shosh1530
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2020
- Messages
- 933
We just got back from four days in the park and our fist stay at the Grand Californian. We had a good time overall, but though I'd share some of our experiences if it helpful for folks heading there in the next few weeks.
Grand Californian - Loved our stay here, but know that check in/check out can take a long while if you hit it at the wrong time. We meant to arrive by 2:30 but traffic on I-5 put us there at 4 pm. Not the time to arrive on a Sunday. The check in line took an hour and the wait for bell services was going to be even longer. Waits for breakfast foods at Craftsman Grill were also long each day. My general feeling is that they must not be fully staffed yet and staff spread thin despite limited capacity still. But all of the staff gave great customer service and we absolutely love the proximity to the parks and the tranquility of the resort. Stayed in a Woods view room and it was so nice and quiet. Hit the pool two times and were happy to see the slide open until 8 p.m. (no capacity limits at pool or trouble finding a lounge chair).
Boarding Groups - I had been super worried for more than a year about getting those dang boarding groups but in the end we had no problems. Got ROTR and webslingers twice (trying with two phones, ROTR both times at 7 am, WS at noon first day, 7 am next). The 9 year-old loved both rides, but I wasn't super impressed with WS (especially compared to my new favorite ride GOTG).
Galaxy's Edge - We spent a lot of time here our first night. Build a Droid was easy to just walk in and there was no waiting on a Sunday night. We had a reservation at Oga's and ordered two non-alcoholic drinks. The space was pretty overwhelming for our nine year old, so we left pretty quickly. Loved the theming overall of Galaxy's Edge and we visited each day we were there.
Avenger's Campus - We were really excited to visit, but I felt pretty underwhelmed by it. We were able to just walk in each day (no boarding group requirement or stand by line). But it was often very crowded and felt hotter than the rest of the park (little shade). We caught some of the Dr. Strange show and enjoyed seeing some characters, but didn't really feel like we could stop and enjoy time there. Was able to mobile order Pym's for lunch and got the veggie pasta (it was yummy). It seemed to be mobile order only at that moment and so we couldn't easily spend time inside Pym's to check it out. All in all, I was just happy that I could easily access GOTG since that was the ride I was interested in the most and I did love it.
Food - This is the area we struggled the most with. We had no trouble with mobile order (although I wish it was clearer which places were doing mobile only and which weren't), but the limited menu selections were a challenge for our very picky kid (and would love more variety in the plant-based options as well). We enjoyed our sit down meal at Riverbelle Terrace the most. Red Rose Tavern was probably my least fave as it was crowded, took forever, and not very tasty. Having our first-ever beignets and mint juleps was definitely a highlight (thanks to this board) and we did them more than once.
Characters - Loved loved loved seeing all the different characters in the different areas. I felt like they were much easier to spot than when they walk around and I loved hearing my child excitedly pointing them out whenever he spotted them. Cruella by the train station walking into DL was a highlight as she was chatting with us (saw her both days)
Entry/Crowds - We did not get to the parks before rope drop on purpose, but did try to time things just right to get in early but not wait in line (by 8:30 for DCA 8:45-9 for DL). This worked well except our last day (Wednesday) where we hit longer entry lines for DL (took about 20 minutes). Still compared to trips in the past this was all very fast/easy. Overall the parks felt busy, but not packed. I rarely felt uneasy even though we are still pretty covid-cautious. But be prepared that only like 1-5 percent of people are wearing masks (even indoors). The 9 year old wore his mask at all times like a champ, but I really struggled wearing mine with the heat (but I'm vaccinated so less crucial for me, the kid wanted to wear his even though I said he didn't have to outside).
Heat - Speaking of the heat - it was pretty hot! Temps were in the low 80s, which sounded great to me coming from Arizona, but with the humidity and strong sunshine it was easy for me to get overheated. The sun umbrella I got last minute was essential! We also took breaks from lunchtime until almost 6 most days. From 6-9 the weather was perfect!
Attractions - We were able to ride almost everything we wanted over our 3 days (plus first evening) even given our rather slow pace (DS can really only manage the park for 2-3 hours before needing a break. We had a DAS but did many rides in the standby queue because of short wait times. This was especially true for earlier in the day and in the evenings. We rode Incredicoaster, Soarin', Grizzly River Run (x3), POTC, HM, BTMMR, Star Tours (x3), Small World, Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh, Monsters Inc, all with 5-10 min wait times (often feeling like walk on). We used DAS for GOTG (also rode once by myself stand by), Smuggler's Run (x2), RSR, HM (second time riding), Indy (although it broke down and we never rode it), but there were certainly times of day when these all had less than 30-45 min waits (RSR probably had the longest consistently throughout the day). Grizzly River Run and Splash both had long waits during the hottest part of the day, so ride those early or late. We never made it on to Splash unfortunately.
DAS - My son has a cognitive disability and we were easily able to get DAS after talking to Guest Relations. I was grateful for that as we likely would not have gotten on any of the bigger attractions without it. We did really struggle with finding the guest services kiosks in both parks, so if you are using DAS for the first time ask for a map. I was trying to find them based on the app, but didn't manage well. In DCA we just kept walking back to the one location we had found. We also had confusion between cast members about the DAS procedures for getting on ROTR and WS when your boarding group was called. Everyone seemed to direct us to a different place and one cast member tried to tell us that wheelchairs go in the regular queue, even though we did not have a wheelchair and I was explaining that we had been issued a DAS pass. But I just moved on and asked another person and finally found the right place.
All in all a successful trip! DS enjoyed shopping as much as the rides (we both started collecting pins) and we were so glad to just be able to finally take this trip (originally planned for March 2020). Thanks for reading if you actually got this far. And feel free to ask any questions.
