DL/DCA Feb 10-13 DLH Concierge and RAIN!!

chamonix

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Jan 20, 2001
The cast: Chamonix and dh Thomas, first visit to DL since we were kids, and four year old dd Claire; first visit to DL. Our trip began with my mother's wedding invitation...she lives about twenty minutes from DL so we knew if we were coming out to SoCal from SoIL, we would be going to Disneyland. We only had 30 days notice. Thankfully, sites like this got us ready, fast!! We booked DLH concierge, but were unable to get a suite on such short notice. We requested a king size bed. We tried for the bed and the suite upon arrival, but neither was available. That being said, our room was nice enough and fairly spacious. Nothing too spectacular. The glowing tinkerbelle wallpaper was a nice touch, but too high for my dd to really appreciate. It would have been better if our room was on the 11th floor, as it wasn't, we really didn't use the lounge much at all. We arrived at noon on Saturday. Our room wasn't ready, so we stored the bags and hopped the monorail in DD. I am so glad we did. Apparently, cold and rain had been forecast, and the park was very uncrowded. I also think the opening of DCA scared many people off--fear of crowds! But,we were able to walk right onto all of the rides! Since my dd is four we mostly did FL rides, over and over again with no wait. The weather was actually great, it would be the best weather we would see over the next three days, which just got colder with more rain. In my delirium, I took my dd onto Pirates and PeterPan with no real preparation, and she got a little spooked. She wouldn't go on any more dark rides after that. The rest of that day and the rest of our trip consisted of balancing her endless Dumbo/Casey jr/small world/jungle cruise/carousel desires with our adult desires, like Indy, and Space mountain, and all the dark rides. I feel like I will never be satisfied with DL again, we are too spoiled now that we have experienced it with no lines. We rode every ride that we wanted many many times. The bad thing about the rain is that it does close some attractions. I didn't get to ride Alice, and we were only able to ride the teacups once in three days. We never got to Tom Sawyers Island. :( Eventually we went to our room but came back after dark for Fantasmic. DD slept right through it in the stroller! We hustled over to Main street for fireworks and she did wake up in time to see tinkerbelles flight.We really wanted to make sure we saw these things on Saturday because there were no fireworks any other day, and even though Fantasmic was scheduled for Sunday, we knew the rain might cancel it. On Sunday, I got up and headed over to Guest Relations to get Fantasmic Balcony Dessert tix. Because Sunday is not an early entry day I could get up at a fairly reasonable hour. I ended up getting there only about an hour before opening and there were already several people in line. They told me there weren't going to be enough tix for me, because there are only fifteen seats available. But I knew there were more like twenty, so I stayed, and yes, got tix, and so did the folks who arrived after me! That night on the balcony I counted 20, maybe even 21 including the two kids (mine and someone elses). Because of the time change, Fantasmic is really late for my dd. She was asleep again when it was time to head up to the balcony. We carried her up and hoped she would wake up in time. She woke up, after the happy Mickey flower parts, just in time for the scary parts!:eek: But after a few minutes she really enjoyed it. I have to say, that was one of the highlights of our trip. I will ALWAYS try for tix when we return, it was worth every penny. I would have done it again the next night, but there wasn't one scheduled. The other highlights: dd's face when Snow White's voice comes out of the wishing well, character encounters with no lines or crowds, riding the carousel with the marching band, wearing our GOH badges, Main street with no crowds, Toon town with no crowds, NO CROWDS!! The downside: the food is truly awful. I love to cook (and eat!)and when we travel we always try to eat lots of new things. I was amazed every day at how DL food could go so wrong. They managed to ruin food that I couldn't even imagine could be ruined. It was almost comical after awhile, how bad it was. Nothing was ever quite what we expected. We tried to eat at the recommended places, but many were closed due to the low attendance. Bengal BBQ was only open Saturday, Blue Bayou was only open for lunch the day we planned to eat dinner there, etc. Finally we ate at Granvilles in the DLH and had a fantastic meal. I highly recommend it. I had lobster (yum) and tempura green beans (yum yum) I saw in another post that someone asked about dressing up there. I had on black jeans and hiking boots. Most people there had on nice jeans or khaki's and nice tshirts or polo shirts. as long as you don't look like a complete homeless bum, I'm sure they will take your money. Noone was wearing suits or dresses or anything. We also ate at Goofy's Kitchen a few times. The character interaction was fantastic. My dd would not talk to the characters at all and they did a great job of trying to draw her out, and interacting with her in a non-threatening way. The food was ok, not great, but not horrible. I also spent some time at the Lost Bar behind the Neverland Pool. A nice laid back place, live music, great service. I've never written a trip report before, sorry if this is a bit scattered. I think this is all for tonight. All in all we had a great time and can't wait to do it again! :D
 
Nice report! :D

We head out next Wednesday afternoon and I can't wait!! <IMG WIDTH="15" HEIGHT="15" SRC="/infopop/emoticons/icon_razz.gif" alt="razz">

Sheila
sheila.bennett@home.com
Wilderness Lodge; Dec 1999
Disneyland March 2001!
 
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<font face="Comic Sans MS"><font color=navy>Chamonix,
Great report, especially since you all had such a good time. :D

Loved reading about your experiences, and that it was so much fun for you dd, too. I took my kids on Pirates, and after age 3, they refused to go on it, until about age 6. BUT, they just loved the Haunted Mansion - go figure. :rolleyes:

Thanks again for the great report. :)

<font face="Comic Sans MS"><font color=#FF0066>Mary Jo
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Disneyland & Techie Boards Co-Moderator
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My DL Site
My Sequoia/Yosemite Trip

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You sure lucked out with the low crowds. Sounds like a great Disney time was had by all. Thanks for posting!
 



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