over and I knew that by February or March I was going to be sick of the cold, snow, slush, muck, of a Utah winter so I made reservations for a one-bedroom at VGC. At first I was only able to get one night, but within about a week I had both nights via a wait list.

2/9/11

DW was on the phone with our friends from Colorado, DF1 and DF2, and the mentioned that they were planning on going to Disneyland the next week. Wow! Immediately we invited them to stay with us in the one-bedroom unit. We laughed about how funny it would have been if we hadn’t found out about being at Disneyland at the same time and ran into each other in line some where. In any case, everything was set. They were driving and would pick us up at Long Beach Airport. As with our trip last April (you can read about it here) they would bring breakfast food for all of us. What fun!

2/15/11

For those of you who haven’t flown into Long Beach Airport, it is 13.6 miles from Disneyland, which is a little further than the Orange County Airport, but we regularly get out of the airport within 20 minutes of exiting the plane. Try to do that at LAX or Orange County! The other fun thing is that if you decide to go
cross country instead of using the freeways, you take the main exit from the airport and just stay on that road which turns into Ball Road on the north side of DLR. Can it get more convenient than that!

Arriving at Long Beach Airport. It is so small there are no jetways, you walk across the tarmac.

JetBlue

Anyway, we arrive, grab our luggage and our friends pick us up at the curb and we’re out of there by 12:45 PM. Since it was mid day we decided to take the freeway. I love coming up on the DLR, seeing the signs and arriving “home.” We pull up at the Grand Californian, leave the car under the portico and check-in to see if our room was ready. It wasn’t, which isn’t all that surprising. They take my cell phone number and will text us when the room is ready and give us our welcome packet and room keys for all of us. We leave the luggage in the car and park it in the self-parking.

Wanting to have good places for the World of Color that evening, we had ordered the WoC picnic. I had the European Antipasto, DW had the Taste of Asia, and our friends had the All-American. I’ve had the Taste of Asia before and the salmon is quite good. I like the antipasto, but the next time I do this I’m going to have the All American. The fried chicken looked really good.

Our first stop was Toy Story Mania, one of my favorite attractions. Somewhere there’s got to be a complete list of the of easter eggs that open up higher point targets. I only know a couple of them.

Here’s a great view from Toy Story across Paradise Bay at the edge of soon to open Little Mermaid and Grizzly Peak.

I liked this shot as we were crossing the bridge leaving Paradise Pier.

Right after Toy Story they texted me with our room #3514. We could have gone back to the room, but decided at that point Aladdin was soon to start so we marched through A Bug’s Land. There weren’t very many people in line for Aladdin, and the Tower of Terror was a walk-on, we we tried that out. The HUGE surprise was the DW went on it. During our December trip to WDW with my brothers and their wives, for camaraderie sake she joined us. Normally she absolutely refuses. But it wasn’t that bad, so I guess now she’s going with us. In times past she’s been the hold-all-the-stuff person, but now we’ll just have to take care of ourselves. We ended up in the third row on the side. Usually I’m in one of the balconies, which is nice too. It was fun to see the parade from ground level.

On our walking we ran into these poppies. Nothing was blooming in Utah at that point, so it was great to see them.

By now I’m a little tuckered out, so we decide to go check out the room and get our luggage. It is about 4:45 PM and World of Color will be at 8:00. We’ve been to the VGC last year, and it is our home resort, but I just love the rooms and the lobby, and the grounds, and... So we check the room out, everything’s OK, and we go get the luggage. We pulled up at the portico and asked if we could use a luggage trolley. They said that we’d have to have them do it, and they were backed up about 20 minutes. So, we just carried it ourselves.

Here’s a quick tour of our room.

View from the kitchen into the living room area. Sorry, I didn’t get the picture before we moved in.

