Our family of Dad, Mom and 4 yo twin girls headed off from PDX to SNA, nonstop AA flight on a Monday 11AM flight. We get there 2 1/2 hours early, and the flight is delayed 45 min. We get on the plane, and the engine #2 light comes on, another 45 min delay. We arrive in Anaheim and get to the Magic Shuttle kiosk. The kiosk clerk is confused by our Travelocity airport to hotel voucher and tells us we paid for round trip tickets twice, gives us the return pass in advance and won't take the hotel to airport voucher.

There are no happy Disney videos on the Magic Shuttle. We listen to Carly Simon and the windows are strange, you can't see properly out of them. We stop at the Tropicana, the Fairfield, Paradise Pier, DLH and THEN our hotel, the Grand Californian. Trip takes 45 min.

No clear line at the check in desk... my husband pushes me toward a clerk, who walks away. Finally someone comes to tell us that we need to wait in line. We go back to the line and wait. FINALLY start checking in. The desk clerk is totally confused by our Travelocity park pass vouchers and is gone for 25 min. Comes back with 3 day passes. We are DYING to get to the park!

We quickly get dressed for the park, it's almost 5PM. My husband is infuriated that we don't know which way to get to the park. We get through the search area and through the gates and rent strollers. We are finally here!

Did you know that you can't have weapons in Disneyland? An undercover Anaheim detective pulls my husband aside and asks for his knives. He says that he will hold them until the park closes. He reassures my PSYCHO off duty police officer husband that there are plenty of police on duty, evidenced by the fact that three more cops come out of the woodwork as back up. Thank goodness we were in such a rush that my husband forgot to pack his gun.

We continue in silence to Storybook Canal Boats. Then the Mad Hatter cups. I am just wanting to kill him (a repeated theme throughout the trip). We buy some jackets for the girls from the Once Upon A Time Shoppe, very cute with rhinestones and then save a place for the parade. The parade turns out to be 20 min late. Many false starts. Very fun, the girls love it! Somewhere along the way the nice detective gives back the knives. We head back to the hotel exhausted and go to bed at the Grand Californian.

Around 10PM there is some noise next door, laughing, escalating to yells, shouting obscenities, lots of knocking. We are next to the suite! I call the front desk to let them know and security comes up three times. I call the front desk and tell them that I am not dealing with that for the other three nights of our stay. She offers to move us to another room and I look at my sleeping twins and say no way, we're getting an upgrade if we move. She keeps putting me on hold to check and asks if she can call us back. After midnight. I just hang up.

Tuesday morning we get to the gates at opening and follow the "Dumbo or Die" tour in the Unofficial Guide 2008. It is a great tour! So great that we are done early with Nemo and Fantasyland and get to ToonTown but they are not open yet. We decide to see the Princess Faire. The storytelling and coronation aren't for another hour, but cute little girls are waiting for the royal walk... the wait can't be THAT long, right?

45 min later our twins are melting down! We have moved maybe ten feet in line. They are asking for blankie and to go back to the hotel. I carry both of them to the gift shop area while my husband holds our place in line. The mom in front of us says that her and her daughter waited for an hour last night only to be told that they were closing for the parade. We leave and go to ToonTown, which is open now. Thank goodness for ToonTown! We see Mickey and all is well again.

We had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. It is a LONG walk through Downtown Disney without a stroller, each of us carrying a twin. They love the big aquariums inside the restaurant. We get back to our thankfully silent all night hotel room and go to bed.

Wednesday morning we signed up for the Minnie and Friends breakfast. The park is not open and there is no Early Entry so we follow the breakfast group in. AGAIN no one knows what to do with our Travelocity vouchers for the Character Meal. I had called Disney Resort Dining a month before and was just told to bring the voucher to the cashier. It turns out that we needed to exchange the voucher for coupons at Guest Services. We just pay for the buffet cash and get in, and exchange the vouchers later.

The girls loved the character breakfast! Each character visits and takes pictures and autographs. We head over to DCA and see the Muppets 3D show and Aladdin, which was great! The rest of the park was fun, although the girls are too small to ride anything good. We head back over to Disneyland and then go home.

