Hi everyone! I’ve wanted to report back since our
Disneyland trip but came back and hit life full throttle, now focused on our Disney world trip that’s in November (dining reservations open next week!) so I’m back!
Our trip was pretty amazing! Magical for sure!
Our first time staying at the Grand Californian and I’m not sure how I can ever NOT stay there again. We got what we requested, a room very close to the lobby. It was on the 5th floor, 5110. The view wasn’t amazing but I could see the Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier hotel.
We utilized room service for breakfast one morning and it was delicious and hot and prompt.
We got pizza from downstairs one night to eat upstairs in the room.
I loved the piano playing in the lobby and the highlight was one late afternoon when a young girl (14-15?) in a Cinderella dress played disney songs.
We had housekeeping every day and it was impeccable.
Being back in the parks was emotional and worth the four year wait.
Galaxys edge blew me away.
Our highlights were:
-Fantasmic premium dining at River Belle. Based on previous reviews was worried about food and view but both were GREAT! My New York and scallops were perfect. The mashed potatoes stole the show!
-WOC dessert party was everything I’d hoped it would be. The desserts and cheese were good, we had more than enough. We boxed up what we couldn’t eat but sadly ended up throwing it away when we opted to hop back over to Disneyland to ride more rides.
-we only did early entry one day (actually I did it solo) and it was incredible. I went straight to Peter Pan and then I knocked out almost every ride in fantasyland and then went back on Peter Pan again. After that second ride on Peter Pan the queue was completely full. In speaking of solo, my husband had a hard time on this trip since Covid kind of knocked him on his butt and my daughter is somewhere at a tween age or she just wasn’t feeling like pushing as hard as I was. So all in all over the course of the end of one day and the beginning of another, I actually had seven hours total of a long time in Disneyland.
I would recommend this to anybody because it’s a very good feeling being in the parks and just doing exactly what you wanna do eating what you want when you want, I feel like I took more of this time to just go slow and take pictures of things and wander around.
-I feel like another really good part of our trip was our last night when we decided to close the park and for the first time we rode jungle Cruise at night. We’ve always just done it during the day. We ended up getting a really good skipper, his name is Kyle he was hilarious and entertaining and it was fun being on the boat in the dark with him occasionally turning on his spotlight to point out different things. It was like a completely different ride. We were so impressed with him that I wrote to guest services to share how amazing he was.
-we have the tomorrowland skyline experience booked and I was really excited about it and I was going to surprise my husband and daughter with it, but when I explained it to them they really weren’t interested in it so we didn’t canceling that. I was looking forward to trying it and seeing the fireworks from a different place. Speaking of the fireworks I never once stopped and watch the fireworks, like with the castle or even small world. I only ever saw them while we were in route from one thing or another so that was a little bit different for this trip and then hindsight I missed pausing to actually watch and listen to the show.
-Another highlight was eating lunch at the blue Bayou. It was one of my most missed and anticipated restaurants/meals and it didn’t disappoint. I ended up getting the filet mignon and it was cooked perfectly and super delicious, I wanted to switch out the potatoes for mashed potatoes but they said no and I’m glad because they ended up being incredible, almost melt in your mouth. And I also almost passed up on getting the hurricane because it’s so hot out and I just didn’t want to be slow down from having alcohol, but I’m so glad I got it because it was absolutely delicious.
There’s so much more I can say, but so much of it is just feeling. Even with the crowds and the heat I just felt so blessed to be there and loved every minute of it. I took a lot of pictures but here are just a few.
