I promised myself I'd do this right when I got back because I had such a hard time finding trip reports from people like me--those of us who don't really want to plan things out, who don't have countdowns or trip plans or anything like that. Sometimes comments and tips and hints get so granular that it's hard to relate to them.
Ok, so here's the background: my wife and I, and two kids, boys 4 & 6. Stayed at the grand californian, november 3-9th. Got your normal "send emails to travel agents and get quotes" package, which included character dining.
So here we go:
1. Grand Californian: great hotel, and if you're waffling because you can't decide which is "closer," don't. The Californian is 100% closer than the other disney hotels, no matter what maps of # of steps say between the farthest room at GC and the closest tower at DLH. It was a complete breeze to get in and out, any time of day, and the convenience of going back to the room to let the kids rest, then walking out and grabbing a fastpass for the grizzly river run or whatever it's called can't be beat.
HOWEVER, don't even attempt using the GC entrance at the beginning of the day. there are two bag checks and people line up like crazy. Go out into DTD by the frozen boutique and use the main gates into Disney or CA. Any other time of day, use the GC entrance.
With little kids who needed a nap on full-on disney days, being this close was priceless.
And here's my real bellewhether: At the end of the day, I could get two exhausted boys to the room in GC with not too much trouble.
When we did our character dining at Goofy's for dinner, it was an excruciating experience to herd them all the way through DTD to the Disneyland hotel.
Also, Pinocchio's Workshop is awesome. the kids loved it.
2. Character Dining: All I can speak to is our experience at Goofy's for dinner: I believe we could've skipped this completely and no one would have missed it.
You check in, they take you for a picture with Goofy, take you to a table and it's on. The food sucked, the characters did a perfunctory "walk through and stop at every table" every once in a while, when we checked in, Goofy was on a break at the front, so they had us sit and wait to take the picture. They completely forgot about us.
Then the photo guys completely forgot us again when they walked through to try and sell you your picture, so we had to chase them down.
And I just gotta say: the character interaction was zzzzz......
The only way I'd recommend this is if you Must Have Pictures With Characters, because it'll save you a bunch of time in lines in the park. Otherwise, skip it.
3. California Adventure: This park is stunning from stem to stern. Absolutely everything about it is amazing. After spending full days in each, my wife and I looked at each other and thought "wow, I really prefer CA." It's laid out to handle crowds better, the dispersal of "E ticket rides" is much better, the cast members there seem happier, and the food, as a whole, is much better. More on that later.
As for rides, don't stress about Radiator Springs Racers. Go when you can and grab your fastpass and don't even bother with the standby line. It's worth doing every day. The ride to get your butt early to and use your "early hour" for is Toy Story Midway Mania. That ride gets busy FAST.
4. Disneyland: I'm so conflicted about Disneyland. On one hand, it's so neat to see the tradition and the rides that have literally been there for 50 years.. on the other hand, the layout of the park is atrocious. When you turn to go to Tomorrowland (which we had to do daily, with two star wars fans), the choke point between Star Tours on your right and Buzz Lightyear on your left is enough to make you want to leave.
Fantasyland is a zoo. Anytime, morning, night.. always. For those of you without the experience of crowds at disneyland and are wondering, picture a busy day at the mall. Now triple the crowd size in the same space. It's insane and overwhelming. All the classic dark ride things are here, and half the time, when you get off the ride, the only thing that keeps you going is that the kids loved it... I found myself going "good lord, people wait a half hour for that?" most of the time. And the problem is, you have to go through here to get to some of the best stuff, like toontown.
I cannot say enough fantastic things about toontown for littler kids. The surprises are everywhere, and my boys got to meet characters by literally walking around a corner and bumping into them. Most of the time, you can just let your kids roam and the thought and care that's gone into creating a whole world is on par with cars land. But skip the Roger Rabbit ride unless the line is like 5 minutes. It's absolutely not worth the wait.
On the left hand side when you walk in are adventureland and frontierland, which are both absolute joys in a lot of ways. They're not jam packed, there's fun stuff to explore, and it's awesome. However, the next land, going around, New Orleans Square, is a different story.
