DizMe
Here we gooooo...
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2007
- Messages
- 9,417
We attended the party 10/14 and had a blast. We were at DLR from 10/13 - 10/15, staying at GCH.
Here are my thoughts:
*we switched our hotel reservation from DLH to GCH after reading many negative reviews about the construction. Had a chance to go over during our stay and look at the progress, and I am SO, SO glad we switched. GCH was wonderful and though I really love DLH, it certainly was torn up and would not have been the same.
*GCH, I discovered, has another bank of elevators I did not know about. Our room was 'premium theme park view' and was located at the end of a hall on the 4th floor overlooking GRR (room 4357), but the best thing about it was that there was an elevator bank that comes out at a little foyer right next to Napa Rose. TIP: You can use that foyer to go in or out, so no "secret" door needed that only goes in one direction, like we've had to use in the past at GCH. You are right next to Storyteller's, the pool, the entrance to CA, and a short walk from the lobby. It was an awesome location!!
*GCH is my new favorite hotel. I've stayed there many times but always had a special fondness for DLH. I have now officially changed over. Part of it is that my kids are getting older and don't care as much about the Disney touches, but they were really made to feel special at GCH and enjoyed the freedom of a huge pool area in which to play, CMs who greeted them and offered them chocolate coins, etc etc.
*We ate breakfast at Storyteller's, which I've always avoided in the past due to the cost. However, we used some Costco meal vouchers and I discovered that it is really an excellent place to have breakfast and not as expensive as I'd always thought. The kids' meals are great and a good price, too. Best of all, though we did not buy the character meal, the kids were included in all of the character meal activities! They absolutely loved it. They got to play a follow-the-leader game around the restaurant with the critter characters, who were so good at interacting with the children.
TIP (which I know has been given before): I really like that you can eat at Storyteller's and get all of the benefits of the character meal without having to buy the buffet. My family simply doesn't eat that much.
*TIP: Costco character meal vouchers: we opted not to use them for a character meal. You can use them at any sit-down or counter service restaurant (except WOC things) and they work just like regular meal vouchers. There is a value on them--$39 adult, $20 child--and you can use them one at a time or in any combination. You just can't get change back but you can apply any unused portion toward the tip (thanks for that info, skiingfast!). You don't have to use a child voucher for a child, that's just to designate the value as $20. Instead of a character meal, we got (1) dinner at Cafe Orleans, (2) breakfast at Storyteller's, and (3) $20 toward lunch at CA. We were able to use our AP discount at the same time. Wow!! It was amazing.
*We had a light dinner at Cafe Orleans before the party and it was excellent. I had dinner salad, French onion soup, and pommes frites. The soup was fabulous!! TIP: If, like me, you don't like/can't eat garlic, you can order the pommes frites without! DD got a Monte Cristo, twin dds got kids' meals (salmon and mac and cheese) and dh got the salmon sandwich. It came to about $50+ so we used a $39 and a $20 voucher from our Costco package and only had to leave a few extra bills to make sure the tip was enough.
*We used the RFC gift cards I'd ordered after reading about them on DIS (thanks to the person who posted that information!!). You could buy a $15 gc for $7.50 and I ordered 2 of them. I already had a $25 gc I'd gotten with MyPoints and we get a discount with our Safari card so that took care of dinner! We had an awesome table and a fun, fun meal.
*We went to DL all day Friday and then went back to the hotel to change into our costumes for the party. By the time 11:00 rolled around we were dead on our feet and couldn't go on. TIP: if you're going to the party, don't spend the whole day in the park first!! We had a great day, got lots of FPs and rides in, and we just couldn't stop. But we paid the price when at the party that night!
*The party was awesome. We loved seeing all of the costumes and the treat lines, while long, went fast. We got lots of candy and only went to 2 or 3 treat stations. DH and I decided we didn't need any more candy than that. I especially loved going through the Golden Horseshoe treat line! We saw an amazing family in ghost costumes that were super elaborate. The women and girls had bustles, ruffles, hats, boots--all in gray and silver. Their skin and hair were silver-gray, too. Beautiful!! We got lots of attention for our costumes (which were not in the same league as the ghost family!) and the girls loved it. I was very proud since I'd made them myself. We were a family of garden gnomes.
gnome family
gnomefamilyGH
*The parade was fun. We got a good spot about 15 minutes before it started, right near IASW where they had a rope walkway for people to cross. We sat down when there were only a couple of other people and about 3 minutes later the whole area filled up!
*We did not get a very good view of the fireworks and I messed up on that. I misjudged how long it would take us to get back to that area and by the time we made it back, the show had begun and we couldn't see it very well.
*The ride lines were short! The daytime lines had been long, like 40-60 minutes or more for the faves, but during the party we almost walked on. This was great for Matterhorn, which is so much more fun at night anyway!
*My girls LOVED Ghost Galaxy. They are not as impressed by HMH, but then they don't know the NBC story or characters. I have to say it has really grown on me. I used to hate it but now I love it. Go figure! I am also fond of SMGG.
*We didn't do any meet and greets as we're not really into it.
Well, that's about it! It was such a fun trip and thank you to all who have posted tips I used!!
