bjscheel
(Avatar art by my daughter)
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2005
- Messages
- 5,433
I will share our experience from last week in case it is helpful to anyone.
We spent 3 days in Disneyland and stayed at the Park Vue Inn. We liked it. We had them hold our bags Wednesday morning and schedule us a cab for 11:30 am. Meanwhile we went to Downtown Disney. The taxi took us to the Anaheim Amtrak station, arriving about 11:45. I planned on getting there early so we would be able to check our bags for the 1:08 train. Well there was also an 11:53 train on the way and the lady suggested we take it and carry on our bags. Then the baggage guy showed up and they said they could get our bags checked onto the 11:53. So we got right on!
The ride was nice. We ate lunch on the train. We picked up our baggage and called our hotel, The Dana. They said it would be about 20 minutes. After 15 minutes we walked through the door to Kettner Blvd and our driver was there. It was $20 for our family of four and it is added to your hotel bill.
At the Dana, we had a bay view room in the new part of the hotel. My family was duly impressed by our nice room! We had two queens and a pull out couch which we left as a couch. I had asked for a second floor so we would have a balcony, but we had first floor with a patio. I was happy about this as our room was so easy to get to and the patio was just as good as a balcony. The bathroom floor and shower had slate tile which I love. The grounds are lovely and so is the pool area and fancy restaurant near our room.
That afternoon/evening we just enjoyed the pool, hot tub, patio, and TV. Disneyland had been exhausting! We ate supper at The Blue Pearl, the family restaurant onsite. It is along the lines of a Country Kitchen or Perkins. That night it was really empty and DH and the waiter weren't quite following each other with DH's questions and it just felt weird. But we ate since we didn't have a lot of options being without a car.
The next morning DH didn't want to eat breakfast there, so we set out to walk to Mission Beach. You just go over the bridge and head straight there. We got breakfast at Subway which is right on the same street and headed to the beach. It was chilly out and I knew the water would be cold, so we just had our shorts on and planned on wading a little. Well the kids got a little wet, then a lot wet and decided to change into their suits. They spent a long time playing in the waves. I tried to spread out their wet clothes, but with overcast skies and 60's, it didn't do anything. I had planned on renting bikes there at the beach, but the kids' clothes were soaked, so we walked back to the hotel to change.
We then rented bikes at the marina right there at the Dana. I thought about 2 tandems, but they only had one. This worked out great though. DH took the lead, the kids were on the tandem, and I followed so I knew we were all still together. Plus, the back seat of the tandem was already adjusted all the way down which fit DD11 better. We rode over the bridge and along a trail west of the beach houses, then back and along the boardwalk. It was fantastic. We went to the end of the trail on the south end of Mission Beach and walked out a ways on that strip of huge rocks. That was a bit difficult, but nobody fell or lost a shoe! We even saw a sea lion in the water.
On the way back we picked up Subway for supper and put it in our fridge in our room for later. I did laundry this night. The dryer didn't dry the clothes at all, so I put them in a different one, then told the lobby about it and got a refund. DD11 and I also played ping pong by the pool during this time.
The next morning we planned to take the hotel shuttle to Sea World, so we decided to eat breakfast at the Blue Pearl. DD14 really wanted the Nutella waffle. This time it had more people and it didn't feel weird at all. Breakfast was very good. We then went straight to the shuttle stop. It came early and took a full load of us over so it could go back to pick up people at the scheduled time too. There were two shuttle times in the morning and three to come back in the afternoon/evening. We were at SW for opening and went straight to the Manta for 2 rides. Watched One Ocean, Pets Rule, and Sea Lions Live, along with other rides and activities. We took the 5:45 shuttle back. It is walkable, but it is a lot of parking lot to walk through and it was nice to take the comfy bus.
I had thought of trying Firefly that night, but after the $$$ we spent on the Sea World lunch, and knowing we're generally too picky for fancy restaurants, we opted for the Blue Pearl again. We'd heard the ribs were good. We weren't too hungry, so DH and I split a half rack. I ate the salad and he had the mashed potatoes. The half rack was huge! Great for sharing and tasty. There is also a sandwich shop at the marina which would have been another option. I don't know their hours, but it appeared to be closed when we walked by at 8pm.
We only walked past the other pool on the older side, but it looked nice. On Friday and Saturday nights they were playing movies on a big screen. We used the hot tub on our side every night and took advantage of the 2 bathrobes provided in our closet for the chilly trips back to the room! The sun never did shine on us. It was nice to not worry so much about heat and sunburn, but 70's rather than 60's would have been better!
That night I printed our boarding passes in the lobby. The next morning our flight was at 9:15 and I didn't want to wait for the hotel van that started at 8:00, so we went to the lobby with our bags and asked them to get us a taxi. It was there in 5 minutes or less.
They are currently charging $9/night for the Sea World shuttle, boarding pass printing, and other services, but you get a coupon book too. We booked and paid before the fee started, so we didn't have to pay that, but we got the coupon book. We used three at the Blue Pearl, saving about $20 in all, and one at the marina, getting us an extra half hour on the bikes. There were more, for the Firefly and other things too.
I know we only saw a sliver of San Diego, but we only had a couple of days, and it was good to mostly relax after the rush of Disneyland. We had also considered renting paddle boats at the marina, or going across the street for a whale watching tour, but didn't end up with time.