It's a choke point like the one in Tomorrowland is, and it's enough to make you want to gouge your eyeballs out. you've got the rivers of america on your right, the restaurants and stuff on your left and all you want to to is GET TO HAUNTED MANSION OR SPLASH MOUNTAIN AND WHY DO THESE PEOPLE IN ECVs AND STROLLERS KEEP STOPPING EVERY FIVE SECONDS AND ARRGH!
Once you get through there, critter country is pretty awesome, frankly.
In case you couldn't tell, I have some real angst about Disneyland. I loved it, but I honestly thought it fell down in a lot of ways, relying on cast members to stand around directing people rather than just making the hard decision to raze some attractions and make it a more "people-friendly" park.
5. Food. When we go back, I'm not going to kid myself into thinking that I'm going to get great food anywhere. Here's what I remember: Blue Bayou: it was fine. Nothing great. Plaza Inn I was totally looking forward to, and it wasn't that awesome. Ariel's Grotto for dinner was a disappointment. Taste pilots was *really* meh. The real standouts here are things like the corn dog trucks (the one in CA is better, sorry, y'all) and everything in Cars Land. We actually sought Flo's out for lunch twice when we were over in Disneyland because it's that good.
6. Evening attraction things: So we got the WOC package (ariel's grotto) and the Fantasmic dessert package. In a nutshell, WOC dinner is a waste, Fantasmic dessert is essential.
Let me go on record as saying I don't get WOC. I was looking forward to it, we could see it from our room. However, the experience was just not enjoyable. The "Reserved section" is no better than anything else, and frankly, I think we'd have seen everything just as well from the other side of the street. And to be honest, I'd rather skip that show and not look at all those pipes sticking out of the water the whole time at CA. But the kids loved it, so whatever.
Fantasmic, OTOH, was great. If a show like that can be described as "intimate," that's the right word. Get the dessert package; don't even consider not doing it.
And this is an example of where I think disneyland falls down, and that's crowd management on the planning side: the idea that people are disrupting the normal flow of the park for HOURS before fantasmic starts by spreading out BLANKETS is atrocious. I'm completely mystified as to why disneyland allows it. From 4:00 on, fully half the available space to walk was taken up by people camping out for a 20 minute show that they've seen before, and it completely screws up the flow of the park.
Finally, I don't want this to sound negative. Let me be extremely clear: we loved the experience. I just didn't talk about how we rode star tours a billion times, how the boys both got picked to be padawans, the joy of seeing our 4 yo love the biggest roller coasters just as much as the simplest dark rides, shutting the park down at 12:30 AM with my oldest... I didn't go through that because what Disney does very well with each of these parks is creating the space in which that magic can occur. When you go, you'll figure out really quickly that the smart thing to do is yank a fastpass for X ride (space mountain, splash mountain, etc) and then find a ride close by to ride while you wait. That kind of story writes itself.
What I really want to impress upon people who havent been is this: we were there at a slow time, and HOLY CRAP the mass of humanity at Disneyland (not so much CA) is a lot to take in, and i don't know how it's possible to be ready for it.
A few last tips:
1. do the silhouettes in Disneyland. 9 bucks a person and it's a crazy good souvenir.
2. If you're staying in a disney hotel, use the "deliver stuff to your hotel" service. It's worth it. Heck, the boys even won stuff in games at Paradise Pier and they delivered that stuff to the hotel. It makes everything so much easier not lugging stuff around.
3. Try not to overplan. We saw way too many people rushing from ride to ride with no time to enjoy what was right in front of them. I really can't imagine the situation in which things are so tight and hectic that people are passing tickets through gates to go get fastpasses and then getting three rides in before you run over to hit that fastpass window.
4. Give cast members the opportunity to show you what they can do. After a few days, we thought, "you know, a fastpass would be awesome as a souvenir." it wouldve been easy to just say "meh. we have to give it to them," but my wife asked each time "can we keep one for a scrapbook?" with one exception, they said yes every single time. If we hadn't just asked, it never would've happened.
