TheZue
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2005
- Messages
- 2,298
We had a GREAT trip 
It was definitely hot while we were threre but that was okay. Here's a quick breakdown of what we found during this one:
Halloween:
This was our third trip during the halloween season. Either I've gotten very used to it or there is much less theming and merch. I think there is less though. California Adventure had almost no theming. The only theming we saw was Duffy The Disneybear set up next to Ariel's Grotto with some pumpkins in a pumkin costume. Disneyland seemed to have less than I remember as well. But oddly enough I was kind of happy because I haven't seen the park "normal" for years.
The merch was great. They had these awesome light up Jack necklaces that change expression, very cool. We ended up getting a really cute Trick or Treat sign for our front door. There were still quite a few costumes available. The merch that was brought out for the Halloween party on Friday night was still there on Saturday during regular hours.
The party was great. We got way way way too much candy. Saw lots of villains at the hub, but we didn't stop because we just wanted CANDY!!! (well our kids did) We got enough I'm going to thin it out by about half and use it on Halloweeen...it's absurd how much there was. We also saw some rarer characters. Phineas & Ferb were out at the end of the treat line in innovations, and Rabbit was out in Critter County. It was a highlight of our trip. We didn't watch the fireworks or the parade since our youngest was incredibly timid the entire trip, and it would have scared him.
Paradise Pier Hotel:
It was a really nice hotel. I actually think after staying here and the Grand that in terms of location it's probably the best of the three. If you go out the front door you can cut through the grand. With the way the rooms are set up at the Grand & the PPH I am actually not sure we had a longer walk from our room at PPH than our room at the grand. The Grand in many ways felt like the massive Vegas hotels, PPH felt smaller and more intimate. Then if you go out the backdoor you end up right at the opposite end of Downtown Disney next to the hat at the entrance to DLH, then you can hop on the monorail to Disneyland. While it is far away from the main gate it's got two closer options to get into the parks so I really think it is wonderfully located.
The pool was great. I know there has been some complaining about this pool but I loved it and so did my kids. The slide was a big hit, it doesn't go into a main pool so there wasn't any need to demonstrate ability to swim. There was also a small kiddie pool that was about a foot deep so I could relax in a pool chair while my four year old happily splashed around.
They handled issues really well. We had to switch rooms on the second night. The playpen in the closet stunk of urine
and even after they removed it the closet still smelled, so we asked to move. We ended up with a very low level view of DCA, which was fine. We also had a cake we ordered go missing and they tracked it down for us and didn't charge us.
Valet fee $22 NOT $17/night as I've seen quoted.
Overall I'd absolutely stay here again.
Carsland:
Very cool. Radiator Springs Racers was fun. It did scare the poop out of my four year old who spent the ride with his face in my lap digging his nails into my arm. Frank set him off and it was downhill from there. The rest of us realy enjoyed it. I LOVED the flying tires, my husband thought they were dumb and hated them; I like the cheesy rides though. The tractor one was cute & fun. They have tons of neat cars stuff there. The view at night was amazing, we ate at Flo's at night and it was really nice and yummy!!
Mickey's Toon Town Madness:
We didn't book a package, I have an AP and used that discount instead. In an old thread I saw somebody had some luck buying the ticket book from the Walt Disney Travel office in downtown Disney, so I tried & succeeded. It was $10 per book and it came with a pin & landyard coupon, priority seating to the shows, MMTM vouchers, and shopping pass thing. The office is located around the corner from Earl of Sandwich (so not close to being finished) towards PPH.
MMTTM tself was okay. I actually think the line to see Mickey was longer during the MMTTM than the rest of the day. BUT Daisy & Donald were out (not together) and Chip & Dale were out together. It was good fun, and we wanted to do it before it disapears at the end of the year.
Food:
Oh the food lol. I gotta say my big take away was anything with corn is good. We went to Cafe Orleans, Carthay Circle, Carnation Cafe, and four character meals. Carthay is wonderful. We were seated next to the pass through so we got to watch them call the orders. Just a warning, their drinks are STRONG
....It was nap time after that one. The seating for WOC was great, we got there half an hour ahead of the show and we were standing behind the handicapped benches.
The other great place we found that wasn't there last time was the Holly Jolly bakery. SO yummy!! The grilled cheese was great, actually everything was. We almost passed it over thinking "meh just sandwiches" and I'm so glad we didn't.