The big box on the floor is breakfast and goodies! The kitchen table on the right is significantly bigger than the ones in the AKV at WDW. Here you could seat 7 easily and more with some coziness. You can see the foldout couch on the right by the windows. To the left is the Murphy bed. Our friends said the foldout bed was quite comfortable. At our previous visit a friend slept on the Murphy bed. She said it was comfortable, but a little short. I’m not sure that I’d plan on a full-sized adult sleeping on it. It was a little cold so we rounded up blankets from our bedroom closet and the closet in the living room area. One think I would change about the rooms is that there is only one thermostat in the unit, located in the hallway toward the master bedroom. AKV Jambo House had a thermostat in each room.

This is the second bathroom, the one that is in the kitchen and living room. This makes sharing the one-bedroom with another couple easy. They have their own bathroom. Oh, you can’t see it, but there’s a full-sized shower to the right.

Here is the master bedroom, the “one” in the “one bedroom”. The bed is a kingsized bed and was quite comfortable.

This is looking back toward the master bathroom with the windows behind me.

What you can’t see in either one of these pictures is an entertainment center and a desk by the window. The desk had power and network connections. We also had wireless.

The master bathroom is quite large.

You can see the shower and the sink. Oddly, it would have been nice to have a second sink. The water closet is to the left in its own room. The shower was nice, lots of pressure and a good temperature. At Kidani Village at AKV we had NO water pressure. It was really odd. You have a huge shower, bigger than this one, and the water is dribbling out of the shower head. You have to huddle under it.

This is looking the other direction at the tub and jacuzzi.

OK, I have to tell a story. The next evening DW decided to have a nice cozy jacuzzi. She had brought some bath salts. They weren’t SUPPOSED to be a bubble bath. Well, she fills the tub, adds the bath stuff, hops in and turns it on. The bubbles grew and grew until all I could see was her head sticking out. I tried to move the bubbles to the shower, but I wasn’t moving fast enough. I had a great picture of this, but DW forbade me to post it. Sorry.

Next is a shot of our view. It wasn’t spectactular, just the tops of the trees in the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. I know that view is really important for some, but I like looking out and feeling like we were in the forest. Oddly, they kept the background noise on all night. I opened the door to our balcony to get some air in the middle of the night and the “birds” were still chirping.

If you really wanted to stretch it, you could see the Tower of Terror.

To the left you could see the pool, but meant you had to lean out. Not worth the effort. I suppose a lower floor would see trees only, and a higher floor would see Grizzly River Run.

One of the things that I like about DVC is the feeling that I don’t have to keep moving. We hung around for a while just enjoying the room. About 7:00 we decided to head over to the World of Color. We had blue fast passes, which meant that we should have had good viewing places. As we got there we found that everything was already packed. We ended up on the side with a not very good view. This was mostly my fault. I had seen the World of Color last October and had a yellow pass. I arrived about 20 minutes before the show and had a great view. For whatever reason that wasn’t happening tonight. It was fun, but not what I had hoped, particularly since our friends and DW had not seen it.

After the show we headed back to the room, stayed up chatting for a while and then went off to bed. I told everyone about the 7:30 AM “Get up and go powerwalk” available to guests of the Grand Californian inside of DCA. No one took me up on the offer.

More to come...

 

[nunzia]

Enjoying this! Looking forward to the next installment.

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

Great trip report. My DH and I stayed in a 1br last Septmeber and I must say, VCG is the nicest DVC resort around.

 

[Disney Princess]

We are reading your report together this afternoon. We are headed to VGC in less than 2 months!!! Your report is keeping us sane in the meantime. Can't wait to read more.

 

[nickspace]

Have Fun!

 

[dnoyes]

Hi neighbor I'm in Boise. Don't think there are many of us DVC people this far west.
Great trip report so far. More please

 

[wbl2745]

2/16/11 -- Day 2

Despite good intentions to get up for the early morning power walk in DCA, we stumbled out of bed and had breakfast at 8:30 from the things our friends brought. By 9:30 we made it over to the gate into DCA from the GCH and got Fast Passes for the World of Color again. They were blue! Clearly the WoC Picnic were completely unnecessary the day before since blue is the best viewing area. Something to remember for future visits, if it is off season you probably don’t need to make special arrangements for WoC.

