Laura's Disney Lines

The new DVC Villas at the Grand Californian have been open less than three weeks, and this is our second stay here. :-)

On opening weekend we stayed one night in a studio. The room we were given was 1516, which is an accessible room on the first floor. I thought that all of the DVC Villas would have either a park or a pool view...but there are three rooms on each floor on the end of the building, and so the rooms on the first and second floors (and probably the third) have no view at all. And 1516 was one of those. Sigh. I was rather disappointed in that.

Because of the accessible features the room layout is a little different than the standard studios. The bed is right next to the window (and there's very little room between the bed and the wall), as compared to a standard studio.

The living area is in the center of the room, and the closet has no doors.

The kitchenette area is also a little different, since the area under the sink is cut back to allow wheelchair access.

The bathroom is all one room, instead of the toilet and bathtub being separate from the vanity.

The sink is built to curve out a bit to accommodate a wheelchair - I think it's a very attractive look.

The tub has a fold-down seat and a hand-held shower attachment in addition to the regular shower head.

Since it was opening weekend there were a few glitches...our room keys did not operate the gates to the pool or the gates to the parking lot. There is wireless internet throughout the resort, but my reception from our room was rather spotty - though that might have been location, since it's fine as I type this from a different room. Our room keys also did not identify us as DVC members.

So now it's two weeks later, and I'm happy to say that a lot of those problems have apparently been addressed. Our room keys say "DVC Member", and when I mentioned the access problems we had, the Cast Member who checked us in assured me that those opening weekend glitches have been fixed. Though I haven't tried the key in anything other than the door yet. :-)

This time we are in a one-bedroom villa on the 5th floor - but guess what, it's one of the rooms on the end of the building!!! There are only 18 of those in the entire resort - what are the odds? But at least we're up high enough that we have a view of Grizzly Peak and the Tower of Terror in the distance - though the main view is of Redwood Creek Challenge Trail.

Looking to the left we can also see the Redwood Pool area.

It seems pretty decadent to have this huge villa (it has two full bathrooms!) to ourselves...but we'll deal with it. :-) It's really beautiful - I could *so* live here!!!

White Water Snacks has been remodeled to put in a small (and I do mean small) grocery section. Unfortunately it's not a very large space to begin with, so there's even less of a selection than there was before for those who want to eat there.. The grocery supply is limited to things like eggs, cheese, lunch meat, and bread - there are a couple of frozen selections like pizza. But if you're staying at the Villas and planning to cook you'll really have to do your grocery shopping elsewhere.

Something new that they've added at the Mariposa Pool is four cabanas. These covered areas have a table, a couple of chairs, and a couple of chaise lounges that go with them. They also have a flat screen TV and an attendant who will assist with things like drink/food orders, providing towels, etc. They can either be rented for half a day (morning or afternoon) for $120, or all day for $180.

I find parking to be a bit of an issue here. In the hotel expansion they added a parking garage underneath, but that's for valet parking only. Which is NOT free to DVC members like it is at the other DVC resorts - it's $17/day. And when they added all these rooms they didn't expand the self-parking lot at all - it was really tight the first weekend we were here, and people were getting a bit creative in parking. There is an overflow lot available, but it's back behind the Paradise Pier near the Wonder Tower of the Disneyland Hotel. As far as I've been able to tell your best chance of getting parking in the regular lot is to arrive after the 11:00 check-out time but before 2:00.

It's really a very nice resort - and it's terrific to finally have a DVC resort that's close to us! Though I have a feeling that once they sell out it will be difficult to stay here unless you own points here. But we'll enjoy it in the meantime - I already have a reservation for the first weekend of next year's California Food and Wine Festival (dates for that are April 16-May 31, 2010).

On Wednesday morning, September 23, the new wing of the Grand Californian Resort and Spa opened, just a little over two years after Disney announced the expansion of the resort.

Speaking at the Grand Opening ceremony were Disneyland Resort President Ed Grier, Disney Vacation Club President Jim Lewis and Anaheim City Manager Tom Wood. The ceremony was held at the new Mariposa Pool area.

The ceremony ended with the ribbon-cutting. Mickey Mouse brought out the over-sized scissors and Ed Grier and company cut the ribbon.

"Mariposa" means "butterfly" in Spanish, and as the ceremony concluded, Cast Members on the balconies of the new wing started waving colorful flags, many of them shaped like butterflies.