Toddlers don't eat much and I am not that hungry, but my husband is. We go to Storyteller's Cafe and wait 35 min for our main course and it is still not there. The girls are melting down again. I leave my husband to cancel our orders and take his to go. He comes back to the room and realizes that they packed the girls' pizza, not his burger. The restaurant calls and asks him to come back and get his burger. They won't send it up "because that would be Room Service." He goes back down to get his burger.

Thursday we find out that those 3 day passes the desk clerk gave us at Grand Californian are NOT the 5 for 3 day passes we paid for. The guy at the turnstiles is not sure that he should let us in. His supervisor overrides it, but we know it will be an issue at DCA so we end up explaining everything to Guest Services and getting the right passes.

We signed up for lunch at Ariel's Grotto. One of the girls keeps asking about whether Ariel will have legs or fins, sees Ariel on the ground at the base of the stairs like a paraplegic on the floor and starts crying hysterically. She recovers by coloring and the girls' lost dream of seeing princesses comes true. We go back to Disneyland and get the girls to ride POC and HM... they are scared but we give them the fun fur scarves we used to ID the strollers and tell them that they have the power to ride it. The girls are shouting "We have the power!" and dancing "the Malificent Dance" after they are done.

Friday is our last day... breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe with characters again. Our only goal is to see Aladdin and Jasmine at the Oasis. We watch and the CMs managing Aladdin and Jasmine are REALLY strict about time and number of pics, which was fine. The girls have an Elvis moment and burst into tears of joy seeing Jasmine.

We leave for the airport. Grand Californian gave us $100 credit for that awful first night. I stopped by the Business Center to print out our boarding passes, and there is no paper in the printers. Then the printer was jammed. Then I had to pay 30 cents a page. We ditch the Magic Shuttle and take a cab which takes only 15 min to to airport. The flight on AA from SNA to PDX is packed, but on time.

One post-trip note... I called Travelocity to inquire about getting a refund for the hotel to airport shuttle tickets, not because we decided not to use them, but because the Magic Shuttle kiosk clerk said we were double charged. It turns out that for completed trips, Travelocity will not entertain ANY concerns over the phone, only by email or FAX. This seems incredible to me, so I ask to speak to a supervisor, but after waiting 30 min on hold I give up and get the email address, being told that if I do not get some kind of reply in 24 hours, to call back.

I call back (to some outsourced place in India, I think... all four Travelocity people I spoke to have Indian accents) four days later, no response, and I am told that it will take 30 days for a response and to FAX them as well. We will probably not use Travelocity again in the future.

Thanks for reading!

Wow! What a host of snafus you had. :mad: It seems that overall you enjoyed yourself, however and I hope it will be happy memories for your girls. I know I thought the Ariel's Character meal was a great way to meet the princesses - worth every penny. Thanks for the heads up on Travelocity and their difficult vouchers.

Wait... what?

What do you mean Ariel was "on the floor like a paraplegic"? She has her legs at that particular meal, and may have been sitting or kneeling when you saw her... but she isn't incapable of any movement whatsoever... In fact, I'm sure she walked out the doors when she was done "inviting" everyone to the restaurant.

Sorry, I just found that particular comment to be very odd.

Are you serious that your husband tried to take knives into Disneyland????? Is he allowed to take them on a plane? Definitely not a good move to try to get into a theme park with them.

On the other hand, it does sound like you had a bunch of issues caused by others this trip--thanks for the warning about Travelocity--I've used something similar in the past and have vowed never again!

Our experience with the Grand Californian was completely different from yours. Maybe it's because we arrived fairly early (9:30 a.m.) . . . . although it sounds like everyone struggled with your Travelocity vouchers (including you!) Our only issue was the LONG walk to our room each night because it was on the wing opposite the lobby (essentially had to walk around the entire hotel to the other side of the courtyard). Not fun when your feet hurt!

I've heard others complain about the wait for the Princess Faire--thank God I've never had to stand in that line. Disney really should do something about that process--it sounds brutal.

My suggestion would be to book directly with Disney next time--I have found that it makes things simpler (and your life easier).

Did you know that you can't have weapons in Disneyland? An undercover Anaheim detective pulls my husband aside and asks for his knives. He says that he will hold them until the park closes. He reassures my PSYCHO off duty police officer husband that there are plenty of police on duty, evidenced by the fact that three more cops come out of the woodwork as back up. Thank goodness we were in such a rush that my husband forgot to pack his gun.Yes, it is widely known in the LE circuit you may not carry weapons into Disneyland. They are more than happy to escort you to a holding area where the weapons will be locked up for you and you can pick back up at the end of the day.

