Momof4girls
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 10, 2005
- Messages
- 735
We're WDW veterans, but thought we'd experience the 'land while we needed to be in California anyway.
Here is my experience thus far, and I'll add replies with additional days.
Saturday, flew into LAX and found our way down to Anaheim. Rental car shuttles were slow, but adequate. Airport was fairly easy to navigate, but undergoing construction in the Southwest Baggage Carousel. However, DING got us $60 airfare, so I can't complain too much. Checked into the Residence Inn on Clementine and were SO thrilled with the penthouse. It's two levels (14 steps to go up to the master bedroom loft). The room is clean, a fireplace with a ready to burn log in there, three TVs, two bathrooms, full kitchen and dining area, living room, etc. The kids' room has a full/twin bunk set and the biggest rooms we've ever had in a family suite. This place is huge! We have a family of seven and there's tons of room. More than adequate clothing storage, SMOKES the Cabins and Nick Hotel in Orlando, space-wise. The hotel is set up like little chalets with courtyards and all penthouses are on the 2nd floor. Steps are a necessity, but worth it. Upstairs is a king bed and full bath. Downstairs is an additional bedroom with closing door and a separate full bath inside the kids' suite area. The bed only occupies about a third of the room - and they have their own TV and chest of drawers, plus two desks and chairs. It's really really huge! No "choice photography" to give the image of more space. If anything, the rooms are bigger than shown on the Residence Inn site. We don't even need the sleeper sofa in the living room. Two families could easily share this space!
The hotel pool is nice, but outside so we haven't experienced it. We used ART (the resort shuttle). It's nicely organized so that we only have three stops on the return and one stop on the way out. The shuttle picks up just a short walk from our room and the drivers are all friendly and professional. We love Dell (the driver from yesterday). We had about a ten minute wait at the park yesterday when we came back, but all in all I have been thrilled with the transportation. We parked our car in a lot the first day ($11) and then took ART the second day (two passengers over 10 at $3 each per day = $6). ART was SO much easier to do with the kids and strollers.
There is a free breakfast buffet. It's perhaps a step up from the standard free buffet, but not spectacular. The eggs are consistently undercooked and DH and I felt ill the first evening (not sure if it was the eggs or something else, but worth noting the gastro-upset). They seem to rotate the menu and day one was pancakes, eggs, sausage, sausage gravy and biscuits (plus the standard waffle makers, bagels, english muffins, toast, cut up fruit, bananas, dry cereal, juice, coffee, milk assortment). The second day was (dry and HARD) french toast, bacon, eggs, (dry/hard)tortillas, (dry/pasty) refried beans, and the aforementioned assortment. But, hey - it's free - and the kids can find *something* there to eat.
Sunday we went to DL. It was SO crowded. OMG. A nightmare.
Wall-to-wall people. I don't know WHAT was up - we heard several people say that it was NEVER this crowded. We could barely move. Uttery misery. Rode the tea cups, then on to the Princess Fantasy Faire. The coronation ceremony was okay, but mostly standing to watch or you had to sit up in a balcony and the kids weren't into it. HUGE lines to see the princesses (met them at WDW, so we skipped this). We headed over to a picnic table and got a snack (apple "nachos" and pretzels with cheese - even for our family of 6 table-food-eaters, the two orders of cinnamon apple crisp nachos were too much - one would have been enough, and we're all big eaters). The pretzels were great. A little spice to the cheese that the kids didn't care much for. While the little ones finished their snack, the older kids and I went down to the coloring area and made crowns. They had a great time, we spent maybe 1.5 hours back there, total.
We had a 2:40 reservation (with our time change it was "dinner" time for us) at Blue Bayou but it started to rain around 12:30. We headed over to see if they could accomodate us and they got us in right away (Even though they turned away countless inquiries for a reservation to walk-ups - GET YOUR PSs!!! They were full, ALL day!). A little pixie dust put us in a water table - we were all thrilled with the atmosphere. It was amazingly realistic, and so fun seeing the boats. My 3 year old was shaken/upset when some passengers on the boats were shouting from the boats and scared her
but otherwise the passengers were nice and would smile or wave (that we could see) or be fairly quiet.