After the ceremony, there were tours of the expansion.

Contained within the new wing are the Villas at the Grand Californian, the first Disney Vacation Club (DVC) offering in California. There are 50 Vacation Club Villas - 48 two-bedroom units and two three-bedroom Grand Villas. It is Disney's smallest Vacation Club resort to date.

Our tour began in one of the Grand Villas - the one that overlooks Disney's California Adventure (the other has a view of the Mariposa Pool). We'll have lots more photos of the Grand Villa on the web site soon, but here are a few for now.

Dining room and part of entry way

Kitchen

Master Bedroom

TV in the mirror of the Master Bath

The Grand Villas are two-story - upstairs is a pool table and sitting area

View from the two-story picture window

As you can see, this Grand Villa will have a stunning view of the new World of Color show - the music will be piped in to the Grand Villa.

Next we went upstairs to the Paradise View Terrace. I had been up here during my hard hat tour of the Villas last March - it looks a little more impressive now. :-) According to the sign the capacity of this area is 48 people. There are restrooms at the back of the terrace.

We also toured a studio villa and a one-bedroom villa, but those really aren't any different from the models, and you can see pictures of them on our Villas at the Grand Californian Room Photos page.

In addition to the DVC units, there are also 203 additional hotel rooms. Though most of the emphasis has been on DVC, in fact most of the new wing contains standard hotel rooms. Here's one of the hotel rooms, which has two queen-size beds.

Behind the building there is a new patio area, with two gas barbecues for guests who wish to cook and dine al fresco during their stay.

On the bottom floor of the new wing is a new arcade room: Grizzly Game Arcade. Next door to that is Pinocchio's Workshop, the evening childcare facility. This will be its new and expanded location. Once it opens, it will accommodate about twice as many children as the current facility. There's also a laundry room on the bottom floor.

White Water Snacks has been slightly remodeled to add a few grocery items. VERY few - the selection is really quite limited, and in fact overall it appears to me that there are fewer items for sale than there used to be. I saw frozen pizzas, individual boxes of cereal, bread, peanut butter, some basic condiments, eggs, lunchmeat, cheese and butter, and not much else.

We'll be trying out the new Villas at the Grand Californian on Friday night, so I'll have more of a review after we really experience it for ourselves.

Last month I asked for your tips to help AllEars® reader Nancy plan her first trip to Disneyland this fall. Thanks to everyone who responded. In the interests of length, I have edited and combined similar responses.

Before we start, though, I wanted to mention that AllEars® blogger Jack Spence wrote a couple of blogs sharing his thoughts on Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom, and I think those would be helpful:
Disneyland vs. Magic Kingdom Part 1
Disneyland vs. Magic Kingdom Part 2

Several of you commented on preparing yourself and setting your expectations.

From Craig:
I think the most important planning step for a frequent WDW visitor going to Disneyland for the first time is attitude. When you're a frequent visitor to one Disney property, half of the fun of visiting another Disney location for the first time is to see the many similarities and many differences between the two. Be prepared for smaller, but don't make the mistake of equating smaller with not-as-good. I'll allow for one disappointment: arriving at Main Street for the first time, be prepared to wonder what happened to the castle.

From Amanda:
The first thing I would suggest is to go into the trip realizing that DL is a lot different than WDW. Some WDW vets express disappointment when they see DL for the first time, because they expect it to be the same. It isn't, but it's wonderful and so much fun in its own right! :)

From Maureen:
For the first time DL visitor:
-read some history of DL so you can appreciate its past as well as its present
-be sure to do the rides and attractions that are unique to DL
-take time to notice the little things;the shops are filled with wonderful, charming detail
-start planning your next trip because you'll want to go back !

From Dan (a first time visitor last year!):
I would suggest taking two full days (at least) to see the Magic Kingdom. There's just so much packed into the space (yet it doesn't seem cramped).

A number of you mentioned concentrating on the attractions that are at Disneyland but not at Disney World, such as the Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage, Roger Rabbit's Cartoon Spin, Grizzly River Rapids, and Monsters, Inc.

From Dayle:
Ride the Storybook Land Canal boats - charming and amazing examples of bonsai. Matterhorn Bobsled since this is a Disneyland original. Indiana Jones - much better than Dinosaur. I also think Space Mountain and Autopia are better than the Magic Kingdom counterparts.

