Grand Californian Super Thread

[gottalovepluto]

Continuing! So, my photos were giving me an error on the DIS they were too big so i downloaded an app to my iPhone to shrink them. I'll hook everything up to a computer if I have to, let me know if there are issues.

Breakfast Day 1

Croissants were crispy outside, soft inside! Fruit was decent considering the time of year they're dealing with.

Salmon was good every morning except for one when it was fishy, but the next batch they brought out was fine. This day had a hard boiled egg filled with an avocado crema.


Small bagels & cream cheese on left. Bagels weren't dried out so that was nice. Milk for cereal is served in those mini jars, cute but that meant kids were constantly reaching for them which was really awkward when I set my plate down to try to get some silverware in the drawer under all this!


Offerings changed a bit each day, rotated through 2 or 3 different main choices. Salmon was always there. 2nd day we got the donut bar & smoothies...
Those were cheese biscuits on the left. So cute when a boy enthusiastically asked his dad "Are they like Red Lobster?!" Dad "Uh, well not quite but you can try one anyway!" I did not try one. I did go for the donut bar! Yeah- bad donuts. Thought maybe they were just over cooked but they were out another morning and tasted just as bad. Skip.
Better view of donut bar.


Yogurt parfait can be seen in front of meat plate and a berry smoothie next to it. Smoothie is overly generous though, by the time it's served it's really just mushed fruit and yogurt. I didn't try the berry one, I did try the strawberry & banana one the next day and it has the distinct pleasure of being the most disgusting smoothie I've had in my entire life. I've never felt as sorry for someone as I did that morning when I heard a mother tell her kid he had to drink his whole smoothie. Poor thing! Maybe it was made with Greek yogurt? Idk but I hate Greek yogurt so that might explain that. Nice idea, just impractical here.

Donut attempt. Awkward. You don't want to smear the sauce with the spoon but dumping it in the corner to smear across the donut later seemed weird so I went for a drizzle. FYI if you're a morning ditz like me that is carmel, NOT maple! Love the idea despite the awkwardness the set up requires but no matter the topping when the donut doesn't taste great it isn't going to work.


New keys since I was here a couple years ago. Loved them!

This concludes my food photos. Hopefully others will get y'all pics of tea, appetizers & desserts!

 

[gottalovepluto]

The new club is a nice improvement! Lighter colors make the room feel bigger, there is a lot more seating. I liked the couches! It was too cold for me outside but the door to the patio was open and some people did opt to eat outside. They must have been Canadian. Staff opened the windows when it wasn't freezing. (80 degree winter they're having down there & we go over the 3 days there was a ridiculous cold spell!) There is now a 2nd exit next to the bathroom that leads out to some more seating in the hallway. Kinda like overflow indoor seating I think. We never saw it used, but the hotel wasn't at capacity.

Food offerings have definitely changed. I miss some old things, Chex mix & goldfish snacks in the afternoon (simple, easy to eat [and not fancy nuts] basically. Chips & guacamole are great- but not on the go!). I REALLY missed the old warm scones & chocolate covered strawberries each afternoon. They'd become staples of my afternoon routine- mainly the plain warm scone, I got pretty snobby about how unripe those strawberries were if I'm honest Now tea time always has scones but they were very hard and filled with raspberry, raisins, or blueberry. None of which I liked, I really wish they had a plain option.

The first night they did a gingerbread demo during appetizers, kinda neat but awkward at the same time because the chef just came out and whipped up the mix and left, if you didn't talk to her (we did) you wouldn't understand what was going on. She even had recipes for it at the table- and the gingerbread she was sampling was AMAZING. Best thing I ate the whole trip!!! Wish they actually served it!

Themed appetizer nights. Asian night had spring rolls (ok), pork buns (not my thing, fam members said we're ok), pork shaomai (it said pork but I swear it tasted shrimp like). Mexican night was the best with the carnitas! Yummy! The other night was a potato bar but no baked potatos, just a toppings bar with tater tots and mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes were ok with a demi-glaze. Each night they had individual servings of veggie sticks in hummus or ranch. I much preferred being able to pick what veggies I wanted in the old club instead of taking multiple servings and throwing away what I didn't eat (the veggies are still served platter style at tea time).

The only dessert I caught was the last 10 mins of one night and they were out of everything except gingerbread cookies (which tasted like fridge) after we took the last cake and apple cobbler(?) servings. Everything was single serve, think 2 bites worth of food (except for the cookies). The cake looked very good, but tasted like nothing honestly. The cobbler apples were too tart for my taste. They had a hot chocolate bar but I must have been allergic to something in the hot cocoa because my mouth was on fire after one sip. I went over and made myself some Nestle hot cocoa instead.

FYI the coffee, tea and hot chocolate mix are to the left when you enter. My mom was taking to some fellow who was complaining vehemently about there being no coffee while at the espresso machine. She opted not to tell him look 10 feet right, told me she didn't want to embarrass him.

