Thought this might be helpful to someone contemplating the same idea.
We wanted to spend three days in the parks but I really didnt want to pay for Grand Californian when we wouldnt be in the room much. However, I thought my sons, 10 and 12, would get a kick out of the entrance to California Adventure so this is what we did.
8/12 - Sunday - Checked into Candy Cane Inn then spent time at Downtown Disney that evening. My husband was NOT happy about the idea of staying here and asked if we could get additional nights at GC. He changed his mind after we checked in. The room was very clean and right next to one of the 2nd floor walkway bump-outs with a table and chairs. It was like having our own patio. We took the shuttle occasionally but were rather hardcore vacationers and are definitely not the kind to wait for the next shuttle if we can get to the parks faster by walking. And I usually had a cup of coffee in hand which is not allowed.
8/15 - Wednesday - Checked out of CCI at 6 a.m., drove around the corner to GC. Chose valet parking for the convenience and time savings. Husband left bags with bell services while I checked in. We were walking to the parks by 6:35 (main entrance).
Our room ended up being conveniently located by the CA entrance and it was very handy when we forgot something. Which Im convinced we did repeatedly because we knew the room was so close that we didnt pay attention and make sure we had everything before we left the room. We stayed at the parks until they closed making for a very long day.
On Thursday, we slept in and went downstairs for washcloth folding at 8:30 a.m. We were the only family there and had a great time with Rosario from housekeeping. Luckily we had room in the suitcases for twelve washcloth creations.
If I had known we would have ended up at Ridemakerz (sp?) later in the day I would have scheduled the deal through the hotel at 9 a.m. You get to go in the store early and make an RC car for $50.
When we checked out I asked for a pool keycard which they happily gave. There was mention of a changing area around the pool but my kids stayed in their swim trucks for the remainder of the day while we sipped frozen rum drinks and read books as the kids played in the pool.
The kids had a great time on the hotel scavenger hunt at 4 p.m.
The split stay at the end of the Anaheim portion of our trip allowed us to take advantage of the early entry, special park entrance and the hotel amenities before we headed for San Diego later in the day. Im really not sure if we could have handled more than one 16-hour day at the parks. Full disclosure, we did stay at six hotels during our 10 days in So Cal but we had certain things we wanted to do at certain times of the week to avoid crowds to maximize what we could accomplish. The moving between hotels was very easy, maybe because our boys are getting older.
This has been addressed in many different posts, but we were happily amazed at how few lines we stood in. We went on our favorite rides multiple times (including three rides on Radiator Springs)!
One last thought, we purchased the Photopass Plus and ended up with almost 200 photos in three days. We always get the Photopass at WDW and the Plus option for the ride photos was a fun addition.
We wanted to spend three days in the parks but I really didnt want to pay for Grand Californian when we wouldnt be in the room much. However, I thought my sons, 10 and 12, would get a kick out of the entrance to California Adventure so this is what we did.
8/12 - Sunday - Checked into Candy Cane Inn then spent time at Downtown Disney that evening. My husband was NOT happy about the idea of staying here and asked if we could get additional nights at GC. He changed his mind after we checked in. The room was very clean and right next to one of the 2nd floor walkway bump-outs with a table and chairs. It was like having our own patio. We took the shuttle occasionally but were rather hardcore vacationers and are definitely not the kind to wait for the next shuttle if we can get to the parks faster by walking. And I usually had a cup of coffee in hand which is not allowed.
8/15 - Wednesday - Checked out of CCI at 6 a.m., drove around the corner to GC. Chose valet parking for the convenience and time savings. Husband left bags with bell services while I checked in. We were walking to the parks by 6:35 (main entrance).
Our room ended up being conveniently located by the CA entrance and it was very handy when we forgot something. Which Im convinced we did repeatedly because we knew the room was so close that we didnt pay attention and make sure we had everything before we left the room. We stayed at the parks until they closed making for a very long day.
On Thursday, we slept in and went downstairs for washcloth folding at 8:30 a.m. We were the only family there and had a great time with Rosario from housekeeping. Luckily we had room in the suitcases for twelve washcloth creations.
If I had known we would have ended up at Ridemakerz (sp?) later in the day I would have scheduled the deal through the hotel at 9 a.m. You get to go in the store early and make an RC car for $50.
When we checked out I asked for a pool keycard which they happily gave. There was mention of a changing area around the pool but my kids stayed in their swim trucks for the remainder of the day while we sipped frozen rum drinks and read books as the kids played in the pool.
The kids had a great time on the hotel scavenger hunt at 4 p.m.
The split stay at the end of the Anaheim portion of our trip allowed us to take advantage of the early entry, special park entrance and the hotel amenities before we headed for San Diego later in the day. Im really not sure if we could have handled more than one 16-hour day at the parks. Full disclosure, we did stay at six hotels during our 10 days in So Cal but we had certain things we wanted to do at certain times of the week to avoid crowds to maximize what we could accomplish. The moving between hotels was very easy, maybe because our boys are getting older.
This has been addressed in many different posts, but we were happily amazed at how few lines we stood in. We went on our favorite rides multiple times (including three rides on Radiator Springs)!
One last thought, we purchased the Photopass Plus and ended up with almost 200 photos in three days. We always get the Photopass at WDW and the Plus option for the ride photos was a fun addition.