From Kameo:
[After arriving at park opening] I'd recommend heading straight to Matterhorn in Disneyland. It is fantastic (though a little rough) and does not have fastpasses. The line can be unmanageable if you wait to ride it later in the day. Also, you absolutely must hit Indiana Jones. It is a great ride (think of the ride vehicle for Dinosaur at Animal Kingdom) and you should hit it or Space Mountain immediately after Matterhorn.

From Dan:
I'd say make sure to take the Disneyland Railroad for a complete circuit of the park, as my suggestion to first timers.

From A.D.:
Others will have plenty to say about attractions - the only one I want to highlight is the Sailing Ship Columbia, a very under-appreciated attraction; don't miss the museum!

From Barb:
Couple of things they really gotta go for in Disneyland. Our Pirates of the Caribbean, just a much better start and finish than WDW, our Peter Pan, for the amazing fiber optic stars :)

From Shirley:
You absolutely, positively, must experience the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland. I still do not understand why they don't have this fantastic ride at WDW. The waiting area is not to be missed as well.

The #1 recommendation was the Aladdin show at DCA, where I received several comments such as the following:

From Dayle:
Biggest recommendation for first time visitor to Disneyland Resort is to see the Aladdin show at the Hyperion Theater within California Adventure. This is a Broadway caliber production with fantastic sets and performers.

From Amanda:
At California Adventure, definitely make time to see the Aladdin musical! There is one character especially who makes the experience very entertaining! This is something I would go see multiple times on a vacation because it's that good!

And of course there were lots of recommendations on places to eat! :-) Quite a few of you suggested the Blue Bayou (I have to admit it's not one of my favorites, though).

From Gabriela:
While dining at DLR isn't as big of a deal as WDW, I would suggest at least one meal at the Blue Bayou. The best food may not always be guaranteed, but there's just something about eating right next to PotC.

From Suzie:
I think that the Pirates of the Caribbean and the Blue Bayou restaurant are must dos. The ride is awesome, of course but the eatery is wonderful and themed so well!

There were quite a few other less-well-known recommendations, though:

From Dayle:
In Disneyland, skip the ice cream carts and go to the Gibson Girl Ice Cream Parlor on Main Street. For maybe a $1 more, you get a large hand scooped ice cream sundae with the fixings.

From Kameo:
For food, be sure to try the corn dogs! They are in the little red cart just to the right of main street when walking toward the castle. They are the best value in food at Disneyland.

From Barb:
They gotta head to DCA for a swirl ice cream at Catch A Flave- absolutely the best ice cream in the park. We actually will make the drive up from San Diego just to get a taste of it ;)

From Gabriela:
And if you know someone who can get you into Club 33, then go for it!!! Other table service restaurants worth a stop include the Carnation Café on Main Street, and Wine Country Trattoria over at DCA. Great counter service places for me include the French Market at DL (good t.s. food at c.s. prices, mint juleps and live music! what's not to love?), and the choices over at Pacific Wharf at DCA.

From Connie:
If you enjoy character dining, do go to Disneyland Hotel's Goofy's Kitchen. It is one of the best character dining experiences-I have been to many. So many unique characters that you do not usually see or meet. The characters intermingle with the children so well. Another very nice dining experience is at Paradise Pier in California Adventure. It is Ariel's Grotto. Here it is a restaurant, in Disney World it is a meeting area. I would strongly suggest arranging a Fantasmic package with dessert so you can really enjoy the show.

And there were quite few miscellaneous, but very helpful, suggestions!

From Kameo:
As with Disneyworld, always arrive to the parks at open as this is the time you will get on the most rides in the least amount of time.

From Van:
Just returned from DL for the first time with my son. I would recommend going on the welcome to Disneyland Tour if for any other reason than the priority seating to Aladdin and the fastpasses which can be used for any ride, even those that don't normally take fastpasses, like the Matterhorn. It is relatively cheap by Disney standards and you can save money with your Disney Visa Card or AAA.

From A.D.:
For the convenience factor, many of the "Good Neighbor" hotels located near Disneyland are just as close as the Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier. (The monorail will save you some walking *if* it's open, but it won't save you much time, especially if you have to wait.) Disney's Grand Californian Resort is the only place that really will save you walking time over the other hotels in the area.

From Shirley:
The New Orleans square is beautiful as well (another "why don't they have this at WDW"). Be sure to stroll through it and grab lunch there as well.

