Amy&Dan
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2004
We just returned yesterday from six nights/six days at Disneyland and the Grand Californian. Here are a few of my observations:
Grand Californian:
We loved the GCH. I was really bummed we were staying there at first (go figure) because I love the DLH. When we first got to our room I thought it looked small and dark but it really, really, grew on me. We had a bunk bed room facing the monorail/courtyard (room 4148). It was very quiet, the balcony was such a plus and my kids (9,11) loved the bunkbeds. Also, since it had a trundle they had to allow plenty of room between the bed and bunkbeds to pull that out (which we never did), which gave our kids plenty of space to play and hang out in. The room was spotless and there were no bed bugs
! The level of customer service at this hotel was so incredible I cannot even express it. Always prompt, always courteous, you pay top dollar and they do their best to make you feel like you are getting what you paid for. And we loved our nightly turndown service. They would freshen up our room, give us clean towels and run the vacum (I knew this because the Pringle's and Cheetoh crumbs were all gone which was nice!). The location is so incredible. It became our ritual to ride GRR right before our midday swim/rest break, which was so nice to have only a little ways to walk dripping wet and soggy. I think we have a new favorite although I still do love the Disneyland Hotel!
Crowds:
It was very crowded. All I can say is get there early. If you have Early Entry privilidges, use them. We were at the parks at 7:00 each day EE was offered and by 9:00 the place was packed. One morning my husband got a fastpass at about 9:30 a.m. for Space Mountain and the return time was for 10:30 that night. They didn't always open the fastpass machines for Splash Mountain until later, they said they sell out so quickly that people getting into the park after 9:00 a.m. can't always get them. Go to Tomorrowland early, it packs up first because its open for EE. Frontierland and Critter Country fill up much later. In fact, BTMR is a good bet, even on Monday of this week which was horribly crowded (our most crowded day, way worse than Saturday) the standby line for that one didn't ever seem to get above 35 minutes. Buzz was also a good bet, fastpasses available all day into the night and waits rarely above 35-40 minutes. There is no fastpass for Indy right now, we never did get to ride that one. Partly because we were travelling with my brother and his wife who have five year old daughters too young/short for that one and partly because we avoided Adventureland at all costs, it was a mob scene. Due to the way they have Pirates and part of New Orleans Square all roped off makes crowds in Adventureland even worse than usual. It will be really nice when all of that is back to normal and thousands of people can ride Pirates each day which will get them off the walkways. Haunted Mansion was frequently mobbed which I haven't seen since our Christmas trip awhile back. But with fastpass and EE we never waited in a line for more than 20 minutes. I really do notice the narrower walkways at DL during high crowds. We were at WDW during the week between Christmas and New Years and it didn't feel as crowded. The waits were for rides at WDW at that time were about like what we had this week, but there just didn't seem to be the human traffic jams like what we had this past week at Disneyland. But people were mostly nice and considerate and the cm's did their best so it worked out fine. But I made my kids, even the 11 year old hang onto dh's and mine's hands for dear life! And if you think you can get from DCA following the Electrical Parade back into Disneyland for Remember, forget it. The mass of people trying to do that same thing makes getting through the turnstiles of both parks very time consuming. We saw the EE just once and on that night we exited into the area between the two parks and saw the fireworks in front of the "California" letters. It was actually a good view of the fireworks but of course no castle affects could be seen. We did this another night with a friend we had dinner with at RFC who didn't have a park ticket, and on that night they played the Remember music in that area which was nice but they don't always do that unfortunately.
We had a great time, the crowds were about like what I thought they would be given our time frame. I would totally go again this time again next year. The longer hours are nice and I really do think that once POC is back up that will help matters tremendously with crowd flow. Now just time to shake those post trip blues and start planning for the next one!
Grand Californian:
We loved the GCH. I was really bummed we were staying there at first (go figure) because I love the DLH. When we first got to our room I thought it looked small and dark but it really, really, grew on me. We had a bunk bed room facing the monorail/courtyard (room 4148). It was very quiet, the balcony was such a plus and my kids (9,11) loved the bunkbeds. Also, since it had a trundle they had to allow plenty of room between the bed and bunkbeds to pull that out (which we never did), which gave our kids plenty of space to play and hang out in. The room was spotless and there were no bed bugs
! The level of customer service at this hotel was so incredible I cannot even express it. Always prompt, always courteous, you pay top dollar and they do their best to make you feel like you are getting what you paid for. And we loved our nightly turndown service. They would freshen up our room, give us clean towels and run the vacum (I knew this because the Pringle's and Cheetoh crumbs were all gone which was nice!). The location is so incredible. It became our ritual to ride GRR right before our midday swim/rest break, which was so nice to have only a little ways to walk dripping wet and soggy. I think we have a new favorite although I still do love the Disneyland Hotel! Crowds:
It was very crowded. All I can say is get there early. If you have Early Entry privilidges, use them. We were at the parks at 7:00 each day EE was offered and by 9:00 the place was packed. One morning my husband got a fastpass at about 9:30 a.m. for Space Mountain and the return time was for 10:30 that night. They didn't always open the fastpass machines for Splash Mountain until later, they said they sell out so quickly that people getting into the park after 9:00 a.m. can't always get them. Go to Tomorrowland early, it packs up first because its open for EE. Frontierland and Critter Country fill up much later. In fact, BTMR is a good bet, even on Monday of this week which was horribly crowded (our most crowded day, way worse than Saturday) the standby line for that one didn't ever seem to get above 35 minutes. Buzz was also a good bet, fastpasses available all day into the night and waits rarely above 35-40 minutes. There is no fastpass for Indy right now, we never did get to ride that one. Partly because we were travelling with my brother and his wife who have five year old daughters too young/short for that one and partly because we avoided Adventureland at all costs, it was a mob scene. Due to the way they have Pirates and part of New Orleans Square all roped off makes crowds in Adventureland even worse than usual. It will be really nice when all of that is back to normal and thousands of people can ride Pirates each day which will get them off the walkways. Haunted Mansion was frequently mobbed which I haven't seen since our Christmas trip awhile back. But with fastpass and EE we never waited in a line for more than 20 minutes. I really do notice the narrower walkways at DL during high crowds. We were at WDW during the week between Christmas and New Years and it didn't feel as crowded. The waits were for rides at WDW at that time were about like what we had this week, but there just didn't seem to be the human traffic jams like what we had this past week at Disneyland. But people were mostly nice and considerate and the cm's did their best so it worked out fine. But I made my kids, even the 11 year old hang onto dh's and mine's hands for dear life! And if you think you can get from DCA following the Electrical Parade back into Disneyland for Remember, forget it. The mass of people trying to do that same thing makes getting through the turnstiles of both parks very time consuming. We saw the EE just once and on that night we exited into the area between the two parks and saw the fireworks in front of the "California" letters. It was actually a good view of the fireworks but of course no castle affects could be seen. We did this another night with a friend we had dinner with at RFC who didn't have a park ticket, and on that night they played the Remember music in that area which was nice but they don't always do that unfortunately.
We had a great time, the crowds were about like what I thought they would be given our time frame. I would totally go again this time again next year. The longer hours are nice and I really do think that once POC is back up that will help matters tremendously with crowd flow. Now just time to shake those post trip blues and start planning for the next one!
