Day 1: Flew out of Oakland airport @ 7:15am, and arrived in Orange County @ aroun 8:20am. We flew right by Disneyland. That was pretty cool. We had to wait for our shuttle (Disneyland Express) for an hour! That was a little frustrating. Although we met another contest winner while waiting. She was from Seattle. Very nice group of people. Got to the GCH and picked up our park hoppers and left our bags with the bell service. Got into the park a little before 11am. Right away started snapping away with pictures. Watched the marching band show IFO the castle. Very cute! (check out my pics in the gallery). 1st ride was to be Pirates, but as we got almost to the front of the line, it broke down. Then tried Haunted, but the line was ridiculous. Headed over to Indy, but Pirates was now open, so we hopped on that. Very cool! Love the new stuff. My son didn't quite agree with me. He just burried his head in my neck. Then onto Indy. My daughter is now tall enough (with the right shoes) to be able to go on it. She was so excited/nervous. She closed her eyes the whole time. Then onto eat luch at the Mexican food place by Big Thunder (can't remember the name). What a bust. The food was just OK and we spent $45 on it! So not worth it! Then decided to head back to the Hotel to check into our room, which was supposed to be ready at 3pm. Got back to the GCH and our room was not ready. They told me to check back again. It should be ready between 3 & 4 pm. Checked about every 10 minutes. Finally @ 3:50pm, it was still not ready, so I let the girl know that I was not OK with it anymore and they got us into a room right away. Asked for an empty refridgerator 3 times to 3 different people and never got it. My son's milk and my left over Mexican food went wasted. The room was nice, not great. The long walk to our room was just that...LONG! Rested for a little, settled in, and then back to the park. Went on a lot more rides. Saw the fireworks. Stayed until about 12:30am. Good, but tiring day. My son was not as excited to be there as we thought he would. We were a little dissapointed, but that would all change by the next morning. My daughter had a great time as usual. I can always count on her to enjoy Disneyland like we do!

Day 2: Got to the Disneyland and went straight to the Plaza Inn for our 9:10am reservations for Minnie's Character breakfast. Wow! SO much fun. Jaylen was so into it. He loved the characters. He kept kissing Minnie and Chip (or Dale?) on their noses. My daughter got a lot of autographs. She hardly ate a thing! There goes $12.99 out the door! My son made up for what she didn't eat, though, so that was fine. Since we were one of the first reservations, there weren't many people there yet, so all of the characters had visited our table within the first 15 minutes of being there. Which was good because we saw them less and less as the crowd got bigger. Tigger was funny. He was flirting with one of the girls at the other table. She was about 21 or so and she was cute. He liked her A LOT! I was standing in line for my omelette and Pooh came up and stood next to me. Then he gave me a package of honey. Very funny. Chip and Dale LOvED my son. They both wanted to hold him, so they ended up fighting for him. They were on the floor rolling around throwing punches at each other, while my son walked away and went on to eating his grapes. Hilarious! Got the whole thing on video. After Minnie's, we hit up some more rides and a few more characters, and then headed over to DCA. Went on Monster's Inc. Cute ride. Then onto Flick's Fair. Walked over Rita's Margaritas. My husbands favorite place at DCA. Then went to Jumpin' Jellyfish. Saw Lightning McQueen and Mater while waiting for my daughter and my husband to get on the ride. My son like them a lot. Ate some McDonald's, and then the boys went back to the hotel for a nap while the girls went on TOT. Saw Mrs Incredible, did some quick shopping and back to the hotel for some rest and to change into warmer clothes. Back to Disneyland @ around 6:30ish. Everyone was lining up for the Halloween party. Saw a little bit of the parade, went to Toontown. Met Mickey (very rushed). I don't even think my son realized we were with Mickey. Left Toontown and onto more rides. Went on HMH and as we were exiting, the 10:30pm show of Fantasmic was just starting. Walked over the the TSI raft loading dock. It was completely empty! Leaned right up to the railing and video taped the whole show. Great view! Got wet, even! Headed out to Main Street for some shopping. Ended up staying so late that we were one of the few last people there. They actually turned all the lights off on Main Street for about a minute, then turned them back on. I guess it was their way of telling is to get out. Another good day! Off to the hotel to sleep!