From Brittany - a Jungle Cruise Skipper!:
Ride the Jungle Cruise at night, it's more exciting that way. It is not like the WDW one in many ways! The Celebrate parade is fun, IF you have small children, but please don't wait around for an hour for it, it's good, but not that good. You MUST watch the fireworks in Sept. if Magical is still the show going on then try to stake out a spot before 9pm. The very best spot in my humble opinion would be in the Plaza, which is that little area just after Main Street USA but just before the Hub.

Disneyland AllEars® Meet and Greet!

AllEars® Team members Deb Wills, Laura Gilbreath, Lisa Berton and Cathy Bock invite you to come by and say "Hello!" at 11 a.m. on Sunday, October 11, 2009, at the Disneyland Plaza Garden Stage.

Directions: Walk down Main Street until you reach the statue of Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney. The entrance to the outdoor covered stage with tables and chairs will be up and to the left.

Let us know you plan to attend by emailing allearsnet at yahoo dot com

On Thursday I had the opportunity to take a "Sneak Peek Hard Hat Tour" of the DVC Grand Californian Villas. These villas are still under construction - they are scheduled to open late this fall - November according to some of the literature we were given.

Our tour began with a continental breakfast and an overview of the Disney Vacation Club (DVC) program from DVC Sales Director Mike Brunson. Lee and I have been DVC members since 1996, so the program itself is quite familiar to me. (Since AllEars has a very comprehensive DVC page, I won't cover it here - see the AllEars Disney Vacation Club page for all of the details.)

Some things I learned about the Grand Californian Villas (GCV):

It is the smallest DVC resort to date - a total of only 50 units. There are 48 two-bedroom units (most of which can be split into a one bedroom and a studio) and two Grand Villas.

It will be the 10th Disney Vacation Club property to open.

The Grand Villas will sleep 12 and are two stories high.

Our next stop was the DVC Models, which are located near the Wonder Tower of the Disneyland Hotel. I had seen these last year, but at that point they were not quite ready for the public and we were not allowed to take photos.

What can I say - the rooms are gorgeous. They have models of a Studio and a One-Bedroom unit. The rooms are decorated in the Arts & Crafts style like the rest of the Grand Californian, so there's lots of wood, granite counter tops, stained-glass lamps, etc. We started our tour in the Studio, since it just gets better from there. Yeah, staying in a Studio is a pretty tough assignment. :-)

We moved next door into the One-Bedroom unit. These units have a design that is a little different from most of the other DVC resorts - the major difference is that there is a second bathroom. Which would make it a lot easier if there's 4-5 people staying in it. These units also accommodate 5 people instead of 4 - there's a Murphy bed built into the bottom of the entertainment unit. Very tricksy! :-) The dining room table has a built-in bench seat, so it takes up a little less room that way.

For the hard hat tour we moved into the construction site itself. We were not allowed to take any photographs, so that's why all you'll see are photos taken from outside.

First we had to put on hard hats - they were white and said "VISITOR" on them.

Our two guides were Leah Jason, the Walt Disney Imagineering Construction Supervisor, and Bruce Campbell, the Senior Superintendent, who works for CWD - the building contractor.

We started on the very bottom floor, which is actually the valet parking garage. Since space is at a premium, they put the parking garage below the new part of the hotel. There are two parking levels and about 300 spaces.

From there we went up the freight elevator to the third floor. The rooms in that section are all standard guest rooms - the new wing of the Grand Californian adds about 200 new guest rooms in addition to the 50 DVC units. Most of these rooms had drywall on the walls, and the tile in the tub area was done. But no plumbing or any other fixtures yet.

There are going to be "bridges" to tie the new part of the building to the existing part on the second through sixth floors. On the first floor will be a covered walkway. To me that description sounded quite similar to the way that Wilderness Lodge and Villas at Wilderness Lodge are connected.

There will be three passenger elevators.

From there we went up to the 5th floor and into one of the Grand Villas. We were on the second floor of it, where there is a balcony that overlooks the living area below, and also what will be a two-story window overlooking Paradise Bay in Disney's California Adventure. Wow. That is going to be a wonderful view - and it should be a prime view for the new World of Color show that starts next year.

We went across the building to the other Grand Villa - this one will overlook the new pool area. This new Mariposa pool and spa are located on what used to be the wedding lawn. There will be a walkway connecting it to the existing pool area.

