wonderlandaddict
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2000
Let me start off with saying that a couple of years ago myself and my daughter tagged along with her spouse to his convention in Long Beach and stayed a couple of nights at Howard Johnson to go to Disneyland. It was fun, but we didn't get much done (had a 1 yr old with us) and had a few negative interactions with cast members. The big drawback for me (and I do realize it's just my opinion) was the walk to the parks each day passing by lots of homeless people. It really bothered me that we are spending all of this money (even though we had been saving all year) and they have nothing. We came back home and I just kept thinking that I am not satisfied with this experience and need to give Disneyland a 2nd chance. I always rent points for our WDW trips which are every 2 years and found someone last January to rent points for the Grand Californian Hotel. We were there Dec. 9-14 and man what a difference! We had over the top cast member experiences starting with check in to check out. We used ExecuCar without any problems and arrived at hotel by noon on Sunday. The line to check in was incredibly long, but the hotel had cast members walking around with different trays of snacks, drinks and ice cream treats to make the wait more bearable. Bell services also came up and offered to store our luggage without being asked. I really don't understand how the line moved so quick if all of the other cast members spend as much time with their people as ours did. I have never been treated this well in over 28 trips to deluxe rooms in WDW ever! I faxed a room request in 5 days in advance (not really expecting to get what I requested since only 1 time has it been granted at WDW) but we got everything-high floor with theme park view, the cast member made a big deal out of it stating that this is the room she always requests when she stays because its the best view and it really was. We never closed the curtains and left the door open often to hear park sounds! Of course the room wasn't ready till 4 or 5pm which was fine and expected as we was using this for Downtown Disney Day.
To make a long story shorter we had a wonderful trip! Being able to walk directly into a park! WOW is all I can say, the morning line was long (early entry) but moved quickly. I loved only going thru 1 security to be able to move from park to park or downtown Disney. We only used max pass 2 days because that is all we needed to. I found early entry very helpful to California Adventure, but not so much to Disneyland (too many people & really only Fantasyland open). We did discover due to a cast member suggestion is wait till after the fireworks and he was exactly right. Starting during the 930pm fireworks till closing at midnight we were able to walk on every ride we wanted, which was alot! (including all of Fantasyland, pirates, HM, Space Mountain, Big Thunder and Splash Mountain). We rode every single ride in both parks in 3 days and the favs multiple times! I still haven't rode every single ride at WDW in 30 years! On the 4th day we only rode our favs again and Downtown Disney again.
We had a wonderful time and would not hesitate to come back, but I have to stay onsite to stay in my Disney bubble. It was an Adult only trip is the reason we went so hard- On Wednesday we started at 7am and closed the park at 12am, then went to Downtown Disney to get something I had seen earlier.
To make a long story shorter we had a wonderful trip! Being able to walk directly into a park! WOW is all I can say, the morning line was long (early entry) but moved quickly. I loved only going thru 1 security to be able to move from park to park or downtown Disney. We only used max pass 2 days because that is all we needed to. I found early entry very helpful to California Adventure, but not so much to Disneyland (too many people & really only Fantasyland open). We did discover due to a cast member suggestion is wait till after the fireworks and he was exactly right. Starting during the 930pm fireworks till closing at midnight we were able to walk on every ride we wanted, which was alot! (including all of Fantasyland, pirates, HM, Space Mountain, Big Thunder and Splash Mountain). We rode every single ride in both parks in 3 days and the favs multiple times! I still haven't rode every single ride at WDW in 30 years! On the 4th day we only rode our favs again and Downtown Disney again.
We had a wonderful time and would not hesitate to come back, but I have to stay onsite to stay in my Disney bubble. It was an Adult only trip is the reason we went so hard- On Wednesday we started at 7am and closed the park at 12am, then went to Downtown Disney to get something I had seen earlier.
Last edited:
