Originally Posted By crawtaterfamily We appreciate all the great tips we learned from this website and wanted to share our family's trip report and first stay at the GC: Family members: Grandma (55)--she wrote trip report below, daughter (33), son-in-law (35), grandaughter (6) and grandson 3). It was a crowded but magical week. MONDAY -- October 9, 2006 The Grand Californian Hotel is GORGEOUS. Daughter went right to the 6th floor concierge level and checked us in (there were at least 50 people in line in the lobby waiting to register). Parking is free but valet is $14 daily. We self-parked. Lunchibon on the concierge level included sandwiches, fresh fruit, chocolate dipped strawberries, beverages, Mickey shaped scones, Madeleine cookies, etc. Yummy. Our room was not ready so daughter & son-in-law took the hotel tour at 1 p.m. and I stayed with the children in a little nook off the lobby that had a tv showing old Disney cartoons. The chairs are child-sized and even include some rockers. A nice respite from the long trip and noise. The hotel is like a big lodge in the Sierras. Craftsman décor. BIG river stone fireplace (again lots of rockers and chairs, adult and child-sized). We are waiting for our suite. No 3 bedrooms on the 6th floor (concierge) so we’re on 5. Can’t wait to see the suite. We left the luggage in the car to make sure that when the room is ready we can just run over and get the luggage instead of waiting for the bellman (daughter said that took hours last year at Disneyland Hotel). Daughter has a PassPorter guidebook for Disneyland – it’s like a journal with pocket pages and lots of printed materials about the hotel and parks. Very cool. She researched everything so well that we just need to follow the itinerary and GO! The concierge level is $150 per day for all of us.Includes breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks before bedtime! It's great but Disneyland Hotel concierge let you take juice boxes and soda from the lounge into the parks--GC concierge lounge only has GLASS soda bottles (not allowed into park) and no juice boxes at all. At least we could take water bottles into the park. We took off for Disneyland at 2 p.m. First through Downtown Disney which I had never seen before. Shops, restaurants – all fun, clean, safe, family fun. Everyone is so nice! We saw the Disneyland Parade of Dreams and had preferred seating thanks to Disney Visa. WOW. Goofy came and shook grandson’s hand! All the princesses blew kisses to grandaughter and waved. A grand time was had by all. Truly magical. Side note: Although we had preferred viewing, after a while the CM in charge of the private visa area allowed a bunch of other people (without preferred viewing) in our area because everything was so crowded. Small World was next and it was just as I remembered it with my daughter! Charming, imaginative. Next, off to the Block Party at California Adventure Park. All California music and DANCING. I danced the whole time – such fun! Grandkids watched enraptured by all of the happy movement. Adults had a glass of wine from the new Napa-style wine bar. Sauvignon Blanc – Turnbull. I have such fond memories of our trip to that winery. Back to the hotel for a fabulous dinner (crab cakes). Wine, relaxing dinner on the balcony. Concierge Lounge rocks! Now to the room! Unpacked. Story time songs with Kim the concierge lounge folk singer. Grandson soloed 2 songs…ABC and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. GREAT hit. Grandaughter soloed her school version of the phonic ABCs – BEAUTIFUL job. Kim sang a surfing song and I danced and became “rockin’ Grandma!†Fireworks at 9:15 were breathtaking. Again, on the Concierge Lounge balcony with the soundtrack piped in. Collapsed into bed at 10 p.m. A happy, fun-filled family Disneyland day!
Originally Posted By mcdisney great report! good to know there are no juice boxes in the GC Concierge lounge. thank you for describing the food too - we'll be there in a month and hope to eat most of our meals (at least snack) up there.
Originally Posted By califtink Oh - Can anyone tell me more about the preferred seating for the Disneyland parade with a Disney Visa?? I had not heard anything about this before - we are leaving in two days. I haven't seen the parade, and we are hoping to catch it while we are there. I have the Disney Visa card of course, - not sure how I missed info about this perk?? Please help, somebody!!
