I want to thank everyone here for the advice given. Most was very helpful during our trip and some wasn't as useful. We just spent five very nice days in southern California. Wow this is longer than I expected. I hope other get something out of it...
The Fairfield Inn has received good and bad reviews. Personally we found nothing wrong with this hotel and would stay there again. Since we booked the hotel through Costco Disney Vacations (it would have cost the same booking it separately, I looked), we did not have to pay extra for parking and had no problem finding parking. The room was plenty large enough for our family of four and all of our stuff and we over pack. My oldest didn't want to sleep with her sister so we made out the single hide-a-bed and she slept there. There was still plenty of room to move around. The towels were on the thinner side but they worked just fine. If you judge a hotel simply based on the towels you might be disappointed, but I have stayed in what were supposed to be nicer hotels and had worse quality of towels. We had a Harbor facing room on the second floor and had no issues with noise. I never heard the people in the rooms next to or above us. The walk to/from Disneyland was easy. I would recommend this hotel. On a side note, the pool looked fine. We did not end up using it as we never found the time. I am glad I didn't pay extra for Hojo or have to take the extra steps.
Goofy's Kitchen: Overall I was disappointed and wish we would have done Ariel's Grotto instead. The food was mediocre at best and my daughters had a difficult time finding any food they would eat. Character interaction left a lot to be desired. We were there the first night of our trip and were really hoping for a good experience. Right after we sat down, Alladin stopped to see us. He spent a lot of time interacting with the girls. After that we had no other characters visits us - even though they came close they did not stop at our table. I finally asked our waiter after we were done eating if any others were going to come visit. He went to speak with the manager and finally others came to see us: Minnie, Chip, Dale, Pluto and Mulan. We had the opportunity to see each of these many times during our visit in the parks so I don't think it added much to our trip. We had to wait an hour after we had finished our dinner to see all the characters. It definitely did not live up to our expectations of character dining. My other complaint is that we were celebrating our daughters' birthdays, told them when we checked in, told the hostess and told the waiter. Nothing special was done for the girls even though all around us others were getting special treatment/cupcakes.
Helpful hints: We went to the Walmart close by and were able to buy souvenirs (shirts , lanyards, magnets, stuffed character dolls at a fraction of the cost as in the park. We also bought snacks, water, Gatorade and breakfast items - all were much less expensive than in the parks. We took our stainless steel insulated water bottles and refilled them at the restaurants. I took powdered drink mixes for when we wanted something other than water. We did get the silhouettes done of the girls and i am so happy with them. I plan to have them done each time we go. We took a stroller and I don't regret taking it. It was great to have to hold our stuff. We never hit anyone with it nor were we hit by any other stroller. The girls did not ride in the stroller but sat in it a few times. I took a hole punch and punched our plastic park hopper cards and punched the photo pass card and hung them all on my lanyard we got at Walmart. It made easy access to the photo pass and for using the cards for fast passes. We didn't lose or drop them. If you do this punch the side away from the barcode for using in the fast pass machines. The photographers kept commenting on how nice having the card on the lanyard was and that they had never seen that before.
Timing of trip: We picked a great week to spend in Disneyland. The crowds were low and they were open until 11 each night. We never had to wait more than 20 minutes for a ride and most were walk right on. We did use fast passes a bit, but it wasn't always helpful where they mixed in.
Time zone differences: I have read concerns of traveling with children and dealing with time zone differences. We live in the Midwest and did not find this to be an issue. We change our clocks to local time when we arrive and live on local time. We woke up without an alarm at our normal time and went to bed between 10 and midnight each night. The girls handled it great and were not messed up by the change, but I have never had my girls on a strict schedule. I think most kids that have issues with changing time zones have issues with any kind of change in schedule. We have never had a set bedtime routine or schedule and our girls go with the flow very nicely.
Photo pass: This was nice, but I don't think all my pictures got attached to my account. I need to review it better then contact them for missed pictures. I was disappointed that they weren't with all the characters - not even at Mickey's house in Toontown, but they were at Minnie's. I did purchase the gallery cd at the photoshop that comes with the free photo pass cd. I believe it was $59 and it does qualify for the 10% Disney Visa discount. This is one off best deals in the park, in my opinion.