This floor was a lot less finished - the interior walls were still open and not yet covered with drywall. I found it It very confusing being in a building that really had no identifying features and all of those open walls. Good thing we had expert guidance! :-)

Bruce told us that there are 250 workers on-site per day. And he's worked for Disney before - he was part of the team that built the Tower of Terror attraction.

Our final stop was the Observation Deck on the sixth (top) floor. This area also overlooks Disney's California Adventure. The area will have a trellis type of cover and its own set of restrooms - apparently it will be available for booking special events.

We went back down the freight elevator and turned in our hard hats before leaving the site. Thank you to Leah and Bruce for taking us on the tour - it was very interesting to see the construction in progress.

I'm glad that there is finally going to be a DVC resort in California, but it's so small that I'm not sure I'll ever get the chance to stay there. Since we don't live that far away, we don't stay overnight very often - and when we do I don't make reservations 7 months in advance, which is probably what it's going to take to be able to book a stay. Up until now we've been able to use our points to book a hotel room at the Grand Californian, but once the DVC resort opens we will no longer be able to do that - though we will still be able to book stays at the Disneyland Hotel and the Paradise Pier.

I'm just back from a short overnight trip to Disneyland - we went up to attend Taste - the final signature event of this year's Food and Wine Festival. Taste was fun - I'll have more information and pictures up later.

We stayed at the Paradise Pier - the last time I stayed there was almost 11 years ago, when it was still called the Pan-Pacific. We had a room with a view of the Paradise Pier area of DCA - it was really pretty at night:

And in the early morning:

It also gave us quite an interesting perspective for viewing the Pixar Play Parade, which has changed (again) from what I saw a couple of weeks ago, as I reported in this blog entry. Lightning McQueen and Mater were back at the beginning and end of the parade. And the stilt-walking chefs of Ratatouille also returned - though there were only three of them.

From the room we could see many of the floats on the parade route

The biggest change, though, is the return of the "bug's life" parade unit - Heimlich and his many parts plus the float. The float was modified significantly - only the front part with Flik and Atta on the swing is there now. It looks a little odd when you compare it with the size of the floats for all of the other units.

Even with the "bug's life" float back, the weird Toy Story Tinker Toy creature is still part of the parade (but don't get me wrong, I think it looks pretty cool):

The acrobats have not returned to the Toy Story float - it's still just the monkeys hanging on the bar.

A while ago I talked about the Prince Caspian Pre-Parade that was coming to Disneyland at the end of April, and I had a chance to see that. I didn't notice any swooning females, but Caspian looked pretty good. And the horse was quite beautiful, and BIG.

He had quite an entourage - the banner bearers in front, the standard bearers, plus the courtier leading the horse - but it was his final attendant who cracked me up - The Royal Pooper Scooper. :-)

During Magic Morning I had a chance to get a close look at Jingles, the lead horse on the King Arthur Carrousel, which was dedicated to Julie Andrews last month. If you look closely you can see Mary Poppins' umbrella on the rump. Her initials, JA, the number 50, and Mary Poppins' boots and flying silhouette are on the saddle. It's really beautiful - so detailed!

The sparkling/chasing lights that are on the floral Mickey at the entrance to Disneyland cooperated with me a lot better than they did when I was there with Lisa Berton back in March - this time the light show was running almost continuously. It's more impressive in person when you can watch the lights as they move and twinkle, but hopefully you get the idea.

And now that I'm back from Disneyland I'm leaving for Disney World, where I'm planning to blog live this week. A little bonus trip for me - but I'll be writing more about that in my next blog entry.

We made another trip to Disneyland on the afternoon/evening of Friday, August 17...thought I'd share a few observations...

With the "Year of a Million Dreams" extended through 2008 (doesn't that make it "Years of a Million Dreams?" the banners in the main entry plaza have changed...and the letters in front of DCA that spell out "CALIFORNIA" now have a blue-sky-and-clouds look, like the "Dream" mouse ears.

The waits for most attractions were less than an hour (15 minutes for Indy, 5 for Pirates, 10 minutes for Buzz, etc.), but Finding Nemo was still two hours.

This was a first for us - the standby line for Big Thunder Mountain was shorter than the Fastpass Return line! Since the attraction loads on two sides they send Fastpassers to one side and standby riders to the other, so we got on faster than a lot of people who had Fastpasses!

We saw the Ratatouille "pre-parade" float with Remy and Emile - since it doesn't fit into the Parade of Dreams it gets to be its own mini-parade.