Originally Posted By califtink Now that I think about it , I wonder whether the preferred seating for the parade is only available to those who purchase a DLR vacation package at a Disney Hotel with their Disney Visa? Can anyone tell me whether that is the case? ( That isn't what we're doing, so obviously we couldn't get the seating if so) TIA!
Originally Posted By crawtaterfamily Thanks, mcdisney. Califtink, I'm not sure if the preferred parade viewing was just for having a disney visa or had to be combined with a WDTC on-property package. The vouchers just came in the mail along with the rest of the package (tickets, etc.). We also got Disney Visa preferred viewing at the block party bash in CA adventure (near the info. booth). The preferred viewing in Disneyland was near Small World. Other perks we enjoyed were getting 2 free strollers every day (BTW they no longer have the double ones). We also got the free 5 X 7 at the Disney Visa character meet n greet at Ariel's Grotto and that is valid every day of your trip. There was preferred seating at Muppets, Tough to be a Bug, and Aladdin but I don't know if that was because we had a Disney Visa or because of staying on property. Went to the Disney Visa website but there was no info. on this (still says Disneyland Offers = None).
Originally Posted By califtink Thanks so much - I have purchased vacation packages in the past , and had the vouchers/coupons for the preferred seating for Aladdin, for instance, so I know what you mean and I am almost positive that it is a special perk for that only. We will either have to plunk ourselves down somewhere and wait, or just miss the parade, I think. Thank you for your help!
Originally Posted By thmar Great first day...excited to read the rest...so glad you talked about perks of the concierge level and Disney Visa. Did you like staying at the GCH better than staying at DLH?
Originally Posted By thmar Also you only paid $150/day for a conciege suite at the GCH??????? or did you mean $150 extra per day??
Originally Posted By crawtaterfamily Thanks, lisann22 and thmar. It was $150 extra per day no matter how many people were in the suite. Yes we liked staying at the GCH better and think we will stay there from now on if we can afford it. We liked DLH too but picked GCH this time since the monorail is closed. We liked being so close to the park entrances at GCH. The hotel seemed "homier" (smaller than DLH). We especially liked that there's only 1 building so you don't have to walk outside to get to the concierge lounge like we did at DLH when our hotel room was in a different tower from concierge. I read trip reports about the GCH having extremely long hallways and I didn't think it would be a big deal since we're all really active but boy were they right. I have never seen such long hallways in my life--didn't help that our hotel rooms were the farthest you could possibly get from the concierge lounge but it was quiet not being near the elevators so we wouldn't change a thing. I don't remember them having the nightly storytime and folk singer in the DLH but maybe I'm wrong. That was a real highlight of our trip this time at GCH. Interestingly, we found that a lot more people used the concierge lounge at GCH than DLH -- both times were during busy park times (first trip was in May of the 50th starting). The CL at GCH was packed at times but it was fine. Thanks for reading our trip report. Hope you all have fun trips.
Originally Posted By Lisann22 If you are going in a big group and plan to use the Conceirge a lot - in my opinion it's a deal. We had a suite a couple years back and took full advantage of the Conceirge. While we didn't stay inside the room that often, we took our trays and loaded up on snacks and drinks in the mornings, for afternoon break and in the evenings. It was wonderful, the staff was outstanding. They even held some items for us as they caught on to our routine. :> It was crowded so I think they somewhat appreciated us coming in, gathering what we wanted and heading back to our suite. Our kids loved sitting outside around our round patio table and eating their breakfast and afternoon treats. We could people watch as we overlooked DTD and the World of Disney store. ;> We could watch the fireworks nightly from our room/balconies.
Originally Posted By thmar I have one more question regarding your suite...did it have more than one bathroom? I'm trying to decide between a suite or two rooms...thanks.
Originally Posted By amazedncal2 What a wonderful first day you all had Where was your suite located? We recently stayed in a regular conceirge room on the 6th floor, I think it was the furthest room you could have and still be in the hotel Not complaining, mind you, I'm just amazed that each time we stay at the hotel it's, well, a maze
