Paradise Pier w/ Concierge

[Hound 109]

DECIDED TO CHANGE THE "K MART" TITLE BECAUSE IT WAS FUNNY AT THE TIME, I GOT TIRED OF LOOKING AT IT.

Only those who own cement ponds and drink tea with their pinky extended out would be interested.

Since I've booked our room at Paradise Pier with "Concierge" priviledges, (& 2 days ago i didn't even know how to spell it), now i need to (in my mind) justify the extra $100 - $125 per night that i'm spending.

What all do i get? What do i do? How do I "work this"?

I know we get some food, but how much & how often?

Can i get special seating for anything? (Aladdin? - Restaurants?)

Special rooms? Pool or Spa Priviledges?

Can we eat at 7 am, 11 am, 2pm, 5pm & 10pm ? (My 8 y/o son is a tapeworm and eats all the time )

If we don't check in till 4pm, can we grab lunch there when we arrive at 11am & head to the park?

Just curious what to expect.

Thanks guys.

 

[MATTERHORN]

It is really just snacks and light fare, not really meals. IMHO, you cannot justify it because I have tried and I never can, even with three kids waiting it!! There is NO WAY I spend even close to $125 a day on snacks and drinks, it would never even come close! So I'd rather bring bottled water ($4.99 for 24 bottles) and have my snacks in the park!!

Andrea

 

[MATTERHORN]

Oh, and you can use guest services to plan things for you, but so can everyone else staying there, not just concierge so in my mind, that's not really a benefit! You'll use the same pool as everyone else and there is no spa at Paradise Pier. It is a lovely hotel though!

Also don't let me rain on your parade, if you want it, go for it. I was just answering your question about justifying it and you can't. Especially because I saw you listed all those times to eat, are you planning on being in your room all day long to take advantage of that? Because it's a LONG walk back just to pick up a bottled water or a light snack when you could just grab one in the parks for much less then $100 a day!

Andrea

 

[hlbtimes2]

YOu can eat breakfast at 7. It will be fruit, cereal, pastries, bagels, etc.

At 11 you would likely find smucker "uncrustable" sandwiches, fruit, chips and cookies. Probably not worth walking back to the hotel for. HOwever, if you already find yourself at the hotel at that time, pick up a snack.

2pm- see above.

5 is a bit early for the evening offerings. IIRC, its closer to 6 or after for the evening snacks/ drinks. They have an hour or two that they offer beer, wine, cheese, crackers, fruit, some sweets, and one hot apptz.

10- sorry, I believe its closed by that time. However, the first night they will leave chocolate dipped, mickey shaped, rice crispy treats in your room.

They will help you getting PS for any meals you might want. But, they can't really help with special seating for any shows. AS for other thigns you get for the price: express check in. They will take you to the conc. lounge where you can snack while they check you in. You may take two drinks, per person, with you each tme you leave the lounge. I recomend you take some each tme you are in there. Some for your room and some to take to the park. They have disney dvd's and dvd player you can use. We never did take advantage of that. The slide at the pool has sort of lmited hours. I recomend you check the schedule and plan a time where you can grab a snack and use the pool. We always managed to miss both!

 

[lisadoll93]

How many of you are going? dh, me, dd 5, ds 3 1/2, dd 2 went last weekend. We love it. We checked in about noon, our room was not ready, so we hung out in the lounge and had a few snacks. They did upgrade us to theme park view. I called vacation planning and they had signed pics for the kids waiting at the lounge for them.

Breakfast 7-10- juice, cereal, fruit, baked goods
Snack- cookies, chips, fruit
Dinner 5-7- beer, wine, pb&j, assorted cheeses and crackers, warm finger food

For us, it was worth it. We would each grab 2 drinks everytime we left. We probably spent $50 on food the whole 3 days that we were there. We still have some drinks in our fridge right now.

let me know if you need more info.

 

[JenDisneylandlver]

It is really just snacks and light fare, not really meals. IMHO, you cannot justify it because I have tried and I never can, even with three kids waiting it!! There is NO WAY I spend even close to $125 a day on snacks and drinks, it would never even come close! So I'd rather bring bottled water ($4.99 for 24 bottles) and have my snacks in the park!!

Andrea

Gotta agree. We've thought about doing it a few times, but just could never justify the money for it. Really never seemed worth it. I can't even spend that much on food, snacks, drinks ect.. in one day!

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Hound, what if I am somewhere inbetween K-Mart Shopper and a pinky tea drinker? Should I read and not directly respond to the question as I am doing now?

BTW how was the Polo match this afternoon?

 

[Hound 109]

Thanks for all the great information on PP & on Concierge bennies. I hope everyone knows i was just having fun. I'm sure this will be our one shot at Concierge, but since we were only going for 2 nights & I wanted to ensure getting EE both days & wanted to stay onsite, it just kind of worked out this way.

I'm sure on our next visit we'll be schlepping over from across the street staying at the Hojos or the Fairfield.

Great to know the times that "stuff" is available & what items might be available, & I thank everyone for this info.