Costumes:. My daughters are 6 & 8 years old and love princesses. I decided to make dresses for them to wear rather than buying the heavy, hot , uncomfortable dresses available. My girls were comfortable in their dresses and there were no concerns about ruining expensive dresses. They told me they felt special being in costumes and being called princess. There were fewer kids dressed than I expected, but I am glad that we did it. We did not do the BBB, but I styled their hair according to the costumes they were wearing. Several times I had people ask if they had gone to the BBB.
Character interaction: The best places we found for characters were just past the Main Street Train Depot in the mornings and in Carnation Gardens and the Wishing Well. I made the girls autograph books with picturesof the characterson each page. The characters loved their books and nearly all made comments on them. Most character interactions were very positive and they spent time interacting with each child. My oldest daughter dressed as Mary Poppins in Jolly Holiday and we ran into Bert immediately after entry into the park. It was a fantastic experience and set the stage for the rest of the week. Bert to DD8 that he would love for her to join then in their show at 1pm. We arrived for their show and Mary and Bert interacted with her multiple times and asked both of our girls to dance in the show. Later we ran into Aurora wandering through the wishing well. She talked with the girls a long time. The next day we happened to see Aurora again at the Princess Fantasy Faire and she remembered the girls and what they were wearing the previous day. I was very impressed with her. Speaking of the Princess Fantasy Faire, I wish there was a better process. We waited in line for over an hour, even though the posted time was 30 minutes. When we finally made it in there 2 of the 3 princesses we had already seen. The only new one was Snow White and my husband had gone though the wishing well a few minutes before and Snow White and the Evil Queen were there. We could have seen them at the same time and not stood in line for an hour. The Tangled meet and greet was frustrating as well. We got in line before 11am. The sign said 30 min wait. The doors were supposed to open at 11, but did not open until 11:20. We got within three families of the front of the line at 12. It was then that Rapunzel decided to take a break. Okay, they do need breaks. So after a 15 min break, the doors opened again. The first two families went in and then Flynn Rider needed a break, so we didn't get to see him. I'm not sure why he didn't take a break at the same time as Rapunzel since the doors were closed anyway. I know that the meet and greets take a lot of time, but there should be a better way to let you know when and where you can see each princess/character. When I asked about seeing a specific princess I was told they rotate through the PFFand they couldn't give me a specific time. My only other complaint is that I wish they would do a better job of delineating who the last family is to see the character. Several times we stood in 20 min lines only to be told when we were part of the way through that the character would be leaving in so many minutes. If that character decided to spend a lot of time with the families the others in line were waiting for no reason because they would just leave even if you were next in line and waited a long time. The one positive experience we had with this was when seeing Cinderella, Fairy Godmother and Perla yesterday, the attendant got in line to prevent others from getting in line behind him.
California Adventures: This felt like a carnival to us. The Hollywood Backlot was okay but seemed like a lot of wasted space. All the shows were good, but we messed up planning and didn't get to see Alladin show since it does not show on Wed or Thurs. Tower of Terror wasn't as bad as I expected. California Screaming was awesome. DD6 says it was her favorite ride. Soarin was very neat. Other than that the rides were carnival like. I hope Carsland lives up to expectations. Oh yeah, Animation Academy was fun for the girls.
Fireworks: Loved them and am glad we decided to add a day so we could watch them.
Fantasmic: We didn't make special plans to see it, but we happened to be getting off BTMRR 2 nights and stopped to watch it. It was very good but we aren't really into the shows.
World of Color: We did not even try to see it. Again not really into the shows and to wait so long to see a show we may or may not be able to see well is not our idea of fun. When we asked the girls if they wanted to see shows or rides they picked rides every time.
Parades: See above remarks on World of Color and responses are the same.
Food: We didn't do any special meals other than Goofy's Kitchen. We would rather save the money to make our next trip to DL. We ate lunch in the park in the early afternoon then the next thing we knew it was 9pm. Noone ever complained about being hungry, but I had packed snacks. We would eat outside the park at night.
We spent 3 full days in the parks and 2 partial days. I wish we had 4 full days and maybe we wouldn't have felt as rushed. It is funny for us to think that when we were younger a 1 day trip to DL was all we ever did. We had a very nice trip and rode most of the better rides multiple times with short lines. I am already trying to plan the next trip and I have been home less than a day.
