Originally Posted By Dalia3001 Last week I took 9 of us, me, my new husband, his parents, my parents, his sister and brother-in-law and my brother to the Disneyland Resort. This was a huge splurge for me, but my in-laws were in town for our wedding from Australia, and my brother was here from NYC, and as I have spent the last year being treated for Hodgkin's Lymphoma (I'm now in remission, yay) I decided there was nothing better for me to spend my money on than time with the whole family in Disneyland. Everyone besides me and my husband stayed in a 3 bedroom suite at the GCH, while we stayed in a standard room, also at the GCH. We got concierge service for both rooms. I was in uber-planning mode, and really wanted this to be a special trip for everyone, so I ordered a basket for the suite. There was a gift for each person in the basket and the VP staff made gift tags for each item. They were very cute, in the Disneyland font. I had printed out cards from the Disney website with our photos on them to add to the basket, but realized too late that I had forgotten to send them, so VP added the tags they made to the basket for me. They then delivered my cards to the suite as my husband and I arrived before everyone else, so the cards were there when the others arrived. The suite was really three adjoining rooms and a living room, but this was very nice and gave everyone privacy, even my brother who was sleeping on the pull out couch in the living room area. There were 3 full bathrooms, which was great. We visited DL on Monday the 11th, from about 3:30 to closing at 8. I had ordered ridemax to try to plan our schedule with minimum waiting time, but for the second year in a row found their time estimates to be off. Last year we were there in October and crowds were unexpectedly high, this year I believe they were unexpectedly light. I used to unqualifiedly endorse ridemax, but am now not so sure their plans are useful at times of year where crowds might be less predictable, i.e. the end of summer beginning of fall or the end of a promotion. When I used Ridemax during peak season, it was great, but that was a few years ago. I would love to know if they are still reliable when crowds are more predictable. In any case, the lines were extremely short, 5-15 minute waits for Space Mtn, even in the middle of the day! We could basicly walk on to anything at anytime. I was running around like a crazy person collecting fast passes on Monday and Tuesday, and they only helped us once; to miss a 20 min line on Splash Mtn at 4:30 on Tuesday. Basicly they were a waste of energy, and we could have saved our legs following a more intuitive ride schedule rather than running around like idiots following our Ridemax plan. Tuesday morning we had early entry, and rocked our way through all the Fantasyland rides. Now here I do have to give credit to ridemax; we followed their advice and rode in the following order, Peter Pan, Mr. Toad's, Alice, Teacups, Pinnochio and then Snow White. We walked onto everything with no wait at all, and there was a bit of a wait for Peter Pan by the time we were through. We rode some more rides, then had lunch at the newly redone Blue Bayou. It was very nice for a theme park restaurant, but lacked a bit in the service department for the price. We had to wait quite a while for our water and bread, then wait for our order to be taken, then I was given the wrong entree, though this was soon rectified. The food was very good, we all loved the wedge salad and the gumbo, and everyone liked their entrees and desserts. I had the mahi mahi which came with shrimp and a ton of raw spinach. This might not appeal to everyone, but I always am trying to eat enough fruit and vegies on vacation, which can be hard, so I was happy to see all that spinach. We loved the ambiance, and the service was certainly not bad enough to effect our tipping or our enjoyment, I'm just mentioning it because the restaurant is supposed to be more upscale now. The souvenier menus are a bit odd, but I guess I'll cut mine up and put it in the album when I get around to making one. Our group enjoyed the pirate band and the pirate decor and interaction with the wandering pirates in NOS. One tip I got on these boards that we made good use of was to get a lot of group photos taken by the people with cameras. I hope that I was correct in believing the post I read that said they are paid for each photo they take, not the photos that are actualy sold, so they are happy to take photos with your cameras as long as you let them take some with theirs too. We always end up buying a few of their photos as well, but it's great to get group shots in front of the entrance, at the castle etc., with everyone's camera, taken by one of these handy folks. They take great shots, get everyone in frame and frame the photo well with the castle or whatever in the background. And you don't have someone from your group missing in the photo. Our third day in the parks we started out at DCA. They are still opening early (9:30) and letting people on to Soarin' Over California at that time, even thought the official opening time was 10 am. Taking my dad on Soaring was actualy my whole inspiration for planning this trip. He has a bad back so he can't go on a lot of the newer rides, and hasn't really experienced any of the newer Disney rides because of it. He used to fly planes, and loves planes and flying, so because of the smooth nature of this ride, I knew he would love it and have been dying to get him on it for years now. He and my mom both loved it, and rode twice in a row while the rest of us headed over to Paradise Pier. We had a great morning at DCA, especialy enjoying California Screaming and It's Tough to Be a Bug. It was my first time seeing the muppet show movie, which wasn't as good as ITTBAB, but we still enjoyed it. Unfortunately Monsters Inc. was down while we were over there, so I still haven't ridden it. I haven't seen the movie yet either though, so I have some catching up to do. That afternoon, we all split up, and people had fun doing their own thing. My husband and I rode Space Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad one last time each, then took the train back around to Mainstreet and headed back to the hotel to change for dinner at Napa Rose. We had eaten at Napa Rose last October when we were at DL to celebrate our engagement. We sat at the counter then and this time as well. We love the counter seating, as it is really interesting to us to watch everyone cook. We didn't realise that we got really special treatment last time. Our waiter told us that they were offering a special chef's tasting menu that night, which we thought was the same thing as their regular Vitner's Menu. There was a critic from a wine magazine there last year, and Andrew Sutton was there overseeing things and preparing some special dishes for their group. We had the benefit of enjoying this special tasting menu, which was truly spectacular. Each of us got different dishes each course, with different wine pairings, all of which suited each of our palates perfectly. It was magical. So we went back with extremely high expectations. This time we ordered the Vitner's Menu, and realised that we had been spoiled the time before. The food was still great, but I might have checked the menu more carefuly and ordered something other than the appetizer that had sweetbreads in it if I had fully understood what was going on. It was still an excellent meal with superb wine that paired well with each course. We love the Napa Rose, and will continue to eat there, but I don't know if we will ever be able to relive our first incredible meal there. We were really lucky that night and didn't even know it, silly us!! All in all it was a great stay, filled with Disney magic for everyone; people like me who have been over and over again, my brother and parents who haven't been in 15 years, and my in-laws who were there for the first time!
Originally Posted By 4Disnee >>I have spent the last year being treated for Hodgkin's Lymphoma (I'm now in remission, yay)<< Yeah! I am so excited for you and what a well deserved trip! You are one wonderful person is all that I can say. I sounds like you had a really good time and thank you so much for sharing your wonderful trip! You are awesome!
Originally Posted By debtee Congratulations on your wedding! I'm so pleased you all had a great time and it was good to catch up with news from your trip after all your planning ahead in trip planning! How did your in-laws enjoy their stay in America? Have they returned to Australia yet? I'm pleased to read you got the group photo's at DL. They are a great memory to have! Thanks for sharing Dalia!
Originally Posted By Dalia3001 My in-laws had a great time out here, they just got home this morning california time. It was my sister-in-laws first trip out of Australia, so it was really a big deal for all of us. My family can't believe how lucky we got to have such great, easy to get along with new relies, as they might say in Australia! : ) We all really had a lot of fun.
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 Dalia3001, it sounds like all your careful planning worked out well YAY! Congratulations on your wedding and thank you for sharing your Disney fun with us
