DDhunter
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2009
- Messages
- 243
Got back yesterday afternoon exhausted. I love Disneyland, but I cannot say this was among our greatest trips.
We stayed at HoJo (our first time staying there). The beds were extremely comfortable and the rooms were a nice size. However, there aren't enough outlets in the room and half of them didn't work. We booked 2 rooms and the outlets were a problem in both rooms. The little kid pool was a big hit with the kids (ages 2 and 5), however, we only managed to get down there once during our stay. One downside is that the concrete around the pool area was so hot it would burn your feet if you walked on it. The heat/humidity was horrific during our entire visit, so we didn't relish walking to and from the hotel more than once a day. We did have a Disney view for fireworks, which was nice. All in all, I would probably not book HoJo again, it is just a bit too far to walk with very small kids and we didn't really use the pool or watch the fireworks from the room. I will probably bite the bullet next time and pay for an onsite hotel.
Our first morning we went to Goofy's Kitchen. I came away feeling kind of angry (okay, really, extremely angry). It was well over $300 for our party. The food was fine but they only have 5 characters that wander lethargically through every 1/2 hour or so. The characters completely ignored our 2-year-old until finally my son-in-law was like, "Hey, how about you say hi to my son." We had been to Goofy's once before several years ago and it was amazing but this time it was a giant waste of money. One exception to this was Chip, he came back to our table and had a very extended wonderful interaction with all of our party. However, I am saying never again for Goofy's Kitchen.
We spent the rest of the day fighting with MaxPass. Getting reception was nearly impossible. We had problems just getting the app to even open. Frustrating. Having said that, when MaxPass did work I admit I much prefer it to running for fast passes. Also, my husband and I decided not to use a couple of our passes and my daughter and her husband were able to use them instead (we were even in a different park at the time). Also, you could book fastpass from anywhere, including hotel, once you had been into the parks. I do have to throw out there that the Matterhorn fast pass line is a giant unorganized mess (with no CMs herding people until you get to the front of the Fast Pass line and they are RUDE).
Another blip in our trip was when we rode It's a Small World. When we got up we were stuck to the seat. When we stood up our clothing was ruined. We were covered with black goo. We aren't sure if the seats were melting (yes, it was that hot) or if it was a combination of the heat and someone spilling something all over the seat. Regardless when we complained about the situation the CMs were beyond rude. All we wanted was for them to do something about it so no one else had their clothing destroyed. We weren't asking for them to pay us for our ruined clothing, just hoping maybe they could fix the problem, but nope, they simply did not care. So, check your seat before you sit down.
We went to Carthay Circle for lunch the following day for the WOC package and the service and food were amazing, of course. I had the tri-tip and it was definitely the best tri-tip I've ever had. The server was beyond fantastic. It was the bright spot of our entire stay. The reserved "standing" was also very good (there was hardly anyone in the section, so the view was superb). There were even some benches to sit on if you got there first. We felt like our money was well spent on this (unlike Goofy's Kitchen).
We also did lunch at the Red Rose Tavern and it was okay, nothing earth shattering. The gray stuff is really quite good and I didn't find it insanely sweet like I have heard some mention, but I confess to being a sugar addict. The lemon rose desert was also pretty good. We tried the chicken sandwich, the poutine fries and both flat bread pizzas. All of it was good and I would definitely eat there again. Though it was really heavy, so I would probably do it for dinner rather than lunch. I did find it absolutely hilarious that those Rose Cups people were waiting in long lines for were all over the park, thousands of them. I did not get one as I thought they were pretty cheap looking for the price.
Then came the next giant downside to the trip. Our granddaughter was in that little fishnet photo opp at Pacific Warf when she was stung by a bee. She was screaming in pain and we were trying to rush her up to the first aid at the front of the park but a marching band was blocking the quickest route. We went to the security standing there and told them what was going on and they told us to move along, they wouldn't let us through the side path around the band. They told us to take the long way around. We were deeply concerned about our granddaughter as bee allergies run in the family and so we wanted her checked as soon as possible but they simply did not care. On the bright side, the people at the First Aid center were truly amazing.
The next day and a half were fine, other than the extreme heat/humidity. We were able to ride most of the rides we wanted. The walkways felt insanely crowded but lines for rides weren't bad and fast passes were available late into the day (other than Guardians and Radiator Springs). There were also spots for the night parade right before it started. Quite a few spots along main street actually.
We had dinner at Wine Country Trattoria. We had reservations but we still had to wait 45 minutes for our table and the service was pretty terrible. Food was good, wine was great, which I suppose balances out the terrible waitress. What sort of makes me mad about the poor service we seemed to be getting at the restaurants is we had a big party that triggered the automatic tipping. I can't say I felt this waitress deserved 18%.
We managed to get a front row center spot for the new Soarin and we all thought it was far superior to the old version (which we all loved). I'm not sure I understand why people hate this change. We thought it was great. We also really enjoyed the Guardians ride, again thinking it was a huge improvement over Tower of Terror. We even had a plaid in the group ahead of us who started giving us a guided tour. This group had two plaids and they were ignoring her so we got her services for free, LOL.
I know I probably sound like we had a really terrible time, which is not the case, but it just wasn't as good as past trips we have had to Disneyland. I really felt the CMs were overall awful this trip (we had one who was absolutely wonderful over at the Mater's ride in DCA, but he was the only outstanding CM we ran into this trip). Starting off at Goofy's really set the tone though, I admit I am still pretty upset about that giant waste of money.
The most amusing part is that I will have plenty of chances to see if this bit of a let down trip was a fluke, before we even went into the park our first day we decided to upgrade our tickets to annual passes, LOL. I definitely would not have done that if I had waited until the end of the trip.
