My husband and I did our first trip to Disneyland. He has been to WDW multiple times, while I have been a few times.
Tickets - purchased at Sam’s. Same discounter for our employee discount programs at work. 5 day, park hopper M-F.
Airline: Dallas Love to John Wayne on Southwest Airlines. This was the low-cost carrier due to their crazy baggage allowance. We checked a medium bag and a “regular” bag (size you normally stow overhead when you travel for business), and we carried on a back pack and small weekend bag (looks like a regular suitcase, but just small enough to fit under a seat). No extra charge. Did early bird check and worth every penny.
Hotel Grand Legacy at the Park. Some good; some bad but, will never stay there again. BAD: Booking online was inaccurate. We selected a street facing room, confirmation came back hotel facing. Called and they said they would fix it and they did not. Checked in and room was directly under the rooftop bar, even though we booked almost five months in advance and paid at time of booking. They did move us to a lower floor but the noise from the mechanics on the lower levels (which we could see from room) was almost as bad as the bar music. Happy Hour advertised; hostess confirms that it is happy hour; drinks and appetizers ordered from bartender who confirms happy hour and WAIT FOR IT - no, it is not happy hour. The bartender tried to make it right to some extent. She comped one appetizer. GOOD: rooms were well appointed and really quite nice. Location was great. Easy walk to main gate.
Genie + We liked it, but recognize that it is not for everyone. We had 5 days in the park. We used it more for Photopass, mobile food orders, and LL admissions. We did NOT rely on the Genie to plan our day for us. We had some goals each day, with a lot of just relaxation and snacking in between. We spent less on Genie + in a week than what we would have paid for one day of Express Pass at UOR a few years ago when we went. Use at your own risk and do not depend on it for day planning - that is why you are here!
Food - meh. It was better than “park food” but just shy of “OMG”. Cafe Orleans, Carnation Cafe were the only two sit downs we could score reservations for. The other which came up closer to trip had not so good reviews here so we opted out. Pym’s was darn tasty, as was Bengal BBQ. Ronto’s over Docking Bay 7 all day, and Oga’s is a must just to see the place. Jack Jack Num Nums - get one.
Overall - really liked the history of Disneyland, Avengers’s Campus was great. Pixar Pier was a delightful surprise (we have visited other “pleasure piers” and this one hits the ball out of the park). What we did not like were the crowds that showed up. We did have some constraints on the dates, but all of the crowd predictors were not batting a 1000 for this week and were pretty off the mark. This site gave us a heads up, so we were prepared. LL allowed us to ride more rides, and yes, we had “downtime” between rides, but we had other goals for the trip.
Will we return? - most likely. We have two grandchildren now and we are going to be the Disneyland Grandparents and leave WDW to the other set of GPs. We liked the smallness of the parks, the ease of park hopping, and the knowledge that Walt was there. Seeing the “originals” was a real treat. Next travel goal is to save for a stay on the Halcyon!