I'm sorry you had a poor time. I am really surprised with a lot of the comments. Storytellers and Ariels have always received very high marks.

I am of the opinion that once something bad happens, you start looking for every slight, every little problem; I think it's human nature. Most of the things you mention are very minor and happen to nearly every one of us when at Disney.

I've waited much longer than 35 minutes to eat but never thought anything of it -- it's a busy place, but hey, I'm at Disneyland, who cares, let's have fun!

Dumbo's line is notoriously slow, that's why you have to pick and choose when you ride it. If you saw that the line was long, skip it until a different day.

The shuttle didn't have a happy Disney video? Well, I don't know if this is a valid complaint; Carly Simon? She's fine - she sang for a Winnie-the-Pooh movie, how bad can she be.

You mentioned that your husband was "infuriated" that he didn't know how to get to the parks? When I'm lost I either look at a park map or ask one of the nice CMs to tell me where to go (if you ask the mean CMs, they WILL tell you where to go :)).

Now, to be fair, you did have a few "real" issues on this trip, the problem with the noise at your room, the confusion with your travelocity vouchers, etc. But you mention a lot of things that were really minor and should have been either shrugged off or never considered as problems in the first place. Young kids will always get impatient waiting in long lines; it's par for the course.

I truly hope you had fun, though; it was difficult to tell whether all the problems ruined your trip or whether you were just telling us the bad parts to help us out on our trips. Hope things work out better the next time. (And ask your nice hubby to leave his weapons at home, yes?)

I will also say (in your defense somewhat) that I think the signage on how to get to the parks from the Grand Californian is somewhat confusing . . . . but as the PP said, just ask rather than get infuriated (although frustrated is OK!)

Once you know where you are going it all makes sense, but until then it's a kind of maze, IMHO. It's also really important to remember how to get back in by Libby Lu . . . . rather than have to walk ALL the way around!

We had a GREAT time and FUN aside from the little things... those are little things... I am a doctor and I know BIG things and those are not. Still, I would hope that by reading some of our trip report, you all would never have these problems, and that is why I shared them.

I just wanted some agreement that my husband is CRAZY (Yes!) and to subtlely say, NEVER USE TRAVELOCITY. We won't for our next trip... next year... haha!

P.S. Ariel just looked odd, she was on the ground and her legs were completely covered up by her dress. She never got up. No offense to paraplegics. It's just that if you were four, and concerned about legs vs. fins, it was a little unnerving. And Dumbo was the shortest line of all, we rode six marvelous times. It's just CALLED the "Dumbo or Die Tour" and I really really recommend that book. It saved our trip.

LOL, I'm sorry I got a kick out of thinking about what a little one would think about Ariel if she couldn't see her feet/fins, think of the wheels turning, is her fin under the dress???? Will she die if she's out of water??? The way some kids get so tunnel vision on what's important to them is a hoot, but not necessarily to the parents having to field the questions.

I've had good times and bad at DGCH so I totally sympathize with what happened at the hotel.

We had a GREAT time and FUN aside from the little things... those are little things... I am a doctor and I know BIG things and those are not. Still, I would hope that by reading some of our trip report, you all would never have these problems, and that is why I shared them.

I just wanted some agreement that my husband is CRAZY (Yes!) and to subtlely say, NEVER USE TRAVELOCITY. We won't for our next trip... next year... haha!
I'm glad to hear you did have a good time. It really didn't sound like it from the post.

I think most in LE have to be slightly crazy. My son had us check when we were headed to Disneyland to find out if he could carry in the park. As Disneyland is private property, they don't have the right to carry, but Disneyland does have Anaheim PD right there to hold your weapon if needed. My son decided it wasn't worth the extra work to bring his weapon to the park. (You really want to go on the Matterhorn with someone with a loaded weapon??)

Oh good! I'm so glad you still enjoyed your trip; that's what matters most anyway. Cheers!

I've had good times and bad at DGCH so I totally sympathize with what happened at the hotel.

What? Not like you've had any middle of the night fire alarms or anything, have you????

(LOL!)

P.S. Ariel just looked odd, she was on the ground and her legs were completely covered up by her dress. She never got up. No offense to paraplegics. It's just that if you were four, and concerned about legs vs. fins, it was a little unnerving.