Grand Californian - Loved our stay here, but know that check in/check out can take a long while if you hit it at the wrong time. We meant to arrive by 2:30 but traffic on I-5 put us there at 4 pm. Not the time to arrive on a Sunday. The check in line took an hour and the wait for bell services was going to be even longer. Waits for breakfast foods at Craftsman Grill were also long each day. My general feeling is that they must not be fully staffed yet and staff spread thin despite limited capacity still. But all of the staff gave great customer service and we absolutely love the proximity to the parks and the tranquility of the resort. Stayed in a Woods view room and it was so nice and quiet. Hit the pool two times and were happy to see the slide open until 8 p.m. (no capacity limits at pool or trouble finding a lounge chair).
Boarding Groups - I had been super worried for more than a year about getting those dang boarding groups but in the end we had no problems. Got ROTR and webslingers twice (trying with two phones, ROTR both times at 7 am, WS at noon first day, 7 am next). The 9 year-old loved both rides, but I wasn't super impressed with WS (especially compared to my new favorite ride GOTG).
Galaxy's Edge - We spent a lot of time here our first night. Build a Droid was easy to just walk in and there was no waiting on a Sunday night. We had a reservation at Oga's and ordered two non-alcoholic drinks. The space was pretty overwhelming for our nine year old, so we left pretty quickly. Loved the theming overall of Galaxy's Edge and we visited each day we were there.
Avenger's Campus - We were really excited to visit, but I felt pretty underwhelmed by it. We were able to just walk in each day (no boarding group requirement or stand by line). But it was often very crowded and felt hotter than the rest of the park (little shade). We caught some of the Dr. Strange show and enjoyed seeing some characters, but didn't really feel like we could stop and enjoy time there. Was able to mobile order Pym's for lunch and got the veggie pasta (it was yummy). It seemed to be mobile order only at that moment and so we couldn't easily spend time inside Pym's to check it out. All in all, I was just happy that I could easily access GOTG since that was the ride I was interested in the most and I did love it.
Food - This is the area we struggled the most with. We had no trouble with mobile order (although I wish it was clearer which places were doing mobile only and which weren't), but the limited menu selections were a challenge for our very picky kid (and would love more variety in the plant-based options as well). We enjoyed our sit down meal at Riverbelle Terrace the most. Red Rose Tavern was probably my least fave as it was crowded, took forever, and not very tasty. Having our first-ever beignets and mint juleps was definitely a highlight (thanks to this board) and we did them more than once.
Characters - Loved loved loved seeing all the different characters in the different areas. I felt like they were much easier to spot than when they walk around and I loved hearing my child excitedly pointing them out whenever he spotted them. Cruella by the train station walking into DL was a highlight as she was chatting with us (saw her both days)
Entry/Crowds - We did not get to the parks before rope drop on purpose, but did try to time things just right to get in early but not wait in line (by 8:30 for DCA 8:45-9 for DL). This worked well except our last day (Wednesday) where we hit longer entry lines for DL (took about 20 minutes). Still compared to trips in the past this was all very fast/easy. Overall the parks felt busy, but not packed. I rarely felt uneasy even though we are still pretty covid-cautious. But be prepared that only like 1-5 percent of people are wearing masks (even indoors). The 9 year old wore his mask at all times like a champ, but I really struggled wearing mine with the heat (but I'm vaccinated so less crucial for me, the kid wanted to wear his even though I said he didn't have to outside).
Heat - Speaking of the heat - it was pretty hot! Temps were in the low 80s, which sounded great to me coming from Arizona, but with the humidity and strong sunshine it was easy for me to get overheated. The sun umbrella I got last minute was essential! We also took breaks from lunchtime until almost 6 most days. From 6-9 the weather was perfect!
Attractions - We were able to ride almost everything we wanted over our 3 days (plus first evening) even given our rather slow pace (DS can really only manage the park for 2-3 hours before needing a break. We had a DAS but did many rides in the standby queue because of short wait times. This was especially true for earlier in the day and in the evenings. We rode Incredicoaster, Soarin', Grizzly River Run (x3), POTC, HM, BTMMR, Star Tours (x3), Small World, Little Mermaid, Winnie the Pooh, Monsters Inc, all with 5-10 min wait times (often feeling like walk on). We used DAS for GOTG (also rode once by myself stand by), Smuggler's Run (x2), RSR, HM (second time riding), Indy (although it broke down and we never rode it), but there were certainly times of day when these all had less than 30-45 min waits (RSR probably had the longest consistently throughout the day). Grizzly River Run and Splash both had long waits during the hottest part of the day, so ride those early or late. We never made it on to Splash unfortunately.
DAS - My son has a cognitive disability and we were easily able to get DAS after talking to Guest Relations. I was grateful for that as we likely would not have gotten on any of the bigger attractions without it. We did really struggle with finding the guest services kiosks in both parks, so if you are using DAS for the first time ask for a map. I was trying to find them based on the app, but didn't manage well. In DCA we just kept walking back to the one location we had found. We also had confusion between cast members about the DAS procedures for getting on ROTR and WS when your boarding group was called. Everyone seemed to direct us to a different place and one cast member tried to tell us that wheelchairs go in the regular queue, even though we did not have a wheelchair and I was explaining that we had been issued a DAS pass. But I just moved on and asked another person and finally found the right place.
All in all a successful trip! DS enjoyed shopping as much as the rides (we both started collecting pins) and we were so glad to just be able to finally take this trip (originally planned for March 2020). Thanks for reading if you actually got this far. And feel free to ask any questions.
