Grand Californian - looking for tips, secrets, benefits that aren't published

[GoofyGoofyGoofy]

I thought I had a better picture, but they have a giant Oogie Boogie made of sweets and if I recall they had different Halloween treats you could buy.

Yes! These are works of art! Fun to find all the Hidden Mickeys . the chefs outdo themselves every holiday.

 

[GoofyGoofyGoofy]

If you need to use a microwave, seek out the ice machine on your floor and you will find the microwave too.

There are lots of comfy chairs to sit, recharge your phone and people watch. Chairs that are in front of the convention rooms are great to watch people not pay attention to their surrounding, so they tend to stumble.

 

[DLgal]

Chairs that are in front of the convention rooms are great to watch people not pay attention to their surrounding, so they tend to stumble.

The floor right there is uneven. I can't even tell you how many times I've stumbled in that spot.

 

[PirateBrigade]

There's a water refill station inside the fitness center between the main lobby and the DVC tower.

There's also two (?) Peloton bikes in the fitness center, bring your bike shoes!

All other advice in this thread is solid.

Favorite thing to do mid-afternoon (aside from swim) = get ice cream at Salt and Straw in DtD (not the grocery store ice cream in the parks, hah) and walk to the sunken area just past security (surrounded by trees and below the monorail track). If there's not a private event going on, it's a nice, shaded, and quiet respite from the parks.

 

[jodeja]

I did both the early morning Power Walk and the Boot Camp when I was there in May. Both were super fun! I'm not a morning person, but these were worth getting up early for! The instructors were very energetic, friendly, and encouraging.
The morning I did the Power Walking, the pace was 18-20 minutes per mile. There was more "active stretching" than I expected, but it was fun!

 

[tweetykl]

We own DVC at VGC so we have gotten to stay twice in the last year. We have a one bedroom villa when we stay so our ideas may be a little different than most. We really like to take a meal break back in the room to decompress. It may be that we grab dinner to go from inside the park or grab a snack and go back for a short break. It really lets us relax and get the energy to go back.

We had no idea that the Craftsman grill was so amazing until our last day of our first trip. It is so filling. Because we have a fridge, we do tend to run leftovers back from my teenage daughter and she will eat it later.

Grand Californian is the first hotel that has ever just took my breath away. I feel at home there.

 

[DisneylandFan22]

When you are enjoying the pool, if you have hoppers and Genie+, grab a LL for Grizzly River Run and then go ride it in your swimsuits. No wet clothes worries. Of course, be prepared with proper shoes, shorts, swim shirts, etc. We just left our pool bag on a chair and headed out the park entrance by the pool. The ride is like 20 steps in. Such a fun memory.

This was an amazing tip that we used on our last trip. But it was a little later. We were ending our swim time around 6 PM when the slide closed. My son had really wanted to go on Grizzly, but it had been packed all day, and we were planning to go back to DL. I checked and the line was 35 minutes at that time so we all just went over in our wet swim clothes through the DCA entrance. The line ended up being 20 minutes. But when we got off there was no wait, so we went on again. And when we got off again there was no wait, so my son ran back to the line and we went on again. We could have done that over and over but we were sufficiently soaked and hungry, so we took the short trip back to the hotel to get dry. But it was amazing to ride 3 times in a row in wet clothes right after swimming being so clothes to the hotel.