mydisneyobsession
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 19, 2010
- Messages
- 618
Thanks so much to all of the posters on the Disneyland section of the Disboards!
We just completed our first trip to Disneyland in many years, after many more recent trips to Disney World, and the advice we got here was wonderful!
We stayed at the Annabella Resort, as we were there officially for a convention for my husband. We found this to be a really great hotel in an excellent location. As I had read here on these boards, the walk is mostly on Disney property and is pretty especially at night with the lights on the trees. We walked up Disneyland drive and cut through the Grand Californian to Downtown Disney to go back and forth to the parks. The only night I felt like the walk was long was the night we stayed late for fireworks and Fantasmic, but I was already tired before we got out of the parks. My kids were always fine in the morning, but usually crowded on to our Joovy Caboose for the walk back.
We arrived on Thursday and managed to get quite a bit done before the rain started. We toured the parks WDW style (touring plans, meals planned in advance, etc.), and were not too troubled by the wet weather, with the exception of show cancellations. Crowds were never an issue, even on the nice weather days and the Holiday weekend, although I had worried about that beforehand. We never waited more than 15 minutes for a ride or attraction. We used a combination of touring plans, Fastpasses and the Mousewait app.
We ordered WOC picnics for the Friday show (2/18.) The food was decent, but the weather was not. We managed to get the spot by the fire hydrant in the blue section about a half hour before showtime, and waited in the rain. The wind picked up a few minutes before showtime, and the show was delayed. They eventually started the
Show, but stopped it a few minutes in.
The next night we had scheduled the Fantasmic Dessert package, and that show and the fireworks were cancelled due to weather. We ended up seeing all three shows when the weather improved toward the end of our trip, but didnt see them from ideal locations.
We attended four character meals while we there. The order of our preference is as follows:
1) Minnie and Friends at the Plaza Inn: This was the best character interaction weve experienced at any character meal at any Disney Park. So many characters, and they really spent a lot of time with our kids and interacting with each other.
2) Surfs Up at the PCH Grill: This was my 8 year olds favorite character meal. We came at the very end of breakfast and were almost the last people seated, so we had a lot of interaction with the characters. Minnie Mouse and Stitch were so much fun here, but the other characters were a little lackluster. The variety of food was not good, but that could also be a result of the late seating.
3) Goofys Kitchen: Pretty good food, and I liked that the characters had their names on their aprons. We didnt like the fact that we were tucked away by ourselves behind a partition. The character interaction felt awkward and rushed, and I missed seeing the activity of the characters moving around the restaurant.
4) Storytellers at the Grand Californian: The food was good, but we didnt recognize most of the characters and they didnt spend much time with us. The best feature of this breakfast was being able to use the special park entrance by showing our receipt. They were handing out WOC fastpasses at this entrance the morning we went, and thats how we got our second chance at seeing WOC.
Our overall consensus is that the rides that are at both Disneyland and Disney World are better at Disneyland. The things I missed most were all the non-park diversions that are available at WDW. (diverse resort theming, resort activities, etc) and the Magical Express.
I have millions more observations, but I'll stop here. Please let me know if you have any questions!
We just completed our first trip to Disneyland in many years, after many more recent trips to Disney World, and the advice we got here was wonderful!
We stayed at the Annabella Resort, as we were there officially for a convention for my husband. We found this to be a really great hotel in an excellent location. As I had read here on these boards, the walk is mostly on Disney property and is pretty especially at night with the lights on the trees. We walked up Disneyland drive and cut through the Grand Californian to Downtown Disney to go back and forth to the parks. The only night I felt like the walk was long was the night we stayed late for fireworks and Fantasmic, but I was already tired before we got out of the parks. My kids were always fine in the morning, but usually crowded on to our Joovy Caboose for the walk back.
We arrived on Thursday and managed to get quite a bit done before the rain started. We toured the parks WDW style (touring plans, meals planned in advance, etc.), and were not too troubled by the wet weather, with the exception of show cancellations. Crowds were never an issue, even on the nice weather days and the Holiday weekend, although I had worried about that beforehand. We never waited more than 15 minutes for a ride or attraction. We used a combination of touring plans, Fastpasses and the Mousewait app.
We ordered WOC picnics for the Friday show (2/18.) The food was decent, but the weather was not. We managed to get the spot by the fire hydrant in the blue section about a half hour before showtime, and waited in the rain. The wind picked up a few minutes before showtime, and the show was delayed. They eventually started the
Show, but stopped it a few minutes in.
The next night we had scheduled the Fantasmic Dessert package, and that show and the fireworks were cancelled due to weather. We ended up seeing all three shows when the weather improved toward the end of our trip, but didnt see them from ideal locations.
We attended four character meals while we there. The order of our preference is as follows:
1) Minnie and Friends at the Plaza Inn: This was the best character interaction weve experienced at any character meal at any Disney Park. So many characters, and they really spent a lot of time with our kids and interacting with each other.
2) Surfs Up at the PCH Grill: This was my 8 year olds favorite character meal. We came at the very end of breakfast and were almost the last people seated, so we had a lot of interaction with the characters. Minnie Mouse and Stitch were so much fun here, but the other characters were a little lackluster. The variety of food was not good, but that could also be a result of the late seating.
3) Goofys Kitchen: Pretty good food, and I liked that the characters had their names on their aprons. We didnt like the fact that we were tucked away by ourselves behind a partition. The character interaction felt awkward and rushed, and I missed seeing the activity of the characters moving around the restaurant.
4) Storytellers at the Grand Californian: The food was good, but we didnt recognize most of the characters and they didnt spend much time with us. The best feature of this breakfast was being able to use the special park entrance by showing our receipt. They were handing out WOC fastpasses at this entrance the morning we went, and thats how we got our second chance at seeing WOC.
Our overall consensus is that the rides that are at both Disneyland and Disney World are better at Disneyland. The things I missed most were all the non-park diversions that are available at WDW. (diverse resort theming, resort activities, etc) and the Magical Express.
I have millions more observations, but I'll stop here. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Minnie's too!
