It’s Always Sunny in California!..Eh?...L’il Bit!

[JKSWonder]

What with all the slides closing at 5? So early and so strange.

 

[tstidm1]

I must say those photos of the Grand Californian actually make me excited to stay there. I know I probably won't get the same room view at the Grand Californian due to being on ABD and they seem to get standard rooms with no view. The rooms themselves look pretty good even if I get a view of the parking lot. That Conceirge lounge is really nice looking also.

 

[dolphingirl47]

The views from the concierge lounge and some of the rooms at Paradise Pier are simply stunning. I have to say also I love the character breakfast there and have wandered around the public areas, it was never top of my list for staying there. I absolutely love the decor of the rooms so and actually prefer this over the Grand Californian and the room photos that I have seen from the Disneyland Hotel.

Corinna

 

[jenseib]

What with all the slides closing at 5? So early and so strange.

I know!!!!

I must say those photos of the Grand Californian actually make me excited to stay there. I know I probably won't get the same room view at the Grand Californian due to being on ABD and they seem to get standard rooms with no view. The rooms themselves look pretty good even if I get a view of the parking lot. That Conceirge lounge is really nice looking also.

The GC is just a great locataion! I am sure you'll be happy with whatever roomd you get.

The views from the concierge lounge and some of the rooms at Paradise Pier are simply stunning. I have to say also I love the character breakfast there and have wandered around the public areas, it was never top of my list for staying there. I absolutely love the decor of the rooms so and actually prefer this over the Grand Californian and the room photos that I have seen from the Disneyland Hotel.

Corinna

Yes, i think the GC rooms are my least favorite in looks, but the location is so wonderful

 

[jenseib]

After we explored the pool area we headed back to the lobby to wait for the rest of the group.





Well doesn’t he look familiar? Hello Pop Century Goofy.



See???? Same guy!







Well I had to get my picture with him, so Cass took it. Umm, wow! I look like a freaking bag lady. Note to self…..lose 50 pounds!!!



I took a picture of the mat, but it was upside down from the way I was walking, so I have flipped it over so we can all read it!














And again, outside the resort you can see the backside of the parks….that still just seems so strange to me.



Time to walk back to the Grand now.













We would be touring a few things here as well.

 

[jenseib]

We were taken up to a suite. No need to check out the regular rooms since we were all staying in one already.











A look at the bedroom through the window of the verandah.





Nice view from the balcony!!!!

























As nice as it was touring all these places, we were all getting tired and ready to be done for the day. We headed back down and were supposed to end the tour now, but someone asked if we could look in the kids club. Craig said if someone was in there to let us in, we could, otherwise we wouldn’t be able to get in. I have to admit, I was hoping we couldn’t get in. I just wanted to change into comfy clothes and head to the parks at this point.

 

[Timon]

*deleted*

 

[dolphingirl47]

Yes, i think the GC rooms are my least favorite in looks, but the location is so wonderful

I love the location and I absolutely love most of the public areas in the hotel. The rooms are not really to my taste as far as decor is concerned.

We have a few photos with that Goofy. I never knew he had a twin at Walt Disney World.

Corinna

 

[MEK]

Wow Jen - first of all - how great that you got to tour all the resorts, but more importantly - your view pictures are spectacular. I just love looking at the parks from those wonderful resorts. All three are lovely and I am sure I would be super happy staying at any of three.

I'm sure you were tired by the end of the day, but what a great experience, and one that I am sure will help you with you job!

 

[Kathy Jetson]

How fun seeing all the different rooms there. What I wouldn't give to stay in one of those with the killer views!

 

[jenseib]

I love the location and I absolutely love most of the public areas in the hotel. The rooms are not really to my taste as far as decor is concerned.

We have a few photos with that Goofy. I never knew he had a twin at Walt Disney World.

Corinna

The rooms were ok, but I am more of the Disney in your face type person.
And I never knew he had a twin at DL!

Wow Jen - first of all - how great that you got to tour all the resorts, but more importantly - your view pictures are spectacular. I just love looking at the parks from those wonderful resorts. All three are lovely and I am sure I would be super happy staying at any of three.

I'm sure you were tired by the end of the day, but what a great experience, and one that I am sure will help you with you job!

It was nice touring the resorts and to see all they have to offer. I know we were only halfyway into the trip, but I was already trying to figure out how to get back!