Ok, that's it.
Ok, so here's the background: my wife and I, and two kids, boys 4 & 6. Stayed at the grand californian, november 3-9th. Got your normal "send emails to travel agents and get quotes" package, which included character dining.
So here we go:
1. Grand Californian: great hotel, and if you're waffling because you can't decide which is "closer," don't. The Californian is 100% closer than the other disney hotels, no matter what maps of # of steps say between the farthest room at GC and the closest tower at DLH. It was a complete breeze to get in and out, any time of day, and the convenience of going back to the room to let the kids rest, then walking out and grabbing a fastpass for the grizzly river run or whatever it's called can't be beat.
HOWEVER, don't even attempt using the GC entrance at the beginning of the day. there are two bag checks and people line up like crazy. Go out into DTD by the frozen boutique and use the main gates into Disney or CA. Any other time of day, use the GC entrance.
With little kids who needed a nap on full-on disney days, being this close was priceless.
And here's my real bellewhether: At the end of the day, I could get two exhausted boys to the room in GC with not too much trouble.
When we did our character dining at Goofy's for dinner, it was an excruciating experience to herd them all the way through DTD to the Disneyland hotel.
Also, Pinocchio's Workshop is awesome. the kids loved it.
2. Character Dining: All I can speak to is our experience at Goofy's for dinner: I believe we could've skipped this completely and no one would have missed it.
You check in, they take you for a picture with Goofy, take you to a table and it's on. The food sucked, the characters did a perfunctory "walk through and stop at every table" every once in a while, when we checked in, Goofy was on a break at the front, so they had us sit and wait to take the picture. They completely forgot about us.
Then the photo guys completely forgot us again when they walked through to try and sell you your picture, so we had to chase them down.
And I just gotta say: the character interaction was zzzzz......
The only way I'd recommend this is if you Must Have Pictures With Characters, because it'll save you a bunch of time in lines in the park. Otherwise, skip it.
3. California Adventure: This park is stunning from stem to stern. Absolutely everything about it is amazing. After spending full days in each, my wife and I looked at each other and thought "wow, I really prefer CA." It's laid out to handle crowds better, the dispersal of "E ticket rides" is much better, the cast members there seem happier, and the food, as a whole, is much better. More on that later.
As for rides, don't stress about Radiator Springs Racers. Go when you can and grab your fastpass and don't even bother with the standby line. It's worth doing every day. The ride to get your butt early to and use your "early hour" for is Toy Story Midway Mania. That ride gets busy FAST.
4. Disneyland: I'm so conflicted about Disneyland. On one hand, it's so neat to see the tradition and the rides that have literally been there for 50 years.. on the other hand, the layout of the park is atrocious. When you turn to go to Tomorrowland (which we had to do daily, with two star wars fans), the choke point between Star Tours on your right and Buzz Lightyear on your left is enough to make you want to leave.
Fantasyland is a zoo. Anytime, morning, night.. always. For those of you without the experience of crowds at disneyland and are wondering, picture a busy day at the mall. Now triple the crowd size in the same space. It's insane and overwhelming. All the classic dark ride things are here, and half the time, when you get off the ride, the only thing that keeps you going is that the kids loved it... I found myself going "good lord, people wait a half hour for that?" most of the time. And the problem is, you have to go through here to get to some of the best stuff, like toontown.
I cannot say enough fantastic things about toontown for littler kids. The surprises are everywhere, and my boys got to meet characters by literally walking around a corner and bumping into them. Most of the time, you can just let your kids roam and the thought and care that's gone into creating a whole world is on par with cars land. But skip the Roger Rabbit ride unless the line is like 5 minutes. It's absolutely not worth the wait.
On the left hand side when you walk in are adventureland and frontierland, which are both absolute joys in a lot of ways. They're not jam packed, there's fun stuff to explore, and it's awesome. However, the next land, going around, New Orleans Square, is a different story.