Fantasmic!:
Like every other time I've been in that area before Fantasmic it's chaos. While I was waiting to check in for my tickets they had the line going into the crowd so we were getting pushed, stepped, and got a good reminder why we were paying LOL. People were yelling at each other for crushing kids and it was literally pedestrian gridlock two hours out from the show. I had to shield my son in his stroller because people saw the gap in the crowd and were trying to step over him. When my husband finally showed up at 8pm, my older son imediatly said "I have to pee"...........it took them 25 minutes to get from the check in booth next to the food card by the Mark Twain River Boats, to the bathroom with no line in NOS, and back. It was INSANE. My husband said he saw some guy screaming at his wife because she had no idea it would be this crowded. I was so glad not to be battling that crowd this time. At nine it did calm down, granted we were sitting and not paying any attention to the crowd control nightmare behind us.
The seating was wonderful. We got in line for check in around 7:10 I think, and we got front row no problem. The view was good, the food was good, the service was good. IMO after trying to see it by coming two to three hours early in past years and failing combined with the fact that we got seats instead of concrete & a waiter it was WELL worth the $230. If you can afford it, do it.
Driving
We drove from Vancouver Island and I know a lot of people wonder what the actual costs on that are, so here it is! We took two nights on the way down, didn't need to at all so that first night is a luxury.
Day One:
We left on the 5pm ferry to Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver BC) drove that night until we got to Mount Vernon Washington.
Costs:
Ferry $0 (we had passes)
Gas $50
Hotel $169 (this was optional, we wanted to shop lol)
Day Two:
We left around 9am and stopped in Yreka at the Holiday Inn Express around 6pm.
Costs:
Gas 150
Hotel 126
Day Three:
We left around 8 am and arrived at PPH at 6pm
Costs:
Gas $75
On the way back we only stopped once for the night.
Day one:
We left at 8:30 am and drove until 10pm. We made it to Springfield Oregon.
Costs:
Gas 163
Hotel 104
Day Two
We left at 8:30 and got to the Twassen Ferry in time for the 3:15 boat home.
Costs:
Gas $50
Ferry again $0 due to passes
So total cost for the drive was $488 in gas and $399 in hotels ($169 we didn't need to spend either) so our total for the drive was just under $900 for the four of us. Not too shabby and we didn't have to worry about weight limits on the flight home because I like to shop! We also didn't have to worry about paying to park our car for the week or renting another one The other benefit to driving is we stopped at a couple Targets on the way down, signed up for the Red Card credit card, bought Disney gift cards with the 5% off, paid that off and it posted at midnight, repeated the next day and saved another $75.
It was definitely hot while we were threre but that was okay. Here's a quick breakdown of what we found during this one:Halloween:
This was our third trip during the halloween season. Either I've gotten very used to it or there is much less theming and merch. I think there is less though. California Adventure had almost no theming. The only theming we saw was Duffy The Disneybear set up next to Ariel's Grotto with some pumpkins in a pumkin costume. Disneyland seemed to have less than I remember as well. But oddly enough I was kind of happy because I haven't seen the park "normal" for years.
The merch was great. They had these awesome light up Jack necklaces that change expression, very cool. We ended up getting a really cute Trick or Treat sign for our front door. There were still quite a few costumes available. The merch that was brought out for the Halloween party on Friday night was still there on Saturday during regular hours.
The party was great. We got way way way too much candy. Saw lots of villains at the hub, but we didn't stop because we just wanted CANDY!!! (well our kids did) We got enough I'm going to thin it out by about half and use it on Halloweeen...it's absurd how much there was. We also saw some rarer characters. Phineas & Ferb were out at the end of the treat line in innovations, and Rabbit was out in Critter County. It was a highlight of our trip. We didn't watch the fireworks or the parade since our youngest was incredibly timid the entire trip, and it would have scared him.
Paradise Pier Hotel:
It was a really nice hotel. I actually think after staying here and the Grand that in terms of location it's probably the best of the three. If you go out the front door you can cut through the grand. With the way the rooms are set up at the Grand & the PPH I am actually not sure we had a longer walk from our room at PPH than our room at the grand. The Grand in many ways felt like the massive Vegas hotels, PPH felt smaller and more intimate. Then if you go out the backdoor you end up right at the opposite end of Downtown Disney next to the hat at the entrance to DLH, then you can hop on the monorail to Disneyland. While it is far away from the main gate it's got two closer options to get into the parks so I really think it is wonderfully located.
The pool was great. I know there has been some complaining about this pool but I loved it and so did my kids. The slide was a big hit, it doesn't go into a main pool so there wasn't any need to demonstrate ability to swim. There was also a small kiddie pool that was about a foot deep so I could relax in a pool chair while my four year old happily splashed around.