How fun seeing all the different rooms there. What I wouldn't give to stay in one of those with the killer views!

They have awesome views! Untill you see it, you really don't think about the differences. I can see why people pay more to stay with those views now!

 

[jenseib]

Ack, I was so far behind! I am all caught up now though


Well...you have been a bit busy!

Jen, you are an updating fool

I am trying to get this one done so I can start the next one. I am actually going faster than I thought I would. I almost have all the pictures edited, so I just need to get the writing done!

Be lucky you got the good CM doing your WIWFT! Ours SUCKED

And mine was HOT too!

I was so sure he was brand new but then he said he had been there for so many years doing this and I kept thinking "Dude, you really should go do something else!" He didn't tell us about a single Main Street window until we had paused for the flag retreat ceremony and right in front of us, this mother with a son (about 5 years old) stopped and pointed up to a window and said "That is Walt's daddy's window! I'm sure he is very proud of his boy!"

Then he said "oh yeah...this is Walt's father's window" and then we carried on.

I was like...Hmmm maybe that mother should be our guide!!!

LOL!

I enjoyed my dinner at Flo's Cafe but it wasn't as good as I had hoped. I had the beef...

Beef was good but a little too fatty, gravy was delish (I asked for extra), corn was kinda gross and the tatoes were delish!!! The only thing missing was butter for that yummy bun!

Why did I think you had turkey??? Oh well, but it does look good. I think my issue was the gravy...it had that cheap taste to it.

And MY lunch during our resort tours was actually super yummy!

I had the sweet potato fries you apparently don't like BAHAHAHA and my burger was very good!

Yeah, if you had fries with it it would've been better!

Seems like foodwise I had better luck this trip than you! Normally I am the one that has the bad food karma going but the only dish that I didn't enjoy this entire trip was my horrible EoS sammich

I love me some Earl's so I was soooo disappointed when I got this tiny hard bun, filled with the most disgusting chunks of roast beef bits!

I definitely didn't care for the Monte Cristo but I don't think it was because it was horrible, just not my cup of tea

I think I was about 50/50 for food. Some one was really good and some not so much. I agree, the Monte Cristo was just not my thing. Not bad, just not something I would normally get or like.

Oh and since I seem to be all about food this post...here was possibly the best thing I ate the whole trip...our first breakfast during the AEP. It didn't look like much but it was soooo delicious...erhmagerd!!!!!

I almost licked the plate!!! I even went up and got seconds AND I am pretty sure that if I didn't already look like a total piggie, I would have gotten thirdsies

LOL! I know I went twice, maybe even a 3rd time.

Such great photos, Jen! I am now totally impressed with your photography skills because I swear...half those photos you took were while still walking!!!! You rarely even stopped and they all came our GREAT!!!

I guess it's practice from walking with my family. I got some bad ones, especially on days when I used the point and shoot.

It was kind of weird watching take all your photos because that's usually me! But this trip was 25% education and 75% a desperate break from all the crap in my life, so I STRUGGLED with my decision of leaving my brand new Rebel T4i at home but I am glad I did! I think I took a whole 5 photos on our resort tour day

So much fun reliving that trip, it was so very awesome

I know sometimes I wish I was camera free, but then coming home I regret not getting all the pictures. I am looking through our Friday pictures now where I went with just the point and shoot and I am so sad so many were blurry and I know I missed out taking a lot because by that day I was just getting lazy too.

I am enjoying reliving the trip and as I edit the pictures I find things I totally forgot about.

 

[jenseib]

We made our way down towards the kids club and no one answered the door and I gave a silent cheer, but then someone opened it up for us. Now I was interested in seeing it, but I was just done for the day. I did however, take a few pictures while in there, but being so tired, most of them came out blurry.





I was really surprised how small it was in here. I expected it to be much bigger.















Finally we were done and allowed to go. We raced back to the room and changed and got ready for some park time.
At some point during the day I had talked to Skip and I had also talked to Claire. It was so funny…because both conversations talked about the bath! Skip says in a disgusted voice “I had to give Claire a bath last night”. I said, good, she needed it and I am sure it wasn’t too hard. But of course he acted like it was the biggest task he had to tackle all day long.
When I talked to Claire she said in an even more disgusted voice “Dad HAD to give me a bath last night”. Again I said, well good at least you are clean and I am sure it was fine. She went on to tell me he had no clue what he was doing. LOL. Of course later when I got home the tune changed and I heard how dad did everything right, from washing her hair much more gently than I do to making her fabulous breakfasts every day. Oh well, no skin off my back. LOL

Disneyland….here we come!!!!



