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01/27-28/12 - My thoughts and observations from Friday and Saturday at the Disneyland Hotel and around the parks.
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01/27-28/12 - My thoughts and observations from Friday and Saturday at the Disneyland Hotel and around the parks.

Hello all,

I did something this past weekend I had not done in years... I spent a night at the Disneyland Hotel. I think the last time I stayed there was before they did the last renovation back in the 90s... when the Monorail Cafe and original pool were still there. So I had a later than normal arrival in the parks and combine that with an early closing due to events with the Tinker Bell race weekend and my park time was fairly limited Friday. Overall the crowds Friday felt slightly higher than usual, which was expected with the race weekend. Saturday I spent most of the day at the parks, hard for me to comment on the crowds since I usually do not visit on Saturdays, but to me they felt about average (definitely not off season) but then again the temps hitting 80 degrees helped to drive the crowds up a bit too.

Jason

Trip logs and mileage reports are in the Park Miles section.

Disneyland Hotel Thoughts and Observations:

  • As I mentioned above I have not stayed at the Disneyland Hotel in ages. Mostly since I can drive to the park and back home I do that to save some money or I stay at another local hotel. But I was lucky enough to get my quiz question in fast enough and won one of the 40 rooms the Disney Parks Blog gave away. The prize pack included the room, parking, and two one day park hopper tickets. The contest and prize redemption went extremely smoothly with no hiccups or hassles at all and I even ended up moving it a week to try and avoid some rain and go with better weather. Thanks Disneyparks Blog!!

  • Checkin was a breeze. I think it took me under 10 minutes from when I parked till I was moving the car to the regular parking lot. Parking was not a big problem but I was a long long way from the lobby thanks to what I am assuming were guests at the fitness expo.

  • My room for the evening was a standard room on the 5th floor of the Fantasy Tower (lobby tower), the room faced North so I could see the Mickey and Friends Garage and if I looked a little to the right Disneyland. It would have been a great view of the Disneyland Fireworks had they gone off this evening.

  • The room featured two queen beds and a sleeper sofa, a chair, TV, and desk. There was a separate out cove with a vanity and mirror. There was also a closet. There was complimentary wi-fi as well as a wired connection available in the room. We would have liked to have seen a sink (or the sink) outside of the bathroom so two people could in theory be getting ready at the same time. If one was showering and one at the sink. The highlight of the room was the head board that spanned the two beds. When you turned it on it played a short tune and the embedded fireworks lit up. I thought this was a cool Disney touch! The loss of a balcony, compared to the pre-renovation rooms, did not really bother us. The walls/floors did seem a tad on the thin side still. I swore we could hear the toilet flush two or three rooms/floors away. Also I thought the water pressure in the shower was miserable, but I am assuming that was due to flow restrictors?

  • Some perks of staying on site... which due to the short time I was there and my other commitments/plans I really did not take advantage of were:
    • Early entry into California Adventure at 9:15am through the Grand California entrance. This allowed for you to get a World of Color Fastpass as well as ride the Little Mermaid.
    • Magic Mornings at Disneyland where they open select Fantasyland and Tomorrowland attractions one hour early. This happens on Sundays, Tuesday, Thursdays, and Saturdays normally.
    • Classic Attraction Trivia Challenge - Wish I had seen this one earlier.... - You can get a trivia game to play when you visit some Disneyland Attractions (Jungle Cruise, Nemo, and Small World). You pick it up at guest relations then return it for something (guessing a button or something? Has anyone done this??)
    • Art of the Craft Tour of the Grand Californian is a free walking tour of the hotel looking at some of the pieces and design elements
    • When I checked in they also gave me two Fastpass exchange cards that were good for two fastpass tickets each which I thought was a nice perk of staying on site

  • Unfortunately due to my limited time and late arrival I did not have time to give the new pools a try.. I was curious about the monorail slides... guess I will just have to go back someday!

  • I enjoyed my evening at the Disneyland Hotel and the convenience of being able to walk right to your room was great! The room itself was nothing over the top but had enough Disney touches that it was enjoyable. The grounds of the hotel have come a long way with this newest renovation. The pool area and dining options are great. The rooms are a step up from where they were in the early 2000s and the overall feel of the hotel is much more Disney than it has ever been in my opinion. I still miss some of the old (early 90s late 80s) hotel options such as the marina, dancing waters, water falls, larger shopping area with a the great art store, the Neon Cactus, the Monorail Cafe and of course the infamous Disneyland Hotel tram that was always an adventure to take through the Disneyland parking lot.

  • A question that am asked quite frequently via email is are the Disney Hotels worth it and my family be disappointed? The answer to this is always tricky and I usually try to answer the question with a series of questions and ifs... it really depends on your expectation going in. If you are a frequent Walt Disney World visitor and know the advantages and immersion you get staying on site this is quite a different experience. The Grand Californian is close to a WDW experience but still different because of the size and location. WDW resorts are large and spread out for the most part. Everything in Anaheim is more compact in both size and location. As I mentioned above the Disney service is great at the hotels and the Disney feel is much stronger now at the Disneyland Hotel and the Grand has always had it. The Paradise Pier still lacks in my mind, but in full disclosure I have not stayed there in years either so maybe it has changed too.. but walking through I just do not get that feeling like I do at WDW resorts or the Grand and now even the Disneyland Hotel. As with anything Disney you do pay a premium. Whether it is worth it or not is really up to the individual, your expectations, and your financial situation.

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations from Friday:

  • Ate a late lunch at Rain Forest Cafe because I had a reward certificate to use. I was again reminded why I do not eat there that often. The wait was about 15 minutes (and I have a Landrys card which cut the time down substantially) then the service was slow and food was just ok. It still annoys me that with a $13 hamburger you have to pay $1.50 extra for french fries instead of chips. At that price point I enjoy Story Tellers or ESPN Zone better. It is also a challenge to carry on a conversation inside due to the noise level most of the time. We probably should have opted to eat outside but thought it was a bit too windy.

  • I spent a good amount of time at the Lunar New Year Celebration. I wanted to catch some of the performing groups and see how the area felt. There seemed to be a fair number of guests in the area. The location of this years celebration led to larger crowds, especially when the various groups were performing. Last year the event was held in the Festival Arena. Not sure if those guests were seeking it out or just stopped on their way to/from Toontown. The props and other decorations that were brought in were a nice touch to the area and worked. Also the idea of having an international celebration in the Small World Mall seemed to work thematically too compared to the Festival Arena. I would have liked to have seen a schedule posted, it would have helped and may have drawn some other guests back. There were quite a few guest research cast members in the area taking surveys..

  • I made a quick run through DCA checking out the construction progress as the sun was setting. It was great to see Maters testing. They had both sets running at various times. The ride system sure sounded similar to the Lady Bug Boogie one.. you could hear the turn tables and the transfers.. there was this low rumble from the other side of the wall. Also more neon is visible in Cars Land and its looking great. The pictures really do not do it justice yet.

  • The parks both closed early Friday. Disneyland at 8:00pm due to a family 5K race for the Tinker Bell Weekend and DCA at its normal 9:00pm. I did not pay attention to the park hours when I booked my room... my original plan was to go last weekend but due to the forecasted rain I pushed it to this weekend and was just grateful to get a weekend night.

  • I was really surprised how early they cancelled the fireworks. It was several hours before the planned showtime. The winds were bad but in the past they have played announcements saying it was likely but no official cancellation until showtime more or less. Also this was the first time I had seen World of Color cancelled too. I heard the first show went off but then they decided to cancel the second right around show time as I was walking through the Pier area.

  • As you saw in the pictorial update Haunted Mansion and the Toontown Train Depot are back to normal operation. No real noticeable changes at either.

Disneyland & DCA Thoughts and Observations from Saturday:

  • I treated this as a bonus day and really relaxed, visited with several groups of friends, and enjoyed some of the entertainment at the Lunar New Year Celebration. The crowds picked up by mid day but really did not impact me since I Was not visited many attractions and those that I did I went to early or used fastpasses for.

  • We went to breakfast on Harbor and I did not have to drive so I was able to take a look and snap a couple pictures of the backside of the Cars Land mountains and I think they are looking great. The simple design/mesh really makes a difference.

  • A cast member really made our day. While some of the group was on Tower of Terror and I was roaming the Backlot taking pictures the rest were hanging out on a bench near Tower of Terror. A Cast Member approached them and chatted for a while then said they wanted to give their day a little extra magic and gave them a couple passes to visit an attraction without having to wait in line (with a couple exceptions). We used these to ride Toy Story and some used the last one for Soarin. That is definitely the way to visit Toy Story!! What a great Cast Member!! I was not there so I did not catch their name.

  • I was really surprised by the amount of traffic heading into the parks as well as those heading out when we left Saturday evening. The tram stop was backed-up two or three trams to leave the parks. Those heading in to Downtown Disney from Disneyland Drive were backed-up as far as you could see toward Ball Road.

Interesting Web Finds/Notes:
Below are some interesting links, notes, and rumors I found/stumble across/or have been informed of since the last Geekspeaks column.

Be sure to check out the picture update that goes with this Geekspeak column, it can be found in our Disneyland Resort Pictorial Update section

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