thatgirl'smom
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2005
- Messages
- 58
We're back home and into the grind again. Just wanted to share a bit about our trip, not really a trip report, but more like a few of our experiences and observations. We were there Tuesday, May 9th to Friday May 12th. Me, DH, and DD (celebrating her 5th birthday!).
We stayed at the GCH, which was lovely. Our room was upgraded from a DD view to a CA park view. We liked the view (of GRR... we could hear people screaming as they rode the ride and we could see them leaving the ride soaking wet... fun!), but didn't like that they had given us a room with two queen beds. We would have preferred a king with bunk beds or king with queen pull-out couch. If I had to do it over again, I'd refuse the upgrade because of the bed situation, but oh well. The room was expensive of course... but I didn't realize exactly how much until they slipped a bill under the door (misdelivered) and found out the guy down the hall was paying exactly $111 less per night for his room than we paid for ours! I tried to shrug it off, thinking he perhaps had some kind of special discounted room or something. Or a broom closet
We especially loved and enjoyed all the perks of staying at the GCH. We had 3 Day Hoppers bought at a military base, so we were able to use EE on both Tues. and Thurs. by showing our white room charge slip. Worked perfectly. DH said he felt less "magic" at EE time than reg. time, but I loved the lack of crowds. We also enjoyed singing campfire songs by the fire and also the storyteller. DD and I did "The Grand Quest" and earned our sweet treats at the end. Also, and so perfectly, GCH offered a Build-A-Bear workshop at 9am one morning. We had planned to do CA that day (which opened at 10am), so this worked great timewise for us. DD had been promised a trip to B-A-B for her birthday, so this workshop was perfect. It was held one hour before the store opened to the public, so it was nice and quiet, and (as part of being there with the GCH) all workshop attendees received a free $3 brush for their new stuffed friend. Can't beat free stuff! I really adore the GCH and it felt so special staying there again this year. Oh, the pool! Can't forget how much we loved taking a break each afternoon and swimming in the pool!
Places we ate:
Stage Door Cafe - Lunch. Good, hot, yummy.
Storyteller's - Dinner. Nothing special. CM waiter was trying to turn our table and rushed us quite a bit, which was very irritating.
Storyteller's - Breakfast. We all ordered the buffet, which looked marvelous, but didn't taste that great. Character interaction was really fun! We ate at 7:30am, so it was very quiet there... lots of time with each character.
Yamabuki - Dinner. Really delicious. This is the kind of food our family loves, so we were quite happy. Service and food were super!
Whitewater Snacks - Breakfast. I'm not as crazy for this place as people usually are, but our breakfast was fine on this day. Nothing ordered from the grill, though.
Taste Pilot's Grill - Lunch. Long wait in line, but the food was quite good.
Goofy's Kitchen - Dinner. PS at 5pm, so not crowded at all. I really hate the check-in process here. Food looked great, but tasted pretty lousy. Character interaction was fantastic! Lots of time with the characters and special attention (it was DD's birthday on that day). I had wanted a Birthday Bucket, but the only kind they had was Princesses (she is so not into princesses!), so I got DD a $5 Birthday Bag instead. It was a nice little touch.
Wetzel's Pretzels - Snacks. Love this place! Yum!
On the day of DD's birthday, she wore a pin from the GCH which looks almost exactly like the birthday sticker you can get at City hall in DL. CMs were much more into interacting with her this year than last. So many of them said Happy Birthday to her and one CM, while we were waiting in the Fastpass line at Soarin', gave her two pins from his lanyard (one Mickey and one Ariel), which I thought was very nice of him. Her day was a special one!
Lastly, my little shortie finally reached the 40" mark and was able to ride some of the big kid rides. Her favorite, by far, was Tower of Terror! She's a thrill ride junkie!
We stayed at the GCH, which was lovely. Our room was upgraded from a DD view to a CA park view. We liked the view (of GRR... we could hear people screaming as they rode the ride and we could see them leaving the ride soaking wet... fun!), but didn't like that they had given us a room with two queen beds. We would have preferred a king with bunk beds or king with queen pull-out couch. If I had to do it over again, I'd refuse the upgrade because of the bed situation, but oh well. The room was expensive of course... but I didn't realize exactly how much until they slipped a bill under the door (misdelivered) and found out the guy down the hall was paying exactly $111 less per night for his room than we paid for ours! I tried to shrug it off, thinking he perhaps had some kind of special discounted room or something. Or a broom closet
We especially loved and enjoyed all the perks of staying at the GCH. We had 3 Day Hoppers bought at a military base, so we were able to use EE on both Tues. and Thurs. by showing our white room charge slip. Worked perfectly. DH said he felt less "magic" at EE time than reg. time, but I loved the lack of crowds. We also enjoyed singing campfire songs by the fire and also the storyteller. DD and I did "The Grand Quest" and earned our sweet treats at the end. Also, and so perfectly, GCH offered a Build-A-Bear workshop at 9am one morning. We had planned to do CA that day (which opened at 10am), so this worked great timewise for us. DD had been promised a trip to B-A-B for her birthday, so this workshop was perfect. It was held one hour before the store opened to the public, so it was nice and quiet, and (as part of being there with the GCH) all workshop attendees received a free $3 brush for their new stuffed friend. Can't beat free stuff! I really adore the GCH and it felt so special staying there again this year. Oh, the pool! Can't forget how much we loved taking a break each afternoon and swimming in the pool!
Places we ate:
Stage Door Cafe - Lunch. Good, hot, yummy.
Storyteller's - Dinner. Nothing special. CM waiter was trying to turn our table and rushed us quite a bit, which was very irritating.
Storyteller's - Breakfast. We all ordered the buffet, which looked marvelous, but didn't taste that great. Character interaction was really fun! We ate at 7:30am, so it was very quiet there... lots of time with each character.
Yamabuki - Dinner. Really delicious. This is the kind of food our family loves, so we were quite happy. Service and food were super!
Whitewater Snacks - Breakfast. I'm not as crazy for this place as people usually are, but our breakfast was fine on this day. Nothing ordered from the grill, though.
Taste Pilot's Grill - Lunch. Long wait in line, but the food was quite good.
Goofy's Kitchen - Dinner. PS at 5pm, so not crowded at all. I really hate the check-in process here. Food looked great, but tasted pretty lousy. Character interaction was fantastic! Lots of time with the characters and special attention (it was DD's birthday on that day). I had wanted a Birthday Bucket, but the only kind they had was Princesses (she is so not into princesses!), so I got DD a $5 Birthday Bag instead. It was a nice little touch.
Wetzel's Pretzels - Snacks. Love this place! Yum!
On the day of DD's birthday, she wore a pin from the GCH which looks almost exactly like the birthday sticker you can get at City hall in DL. CMs were much more into interacting with her this year than last. So many of them said Happy Birthday to her and one CM, while we were waiting in the Fastpass line at Soarin', gave her two pins from his lanyard (one Mickey and one Ariel), which I thought was very nice of him. Her day was a special one!
Lastly, my little shortie finally reached the 40" mark and was able to ride some of the big kid rides. Her favorite, by far, was Tower of Terror! She's a thrill ride junkie!
