ashnjam
Howell, Michigan
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2012
- Messages
- 416
Just wanted to write a little something about our families first visit to Disneyland there’s Me 32 DW 33 DD7. Our family has been go WDW twice, but i lived in Orlando for a few years and was a CM my senior year in High School. We hadn’t been to WDW for a few years and i started to get the disney itch, mentioned to DW that maybe we should try DLR? Never been to the place it all started, new cars land, etc. DW agreed, so we picked Halloween time because we thought it be cool to see the park decorated during that time of year. So we started planning and i found this awesome site with great people and info. Hydroguy and Sherry E really amongst others who helped me out thank you for all your info and research.
We arrived at LAX and used the DIsneyland Resort Express which was not all that great. It was a greyhound style bus wrapped in disney theme. The seats were nice and comfy and we had lots of room to ourselves. The problems i found were that the driver who wasn’t very disney “like” was playing like soft rock music and the bathroom door which wouldn’t shut banging back and fourth every minute. But we didn’t care much we were on our way to Disneyland! Surprised at how fast we got to our hotel it was about an hour and we were the second stop. Must say that both the driver and the bus were much nicer on the way back to the airport however, and pretty sure i would use this method of transportation again.
The decision was which resort hotel to stay at? On-site was a must and after thinking about it for a few days we decided PPH with theme park view and concierge. DW and I thought it would be really cool to see DCA and WoC form the room. Our second choice would have been DLH for the location overall theme and the headboards. Followed by GCH it’s a beautiful hotel with a sweet lobby and the big doors you go through to enter are really cool.. It’s just not our style i guess. Anyway when we checked in we were upgraded to a one bedroom suite! The hotel is very nice and clean we were very pleased with this hotel. I see that the elevator problem people mention could definitely cause trouble, but we just never had an issue. The room was awesome it had a full couch, t.v. dvd player, and view of DCA, a full bathroom with stand up shower. And in the bedroom two queen beds (i believe) another t.v., dvd player, desk and view of the park. The bedroom also had a full shower with a bathtub. Beds and pillows were comfy we didn’t have any problems sleeping. Spent a few minutes in the room where they show disney cartoons and the beach chairs. Visited the gift shop several times, but didn’t step foot in the arcade. Made it to the roof top pool, DW and i only made it to the hot tub mostly. I went down the slide with DD once, she must have went down 10 times. Pool is pretty small and only got in for a minute. Had dinner one night at PCH grille i had the chicken breast DW and DD had pizza. Chicken was good pizza was not that great we both had cocktails which we loved, and our server was wonderful! We loved the concierge service we were able to eat breakfast have water and snacks for the park. And nice deserts and wine for the evening. The walk to downtown disney or GCH didn’t bother us at all of course the other two hotels are closer but no biggie to us. Overall the room, view, benefits, staff and decor were all up to Disney standards in my opinion.
We did Minnie and Friends character breakfast which was fantastic. The food was really good and the omelet station was awesome. Lots of characters were there, they all spent time at the table with us to take pictures and have some fun. We are really happy we chose M&F we had the best time, plus it’s in the park which i think is pretty special. We would absolutely choose minnie and friends again.
I was trying to go into this by not comparing WDW to DL but for some reason i was..all the time! I was always told how much better WDW is and i guess i just always believed it. This is not the case at all now for my family. The park is beautiful the castle is wonderful and almost all the rides are better. The only thing i believe that WDW has better are the CM’s not to say we didn’t have magical experiences with any, there were two in particular who stood out and made impressions. One bad encounter with a CM and often times when waiting in line about to get on the ride CM’s talking about what’s going on Friday night, one trying to sell his car to another CM. Maybe we just hit a bad streak. Im sure people have had the same feeling towards CM’s at WDW. The rides are so much better than WDW PoTC is AMAZING blows Florida out of the water no question. BTMRR is actually a fun ride at DL. Even IASW a ride which is my least favorite was cool. SM Ghost Galaxy was just too much fun! DW and DD really liked this version. Only Splash in my opinion is not as good as the one in WDW but we still enjoyed it. Lines weren’t too bad for the time of year and days we went, it didn’t feel like the park was crazy packed i guess. All the decorations and carved pumpkins and such got us all in the mood we loved it all. We missed a lot of stuff we wanted to do but I entirely believe that Disneyland is “better”. Attractions, on-site resort locations, history, weather. And much of all this to our surprise.
California Adventure we really liked too loved Soarin’ and CarsLand very much. DD fell in love with Screamin’ and wanted to ride that one a lot. We spent some time in Bugs Land where she rode almost everything there. Before we left for DL dd said she was going to ride everything and i was shocked when she was standing in line with me for ToT!?! She was freaking out a little but she kept saying she wanted to ride it and she did. After the ride.. she said never again lol. Our initial experience with DCA was overwhelmingly packed!! We didn’t buy tickets for the Halloween party so we along with everybody else went to DCA. We didn’t want to ride or see anything in particular we just wanted to see the lights of CL and just walk around. They brought out this tiny pimped out car that had neon lights everywhere and huge speakers and had a dance party right there in the street. The CM’s were gathering kids around and dancing. It was really cool dd was too tired to join but she enjoyed watching. CarsLand really is visually remarkable and RSR might be my favorite ride ever, Mater’s ride was just ok for me but the little one liked it, and none of us had any desire to ride Luigi’s. We also missed a lot in this park too but overall enjoyed the different themes and details.