Soaring over California was open and since the park itself was not open to the general public yet, it was a walk-on. The day was a little drizzly, so we decided to try Grizzly River Run. We are always quite prepared for this with ponchos, sandals that can get wet, and a big plastic bag for the in-the-park backpack we always have with us. I think we only waited for about five minutes before getting our first run!

As we got off the raft we noticed that there was absolutely no one in line, so we asked if we could get right back on. The CM said sure, so off we went again. I used to think that Kali River Rapids (at the Animal Kingdom at WDW) and Grizzly River Run were the same layout, but after being on Kali in December, Grizzly is much better. It is longer, with two drops instead of one at Kali.

Some people get concerned about rain at DLR or WDW, but I almost see it as a good omen. In general the locals will stay home and much of the park becomes a walk-on. In fairly quick succession we experienced Toy Story Mania again, the carousel, and were headed to the Silly Symphony Swings when the construction walls blocked us.

DW on the Carousel.

We decided not to be deterred by this, so we headed back around, but by now the rain was really picking up, so swinging in the rain (as opposed to singing) didn’t seem like a good idea any more. The only downside to rain is that some attractions just won’t work. We hit Soaring one more time (walk-on) and headed to Disneyland across the Esplanade.

A nice shot of the Hollywood Tower of Terror on our way out.

It was getting to be lunch time so we made the obligatory stop at the Magic Shop on Main Street. (Be sure to look at the spinning pinwheel in the window and follow the instructions. You’ll really be surprised at the result!) In the end we decided to head over to the River Belle Terrace. This is a nice central place to eat. DF1 and I went to the Bengal BBQ, DW went to the Stage Door Cafe, and DF2 got something at the River Belle. We were fortunate to find an in-door table since although it had stopped raining it was a tad chilly.

View from our table toward Tarzan’s Treehouse.

When it is warmer we eat outside, which is very pleasant to look at the Rivers of America and the people while eating. I’ve been known to go to Rancho del Zocalo and bring back my lunch.

If you haven’t eaten at the Bengal BBQ you’re missing out. The bacon wrapped asparagus is wonderful. I heard some time back that they were going to close the Bengal BBQ which would be a terrible thing!

I’m going to fast forward because I want to get to the tour of the Grand Californian, which was the next day.

The castle during a break in the drizzle.

Generally speaking the crowds were very light for the rest of the day and we didn’t have to wait in line for more than 15 minutes (Big Thunder Mountain Railroad). We had snacks at the hidden window behind the French Market (Mickey shaped beignets, mint juleps, and really good chocolate cake). Made our required stop at the Blue Ribbon Bakery on Main Street. Rode on Storybook Land Canal Boats and enjoyed seeing Duckzilla! (Ducks wandering around the miniatures always makes me laugh.) And at this point I decided that I needed a nap, so every agreed and we went back to the room.

Tulips at the hub

Our friends then invited us to have dinner on them at Storyteller’s Cafe. There was something interesting happening. There was (and possibly still is) a labor dispute at DLR. Employees, members of the union, were in the lobby of the Grand Californian handing out balloons to kids with “Disney is unfair” printed on them. I was surprised that they could do this. Well Disney was hustling after each child and offered to trade the ballon they got from the union for a nice, shiny, colorful balloon from Disney. I had to laugh, the only time that Disney hands out something free is when they want to get something away from you that leaves them in a bad light. Apparently there was some big investors meeting going on. There was also security all over the place.

This evening we got to WoC a lot earlier than the first night and found a great place to stand right at a railing so we could see everything. We sat down on the ground since we had about an hour to wait, even in the drizzle! When it came time for the show to start we stood up and the people behind us moaned since they thought they would have a good view. We invited the kids behind us to stand in front, and we arranged ourselves so that everyone could see. It was a great show!

2/17/11 -- Departure Day

The next day we had a very late start and in the middle of breakfast mousekeeping came by. We told them that we’d be out by 11:00, the official check-out time. We got everything back into the car and headed to DCA. Our tour of the Grand California would be at 1:00 so we bumbled about looking at the Blue Sky Cellar, finally got on the Silly Symphony Swings (which DW enjoyed), looked at the Zoetrope at Off the Page and had lunch at Award Wieners. The Sicilian Sausage was great.