We spent 3 days in Disneyland and stayed at the Park Vue Inn. We liked it. We had them hold our bags Wednesday morning and schedule us a cab for 11:30 am. Meanwhile we went to Downtown Disney. The taxi took us to the Anaheim Amtrak station, arriving about 11:45. I planned on getting there early so we would be able to check our bags for the 1:08 train. Well there was also an 11:53 train on the way and the lady suggested we take it and carry on our bags. Then the baggage guy showed up and they said they could get our bags checked onto the 11:53. So we got right on!
The ride was nice. We ate lunch on the train. We picked up our baggage and called our hotel, The Dana. They said it would be about 20 minutes. After 15 minutes we walked through the door to Kettner Blvd and our driver was there. It was $20 for our family of four and it is added to your hotel bill.
At the Dana, we had a bay view room in the new part of the hotel. My family was duly impressed by our nice room! We had two queens and a pull out couch which we left as a couch. I had asked for a second floor so we would have a balcony, but we had first floor with a patio. I was happy about this as our room was so easy to get to and the patio was just as good as a balcony. The bathroom floor and shower had slate tile which I love. The grounds are lovely and so is the pool area and fancy restaurant near our room.
That afternoon/evening we just enjoyed the pool, hot tub, patio, and TV. Disneyland had been exhausting! We ate supper at The Blue Pearl, the family restaurant onsite. It is along the lines of a Country Kitchen or Perkins. That night it was really empty and DH and the waiter weren't quite following each other with DH's questions and it just felt weird. But we ate since we didn't have a lot of options being without a car.
The next morning DH didn't want to eat breakfast there, so we set out to walk to Mission Beach. You just go over the bridge and head straight there. We got breakfast at Subway which is right on the same street and headed to the beach. It was chilly out and I knew the water would be cold, so we just had our shorts on and planned on wading a little. Well the kids got a little wet, then a lot wet and decided to change into their suits. They spent a long time playing in the waves. I tried to spread out their wet clothes, but with overcast skies and 60's, it didn't do anything. I had planned on renting bikes there at the beach, but the kids' clothes were soaked, so we walked back to the hotel to change.
We then rented bikes at the marina right there at the Dana. I thought about 2 tandems, but they only had one. This worked out great though. DH took the lead, the kids were on the tandem, and I followed so I knew we were all still together. Plus, the back seat of the tandem was already adjusted all the way down which fit DD11 better. We rode over the bridge and along a trail west of the beach houses, then back and along the boardwalk. It was fantastic. We went to the end of the trail on the south end of Mission Beach and walked out a ways on that strip of huge rocks. That was a bit difficult, but nobody fell or lost a shoe! We even saw a sea lion in the water.
On the way back we picked up Subway for supper and put it in our fridge in our room for later. I did laundry this night. The dryer didn't dry the clothes at all, so I put them in a different one, then told the lobby about it and got a refund. DD11 and I also played ping pong by the pool during this time.
The next morning we planned to take the hotel shuttle to Sea World, so we decided to eat breakfast at the Blue Pearl. DD14 really wanted the Nutella waffle. This time it had more people and it didn't feel weird at all. Breakfast was very good. We then went straight to the shuttle stop. It came early and took a full load of us over so it could go back to pick up people at the scheduled time too. There were two shuttle times in the morning and three to come back in the afternoon/evening. We were at SW for opening and went straight to the Manta for 2 rides. Watched One Ocean, Pets Rule, and Sea Lions Live, along with other rides and activities. We took the 5:45 shuttle back. It is walkable, but it is a lot of parking lot to walk through and it was nice to take the comfy bus.
I had thought of trying Firefly that night, but after the $$$ we spent on the Sea World lunch, and knowing we're generally too picky for fancy restaurants, we opted for the Blue Pearl again. We'd heard the ribs were good. We weren't too hungry, so DH and I split a half rack. I ate the salad and he had the mashed potatoes. The half rack was huge! Great for sharing and tasty. There is also a sandwich shop at the marina which would have been another option. I don't know their hours, but it appeared to be closed when we walked by at 8pm.
We only walked past the other pool on the older side, but it looked nice. On Friday and Saturday nights they were playing movies on a big screen. We used the hot tub on our side every night and took advantage of the 2 bathrobes provided in our closet for the chilly trips back to the room! The sun never did shine on us. It was nice to not worry so much about heat and sunburn, but 70's rather than 60's would have been better!
That night I printed our boarding passes in the lobby. The next morning our flight was at 9:15 and I didn't want to wait for the hotel van that started at 8:00, so we went to the lobby with our bags and asked them to get us a taxi. It was there in 5 minutes or less.
They are currently charging $9/night for the Sea World shuttle, boarding pass printing, and other services, but you get a coupon book too. We booked and paid before the fee started, so we didn't have to pay that, but we got the coupon book. We used three at the Blue Pearl, saving about $20 in all, and one at the marina, getting us an extra half hour on the bikes. There were more, for the Firefly and other things too.
I know we only saw a sliver of San Diego, but we only had a couple of days, and it was good to mostly relax after the rush of Disneyland. We had also considered renting paddle boats at the marina, or going across the street for a whale watching tour, but didn't end up with time.