AZMickey - They wouldn't let us in to the Polo match....& we had washed our cut offs & cleaned up our flip flops & everything!!!

Had a great time at the "Truck Pull" & "Watermelon Seed Spitting" contest, though.

hound

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Thanks for all the great information on PP & on Concierge bennies. I hope everyone knows i was just having fun. I'm sure this will be our one shot at Concierge, but since we were only going for 2 nights & I wanted to ensure getting EE both days & wanted to stay onsite, it just kind of worked out this way.

I'm sure on our next visit we'll be schlepping over from across the street staying at the Hojos or the Fairfield.

Great to know the times that "stuff" is available & what items might be available, & I thank everyone for this info.

AZMickey - They wouldn't let us in to the Polo match....& we had washed our cut offs & cleaned up our flip flops & everything!!!

Had a great time at the "Truck Pull" & "Watermelon Seed Spitting" contest, though.

hound

Of course we knew you were having fun! You crack me up.
Glad the Truck pull and Watermelon Seed Spitting was fun. Did you win any stuffed goats or anything cool like that?

you are gonna have an awesome time! Maybe you could sneak us a water or two for the less fortunate across the street.

I've been reduced to begging concierge level style!

 

[noryglory]

We did concierge at DLH a couple years ago. It's pretty obvious from what everyone is saying that you can't possibly eat and drink that much money's worth each day. However, we feel like TIME at Disneyland is MONEY at Disneyland. There are only so many hours you have to spend at the parks.

The first night we checked in there was literally an hour long line at the DLH to get in. We waltzed right up to the front of the line (and had holes bored into our backs by the dirty looks from exasperated families with kids) and I swear, we were checked in and on our way to the park before the family at the end of the line got checked in. Value to me? At least $50.

We enjoyed the fact that we could show up, eat breakfast whenever we wanted without having to wait for a table, waitress, etc., pack a bunch of fruit and drinks in our backpack, and head to the parks. Lots of time saved. Value in addition to the food we ate? Priceless.

When we were back at the hotel in the afternoon, to swim/nap/etc. we'd go in and get chips, the PBJs mentioned, sodas and water. Mostly for fun.

We pretty much missed the hot appies and alcoholic beverages each night, those were peak hours for us to be at the parks, but if you were there it would certainly be fun to enjoy. They have cookies 'n milk in the lounge later on, we mostly missed those too. Someone else posted they leave you candies each night, a box of cookies on your first night, etc. There are other small touches.

It would be fantastic if the lounge's hours were to be open later, but oh well. When they don't have it "open" with a certain spread of food during the daytime hours it is still available with your room key so you can get more cold drinks and whatever bagged snacks they do have out.

Everyone travels differently and some people would say they could pack all that stuff in themselves (including breakfast items) for a LOT less money, but sometimes if you can afford it, it's just easier to go with letting someone else do all the work and just enjoy the trip. Again, it's about affording it, not necessarily getting items to equal their value in the real world. Real world it's not, and the prices are there to match. It's definitely something they like to promote as a "luxury" item so of course not everyone can afford it. We would have liked to try the GC hotel but its concierge level was WAY more than we wanted to spend, so we decided we'd go top-of-the-line where we could and enjoy it. We did!

Good luck and have fun!!

 

[darph nader]

Sorry,can't help you. My "I'd rather have bottle in front of me,than a frontal lobotomy" clad beer keeps getting in the way. Excuse me while I clean out my bug zapper.

 

[ariel53098]

What kind of drinks do they offer?
Rachel

 

[Hound 109]

What kind of drinks do they offer?
Rachel

BREAKFAST (like a nice Hampton Inn type food spread) - Reg. Coffee & Decaf, Fruit Juices, Milks & Water Bottles & Soft Drinks. (started at 6:30 for us, but EE opening was at 8am...maybe earlier with a 7am EE opening).

No "LUNCH" - But available ALL day - Water Bottles & Soft Drinks (& i think coffee). with snacks.

at 5pm they bring out an appetizer item or two. (Egg Rolls & Dumplings one day & Terrayaki Chicken the second - possibly from the restaurant downstairs?) Along with the above beverages, adults could have beer or wine between 5 & 7pm.

Our family of 3 took 10-12 water bottles & 6-8 soft drink cans per day (along with consuming milk, coffee, wine & OJ etc. there when we grazed at meal times)

Have fun.

 

[Hofmanns4]

We walked into the GC lobby on a Sunday at around 11am. The line was all the way back to the Christmas Tree! I about fainted as we already had been in the car for 6 hours and the last thing I wanted to do was wait in the huge line. Then I remembered something about express check-in with concierge, so I asked a CM where to go for concierege check-in. He asked my name and escorted us right up to a window and introduced us to the CM, bypassing the enormous line. ...Priceless!

 

[diznynut]

They have coke products, apple juice boxes, and water. The last time we were there they had PB&J uncrustables in the afternoon in the fridge. We would also take drinks and snacks back to the room so that they were there after we left the park for the day.