The service with David was adequate. He was as nice as can be, but SLOOOOOOOW. The bread came first, then water, then drinks about twenty minutes later. Our entrees came (DH got the short ribs which were TERRIBLY fatty, I had the monte cristo which was rich and heavy, but good. The wedge salad was delicious, he had the gumbo which he enjoyed. Kids had the mac and cheese - nothing to write home about, and the uncrustable monte cristo, which they didn't like at all). Mid-lunch David went on his lunch break
and we were left with Absent Annie, who never seemed to find time for us. We had empty drinks for a good half hour - no iced tea refills - had to ask for them and even then she only refilled one. Bizarre service, really. She asked if we were done, we said we'd like to order dessert (being one of the main reasons we came - with the pirate ship cookie and the tortuga trio of creme brulee) and she said, "okay, what do you want?" I asked what our options were and she said, "don't you still have your menu!?!?" as if I should have and was a child who had disobeyed the teacher. It was rather insulting, the way she addressed us. I replied, "no" and she went to get one. She practically tossed it at me, then went off to HER two tables and took BOTH table's orders (a party of five and a table of 8!) then came back to ask for our dessert order. I was ready as soon as she handed me the menu - and she could have just told me what they were! I didn't need to read them! There are only THREE. 
Anyway, we placed our order, she said, "anything ELSE?" and I said, "yes, can we please have two cups of coffee as well?" and she walked away. Yeah, nice "fine dining!" I'm not a complainer (don't want to mess with people who prepare our food!) but I looked EVERYWHERE for a member of management to no avail. David actually RETURNED from his lunch break by the time we got our coffees. Dessert was painfully slow and when we walked out we clocked a total of 1 hour and 50 minutes dining time - for LUNCH. This was not California Grill, people. Two hours!!?!?! Absurd! Our total was around $150 - which was ONLY worth it for the ambiance.
We got L&L Hawaiian barbecue that night for dinner, offsite. I was not in the mood for any more Disney dining after that lunch
Hope restored on Day 2...coming soon...
Here is my experience thus far, and I'll add replies with additional days.
Saturday, flew into LAX and found our way down to Anaheim. Rental car shuttles were slow, but adequate. Airport was fairly easy to navigate, but undergoing construction in the Southwest Baggage Carousel. However, DING got us $60 airfare, so I can't complain too much. Checked into the Residence Inn on Clementine and were SO thrilled with the penthouse. It's two levels (14 steps to go up to the master bedroom loft). The room is clean, a fireplace with a ready to burn log in there, three TVs, two bathrooms, full kitchen and dining area, living room, etc. The kids' room has a full/twin bunk set and the biggest rooms we've ever had in a family suite. This place is huge! We have a family of seven and there's tons of room. More than adequate clothing storage, SMOKES the Cabins and Nick Hotel in Orlando, space-wise. The hotel is set up like little chalets with courtyards and all penthouses are on the 2nd floor. Steps are a necessity, but worth it. Upstairs is a king bed and full bath. Downstairs is an additional bedroom with closing door and a separate full bath inside the kids' suite area. The bed only occupies about a third of the room - and they have their own TV and chest of drawers, plus two desks and chairs. It's really really huge! No "choice photography" to give the image of more space. If anything, the rooms are bigger than shown on the Residence Inn site. We don't even need the sleeper sofa in the living room. Two families could easily share this space!
The hotel pool is nice, but outside so we haven't experienced it. We used ART (the resort shuttle). It's nicely organized so that we only have three stops on the return and one stop on the way out. The shuttle picks up just a short walk from our room and the drivers are all friendly and professional. We love Dell (the driver from yesterday). We had about a ten minute wait at the park yesterday when we came back, but all in all I have been thrilled with the transportation. We parked our car in a lot the first day ($11) and then took ART the second day (two passengers over 10 at $3 each per day = $6). ART was SO much easier to do with the kids and strollers.
There is a free breakfast buffet. It's perhaps a step up from the standard free buffet, but not spectacular. The eggs are consistently undercooked and DH and I felt ill the first evening (not sure if it was the eggs or something else, but worth noting the gastro-upset). They seem to rotate the menu and day one was pancakes, eggs, sausage, sausage gravy and biscuits (plus the standard waffle makers, bagels, english muffins, toast, cut up fruit, bananas, dry cereal, juice, coffee, milk assortment). The second day was (dry and HARD) french toast, bacon, eggs, (dry/hard)tortillas, (dry/pasty) refried beans, and the aforementioned assortment. But, hey - it's free - and the kids can find *something* there to eat.