They handled issues really well. We had to switch rooms on the second night. The playpen in the closet stunk of urine
and even after they removed it the closet still smelled, so we asked to move. We ended up with a very low level view of DCA, which was fine. We also had a cake we ordered go missing and they tracked it down for us and didn't charge us. Valet fee $22 NOT $17/night as I've seen quoted.
Overall I'd absolutely stay here again.
Carsland:
Very cool. Radiator Springs Racers was fun. It did scare the poop out of my four year old who spent the ride with his face in my lap digging his nails into my arm. Frank set him off and it was downhill from there. The rest of us realy enjoyed it. I LOVED the flying tires, my husband thought they were dumb and hated them; I like the cheesy rides though. The tractor one was cute & fun. They have tons of neat cars stuff there. The view at night was amazing, we ate at Flo's at night and it was really nice and yummy!!
Mickey's Toon Town Madness:
We didn't book a package, I have an AP and used that discount instead. In an old thread I saw somebody had some luck buying the ticket book from the Walt Disney Travel office in downtown Disney, so I tried & succeeded. It was $10 per book and it came with a pin & landyard coupon, priority seating to the shows, MMTM vouchers, and shopping pass thing. The office is located around the corner from Earl of Sandwich (so not close to being finished) towards PPH.
MMTTM tself was okay. I actually think the line to see Mickey was longer during the MMTTM than the rest of the day. BUT Daisy & Donald were out (not together) and Chip & Dale were out together. It was good fun, and we wanted to do it before it disapears at the end of the year.
Food:
Oh the food lol. I gotta say my big take away was anything with corn is good. We went to Cafe Orleans, Carthay Circle, Carnation Cafe, and four character meals. Carthay is wonderful. We were seated next to the pass through so we got to watch them call the orders. Just a warning, their drinks are STRONG
....It was nap time after that one. The seating for WOC was great, we got there half an hour ahead of the show and we were standing behind the handicapped benches. The other great place we found that wasn't there last time was the Holly Jolly bakery. SO yummy!! The grilled cheese was great, actually everything was. We almost passed it over thinking "meh just sandwiches" and I'm so glad we didn't.
Fantasmic!:
Like every other time I've been in that area before Fantasmic it's chaos. While I was waiting to check in for my tickets they had the line going into the crowd so we were getting pushed, stepped, and got a good reminder why we were paying LOL. People were yelling at each other for crushing kids and it was literally pedestrian gridlock two hours out from the show. I had to shield my son in his stroller because people saw the gap in the crowd and were trying to step over him. When my husband finally showed up at 8pm, my older son imediatly said "I have to pee"...........it took them 25 minutes to get from the check in booth next to the food card by the Mark Twain River Boats, to the bathroom with no line in NOS, and back. It was INSANE. My husband said he saw some guy screaming at his wife because she had no idea it would be this crowded. I was so glad not to be battling that crowd this time. At nine it did calm down, granted we were sitting and not paying any attention to the crowd control nightmare behind us.
The seating was wonderful. We got in line for check in around 7:10 I think, and we got front row no problem. The view was good, the food was good, the service was good. IMO after trying to see it by coming two to three hours early in past years and failing combined with the fact that we got seats instead of concrete & a waiter it was WELL worth the $230. If you can afford it, do it.
Driving
We drove from Vancouver Island and I know a lot of people wonder what the actual costs on that are, so here it is! We took two nights on the way down, didn't need to at all so that first night is a luxury.
Day One:
We left on the 5pm ferry to Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver BC) drove that night until we got to Mount Vernon Washington.
Costs:
Ferry $0 (we had passes)
Gas $50
Hotel $169 (this was optional, we wanted to shop lol)
Day Two:
We left around 9am and stopped in Yreka at the Holiday Inn Express around 6pm.
Costs:
Gas 150
Hotel 126
Day Three:
We left around 8 am and arrived at PPH at 6pm
Costs:
Gas $75
On the way back we only stopped once for the night.
Day one:
We left at 8:30 am and drove until 10pm. We made it to Springfield Oregon.
Costs:
Gas 163
Hotel 104
Day Two
We left at 8:30 and got to the Twassen Ferry in time for the 3:15 boat home.
Costs:
Gas $50
Ferry again $0 due to passes
So total cost for the drive was $488 in gas and $399 in hotels ($169 we didn't need to spend either) so our total for the drive was just under $900 for the four of us. Not too shabby and we didn't have to worry about weight limits on the flight home because I like to shop! We also didn't have to worry about paying to park our car for the week or renting another one
The other benefit to driving is we stopped at a couple Targets on the way down, signed up for the Red Card credit card, bought Disney gift cards with the 5% off, paid that off and it posted at midnight, repeated the next day and saved another $75.
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