stitchgal
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 14, 2004
- Messages
- 273
We were at Disneyland from June 12-17 staying at the Grand Californian. Just some short notes that I finally wrote up. Let me know if you want to know more about what I wrote or the trip.
Myself, 20 weeks pregnant
J, my husband
M, almost 5
T, almost 3
MIL, P
BIL, G
Food
-Blue Bayou
We went here last in 2000. I got the Monte Cristo sandwich then but didn’t really care for it. There wasn’t anything I really wanted on their menu this time. I ended up with seafood jambalaya but didn’t care for it. I think everyone else liked their meals though. You got a choice of wedge salad or gumbo. I asked what the wedge salad was like since I had no idea what a wedge salad was. The server said it’s just a wedge salad; thanks that was a lot of help! M was cold during the meal and eventually fell asleep and missed the main course. M got the kids pb&j monte cristo. I can’t remember the description but I thought it would be a real pb&j but nope it was an Uncrustable! I can’t remember the price either but way too expensive for an Uncrustable. I expected more from the Blue Bayou.
-French Market Place
I loved their bbq pork sandwich. And mint juleps-yum! I only got to get the mint julep from the mint julep bar once but several times from the restaurant. I love mint juleps.
-Stage Door Café
Yummy chicken strips
-Downtown Disney restaurants
The find of the trip. I didn’t realize so many of the restaurants offered quick service. Ralph Brennan’s was great; Napoli pizza was good too. We all liked the smoothies at Jamba Juice, especially G.
-Goofy’s Kitchen
We’ve been happy with their food the last few trips and extremely happy with character interaction on our last trip. Not this time. The food was still ok but not great. And the characters weren’t as interactive as last time.
-Hungry Bear
This is more about the kids than the food. Towards the end of the trip, the kids started getting cranky and crabby especially since they won’t take naps. I went to sit with the kids and J got the food. We thought M wanted iced tea and T wanted apple juice but it turns out M really wanted apple juice and started to cry about it. So I went to buy her an apple juice and by time I came back, two things had happened and both kids were bawling. 1. Mallory dropped half her cheeseburger 2. Tabitha went to take a drink of the iced tea and got J’s Coke by mistake and it went down the wrong way because she wasn’t expecting Coke and she started crying about that. It was 6:30 but J took them back to the room and they slept for 13 hours!
California Adventure
-Toy Story Midway Mania
I got to ride it once in soft opening with about a 45 minute wait. I loved it! T loved the spins from place to place but didn’t do much shooting. We also went on the grand opening day when the lines died down a bit and had about a 60 minute wait then.
-Aladdin show
Loved the genie. It was the NBA finals and he was giving us scores and it was also Father’s Day and they made reference to that in the show too. I love topical humor.
It was hot! There is not much shade at California Adventure.
We were surprised it wasn’t too crowded for the weekend but then huge crowds on Monday. It was insane.
Disneyland
-Characters
We didn’t see too many other than on Main Street or their assigned spots, ie Princess Faire and Toon Town. Last time we saw a lot more. And we tended to be unlucky getting in line and then it was announced they were leaving in a few minutes. We never did get to see Donald Duck.
-Finding Nemo Subs
We did this at early entry one morning with almost a walk on. Otherwise, I don’t think we could have done it as the line was always very, very long. I wasn’t impressed. I like the version at Epcot better. I thought I would like the submarines (which were neat) but it just seemed to go on and on. I like the condensed version at Epcot either. This is something I only need to do once a trip.
-Winnie the Pooh
I think I rode this ride the most. T loved it and one evening while J, M, and G were riding Big Thunder Mountain, we must have rode this 3 times in a row. Again, I’ve always liked the Disney World version better. It seems out of order to me here and I like the small size of the WDW one better.
-Innoventions
We were there for the grand opening of this too. I really had wanted to see the update House of the Future but was disappointed it wouldn’t be open until July. You could see into it but not tour it. I recognized a lot of things from Innoventions Epcot and other places in Epcot. I haven’t been on the new Spaceship Earth but I think the one game was the one from the new end of SE when you choose you destiny type thing.
-The mountains
I couldn’t ride any of them this time. The only one I really wanted to ride was Space Mountain since it is much better than at WDW. M loved Big Thunder this time around. She thought Space was too scary and didn’t like the different seating in Splash.
Year of a Million Dreams
We won something! On our last day too. We were in Tomorrowland headed toward Fantasyland when M said she wanted to go by the Snow White well by the castle. We weren't going to do it but then decided to go. There were 2 Dream Team members there handing out mouse ears.
