The Good, the Bad & the Ugly

[MacMama0930]

I spent May 14th-May 17th at DLR and, boy, it was an interesting adventure.

First, this was supposed to be a trip for my son and niece's birthday / Mother's Day. My sister and I decided to take our four kids down to DLR without our husbands and take the Amtrak train.

2 women, 4 kids, 16 pieces of luggage (yes, we overpacked but also includes car seats for Uber rides). Keep that whole picture in mind.

Half way down to Anaheim the train became indefinitely delayed due to a freight train with mechanical issues. We had to reverse to Ventura where I sat outside (no inside station here!) with all the kids and luggage while my sister ubered to get a rental car and drove the rest of the way.

Had reservations for Storytellers Cafe as a birthday dinner for my son. It was an odd Mother's Day buffet with limited menu and nothing kid-friendly. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but it was a disappointment.

Now, GCH...it wasn't my first time staying here but it was my first time staying there with my kids. I realized that it definitely isn't as magical as DLH to the kids. Our standard view room looked out to the roof which had cigarette buds strewn about. I had a twinge of buyers remorse, but remembered that it was all about the location!

Monday, our first day is the parks, was crowded - much more crowded than I expected. No doubt about it, having kids and navigating those crowds can feel very frustrating. And what is up with the POTC line? I had never seen it so long?

Did BB dinner for MSEP. Very cool atmosphere but maybe not the best for kids. It's very, very dark and the service was slow. But we got awesome seats for the parade and the kids were in awe of it.

Tuesday, much less crowded, much better experience. With early entry and fast passes, we never wait in long lines.

Spent some time at the GCH pool but then chose to shuttle over to DLH as it's just a cooler pool. Kids just love pool time!!

Wednesday, was a grad nite and I could tell it by 11:00am when DCA was packed with teenagers horsing around and throwing down the f-bomb like it was going out of style. My 9 year old son finally faced his fear and rode Screamin'. He loved it and I loved watching his face!!

Train ride home...fingers were crossed for a better experience but no, I ended up getting robbed on the train by the man sitting behind us. While preoccupied with caring for children, he must've pulled my "fanny pack" out from underneath my seat and stole about $300 and my phone and debit card.

No.more.train.rides!!

All in all, it was a fun trip. It's Disney, after all. Memories were made - and we'll always have an interesting story about this trip.

Hoping to return in October but not sure if I'm willing to splurge on GCH unless the renovations make it a big improvement.

 

[cruisehopeful]

I'm so sorry to read that things went so poorly. May I ask how much you paid for GCH? I usually get a yuck room when I am booked with a convention and I just chalk it up to that I got a discounted room and that's why. I would be asking for a room change if I paid their rack rates and I got any of the rooms that I normally get.

My daughter swears by the train. She takes it from San Diego and only buys the business class seats. I've only used the train a few times in my life, but it is always delayed when I take it so I assume that it will be delayed (which is the reason I don't take it). I have been stuck at the Ventura stop before. I remember the portapotty well. Not a good place to be stuck for an hour.

POTC has been ridiculously long since it reopened. I knew it would be busy for a couple weeks because of the upgrades, but had no idea it would stay that busy for 2 months. Maybe people walk over to Indiana Jones, see it's closed and then go to pirates instead. It had issues when I was on it on Sunday. I was stuck by the pigs for a while and the signing snorts were stuck in my head the rest of the day.

 

[MacMama0930]

I'm so sorry to read that things went so poorly. May I ask how much you paid for GCH? I usually get a yuck room when I am booked with a convention and I just chalk it up to that I got a discounted room and that's why. I would be asking for a room change if I paid their rack rates and I got any of the rooms that I normally get.

My daughter swears by the train. She takes it from San Diego and only buys the business class seats. I've only used the train a few times in my life, but it is always delayed when I take it so I assume that it will be delayed (which is the reason I don't take it). I have been stuck at the Ventura stop before. I remember the portapotty well. Not a good place to be stuck for an hour.

POTC has been ridiculously long since it reopened. I knew it would be busy for a couple weeks because of the upgrades, but had no idea it would stay that busy for 2 months. Maybe people walk over to Indiana Jones, see it's closed and then go to pirates instead. It had issues when I was on it on Sunday. I was stuck by the pigs for a while and the signing snorts were stuck in my head the rest of the day.

I did pay a discounted rate due to a pin code which is why I didn't try to ask for a better room. Had I paid close to $600/night for that room, I'd be complaining!!

Ya, we bought business class tickets and the person who stole from me did not have a business class ticket and was let on our car anyway. Staff never asked to see his ticket

 

[Indiana Scott]

I am so sorry to hear about your disappointing trip.
With all the work, planning and money that goes into one, that sort of thing really strikes home.
Our last trip wasn't good. Mean, nasty and violent people, ridiculous crowds and things that were and were not under Disney's control left us with the decision that we would not be back for a number of years.
Hope your next rip is better!

Scott

 

[gottalovepluto]

Well, it was a standard view room, you got what you booked. The train sounds awful! I've had generally positive experiences on CA Amtrak but there are some, uh, interesting people so I always keep belongings close by & am terrified someone will walk off with my suitcase at one of the stops (no one has though!) I can't imagine trying to do that with kids! You & your family sound like real troopers though! What a mess. Did Amtrak offer a different route or a bus or a refund?

 

[gottalovepluto]

Also very interesting that grad nite affected DCA so much! I'd seen that around Grizzly but not usually the rest of DCA. Maybe all the DL construction is having an affect on grad nite day crowd patterns?

 

[MacMama0930]

Well, it was a standard view room, you got what you booked. The train sounds awful! I've had generally positive experiences on CA Amtrak but there are some, uh, interesting people so I always keep belongings close by & am terrified someone will walk off with my suitcase at one of the stops (no one has though!) I can't imagine trying to do that with kids! You & your family sound like real troopers though! What a mess. Did Amtrak offer a different route or a bus or a refund?

I knew I wouldn't be getting a preimo view but the cigarettes all over the roof? I mean, it's Disney, it seems like something they'd take care of. The butts looked old, like they'd been there some time.

Amtrak was willing to refund half our way down there and then they refunded our "business class" upgrade on the way home since they let a thief on a business class car without a ticket. I even heard one of the staff say afterwards "ya, it didn't look like he belonged here" - but you never asked to see his ticket?? He boarded behind a huge group of elderly women and I think was planning on stealing from them but I was an even easier target with things all over the place and 4 kids. It did it right under my nose and I never suspected a thing! Lesson learned!!

 

[Rabb it]

Ughhh gosh, sorry about the awful experiences Sounds like there were some nice memorable moments at the parks though