First on our list was to use the Fastpasses before they expired.







I also decided to go with just the point and shoot camera tonight so I would feel less weighted down.



Our first stop was Indiana Jones. The FP for this is really only good if there is a line outside. The FP entrance just has you merge into the inside line and you still have a wait in there. And tonight there wasn’t much of a wait outside if I remember right, so we really gained next to nothing using them. The ride was great once again though.

After that fun ride, we made our way over to use our next FP. I think on the way we picked up a FP for Roger Rabbit.





We wondered what this area was. It was themed to Small World in structure, but kind of looked like it was an abandoned area now. We did see meet and greets there later in the trip, but my guess is it was used for something else in the past.



We were now heading for Space Mountain!






We got in line and it didn’t take too long to get us through.



WoW!!!!! This ride is soooooo much better than the WDW version. This is smooth too. I could ride it over and over. Well except the one part where it makes me a bit motion sick with the strobe type lights. But this was just such an awesome ride. It makes me never even want to go on WDW version again because this is so much better.

We then headed back over to Toontown to use our Roger Rabbit FP’s. I attempted pictures once again, and once again failed.





I believe we headed over towards the Fantasyland area then to see if we could once again ride a few of the rides in the area. The Storybook Canal boats were closed for the night. I do believe we may have gotten on Alice in Wonderland. It appears I took no pictures of the ride the whole trip, but I do know we rode it once and I think it was at night.

I do know I did not ride these however…no desire to either. LOL

 

[jenseib]

I did take a peek inside the BBB there while we were in the area.







At some point I believe we rode Buzz.



And we may have rode Star Tours this night as well, but if we did, again no pictures.

During the day while we were touring Cass asked if I wanted to go to Steakhouse 55 tonight for dinner. Sure! I’m game on that and I asked if we should make a reservation. She said no, it doesn’t fill up too fast and we should be fine.
Well it was now getting close to park closing time and we were getting hungry, so we decided to make our way over to Steakhouse 55 and see about eating. We decided to take the monorail over. We had quite a lengthy wait to get on. And the queue was right next to the Nemo submarines, which were closed for refurbishment, but we could peak through some of the canvas that was blocking our view and I took a few pictures.







Finally we got on the monorail and it was full. We did cram in and took off. It was dark, so my views were not the best, but it was interesting to see the offsite hotels as we went by and Cass pointed out a few. I also talked a bit with the lady sitting next to me, who was a local.

We arrived at DTD and I attempted a picture as we got off, but this is what I got.



We walked over to Steakhouse 55 and asked if they had anything available. They said it would be like an hour before they could seat us. Honestly, it didn’t look that busy, but what do we know. We debated on waiting, but we were hungry and getting tired. We decided to just head back to White Water Snacks at the GC and find something there instead.

As we headed out, we saw Goofy out at Goofy’s Kitchen and I snapped a quick picture.



They asked if we wanted a picture….heck yeah, so I jumped in and got one.



I had now fulfilled my duty. My friend Janet had told me I couldn’t come home without at least one character picture. I told her it might be hard because I wasn’t with Claire and we were not going to make a point to stop at characters for the most part. I believe I texted her this picture to prove I finally did get one.

I guess we were not thinking, because Goofy’s was practically empty, but they were still open. We could’ve gone there and ate. I heard the next day that several people had walked up and got seated immediately. I guess with our Steakhouse 55 disappointment, we just were depressed and gave up.

We walked over to the GC then.
I have this picture and I assume it’s from our walk back, but not sure. I am thinking it’s from DTD somewhere, but I could be totally wrong.



We went into White Water Snacks and tried to decide what to eat. I decided on the chicken nachos because Craig, our tour guide from the day had mentioned they had the best nachos ever. Cass decided she would get those too. We made our orders and sat down to wait. We had thought we would eat right there, but we noticed the other orders being brought out were in to-go bags. We also then noticed them locking the doors. I think it was only around 9 PM at this point. Wow, things close early at DLR.
I also had bought a rice crispy for a snack later, but I think I ended up bringing it home for Claire.