Ha, OK... I was a bit confused. I'm sure if your little one had asked, Ariel would have been more than happy to show her feet to your daughter or stand up to show that she was fine. If you do an image search on Google, search for "Ariel's Grotto Dinner", and on page 2, there's a photo of Ariel standing with two little girls. Seeing that might make her feel a little better in retrospect :)

When we are going to eat at Rainforest Cafe and are in DL, we find it a lot easier to take the monorail. The station is right next to the restaurant, and my kids get to ride something else instead of having to walk the length of DTD. I hope your next trip is less eventful than this one was.

Wait... what?

What do you mean Ariel was "on the floor like a paraplegic"? She has her legs at that particular meal, and may have been sitting or kneeling when you saw her... but she isn't incapable of any movement whatsoever... In fact, I'm sure she walked out the doors when she was done "inviting" everyone to the restaurant.

Sorry, I just found that particular comment to be very odd.

I am of the opinion that once something bad happens, you start looking for every slight, every little problem; I think it's human nature. Most of the things you mention are very minor and happen to nearly every one of us when at Disney.

I've waited much longer than 35 minutes to eat but never thought anything of it -- it's a busy place, but hey, I'm at Disneyland, who cares, let's have fun!

Dumbo's line is notoriously slow, that's why you have to pick and choose when you ride it. If you saw that the line was long, skip it until a different day.

The shuttle didn't have a happy Disney video? Well, I don't know if this is a valid complaint; Carly Simon? She's fine - she sang for a Winnie-the-Pooh movie, how bad can she be.

You mentioned that your husband was "infuriated" that he didn't know how to get to the parks? When I'm lost I either look at a park map or ask one of the nice CMs to tell me where to go (if you ask the mean CMs, they WILL tell you where to go :)).

Now, to be fair, you did have a few "real" issues on this trip, the problem with the noise at your room, the confusion with your travelocity vouchers, etc. But you mention a lot of things that were really minor and should have been either shrugged off or never considered as problems in the first place. Young kids will always get impatient waiting in long lines; it's par for the course.

I truly hope you had fun, though; it was difficult to tell whether all the problems ruined your trip or whether you were just telling us the bad parts to help us out on our trips. Hope things work out better the next time. (And ask your nice hubby to leave his weapons at home, yes?)
:confused:Your trip report was more like alot of complaints like about how far the Rainforest Cafe was from where you were carrying two children. Why did you not have strollers? And the paraplegic Ariel comment struck me as odd as well. If you want to find the negatives in a trip you will. But there are also alot of positives and if you allow the negatives to overshadow tham then your trip won't seem like much fun. Your trip report was not much fun to read since there were alot of negatives in it. I hope future trips will be better for you. And I thought everyone knew that Knives are NOT allowed in the Parks, since 911.
DPC

I loved reading about the Elvis/Jasmine moment lol :D, thanks for sharing!

Gotta love those Grand Cal fire alarms, I think they do it on purpose so you really love the beds when you can finally get back in them.

LOL!!

Thanks for those of you who found humor in my post, that was it was for. I'm sorry if it was a downer, but I will never lie to you all and say it was WONDERFUL. There were a lot of very fun parts, which I mentioned. Remember that any trip is the result of the events and the weirdo personalities/tolerances of the people participating in it.

I did not know that rented Disneyland strollers could be taken into Downtown Disney too. Is that true? It would have really helped us. Thanks for the tip about the monorail.

Man, it sounds like you had a heck of a time. I will say though that I have many friends and relatives in LE and none of them would presume to think that they could take any weapon into a theme park. Maybe he IS crazy?? LOL

Loved the Elvis moment, I'm hoping we get just one of those. Ok, I really hope I see Will Turner, but I'll be purrfectly happy with a sighting of Ariel for my 4 year-old (ok, for me too).

Thanks for the warning about Travelocity!!

Thanks for those of you who found humor in my post, that was it was for. I'm sorry if it was a downer, but I will never lie to you all and say it was WONDERFUL. There were a lot of very fun parts, which I mentioned. Remember that any trip is the result of the events and the weirdo personalities/tolerances of the people participating in it.

I did not know that rented Disneyland strollers could be taken into Downtown Disney too. Is that true? It would have really helped us. Thanks for the tip about the monorail.