Sunday we went to DL. It was SO crowded. OMG. A nightmare.
Wall-to-wall people. I don't know WHAT was up - we heard several people say that it was NEVER this crowded. We could barely move. Uttery misery. Rode the tea cups, then on to the Princess Fantasy Faire. The coronation ceremony was okay, but mostly standing to watch or you had to sit up in a balcony and the kids weren't into it. HUGE lines to see the princesses (met them at WDW, so we skipped this). We headed over to a picnic table and got a snack (apple "nachos" and pretzels with cheese - even for our family of 6 table-food-eaters, the two orders of cinnamon apple crisp nachos were too much - one would have been enough, and we're all big eaters). The pretzels were great. A little spice to the cheese that the kids didn't care much for. While the little ones finished their snack, the older kids and I went down to the coloring area and made crowns. They had a great time, we spent maybe 1.5 hours back there, total.We had a 2:40 reservation (with our time change it was "dinner" time for us) at Blue Bayou but it started to rain around 12:30. We headed over to see if they could accomodate us and they got us in right away (Even though they turned away countless inquiries for a reservation to walk-ups - GET YOUR PSs!!! They were full, ALL day!). A little pixie dust put us in a water table - we were all thrilled with the atmosphere. It was amazingly realistic, and so fun seeing the boats. My 3 year old was shaken/upset when some passengers on the boats were shouting from the boats and scared her
but otherwise the passengers were nice and would smile or wave (that we could see) or be fairly quiet.The service with David was adequate. He was as nice as can be, but SLOOOOOOOW. The bread came first, then water, then drinks about twenty minutes later. Our entrees came (DH got the short ribs which were TERRIBLY fatty, I had the monte cristo which was rich and heavy, but good. The wedge salad was delicious, he had the gumbo which he enjoyed. Kids had the mac and cheese - nothing to write home about, and the uncrustable monte cristo, which they didn't like at all). Mid-lunch David went on his lunch break
and we were left with Absent Annie, who never seemed to find time for us. We had empty drinks for a good half hour - no iced tea refills - had to ask for them and even then she only refilled one. Bizarre service, really. She asked if we were done, we said we'd like to order dessert (being one of the main reasons we came - with the pirate ship cookie and the tortuga trio of creme brulee) and she said, "okay, what do you want?" I asked what our options were and she said, "don't you still have your menu!?!?" as if I should have and was a child who had disobeyed the teacher. It was rather insulting, the way she addressed us. I replied, "no" and she went to get one. She practically tossed it at me, then went off to HER two tables and took BOTH table's orders (a party of five and a table of 8!) then came back to ask for our dessert order. I was ready as soon as she handed me the menu - and she could have just told me what they were! I didn't need to read them! There are only THREE. Anyway, we placed our order, she said, "anything ELSE?" and I said, "yes, can we please have two cups of coffee as well?" and she walked away. Yeah, nice "fine dining!" I'm not a complainer (don't want to mess with people who prepare our food!) but I looked EVERYWHERE for a member of management to no avail. David actually RETURNED from his lunch break by the time we got our coffees. Dessert was painfully slow and when we walked out we clocked a total of 1 hour and 50 minutes dining time - for LUNCH. This was not California Grill, people. Two hours!!?!?! Absurd! Our total was around $150 - which was ONLY worth it for the ambiance.
We got L&L Hawaiian barbecue that night for dinner, offsite. I was not in the mood for any more Disney dining after that lunch
Hope restored on Day 2...coming soon...
Poor kids. 
Cha! There was a small group of kids, but he seemed more concerned with getting the adults to interact with him. We visited the Sorcer's Workshop and the kids had a GREAT time playing with the computers in the Beast's Library, then in the belly of the whale having their voices "stolen" by Ursula. From there we headed over to Muppets 3D since the boy was getting hungry and the baby care station was far away. The show was identical to WDW - but it was starting just as we walked in, so it was a welcome dark, quiet nursing spot with zero wait time.
LOL It's not terribly easy to travel with so many little ones, but we try to still enjoy what we can and let their needs set the path for our day - so if we have to stop four times to feed the baby and visit every potty in the park, that's what we end up doing that day 