To go cups are around as are plates, silverware, napkins and anything else you need to eat. Just start pulling out drawers like you're in a rental house and you'll find what you need. Drove me bonkers because I felt like a bad guest but without labels how else do you find out what's where?!

The food line is set up backwards. This became very awkward on potato night. Americans line up to the right, we're trained all our lives: right side. The food is set up to be plated from the left. Where's the last American buffet line you hit that started on the left? I know this is European influenced but come on. People having to reach backwards because the toppings came first in the line after the potatoes was weird.

I think I'm using weird a lot as a description, just remember they're still setting this up. Saw more brass watching than I ever have. How they haven't figured out the right vs left of the food order line thing boggles the mind.

Wine selection was incredibly underwhelming. It's never been great, but I've found it solid enough before. This time the only thing I liked was the sparkling wine. That Sterling Chardonnay is something I can pick up at Costco on sale for <$6/bottle, c'mon Disney! (Not that great wine can't come cheap, but this wasn't great cheap wine, it was just cheap.) They DEFINITELY have room to improve the wine selection. Even the Beach Club in WDW this fall had a nice 14 Hands Cabernet. Spend the money on better wine and quit paying someone to individually fill all those mason jars with single sticks of each veggie!

I'm listing thoughts as they come to me and it's past my bedtime so this is a bit disjointed, forgive me!.... The room. We requested 2 queen + daybed, close to the club for our party of 4 and got it. Love the new daybeds. Had a shower. Love the rain shower! The dimmer lights everywhere in the room were great. Lots of electrical outlets with combo USB plugs. IF YOU HAVE GREAT HEARING BRING EARPLUGS!!! Each of those combo outlets put out a high pitch frequency which at first I thought was the fridge- until the fridge kicked off & I traced the sound to each outlet. With ear plugs I slept fine, without them I would have been a sleep deprived crazy person by Day 2. Plenty of space for the 4 of us. I think our whole fam (5) could have fit ok and this was not one of the old daybed rooms, it was standard view down the hall towards the monorail about 5 rooms down from the old day bed rooms. They really did a nice job optimizing the space in the remodel. All that space under the bed to store luggage is great! (No, they don't vacuum very much down there because I dragged my suitcase out to grab something, threw it on the bed and when I put it back under the bed there was an eclectic variety of human hair and general floor gunk that was NOT there before.)

Check-in. Conceirge greeted us and escorted us upstairs. CHANGE: pay upfront for all nights plus parking. The conceirge told us this was a brand new policy to address fraud they had been experiencing at GCH and was only in effect at GCH currently. We mentioned in passing we'd be applying gift cards to the account and he said "oh, we need to do that now" and that's where the conversation started. I much prefer paying upfront so that was great for us. (If you're an avid gift card payer like me FYI: even though you pay for the room & parking upfront they aren't billed to your account until like 2 am the day after the cost is incurred so you can't pay off your in park charges as you go. I tried and my account reflected a credit much to the befuddlement of the conceirge so I couldn't pay everything off until check-out day. Admittedly I'd rather keep watch over just the spending money than the spending money + hotel payment money!)

The conceirges were meh, just as before. Some were good (our check-in conceirge), some not. One was a jerk who I don't see lasting long there who pretty much just said "m'am" when I was inquiring about paying on my account. Said m'am like 30 freaking times in the space of 5 mins. Grammatically it shouldn't even have been possible- actually it wasn't, didn't even make sense. I look young and he was obviously just being a jerk. I can't complain anywhere but here because "m'am" is polite but he was NOT being polite, just a schmuck. I knew. He knew. Nothing I could do but walk away but I wanted to finish my business and get back to my trip. Very jarring, I'd never been treated with that much contempt by a Disney employee. But I moved on pretty fast because it was Disneyland and I love Disneyland!!

The serving staff in the club however were OUTSTANDING. Even better than I remember and I remembered a quite a few of them (and they remembered us, which was impressive to me because it has been 2 years since our last trip!). They were so great I wrote a letter to disney complimenting their whole serving team. Top. Notch.

Had a chance to talk with a manager one night for a couple minutes when he came by at appetizer time and asked how we were doing. Highlights:
-they're trying for a more upscale feel, therefore the individual servings (which I think they're taking too far)
-about 200 rooms still have bathtubs (he said a lot of people think they're gone but they still have about 200 rooms with them)
-new hotel will be a step above GCH, rooms a bit bigger and everything like one notch above GCH

Phew! I think that's it It was our first trip since the remodel and we're all looking forward to returning someday. I do wish they would tone down some of the "upscale" of the club food offerings, but even with that thought I don't think anyone will be disappointed with the new club!

 

[azdisneylover]

Gottalovepluto, great post! Thank you for taking the time in posting the pictures and painting pictures with words about the concierge lounge.

If anyone else is staying please post pictures of everything!

 

[MacMama0930]

Gottalovepluto, great post! Thank you for taking the time in posting the pictures and painting pictures with words about the concierge lounge.