Myself, 20 weeks pregnant
J, my husband
M, almost 5
T, almost 3
MIL, P
BIL, G
Food
-Blue Bayou
We went here last in 2000. I got the Monte Cristo sandwich then but didn’t really care for it. There wasn’t anything I really wanted on their menu this time. I ended up with seafood jambalaya but didn’t care for it. I think everyone else liked their meals though. You got a choice of wedge salad or gumbo. I asked what the wedge salad was like since I had no idea what a wedge salad was. The server said it’s just a wedge salad; thanks that was a lot of help! M was cold during the meal and eventually fell asleep and missed the main course. M got the kids pb&j monte cristo. I can’t remember the description but I thought it would be a real pb&j but nope it was an Uncrustable! I can’t remember the price either but way too expensive for an Uncrustable. I expected more from the Blue Bayou.
-French Market Place
I loved their bbq pork sandwich. And mint juleps-yum! I only got to get the mint julep from the mint julep bar once but several times from the restaurant. I love mint juleps.
-Stage Door Café
Yummy chicken strips
-Downtown Disney restaurants
The find of the trip. I didn’t realize so many of the restaurants offered quick service. Ralph Brennan’s was great; Napoli pizza was good too. We all liked the smoothies at Jamba Juice, especially G.
-Goofy’s Kitchen
We’ve been happy with their food the last few trips and extremely happy with character interaction on our last trip. Not this time. The food was still ok but not great. And the characters weren’t as interactive as last time.
-Hungry Bear
This is more about the kids than the food. Towards the end of the trip, the kids started getting cranky and crabby especially since they won’t take naps. I went to sit with the kids and J got the food. We thought M wanted iced tea and T wanted apple juice but it turns out M really wanted apple juice and started to cry about it. So I went to buy her an apple juice and by time I came back, two things had happened and both kids were bawling. 1. Mallory dropped half her cheeseburger 2. Tabitha went to take a drink of the iced tea and got J’s Coke by mistake and it went down the wrong way because she wasn’t expecting Coke and she started crying about that. It was 6:30 but J took them back to the room and they slept for 13 hours!
California Adventure
-Toy Story Midway Mania
I got to ride it once in soft opening with about a 45 minute wait. I loved it! T loved the spins from place to place but didn’t do much shooting. We also went on the grand opening day when the lines died down a bit and had about a 60 minute wait then.
-Aladdin show
Loved the genie. It was the NBA finals and he was giving us scores and it was also Father’s Day and they made reference to that in the show too. I love topical humor.
It was hot! There is not much shade at California Adventure.
We were surprised it wasn’t too crowded for the weekend but then huge crowds on Monday. It was insane.
Disneyland
-Characters
We didn’t see too many other than on Main Street or their assigned spots, ie Princess Faire and Toon Town. Last time we saw a lot more. And we tended to be unlucky getting in line and then it was announced they were leaving in a few minutes. We never did get to see Donald Duck.
-Finding Nemo Subs
We did this at early entry one morning with almost a walk on. Otherwise, I don’t think we could have done it as the line was always very, very long. I wasn’t impressed. I like the version at Epcot better. I thought I would like the submarines (which were neat) but it just seemed to go on and on. I like the condensed version at Epcot either. This is something I only need to do once a trip.
-Winnie the Pooh
I think I rode this ride the most. T loved it and one evening while J, M, and G were riding Big Thunder Mountain, we must have rode this 3 times in a row. Again, I’ve always liked the Disney World version better. It seems out of order to me here and I like the small size of the WDW one better.
-Innoventions
We were there for the grand opening of this too. I really had wanted to see the update House of the Future but was disappointed it wouldn’t be open until July. You could see into it but not tour it. I recognized a lot of things from Innoventions Epcot and other places in Epcot. I haven’t been on the new Spaceship Earth but I think the one game was the one from the new end of SE when you choose you destiny type thing.
-The mountains
I couldn’t ride any of them this time. The only one I really wanted to ride was Space Mountain since it is much better than at WDW. M loved Big Thunder this time around. She thought Space was too scary and didn’t like the different seating in Splash.
Year of a Million Dreams
We won something! On our last day too. We were in Tomorrowland headed toward Fantasyland when M said she wanted to go by the Snow White well by the castle. We weren't going to do it but then decided to go. There were 2 Dream Team members there handing out mouse ears.