No the rented strollers at DL or DCA cannot be taken from the Parks. But there are other places to rent strollers. I am not sure if the hotels do, but I know they do rent ECVs and wheelchairs. I got my ECV from the Disneyland Hotel for the whole trip and I could take it in and out of the Parks. With the Park rentals, they have to stay in the Parks. Check with your hotel next time, they may rent them.

I am sorry if I made it sound like I thought your trip was a downer. I did enjoy the parts of your report that said you did have some magic moments. I have had bad trips to DL as well. They are far less than the good ones and even on the bad trips, we managed to have some fun. 4 out of our last 5 trips to DL, I have gotten sick, but managed to salvage the trip.

Only one was REALLY bad enough that it required a house call to the DL Hotel from a doctor for an injection for nausea. I had the dreaded stomach virus and was in bed for 4 days. We added a few days at the end of the trip and did have some fun. So there are ALWAYS magic moments to every trip!:)
DPC

Did you know that you can't have weapons in Disneyland? An undercover Anaheim detective pulls my husband aside and asks for his knives. He says that he will hold them until the park closes. He reassures my PSYCHO off duty police officer husband that there are plenty of police on duty, evidenced by the fact that three more cops come out of the woodwork as back up. Thank goodness we were in such a rush that my husband forgot to pack his gun.

WHAT? KNIVES? Forgot his GUN? YIKES! :eek::eek:

Wiserkisor

I liked your report. The girls sounds cute and a handful esp.at 4!
Sorry you had problems with the Travelocity things. But you made me feel better about using AAA and Disney travel, never had a problem with either one,*knocks on wood*.

WE have LE family and friends. YES they are a little off! They really have a hard time now "carrying" thier wepons they feel exposed and naked without them. Rember they see the bad stuff all day and because of them we don't have to.
Heck I have to remind my DH who is a farmer to leave his pocket knife at the hotel! Altough he has accidently ended up with it in the park before. He uses it to cut up the kids apples we buy in the park.
Trust me Dl has a ton of officers!! I saw them remove a guy once I could not believe how many just "showed" up!!:eek: Made me feel much better and safer!!
The down side to DL officers is that they all have stickers!;) MY DS always seems to be able to spot one of them and stares at them till they say HI and he gets a sticker out of them. NOW he thinks everytime he sees a policeman that he has a sticker for him!! :D HE walked up to a Clovis officer(my home town) in the groecry store the other day and just stared at him! Poor man was soo confused by this, so I told him that at DL officers have stickers! To my surprize he pulls out his wallet and hands my son a Star badge sticker!

This does not help! :rolleyes:So now he does really think all policemen/women have stickers!!!!! Our poor family & friends now carry stickers just of my DD and DS!!


I think it is good that people put the snafoos in their reports gives the rest of us a heads up! If you have never been before then it is hard to realize just how long the waits are and if your kiddos will have a melt down or not. Some do some don't. Like my kids walk everywhere they hated strollers, so no place is too far for them. but my NF's they walk 2 feet and you would think they had just finished a 10k run!! And they are 13&10!!! mine are 5&9!

I it did sound like you had a lot of fun!! next time will be much better because you now know what to except! and the girls will be older that helps a lot!
Some tiny tid bits. always use MOnorail when you can it's a nice rest and saves the feet. There is an entrance to GHC right next to libby lu! it is that little hallway that goes next to libby and down hill. WE use it all the time as a cut throuh to PPH!(my kids didn't like GCH they like the softer beds at PPH, not that I could tell the difference, silly things)
And try to get to meals before anyone gets too hungry, cuts down on the figiting and the melt downs from tired hungry bellies!!!

I know that your next rip will be better now you got your feet wet!!
kat

Did you know that you can't have weapons in Disneyland?

Imagine that! :eek:

I don't understand the weapons thing. Disney was perfectly in the right to confiscate them if you wanted to enter the park.Most LE officers carry off duty. Disneyland is excellent in that they understand this and they are set up for the situation. If you were to bring a knife, they would make you take it back to your room/car/etc... If a LE officer arrives with a weapon, Anaheim PD is there to lock the weapon for them. Why do I know this? My son is in LE and carries. He was going with us to Disneyland and asked me to see what he would need to do. Its simple, at the bag check area, you let them know, they call Anaheim PD to escort you to the lock up area, lock the weapon, and head to the park.