Living in the eastern time zone we were so dead tired by 8 p.m. and up at 4 a.m. the first few days made it tough for us so we never seen WoC (other than from the room) or any firework show. Missed out on many rides and restaurants treats, etc. But when we got home we missed DL so much we are planning a December trip for 2013. We will bring our niece with us this time too and will try to catch everything we skipped. We cannot wait it is all we think about.
Ashley T
We arrived at LAX and used the DIsneyland Resort Express which was not all that great. It was a greyhound style bus wrapped in disney theme. The seats were nice and comfy and we had lots of room to ourselves. The problems i found were that the driver who wasn’t very disney “like” was playing like soft rock music and the bathroom door which wouldn’t shut banging back and fourth every minute. But we didn’t care much we were on our way to Disneyland! Surprised at how fast we got to our hotel it was about an hour and we were the second stop. Must say that both the driver and the bus were much nicer on the way back to the airport however, and pretty sure i would use this method of transportation again.
The decision was which resort hotel to stay at? On-site was a must and after thinking about it for a few days we decided PPH with theme park view and concierge. DW and I thought it would be really cool to see DCA and WoC form the room. Our second choice would have been DLH for the location overall theme and the headboards. Followed by GCH it’s a beautiful hotel with a sweet lobby and the big doors you go through to enter are really cool.. It’s just not our style i guess. Anyway when we checked in we were upgraded to a one bedroom suite! The hotel is very nice and clean we were very pleased with this hotel. I see that the elevator problem people mention could definitely cause trouble, but we just never had an issue. The room was awesome it had a full couch, t.v. dvd player, and view of DCA, a full bathroom with stand up shower. And in the bedroom two queen beds (i believe) another t.v., dvd player, desk and view of the park. The bedroom also had a full shower with a bathtub. Beds and pillows were comfy we didn’t have any problems sleeping. Spent a few minutes in the room where they show disney cartoons and the beach chairs. Visited the gift shop several times, but didn’t step foot in the arcade. Made it to the roof top pool, DW and i only made it to the hot tub mostly. I went down the slide with DD once, she must have went down 10 times. Pool is pretty small and only got in for a minute. Had dinner one night at PCH grille i had the chicken breast DW and DD had pizza. Chicken was good pizza was not that great we both had cocktails which we loved, and our server was wonderful! We loved the concierge service we were able to eat breakfast have water and snacks for the park. And nice deserts and wine for the evening. The walk to downtown disney or GCH didn’t bother us at all of course the other two hotels are closer but no biggie to us. Overall the room, view, benefits, staff and decor were all up to Disney standards in my opinion.
We did Minnie and Friends character breakfast which was fantastic. The food was really good and the omelet station was awesome. Lots of characters were there, they all spent time at the table with us to take pictures and have some fun. We are really happy we chose M&F we had the best time, plus it’s in the park which i think is pretty special. We would absolutely choose minnie and friends again.
I was trying to go into this by not comparing WDW to DL but for some reason i was..all the time! I was always told how much better WDW is and i guess i just always believed it. This is not the case at all now for my family. The park is beautiful the castle is wonderful and almost all the rides are better. The only thing i believe that WDW has better are the CM’s not to say we didn’t have magical experiences with any, there were two in particular who stood out and made impressions. One bad encounter with a CM and often times when waiting in line about to get on the ride CM’s talking about what’s going on Friday night, one trying to sell his car to another CM. Maybe we just hit a bad streak. Im sure people have had the same feeling towards CM’s at WDW. The rides are so much better than WDW PoTC is AMAZING blows Florida out of the water no question. BTMRR is actually a fun ride at DL. Even IASW a ride which is my least favorite was cool. SM Ghost Galaxy was just too much fun! DW and DD really liked this version. Only Splash in my opinion is not as good as the one in WDW but we still enjoyed it. Lines weren’t too bad for the time of year and days we went, it didn’t feel like the park was crazy packed i guess. All the decorations and carved pumpkins and such got us all in the mood we loved it all. We missed a lot of stuff we wanted to do but I entirely believe that Disneyland is “better”. Attractions, on-site resort locations, history, weather. And much of all this to our surprise.
California Adventure we really liked too loved Soarin’ and CarsLand very much. DD fell in love with Screamin’ and wanted to ride that one a lot. We spent some time in Bugs Land where she rode almost everything there. Before we left for DL dd said she was going to ride everything and i was shocked when she was standing in line with me for ToT!?! She was freaking out a little but she kept saying she wanted to ride it and she did. After the ride.. she said never again lol. Our initial experience with DCA was overwhelmingly packed!! We didn’t buy tickets for the Halloween party so we along with everybody else went to DCA. We didn’t want to ride or see anything in particular we just wanted to see the lights of CL and just walk around. They brought out this tiny pimped out car that had neon lights everywhere and huge speakers and had a dance party right there in the street. The CM’s were gathering kids around and dancing. It was really cool dd was too tired to join but she enjoyed watching. CarsLand really is visually remarkable and RSR might be my favorite ride ever, Mater’s ride was just ok for me but the little one liked it, and none of us had any desire to ride Luigi’s. We also missed a lot in this park too but overall enjoyed the different themes and details.
Living in the eastern time zone we were so dead tired by 8 p.m. and up at 4 a.m. the first few days made it tough for us so we never seen WoC (other than from the room) or any firework show. Missed out on many rides and restaurants treats, etc. But when we got home we missed DL so much we are planning a December trip for 2013. We will bring our niece with us this time too and will try to catch everything we skipped. We cannot wait it is all we think about.
Ashley T
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