We chatted as we waited, but now both of us were pretty darn hungry.





Finally our food arrived and we were let out and we cut through the pool area to get to our room.
I was starving and forgot to take a picture. I just dug right in once we got to the room, so I never took a picture of them.
Cass was a little more restrained and did get one, so I am stealing her picture to post.



These things were soooooo awesome!!!! I still crave them here at home, and I know Cass does too.
Did you notice they have guacamole on them? Remember how Cass said she never had avocado before earlier in the trip at Storytellers Café? Well I thought she just meant plain, but surely she has had guac before, right? Nope, this was a first for her too and she loved it. I was just amazed she had never tried it before now.
We devoured our food, but the portion is huge and there is just no way we could eat it all. This would be a great thing to share with family members.
I don’t think we hit the hot tubs tonight. I think we just chilled in the room, caught up on emails, and we turned the TV on, which was pointless as we kept talking over it anyways.
Eventually we went to sleep and once again I knew I would be up in a L’il bit because my body was still on East Coast time…eh?

 

[luulu1999]

WOW!! Those nachos look wonderful, I think I have one day left I don't have a place for lunch...it may have to be there!!

 

[littlenellbell]

That picture of you with Chef Goofy is so cute! I loved seeing all the resorts and I can't believe how convenient it is to get around DL.

Looking forward to reading more about DL but also anxious to hear about your WDW/Cruise combo!

 

[dolphingirl47]

Goodness, you have a lot of stamina to head to the park after such a long and busy day and then think about having dinner at Steakhouse 55. What a shame that they did not manage to fit you in without a long wait. The food their is divine. Love the photo with Chef Goofy. The food at Goofy's Kitchen is amazing for a character meal. Those nachos look good. Maybe we need to try them next time.

Corinna

 

[petals]

Piano I wonder what their policies on eh tourists practicing on their pianos are

Luvin the Irish Mickey mouse on the kids club wall as well

 

[Timon]

Ohhhhhhh the nachos!!!!

Yes, I was a little crazy for those things!!! Might or might not have had it again 2 nights later

I would make a trip back just for those nachos

Oh but I would never share MY nachos, nope! My family can get their own

I enjoyed the nachos....

can you tell?????

That pic you took was just behind that fireplace at the DL Hotel. Remember, instead of walking left of the fireplace near Trader Sam's we went right and ended up back there and found that beautiful fountain. I think you were talking to your family while we were down there if I remember correctly so you might have been distracted

 

[jenseib]

WOW!! Those nachos look wonderful, I think I have one day left I don't have a place for lunch...it may have to be there!!

They are very good! Give them a try!!!

That picture of you with Chef Goofy is so cute! I loved seeing all the resorts and I can't believe how convenient it is to get around DL.

Looking forward to reading more about DL but also anxious to hear about your WDW/Cruise combo!

It's super convenient to get around there. I love it.
I have all the pictures edited from this trip now, so I just need to get it all written up and then I can start on the next one.

Goodness, you have a lot of stamina to head to the park after such a long and busy day and then think about having dinner at Steakhouse 55. What a shame that they did not manage to fit you in without a long wait. The food their is divine. Love the photo with Chef Goofy. The food at Goofy's Kitchen is amazing for a character meal. Those nachos look good. Maybe we need to try them next time.

Corinna

I don't at home, but when on vacation I sure try to make the most of my time. Then come home and sleep a week.

I do recommend the nachos for sure!!

Piano I wonder what their policies on eh tourists practicing on their pianos are

Luvin the Irish Mickey mouse on the kids club wall as well

Hey...give it a try!

Ohhhhhhh the nachos!!!!

Yes, I was a little crazy for those things!!! Might or might not have had it again 2 nights later

I would make a trip back just for those nachos

Oh but I would never share MY nachos, nope! My family can get their own

I enjoyed the nachos....

can you tell?????

That pic you took was just behind that fireplace at the DL Hotel. Remember, instead of walking left of the fireplace near Trader Sam's we went right and ended up back there and found that beautiful fountain. I think you were talking to your family while we were down there if I remember correctly so you might have been distracted

I had a feeling you like the nachos.

I am glad you remembered where I took it. I just couldn't remember and I didn't think we walked back through DTD, but then I have been wrong before.