In March, my family took a wonderful week-long vacation to Disneyland, California! It was our first time to California and Disneyland. Today's blog post is about my review of our stay at Disney's Grand Californian Resort and Spa.
Grand lobby...beautiful!
Loved the Californian architecture throughout this resort
We chose to stay at the Grand Californian because it offered the convenience and amenities we were looking for. Brian and I both like to spend the extra money and stay at the deluxe level resorts because we do spend a lot of time at the resort, so it is just as important to enjoy our resort as well as the rest of our vacation.
Our sweet boy sleeping at the Grand Californian!
We booked a standard view room as our view isn't a deal breaker but we were pleasantly surprised when we were given a deluxe theme park view room. Our room was nice, modern, up-to-date, spacious and close to the elevators.
House keeping was also very accommodating. Our little boy woke up the first night throwing up. After a full day of flying across the country to get to Disneyland, he had gotten sick from flying. Our maid was up to our room within minutes to strip all of the bedding away, make his bed and also brought our son Sprite, saltines and stickers from "Mickey Mouse". We appreciated the fast response and nice gesture along with her help.
Look at our room view of California Adventure theme park!
Our room
Our room
Our room
Our room
The convenience of this resort was the best feature. Our resort had a private entrance for Grand Californian Resort guests to enter California Adventure Theme Park, you had a private entrance as well to Downtown Disney which then led you to Disneyland. Everything was right outside our hotel entrance. We loved loading our two year old up in the stroller and just walking to where we wanted to go...no buses or folding/unfolding strollers on the way. With this feature, you never realized how much of your time from Disney World vacations was spent on a bus.
You want to go to California Adventure for the attractions but then hop over to Disneyland's parade? 10 minute walk. Want to go to Downtown Disney's Rainforest Cafe for dinner? Two minute walk. Want late night ice cream at Downtown Disney's Haagen Daas? Two minute walk.
This is the common theme of convenience that you will experience at the Grand Californian Resort. We loved it! Along with the close proximity to everything Disneyland, our resort also offered many great in-resort amenities. From shopping, dining, wonderful pools, kids areas throughout the entire resort plus the excellent service from all cast members and the concierge you encounter on property makes for a stress free stay.
Our little boy at our resort's Storytellers Cafe Character Breakfast
The Storytellers Cafe at our resort was delicious and fun! We actually did this breakfast twice because it was fun for our little boy and the breakfast was awesome! I also want to send a major shout out to Juan, our waiter. When you pay for this breakfast, it automatically includes your gratuity. We didn't know this so we included an extra $20 bill for his gratuity. He caught us on our way out the door and told us his gratuity was already included and tried to give us our money back. Good people still exist, my friends. Where some may have thought that they just hit the double gratuity jackpot and kept it, Juan was honest and upfront. We made sure we passed along how much we appreciated his honesty.
The only thing I want to point out is this:
The Grand Californian Resort and Spa is very strict with their 4 pm check-in time. This confusion is a mistake on my part because I just assumed that if you had earlier flights in, like at Disney World, the hotel would try to get your family checked in earlier. This isn't the case at Disneyland. All check-ins are from 4 pm on and we were told that they very rarely allow any early check-ins. I would've made our flights later if I knew how strict this policy was. Lesson learned, next time flights into California will get us there at 4 pm :)
Our family vacations are just that...vacations. We enjoy ourselves, we never sweat the small stuff, we treat all resort/cruise/vacation employees the way we want to be treated and we aren't nit-picky. That is why we never have had a bad vacation!
Pool area
Father/Son in the pool!
fireworks view from our resort
I hope you enjoyed this review. I would recommend the Grand Californian Resort to anyone looking for a great resort right in the heart of the Disneyland magic. I always say this though, no matter what Disney Resort you choose (because they are all fun, unique and great)...just choose a Disney resort. It truly does maximize your entire Disney vacation experience!
We LOVED Disneyland!
I will be posting my review of Disneyland very soon! Disneyland was Walt Disney's first vision and he didn't disappoint.
Until next time...