It's a choke point like the one in Tomorrowland is, and it's enough to make you want to gouge your eyeballs out. you've got the rivers of america on your right, the restaurants and stuff on your left and all you want to to is GET TO HAUNTED MANSION OR SPLASH MOUNTAIN AND WHY DO THESE PEOPLE IN ECVs AND STROLLERS KEEP STOPPING EVERY FIVE SECONDS AND ARRGH!
Once you get through there, critter country is pretty awesome, frankly.
In case you couldn't tell, I have some real angst about Disneyland. I loved it, but I honestly thought it fell down in a lot of ways, relying on cast members to stand around directing people rather than just making the hard decision to raze some attractions and make it a more "people-friendly" park.
5. Food. When we go back, I'm not going to kid myself into thinking that I'm going to get great food anywhere. Here's what I remember: Blue Bayou: it was fine. Nothing great. Plaza Inn I was totally looking forward to, and it wasn't that awesome. Ariel's Grotto for dinner was a disappointment. Taste pilots was *really* meh. The real standouts here are things like the corn dog trucks (the one in CA is better, sorry, y'all) and everything in Cars Land. We actually sought Flo's out for lunch twice when we were over in Disneyland because it's that good.
6. Evening attraction things: So we got the WOC package (ariel's grotto) and the Fantasmic dessert package. In a nutshell, WOC dinner is a waste, Fantasmic dessert is essential.
Let me go on record as saying I don't get WOC. I was looking forward to it, we could see it from our room. However, the experience was just not enjoyable. The "Reserved section" is no better than anything else, and frankly, I think we'd have seen everything just as well from the other side of the street. And to be honest, I'd rather skip that show and not look at all those pipes sticking out of the water the whole time at CA. But the kids loved it, so whatever.
Fantasmic, OTOH, was great. If a show like that can be described as "intimate," that's the right word. Get the dessert package; don't even consider not doing it.
And this is an example of where I think disneyland falls down, and that's crowd management on the planning side: the idea that people are disrupting the normal flow of the park for HOURS before fantasmic starts by spreading out BLANKETS is atrocious. I'm completely mystified as to why disneyland allows it. From 4:00 on, fully half the available space to walk was taken up by people camping out for a 20 minute show that they've seen before, and it completely screws up the flow of the park.
Finally, I don't want this to sound negative. Let me be extremely clear: we loved the experience. I just didn't talk about how we rode star tours a billion times, how the boys both got picked to be padawans, the joy of seeing our 4 yo love the biggest roller coasters just as much as the simplest dark rides, shutting the park down at 12:30 AM with my oldest... I didn't go through that because what Disney does very well with each of these parks is creating the space in which that magic can occur. When you go, you'll figure out really quickly that the smart thing to do is yank a fastpass for X ride (space mountain, splash mountain, etc) and then find a ride close by to ride while you wait. That kind of story writes itself.
What I really want to impress upon people who havent been is this: we were there at a slow time, and HOLY CRAP the mass of humanity at Disneyland (not so much CA) is a lot to take in, and i don't know how it's possible to be ready for it.
A few last tips:
1. do the silhouettes in Disneyland. 9 bucks a person and it's a crazy good souvenir.
2. If you're staying in a disney hotel, use the "deliver stuff to your hotel" service. It's worth it. Heck, the boys even won stuff in games at Paradise Pier and they delivered that stuff to the hotel. It makes everything so much easier not lugging stuff around.
3. Try not to overplan. We saw way too many people rushing from ride to ride with no time to enjoy what was right in front of them. I really can't imagine the situation in which things are so tight and hectic that people are passing tickets through gates to go get fastpasses and then getting three rides in before you run over to hit that fastpass window.
4. Give cast members the opportunity to show you what they can do. After a few days, we thought, "you know, a fastpass would be awesome as a souvenir." it wouldve been easy to just say "meh. we have to give it to them," but my wife asked each time "can we keep one for a scrapbook?" with one exception, they said yes every single time. If we hadn't just asked, it never would've happened.
Ok, that's it.