If anyone else is staying please post pictures of everything!

I’m so mad at myself for not taking any pictures. But for the record, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay in the new lounge. We didn’t have anything to compare it to since we’d never stayed club level before but we really utilized the lounge. It was a little too crowded for my taste but we grabbed food on the go multiple times and the coffee in the morning? So convenient!

 

[Hofmanns4]

Not sure if I missed this or not, do they still have soda and water? If so, can you still grab and go? Thanks!

 

[cattywampus]

I was told in the "Art of the Craft" tour, that 3 model rooms were built -- essentially: Good, Better, Best.

This would not surprise me, as the bellman remarked about our fortune on the wet bar area and closet. Did the tour give an indication on how they decided which rooms were Good, Better, or Best (size, view, location, etc.)?

We were in 2009 - 2nd floor off the lobby, right behind fireplace. In all of our stays, we have never had a room open into the lobby. It was incredibly charming during the holidays with the tree, gingerbread house, and decor right outside your door. You could hear the piano player playing Christmas carols and there were Victorian carolers in the lobby. That being said, we drive and bring a fan so if someone wanted to sleep early, we just clicked on the fan and blocked all noise. Looking to see if I have any additional photos.

Also wondering on the rooms that still have tubs, if they just left the old ones or remodeled.

 

[Nonsuch]

This would not surprise me, as the bellman remarked about our fortune on the wet bar area and closet. Did the tour give an indication on how they decided which rooms were Good, Better, or Best (size, view, location, etc.)?

I'll clarify. There were 3 "test" rooms renovated prior to full remodel, but all rooms should be the same now. It might have seemed unnecessary (or wasteful) to remove the extra sink, from the room you stayed in.

...Also wondering on the rooms that still have tubs, if they just left the old ones or remodeled.

The rooms with tubs (200 from a recent post) are remodeled.
(There have been photos posted, but can't seem to locate)

 

[cattywampus]

Did they say if they went with good, better or best on all the rooms? If I had to guess, it was the middle.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Did they say if they went with good, better or best on all the rooms? If I had to guess, it was the middle.

I doubt it was a cut and dry as simply three tiers of quality. They had two distinct challenges they were trying to overcome with the renovation...the constant perception that the rooms were "too dark" and "too small" (although i personally LOEVD the old rooms) so they incorporated a lot of new deign elements to help counter those perceptions. The test rooms were probably variations of those designs to see what actually worked or not and the result being a combination of various elements.

 

[SeiterClan]

Wondering if here or at any of the Disney resorts you can park for the day after you check out but plan to be in the parks that day???

 

[ParkHopper1]

Wondering if here or at any of the Disney resorts you can park for the day after you check out but plan to be in the parks that day???

Yes...you get all the resort perks all day on both check in day and check out day even though you may not have access to your room any more. On check out day you can leave your car parked and enjoy the parks for the rest of the day. You are only charged per night stay, you do not need to leave the resort by check out time...just be outta the room...so for a one night stay for example, you get two full days of parking.

 

[SeiterClan]

Yes...you get all the resort perks all day on both check in day and check out day even though you may not have access to your room any more. On check out day you can leave your car parked and enjoy the parks for the rest of the day. You are only charged per night stay, you do not need to leave the resort by check out time...just be outta the room...so for a one night stay for example, you get two full days of parking.

Thanks! That is super helpful!.

 

[bluecruiser]

I don't think this was already posted, but I just found a video in the "Every Role a Starring Role" series that features the updated concierge lounge at GCH.

 

[ZZUB]

Does the GC still have bunk bed rooms after the renovation? If so, are they in all view categories still?

 

[MacMama0930]

Does the GC still have bunk bed rooms after the renovation? If so, are they in all view categories still?

No bunks anymore.

 

[mtn335]

So what types are there now?

 

[SeiterClan]

Yes...you get all the resort perks all day on both check in day and check out day even though you may not have access to your room any more. On check out day you can leave your car parked and enjoy the parks for the rest of the day. You are only charged per night stay, you do not need to leave the resort by check out time...just be outta the room...so for a one night stay for example, you get two full days of parking.

Wondering if you can use the pools at the Disney resort you stay at after you check out? We are going in the summer & it might be nice to hit the pool during the busy HoT summer afternoons!

 

[StarlitNight05]

Wondering if you can use the pools at the Disney resort you stay at after you check out? We are going in the summer & it might be nice to hit the pool during the busy HoT summer afternoons!

I haven't done it myself, but I have heard if you ask they will give you a pool key for access on your checkout date. Can others confirm?

 

[pudinhd]

We used the pool on our checkout day after the checkout time. We were in the pool area before that time, so we did not need a special key.

 

[ParkHopper1]

So what types are there now?

Still about the same qty of Kings and Double Queens. All Bunks are gone but about 300 rooms now have a convertible sleeper sofa that flips down to a legit twin bed which they are calling "Day Beds"...as opposed to the old day beds were more like a pull out futon and only a few rooms.