The Fairfield Inn has received good and bad reviews. Personally we found nothing wrong with this hotel and would stay there again. Since we booked the hotel through Costco Disney Vacations (it would have cost the same booking it separately, I looked), we did not have to pay extra for parking and had no problem finding parking. The room was plenty large enough for our family of four and all of our stuff and we over pack. My oldest didn't want to sleep with her sister so we made out the single hide-a-bed and she slept there. There was still plenty of room to move around. The towels were on the thinner side but they worked just fine. If you judge a hotel simply based on the towels you might be disappointed, but I have stayed in what were supposed to be nicer hotels and had worse quality of towels. We had a Harbor facing room on the second floor and had no issues with noise. I never heard the people in the rooms next to or above us. The walk to/from Disneyland was easy. I would recommend this hotel. On a side note, the pool looked fine. We did not end up using it as we never found the time. I am glad I didn't pay extra for Hojo or have to take the extra steps.
Goofy's Kitchen: Overall I was disappointed and wish we would have done Ariel's Grotto instead. The food was mediocre at best and my daughters had a difficult time finding any food they would eat. Character interaction left a lot to be desired. We were there the first night of our trip and were really hoping for a good experience. Right after we sat down, Alladin stopped to see us. He spent a lot of time interacting with the girls. After that we had no other characters visits us - even though they came close they did not stop at our table. I finally asked our waiter after we were done eating if any others were going to come visit. He went to speak with the manager and finally others came to see us: Minnie, Chip, Dale, Pluto and Mulan. We had the opportunity to see each of these many times during our visit in the parks so I don't think it added much to our trip. We had to wait an hour after we had finished our dinner to see all the characters. It definitely did not live up to our expectations of character dining. My other complaint is that we were celebrating our daughters' birthdays, told them when we checked in, told the hostess and told the waiter. Nothing special was done for the girls even though all around us others were getting special treatment/cupcakes.
Helpful hints: We went to the Walmart close by and were able to buy souvenirs (shirts , lanyards, magnets, stuffed character dolls at a fraction of the cost as in the park. We also bought snacks, water, Gatorade and breakfast items - all were much less expensive than in the parks. We took our stainless steel insulated water bottles and refilled them at the restaurants. I took powdered drink mixes for when we wanted something other than water. We did get the silhouettes done of the girls and i am so happy with them. I plan to have them done each time we go. We took a stroller and I don't regret taking it. It was great to have to hold our stuff. We never hit anyone with it nor were we hit by any other stroller. The girls did not ride in the stroller but sat in it a few times. I took a hole punch and punched our plastic park hopper cards and punched the photo pass card and hung them all on my lanyard we got at Walmart. It made easy access to the photo pass and for using the cards for fast passes. We didn't lose or drop them. If you do this punch the side away from the barcode for using in the fast pass machines. The photographers kept commenting on how nice having the card on the lanyard was and that they had never seen that before.
Timing of trip: We picked a great week to spend in Disneyland. The crowds were low and they were open until 11 each night. We never had to wait more than 20 minutes for a ride and most were walk right on. We did use fast passes a bit, but it wasn't always helpful where they mixed in.
Time zone differences: I have read concerns of traveling with children and dealing with time zone differences. We live in the Midwest and did not find this to be an issue. We change our clocks to local time when we arrive and live on local time. We woke up without an alarm at our normal time and went to bed between 10 and midnight each night. The girls handled it great and were not messed up by the change, but I have never had my girls on a strict schedule. I think most kids that have issues with changing time zones have issues with any kind of change in schedule. We have never had a set bedtime routine or schedule and our girls go with the flow very nicely.
Photo pass: This was nice, but I don't think all my pictures got attached to my account. I need to review it better then contact them for missed pictures. I was disappointed that they weren't with all the characters - not even at Mickey's house in Toontown, but they were at Minnie's. I did purchase the gallery cd at the photoshop that comes with the free photo pass cd. I believe it was $59 and it does qualify for the 10% Disney Visa discount. This is one off best deals in the park, in my opinion.