We stayed at HoJo (our first time staying there). The beds were extremely comfortable and the rooms were a nice size. However, there aren't enough outlets in the room and half of them didn't work. We booked 2 rooms and the outlets were a problem in both rooms. The little kid pool was a big hit with the kids (ages 2 and 5), however, we only managed to get down there once during our stay. One downside is that the concrete around the pool area was so hot it would burn your feet if you walked on it. The heat/humidity was horrific during our entire visit, so we didn't relish walking to and from the hotel more than once a day. We did have a Disney view for fireworks, which was nice. All in all, I would probably not book HoJo again, it is just a bit too far to walk with very small kids and we didn't really use the pool or watch the fireworks from the room. I will probably bite the bullet next time and pay for an onsite hotel.
Our first morning we went to Goofy's Kitchen. I came away feeling kind of angry (okay, really, extremely angry). It was well over $300 for our party. The food was fine but they only have 5 characters that wander lethargically through every 1/2 hour or so. The characters completely ignored our 2-year-old until finally my son-in-law was like, "Hey, how about you say hi to my son." We had been to Goofy's once before several years ago and it was amazing but this time it was a giant waste of money. One exception to this was Chip, he came back to our table and had a very extended wonderful interaction with all of our party. However, I am saying never again for Goofy's Kitchen.
We spent the rest of the day fighting with MaxPass. Getting reception was nearly impossible. We had problems just getting the app to even open. Frustrating. Having said that, when MaxPass did work I admit I much prefer it to running for fast passes. Also, my husband and I decided not to use a couple of our passes and my daughter and her husband were able to use them instead (we were even in a different park at the time). Also, you could book fastpass from anywhere, including hotel, once you had been into the parks. I do have to throw out there that the Matterhorn fast pass line is a giant unorganized mess (with no CMs herding people until you get to the front of the Fast Pass line and they are RUDE).
Another blip in our trip was when we rode It's a Small World. When we got up we were stuck to the seat. When we stood up our clothing was ruined. We were covered with black goo. We aren't sure if the seats were melting (yes, it was that hot) or if it was a combination of the heat and someone spilling something all over the seat. Regardless when we complained about the situation the CMs were beyond rude. All we wanted was for them to do something about it so no one else had their clothing destroyed. We weren't asking for them to pay us for our ruined clothing, just hoping maybe they could fix the problem, but nope, they simply did not care. So, check your seat before you sit down.
We went to Carthay Circle for lunch the following day for the WOC package and the service and food were amazing, of course. I had the tri-tip and it was definitely the best tri-tip I've ever had. The server was beyond fantastic. It was the bright spot of our entire stay. The reserved "standing" was also very good (there was hardly anyone in the section, so the view was superb). There were even some benches to sit on if you got there first. We felt like our money was well spent on this (unlike Goofy's Kitchen).
We also did lunch at the Red Rose Tavern and it was okay, nothing earth shattering. The gray stuff is really quite good and I didn't find it insanely sweet like I have heard some mention, but I confess to being a sugar addict. The lemon rose desert was also pretty good. We tried the chicken sandwich, the poutine fries and both flat bread pizzas. All of it was good and I would definitely eat there again. Though it was really heavy, so I would probably do it for dinner rather than lunch. I did find it absolutely hilarious that those Rose Cups people were waiting in long lines for were all over the park, thousands of them. I did not get one as I thought they were pretty cheap looking for the price.
Then came the next giant downside to the trip. Our granddaughter was in that little fishnet photo opp at Pacific Warf when she was stung by a bee. She was screaming in pain and we were trying to rush her up to the first aid at the front of the park but a marching band was blocking the quickest route. We went to the security standing there and told them what was going on and they told us to move along, they wouldn't let us through the side path around the band. They told us to take the long way around. We were deeply concerned about our granddaughter as bee allergies run in the family and so we wanted her checked as soon as possible but they simply did not care. On the bright side, the people at the First Aid center were truly amazing.
The next day and a half were fine, other than the extreme heat/humidity. We were able to ride most of the rides we wanted. The walkways felt insanely crowded but lines for rides weren't bad and fast passes were available late into the day (other than Guardians and Radiator Springs). There were also spots for the night parade right before it started. Quite a few spots along main street actually.
We had dinner at Wine Country Trattoria. We had reservations but we still had to wait 45 minutes for our table and the service was pretty terrible. Food was good, wine was great, which I suppose balances out the terrible waitress. What sort of makes me mad about the poor service we seemed to be getting at the restaurants is we had a big party that triggered the automatic tipping. I can't say I felt this waitress deserved 18%.
We managed to get a front row center spot for the new Soarin and we all thought it was far superior to the old version (which we all loved). I'm not sure I understand why people hate this change. We thought it was great. We also really enjoyed the Guardians ride, again thinking it was a huge improvement over Tower of Terror. We even had a plaid in the group ahead of us who started giving us a guided tour. This group had two plaids and they were ignoring her so we got her services for free, LOL.
I know I probably sound like we had a really terrible time, which is not the case, but it just wasn't as good as past trips we have had to Disneyland. I really felt the CMs were overall awful this trip (we had one who was absolutely wonderful over at the Mater's ride in DCA, but he was the only outstanding CM we ran into this trip). Starting off at Goofy's really set the tone though, I admit I am still pretty upset about that giant waste of money.
The most amusing part is that I will have plenty of chances to see if this bit of a let down trip was a fluke, before we even went into the park our first day we decided to upgrade our tickets to annual passes, LOL. I definitely would not have done that if I had waited until the end of the trip.
