Grand California, Concierge, Cars Lands & Disneyland General

Tapp6SB

Earning My Ears
Joined
Oct 9, 2012
Messages
1
First time poster. Use the boards for information thought I should contribute what I can in the hope it might help other users.

Grand California Hotel. We try to either stay here or DLH. Both are great and really contribute to the entire experience. When the room price is above $400/nt though I typically look offsite. If it is a special trip or first time trip, I highly recommend you try to stay at GCH or DLH if you can afford it. We are a family of 6. My kids love staying onsite but we have also stayed at the Marriott and Doubletree and they liked both and didn't complain. I think staying onsite means more to my wife and I than the kids. One thing to know. I feel like the queen beds at GCH in the room that also has a daybed are pretty narrow. Ok for two adults but not lots of room.

Concierge Level. We were lucky enough to get a 2 Queen room with a daybed on the concierge level. Need this for our family size. The room is definitely a little bit bigger than the standard rooms and a little bit nicer. Would not pay extra just for the room but having concierge lounge access is worth it for us. I weighed the decision of whether to pay an additional $150 for concierge lounge access and decided to try it once at GCH and see if it is worth it. In my opinion, it would not be worth it for parties of 2 or even 3 if you are looking at it from purely cost/benefit but for a family of 6 it was.
-On arrival, we grabbed a bunch of snacks and drinks and those crustable sandwiches for kids and went to the pool while we waited for our room. Cost of food if we purchased (estimate $30.00)
-Before dinner we decided to see what was offered at 5pm. Nice assortment of vegetables and dip, fruit, chicken skewers, very good cheeses and crackers, bread, toast points and olive tapenade. We had a good amount and it ended up satisfying all of our hunger so we decided not to have dinner afterwards which would have cost us at least $100. Note they do have beer and wine but we didn't have any. We did get some take out mexican from downtown disney later when we went back to the room for about $50 so I will chalk the savings up to $50 here.
-We decided to eat dessert before dinner. The dessert selections were ok. The big cookies and the ice cold milk in the big clear dispenser were a big hit. No savings here really but still very fun.
-Breakfast the next day. A nice continental assortment with chocolate croissants, muffins, fruit, cereal, hard boiled eggs, meats and cheeses and more. Satisfied all of us before early entry to CA Adventure. An easy $50.00 savings.
-Lunch. We were able to extend our checkout to noon so we went back to get our bags checked and had a light lunch. We had already had some light snacks at the park so no one was that hungry. The lunch stuff is pretty mediocre. Fruit and some cookies and tea sandwiches and scones. Not meant to be a meal of course so it was just ok but actually just what we needed. Another $50.00 savings in my book.

Other things I liked. They have an awesome espresso machine where you can make your lattes or whatever else you desire. They have flavored syrups, steamed milk, etc.

They have Perrier. I just asked for sparkling water and that's what they brought.

Looking at it purely from a dollars and cents perspective, I have no doubt we got our money's worth. The other benefit is it just plan nice to have a place to go and watch the football game or sit outside and relax and enjoy some snacks instead of eating in the room. My kids really love it and they feel pretty special. They had story telling at night and the people in the lounge were nice and helpful.

Cars land and CA Adventure. I really like the changes in CA Adventure. It feels much different and better there now. The Cars rides are amazing, especially the racing one. Wow. The wait was ridiculous but we got on in 45 minutes on early entry day and also got fast passes for later one so that was ok.

Ghiradeli-this replaced the tortilla place which I kind of miss but we ordered 2 sundaes here and it was more than enough for our party of 6 and they were both really good. We did this early morning like 930am and the kids loved it.

DISNEYLAND IN GENERAL-What is going on. Monday was Columbus Day but I had no idea it would be that busy. It was ridiculous. The staff at the Grand California said they had to call in extra people because they were so unexpectedly busy. When we left it took the valet over 20 mins to get our car because they were so busy. My personal opinion is Disney is way oversold and it is really ruining the overall experience.
 
DISNEYLAND IN GENERAL-What is going on. Monday was Columbus Day but I had no idea it would be that busy. It was ridiculous. The staff at the Grand California said they had to call in extra people because they were so unexpectedly busy. When we left it took the valet over 20 mins to get our car because they were so busy. My personal opinion is Disney is way oversold and it is really ruining the overall experience.

So far all Fall it has been like this... way busier than they usually are. We just got back from there from a mid-week stay and it was fairly crowed for what many people consider to be one of the lower points of the year. Some places say it was supposed to be a 1.1 crowd level at DL when we were there... YEA RIGHT! HA!

The main reason is most likely due to Cars Land (there is a HUGE marketing push for it) and that DCA is done and open completely.

Good insights on concierge access. I have never done the lounge access (can't justify the cost) but I may try it some day.

Ethan
 


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