Day 3: Last day. Had early entry, so got ready and packed everything up. Went out onto our balcony to check the weather. Across the way, saw a naked guy standing IFO his window. Can't get the visual out of my mind. Very bad! Went to White Water Snacks for breakfast. Got into the park and went to City Hall to get my husband's birthday badge. Then off to Peter Pan, like everyone else! Did Space and buzz a couple times each. Did some more rides, then off to the Princesses for autographs. The line was long, but the daughter wanted the autographs. While waiting in line, noticed that some guy and his girlfriend/wife and daughter walked up with a Disneyland hostess and some other lady with a headset on. So, we were nosey. They got to enter the line through the exit, so we kinda figured it was someone famous. It was Mark Wahlberg! Yup! We saw a famous person. He was about 10 feet from us. What a hottie! I got some pictures, but they're not good. I should've zoomed in. From there, we went on Storybook Land. I hate that line. 45 minutes later, we were off to the Jedi Training Academy show. Waited for 30 minutes. Aiyanna was chosen to be a Jedi trainee, and got to fight Darth Vader. THE highlight of our trip. It was so much fun. Got it all on video as well. Headed off to Main Street to do some last minute stuff/shopping. Left the park at around 4pm. Did some quick shopping at World of Disney, then back to the hotel to catch the 4:45pm Disneyland Express bus to catch our plane. Bad SNA airport experience leaving, but got home safe at around 10 pm Monday night.

I'm probably leaving off some details, but it's so much for me to remember right now. I can update later.

What a wonderful trip we had! I did get a little emotional at times because it was just such a fun trip. Couldn't have asked for more! Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed it!

Angie

It sounds like you had a wonderful time!  Isn't it sad to leave?  I always cry my first trip in, and my last trip out. lol

Last time we stayed at the Grand, our room wasn't ready for hours either!  I can't believe you had to ask for a fridge 3 times.  That is horrible!

As to Rancho Del Zocala (the name of the Mexican Restaurant), haven't you read our reviews???  Do you not trust us??   Food has really gone downhill there and we are not even planning on eating there this trip because of that.

Great seats for Fantasmic!  I am so happy for you.  Now you will have the memory forever since you put it on video.

I would love to see the Jedi Academy video!  Maybe we can figure out a way to streamline it so we can all watch. lol

Thanks for the wonderful report!

Is it okay with you if we put it on our site?

Leanne

May All Your Days Be Filled With Magic!  And your nights full of Disney Dreams!

No, I didn't think to read the reviews there because we always eat there and have had no problems with it until now.

That would be so cool! I would love to do that if we could figure it out. Maybe I'll "Youtube" it and you can watch it that way.

Oh, absolutely!

Angie

The hotel itself was very nice looking. The staff was also very nice. I just never rec'd the fridge, the walk was REALLY long, as we were on the 5th floor. If you're in DTD, our room would've been directly above the Anne Geddes store, but facing the opposite direction of DTD. We would've been able to see the Monorail zoom by our room if it was running. The amount of time to get into our room was ridiculous. I'm glad I put my foot down. Who knows how long it would've taken to get into our original assigned room. I did find someone's pair of socks in our dresser. We don't use the dressers, but my daughter opened it up and sure enough there were a pair of men's socks rolled up inside.

I wish we had gone swimming, but by the time we got back to the hotel on Saturday, we had the room drama, and it got too late. On Sunday, we got back to the hotel after 4 pm and it was already colder than the day before. Too bad.

I did like that our beds were turned down when we got back, though. That was a nice touch. Those beds were sssooooo cozy! They were really high up, too. My son fell off one of them. Got himself a real good knot on the back of his head. He's fine, though.

I think if we had a longer time there, we would've been able to appreciate EVERYTHING! I would've liked to sit by the fireplace. Also, they have this thing they do daily. It's a hidden mickey quest. If you're the first ones to find them all, you win! I don't know what you win, but you do get something. That's what the girl at the check in counter told us, anyways.

All in all... I can complain too much because I didn't pay for any of it, but I don't think we'll ever plan on a stay there again. I'd rather stay across the way at a good neighbor hotel. It seems like they're a little closer as far as walking goes.

Angie

I do love the beds at the Grand.  Alex has never fallen off a hotel bed.  When he was younger we would put pillows behind him to keep that from happening.

May All Your Days Be Filled With Magic!  And your nights full of Disney Dreams!

Angie

May All Your Days Be Filled With Magic!  And your nights full of Disney Dreams!

May All Your Days Be Filled With Magic!  And your nights full of Disney Dreams!