Now it was time for the tour. You meet at the concierge desk in the lobby of the hotel and one of the CMs leads the tour. This was the second time that I have taken the tour and it was different each time. It depends on the CM and what is available.

When you check-in be sure to appreciate the lamps on the registration desk. Each one is different. This is a quail.

The lobby itself is full of art.

The fireplace represents various degrees of refinement from the boulders at the bottom to the bricks at the top, then the wood.

There are four cabinets around the edge of the lobby. Each one has artwork and artifacts in it. Each cabinet is unique and was designed for the specific works they house. The cabinet in the northwest corner contains books from which the aphorisms scattered about the hotel are found.

Virtually everything in the lobby has been handmade. The clock on the north wall has a hidden Mickey in plain sight. You may just be able to make it out in the picture. Actually, if you’re five-years-old you can see it really easily since it is hammered into the face of the clock in such a way that it reflects light just so that if your small it is more visible.

Storyteller’s Cafe has pictures from famous stories, mostly set in the West. This is a picture from “The Jumping Frogs of Calaveras.” My parents used to own property in Angels Camp, where that story is set.

This is a screen between the reception desk in the Storyteller’s Cafe and the dining area. The aphorism on the top is “By Hammer and Hand Do All Things Stand”.

Just outside the front door are some tile plaques with bears. The same theme is repeated on the reception desk.

There’s even a hidden Mickey in this one.

Well, that’s all I have about the tour. The Grand Californian is full of art. There’s a story and a reason for everything. If you enjoy art or architecture I highly recommend the tour.

After the tour, we were essentially done. Our flight left at 8:00 PM, or rather was scheduled to leave at 8:00 PM, so we didn’t have a lot of time. We went back to Disneyland, rode Buzz Lightyear twice (someone had a score of 2.6 MILLION!) How on earth do you do that? Rode the Teacups, DW’s favorite. Got some cookies for the flight. Had a corn dog. Saw Mr. Lincoln and it was time to leave. Our friends drove us to the airport and we sat and waited for a delayed flight. Got home in Provo, Utah at about midnight. That’s it!

Originally our next trip to DLR using DVC was going to be in June 2012 when we are going with our daughter, her husband, and his parents. I’ll be reserving a 2-bedroom. But just this morning I decided that I have to go back to see the Little Mermaid and the new Star Tours, so I made a reservation at VGC for Oct 25. Interestingly, all of the dates within the 7-month window were taken, but in our 11-month window I didn’t have any problem.

Reporting on and planning for Disney trips keeps me going...

 

[nunzia]

Thanks! I enjoyed it and helps pass the time until August

 

[MinnieFan4ever]

Great trip report. I totally get what you mean by planning trips is what keeps you going. That is what is so great about being a DVC member. We always seem to have a vacation "waiting in the wings".

 

[the donut]

Great report! I've never taken the tour at GCH and have always wanted to. Maybe when the kids are a bit older. Until then I'll just live vicariously through your trip report.

After the tour, we were essentially done. Our flight left at 8:00 PM, or rather was scheduled to leave at 8:00 PM, so we didn’t have a lot of time. We went back to Disneyland, rode Buzz Lightyear twice (someone had a score of 2.6 MILLION!) How on earth do you do that

Once the ride stopped with our vehicle right in front of Zurg where we had a perfect line to the secret target. It's the only time I've gotten over 1.5 million.

But just this morning I decided that I have to go back to see the Little Mermaid and the new Star Tours, so I made a reservation at VGC for Oct 25. Interestingly, all of the dates within the 7-month window were taken, but in our 11-month window I didn’t have any problem.

Gotta love that home resort booking privilege.

 

[wbl2745]

Once the ride stopped with our vehicle right in front of Zurg where we had a perfect line to the secret target. It's the only time I've gotten over 1.5 million.

Secret target? Please share!