Here are my thoughts:
*we switched our hotel reservation from DLH to GCH after reading many negative reviews about the construction. Had a chance to go over during our stay and look at the progress, and I am SO, SO glad we switched. GCH was wonderful and though I really love DLH, it certainly was torn up and would not have been the same.
*GCH, I discovered, has another bank of elevators I did not know about. Our room was 'premium theme park view' and was located at the end of a hall on the 4th floor overlooking GRR (room 4357), but the best thing about it was that there was an elevator bank that comes out at a little foyer right next to Napa Rose. TIP: You can use that foyer to go in or out, so no "secret" door needed that only goes in one direction, like we've had to use in the past at GCH. You are right next to Storyteller's, the pool, the entrance to CA, and a short walk from the lobby. It was an awesome location!!
*GCH is my new favorite hotel. I've stayed there many times but always had a special fondness for DLH. I have now officially changed over. Part of it is that my kids are getting older and don't care as much about the Disney touches, but they were really made to feel special at GCH and enjoyed the freedom of a huge pool area in which to play, CMs who greeted them and offered them chocolate coins, etc etc.
*We ate breakfast at Storyteller's, which I've always avoided in the past due to the cost. However, we used some Costco meal vouchers and I discovered that it is really an excellent place to have breakfast and not as expensive as I'd always thought. The kids' meals are great and a good price, too. Best of all, though we did not buy the character meal, the kids were included in all of the character meal activities! They absolutely loved it. They got to play a follow-the-leader game around the restaurant with the critter characters, who were so good at interacting with the children.
TIP (which I know has been given before): I really like that you can eat at Storyteller's and get all of the benefits of the character meal without having to buy the buffet. My family simply doesn't eat that much.
*TIP: Costco character meal vouchers: we opted not to use them for a character meal. You can use them at any sit-down or counter service restaurant (except WOC things) and they work just like regular meal vouchers. There is a value on them--$39 adult, $20 child--and you can use them one at a time or in any combination. You just can't get change back but you can apply any unused portion toward the tip (thanks for that info, skiingfast!). You don't have to use a child voucher for a child, that's just to designate the value as $20. Instead of a character meal, we got (1) dinner at Cafe Orleans, (2) breakfast at Storyteller's, and (3) $20 toward lunch at CA. We were able to use our AP discount at the same time. Wow!! It was amazing.
*We had a light dinner at Cafe Orleans before the party and it was excellent. I had dinner salad, French onion soup, and pommes frites. The soup was fabulous!! TIP: If, like me, you don't like/can't eat garlic, you can order the pommes frites without! DD got a Monte Cristo, twin dds got kids' meals (salmon and mac and cheese) and dh got the salmon sandwich. It came to about $50+ so we used a $39 and a $20 voucher from our Costco package and only had to leave a few extra bills to make sure the tip was enough.
*We used the RFC gift cards I'd ordered after reading about them on DIS (thanks to the person who posted that information!!). You could buy a $15 gc for $7.50 and I ordered 2 of them. I already had a $25 gc I'd gotten with MyPoints and we get a discount with our Safari card so that took care of dinner! We had an awesome table and a fun, fun meal.
*We went to DL all day Friday and then went back to the hotel to change into our costumes for the party. By the time 11:00 rolled around we were dead on our feet and couldn't go on. TIP: if you're going to the party, don't spend the whole day in the park first!! We had a great day, got lots of FPs and rides in, and we just couldn't stop. But we paid the price when at the party that night!
*The party was awesome. We loved seeing all of the costumes and the treat lines, while long, went fast. We got lots of candy and only went to 2 or 3 treat stations. DH and I decided we didn't need any more candy than that. I especially loved going through the Golden Horseshoe treat line! We saw an amazing family in ghost costumes that were super elaborate. The women and girls had bustles, ruffles, hats, boots--all in gray and silver. Their skin and hair were silver-gray, too. Beautiful!! We got lots of attention for our costumes (which were not in the same league as the ghost family!) and the girls loved it. I was very proud since I'd made them myself. We were a family of garden gnomes.
gnome family gnomefamilyGH *The parade was fun. We got a good spot about 15 minutes before it started, right near IASW where they had a rope walkway for people to cross. We sat down when there were only a couple of other people and about 3 minutes later the whole area filled up!
*We did not get a very good view of the fireworks and I messed up on that. I misjudged how long it would take us to get back to that area and by the time we made it back, the show had begun and we couldn't see it very well.
*The ride lines were short! The daytime lines had been long, like 40-60 minutes or more for the faves, but during the party we almost walked on. This was great for Matterhorn, which is so much more fun at night anyway!
*My girls LOVED Ghost Galaxy. They are not as impressed by HMH, but then they don't know the NBC story or characters. I have to say it has really grown on me. I used to hate it but now I love it. Go figure! I am also fond of SMGG.
*We didn't do any meet and greets as we're not really into it.
Well, that's about it! It was such a fun trip and thank you to all who have posted tips I used!!
We used to like the DLH better than the GCH but once we stayed using out DVC points, the GCV won hand's down. 
. The hats were just 2 triangles sewn together and that was the easiest thing of all. I only added trim to the bottom to use up my leftover ribbon. They were very comfortable costumes for DL.
(if they are available still) after reading your review, and I had just convinced myself that we should save the money and skip the party. Your costumes were great too. 