Costumes:. My daughters are 6 & 8 years old and love princesses. I decided to make dresses for them to wear rather than buying the heavy, hot , uncomfortable dresses available. My girls were comfortable in their dresses and there were no concerns about ruining expensive dresses. They told me they felt special being in costumes and being called princess. There were fewer kids dressed than I expected, but I am glad that we did it. We did not do the BBB, but I styled their hair according to the costumes they were wearing. Several times I had people ask if they had gone to the BBB.
Character interaction: The best places we found for characters were just past the Main Street Train Depot in the mornings and in Carnation Gardens and the Wishing Well. I made the girls autograph books with picturesof the characterson each page. The characters loved their books and nearly all made comments on them. Most character interactions were very positive and they spent time interacting with each child. My oldest daughter dressed as Mary Poppins in Jolly Holiday and we ran into Bert immediately after entry into the park. It was a fantastic experience and set the stage for the rest of the week. Bert to DD8 that he would love for her to join then in their show at 1pm. We arrived for their show and Mary and Bert interacted with her multiple times and asked both of our girls to dance in the show. Later we ran into Aurora wandering through the wishing well. She talked with the girls a long time. The next day we happened to see Aurora again at the Princess Fantasy Faire and she remembered the girls and what they were wearing the previous day. I was very impressed with her. Speaking of the Princess Fantasy Faire, I wish there was a better process. We waited in line for over an hour, even though the posted time was 30 minutes. When we finally made it in there 2 of the 3 princesses we had already seen. The only new one was Snow White and my husband had gone though the wishing well a few minutes before and Snow White and the Evil Queen were there. We could have seen them at the same time and not stood in line for an hour. The Tangled meet and greet was frustrating as well. We got in line before 11am. The sign said 30 min wait. The doors were supposed to open at 11, but did not open until 11:20. We got within three families of the front of the line at 12. It was then that Rapunzel decided to take a break. Okay, they do need breaks. So after a 15 min break, the doors opened again. The first two families went in and then Flynn Rider needed a break, so we didn't get to see him. I'm not sure why he didn't take a break at the same time as Rapunzel since the doors were closed anyway. I know that the meet and greets take a lot of time, but there should be a better way to let you know when and where you can see each princess/character. When I asked about seeing a specific princess I was told they rotate through the PFFand they couldn't give me a specific time. My only other complaint is that I wish they would do a better job of delineating who the last family is to see the character. Several times we stood in 20 min lines only to be told when we were part of the way through that the character would be leaving in so many minutes. If that character decided to spend a lot of time with the families the others in line were waiting for no reason because they would just leave even if you were next in line and waited a long time. The one positive experience we had with this was when seeing Cinderella, Fairy Godmother and Perla yesterday, the attendant got in line to prevent others from getting in line behind him.
California Adventures: This felt like a carnival to us. The Hollywood Backlot was okay but seemed like a lot of wasted space. All the shows were good, but we messed up planning and didn't get to see Alladin show since it does not show on Wed or Thurs. Tower of Terror wasn't as bad as I expected. California Screaming was awesome. DD6 says it was her favorite ride. Soarin was very neat. Other than that the rides were carnival like. I hope Carsland lives up to expectations. Oh yeah, Animation Academy was fun for the girls.
Fireworks: Loved them and am glad we decided to add a day so we could watch them.
Fantasmic: We didn't make special plans to see it, but we happened to be getting off BTMRR 2 nights and stopped to watch it. It was very good but we aren't really into the shows.
World of Color: We did not even try to see it. Again not really into the shows and to wait so long to see a show we may or may not be able to see well is not our idea of fun. When we asked the girls if they wanted to see shows or rides they picked rides every time.
Parades: See above remarks on World of Color and responses are the same.
Food: We didn't do any special meals other than Goofy's Kitchen. We would rather save the money to make our next trip to DL. We ate lunch in the park in the early afternoon then the next thing we knew it was 9pm. Noone ever complained about being hungry, but I had packed snacks. We would eat outside the park at night.
We spent 3 full days in the parks and 2 partial days. I wish we had 4 full days and maybe we wouldn't have felt as rushed. It is funny for us to think that when we were younger a 1 day trip to DL was all we ever did. We had a very nice trip and rode most of the better rides multiple times with short lines. I am already trying to plan the next trip and I have been home less than a day.
We are hoping to pack snacks and water for a DL visit this summer. Did anyone give you a hard time when you went through bag check for carrying in these items?