On our raft ride over to Tom Sawyer Island at about 4:25 we saw one of the Pirate Stunt Show characters climbing up to the "crow's nest" waiting to make his grand entrance - which was still about 10 minutes away. I recognized this particular actor as one that had been playing Jedi Master Endo Valaris in Jedi Academy...from Jedi Master to Pirate...guess he went over to the Dark side!

 

The Disney Gallery (above the Pirates of the Caribbean) is closed, which means no more Fantasmic! dessert buffet on the balcony...but Riverside Premium seating for Fantasmic! is still available.

Disney's new High School Musical 2 movie premiered Friday night, and a new street show at DCA, High School Musical 2: School's Out, opened on Saturday, replacing the High School Musical Pep Rally.

The three towers at the Disneyland Hotel now have signs over the entrances with their new names: Magic (formerly Marina), Dreams (formerly Sierra) and Wonder (formerly Bonita). The hotel map signs scattered around the property have not yet been changed to reflect the new names, though.

We had dinner at Hook's Pointe (review to come) - Lee noticed that there's a map of Never Land on the ceiling.

The Fantasy Waters show at the Disneyland Hotel has been gone for a while, but the fountains and lights still put on a little bit of a show - we seem to have been there at just the right time to see it.

Until next time...

Laura

As many of you know, when considering a trip to Walt Disney World, the issue of whether to stay on-site or off-site can be rather hotly debated. At WDW staying on-site certainly has advantages with its access to Disney transportation, proximity to the parks, and the wide range of resorts (and room rates!) available.

At Disneyland it's really not so much of an issue, though.

Location, location, location.
Though Disneyland was originally built in the middle of an orange grove, the city of Anaheim grew up all around it, and it's surrounded by its own variety of hotels with a wide range of prices and amenities. In fact, all of the Disney-owned hotels (Disneyland Hotel, Paradise Pier, and Grand Californian) are all "high-end" hotels, so those traveling on a more modest budget have no choice but to choose an "off-site" hotel. Proximity of the Disney hotels is a non-issue, though, since several of the off-site hotels are actually closer to Disneyland's entrance than the Disney hotels! Just a short walk (~5 minutes) across Harbor Blvd are several moderately priced hotels that provide clean-but-no-frills accommodations at a much lower rate than any of the Disney hotels - and there's that shorter walk to the parks, too. Now, there's also no theming at those hotels, either, but some of them do offer a complimentary continental breakfast, free parking and high-speed internet, *without* the "resort fee" Disney charges.

So what about transportation?
The Disneyland Resort is a "walking" resort - other than the trams from the two parking areas, the only Disney transportation is the monorail, and it only has two stations: one inside Tomorrowland, and the other at the far end of Downtown Disney. It's closest to the Disneyland Hotel, but it's really not so convenient to any of the hotels that I'd consider it a factor in deciding to stay there.

That Disney theming
Of the three Disney hotels, only the Grand Californian was originally owned and built by Disney - the Disneyland Hotel and the Paradise Pier were originally built by third parties, and later acquired by Disney. So a lot of the "Disney" touches in terms of design and theming are missing from those two hotels. Both hotels were constructed as very ordinary rectangular high-rise towers (three at the Disneyland Hotel and one at the Paradise Pier) - pretty boring and quite a contrast from the beautifully designed Grand Californian across the street.

The Disneyland Hotel has done a lot of remodeling and renovation in recent years, and it does have a lot more of the "Disney resort feel" these days. The grounds and landscaping are quite nice, and the Neverland Pool area can compete with any of the WDW pools. The Paradise Pier suffers from a lack of space, though - the hotel itself takes up all of its lot, and there's not much room for niceties like landscaping. The pool area is actually built on top of the convention center.

You notice I haven't really mentioned the Grand Californian - it's really in a class by itself, at least in comparison to the other Disneyland hotels, and reflects Disney resort theming at its finest. And it has the price to go along with that, too...

So...on-site or off-site?
Well, in my opinion, at Disneyland it's really a matter of economics. If you can afford to stay at one of the Disney-owned hotels you're going to get more of a Disney experience in terms of theming, service, and room decor than you will at any of the off-site hotels. But as far as proximity to the parks goes, a number of the off-site hotels are better choices, as well as being much more inexpensive.

What about you? Where is your favorite place to stay at Disneyland, and what do you like about it?

Laura