PistolPete & family at Grand CA Hotel - Day 3 & 4

[PistolPete]

Day 3
On Tuesday it was back to Disneyland for another full day. We were meeting some friends in the afternoon, but before then we managed to ride Nemo, Small World, Jungle Cruise and get lunch at the Riverbelle Terrace overlooking the Rivers of America. I can see why Walt loved eating there. So peaceful, with great views.

We met our friends at Bibbiddi Bobbiddi Boutique at 12:30 for the princess makeover. Our DD5 and our friend’s daughter had the royal treatment getting hair, nails, and “makeup” done. What an event. The girls loved it. After getting fancy, the girls first choice for rides was Buzz Lightyear. Good to see they weren’t going to be too girly-girly the rest of the day. We let them ride in their own car, which caused the staff to have to shut down the ride when our friend's daughter started screaming because her Princess ring fell off and out of the car onto the moving belt when the front part of the car shut. Oops – sorry fellow park guests. The CMs were very nice about it and sent us on our way. We were then off to Alice in Wonderland. I snapped this picture on the ride with the girls in the front seat, being extra fancy.



From there, we were off to BTMRR again, grabbed a snack at the Horseshoe area, grabbed Fast Passes for Splash Mountain (which was only a 1 hour wait for our window even at 3pm), and rode Winnie the Pooh. After saying goodbye to our friends, our Fastpass for Splash Mountain was up, so I took DD5 and DS3 on their first Splash adventure. Again, both of them loved the excitement of the ride and DD5 went again with my wife using the rider swap.

We had a pretty full day, so we grabbed some turkey hot dogs from the Coke corner on Main Street and headed back to the room to eat and for a quick rest. Then we headed back to the park to catch the Celebrate Street Party. That was quite a bit of fun, and DD5 joined in the action, dancing in the street, playing the drums and joining in the conga line. My favorite part, Goofy came down the stairs from one of the floats right in front of us, and my DD1.5 saw him, open her mouth super wide and started shaking from the excitement. So cute.















After the parade, we snuck over to Fantasyland for one last ride on Peter Pan before calling it a night.

[PistolPete]

Day 4

We had breakfast in our room to start the day. We had ordered groceries from the local Vons and had them delivered. We’d also requested a second fridge to store milk, fruit, etc. We can’t wait till we start using the DVC rooms that have a kitchen, as trying to eat at a tiny table, with no real dishes, and tiny hotel fridges is not easy.

To start the adventure, we used the private entrance into California Adventure in the morning, which was about 20 feet from our elevator! Great perk!! First ride, Toy Story Midway Mania. The wait was about 20 minutes, and they weren’t doing fastpasses. In fact, during the week, there weren’t many rides that they had fastpasses setup for. What a blast TSMM was – kids loved it too. They also let us ride with our DD1.5 on our lap, so all 5 of us were able to go at the same time. From there, we went on Monsters Inc (which IMO is a very well done ride even though others may disagree) and saw the Muppet 3D show. Got some pictures afterward of the work on the new World of Color. Looks like it will be quite a show.





The new villas at the Grand Californian are going to have some great views once everything is done. You can see them here from inside the park:



We had lunch reservations at Ariel’s Grotto. It was a great lunch, one of the best we had there and the dessert tray of samplers at the end was a fun way to finish. I would absolutely recommend this character dining experience to anyone as the food was great and we got to see all the princesses which meant we didn’t have to wait the 1 hr+ line for the Princess Fantasy Faire.



After lunch we headed back to the room to rest. Kids and I watched a movie while DW did some damage at the World of Disney.

Our in-laws were coming in today, and were able to get a room just down the hall from us also with a great view of the park. We all headed back to Disneyland when they arrived. While my DD1.5 napped in the stroller we took the older kids on Matterhorn and used the rider switch for that one. My DD5 loved it and went again with DW using the rider switch ticket. Then we headed to IASM – took these shots while I waited with my napping little one.







We did dinner at Del Zorcho tonight. We’d been talking to our kiddos about crunchy tacos at Disneyland (which are a big hit at our house whereas soft tacos strikeout). Unfortunately, they only do soft tacos there! Oh well. After dinner we headed back to the hotel to get some swimming in before they shut down the pool. BTW – the pool there is great. Kids went down the small slide about 100 times. They weren’t quite big enough for the big tree slide there, but that didn’t stop them from rooting on dad as I stood in line with a bunch of other kids to ride. Afterwards, it was time to call it for the day.

[Islander]

Looks like so much fun!!!!

How did the Von's delivery work out? We were wondering what grocery delivery service to use for our first VGC stay next month.

[TikiTwinsMom]

Still loving the pics!

[DVC Mike]

Nice pictures!

[PistolPete]

Originally Posted by Islander

How did the Von's delivery work out? We were wondering what grocery delivery service to use for our first VGC stay next month.

The Vons delivery was not perfect but rather adequate. We had reserved a 1-3pm delivery window. When we arrived at the hotel at about 3:30, groceries were still not there. We tried calling their customer service number, which was supposed to be open until 5pm on Sunday when we arrived, but got no answer. My wife tried calling both of the local Vons stores, but they both said they don't know anything about online orders. My wife finally got in touch with a couple of people (not sure how or who) one of which was not helpful. The other one had to track stuff down but did call us back multiple times with updates. Finally at about 8:30pm we got our groceries brought up from Bell Services (they had they for about 30 mintues and didn't know it). I think Bell Services will get better at the whole grocery thing with the addition of the villas and more frequent grocery orders.

We had ordered cut fruit from Vons as well. Some of it was ok, but two of the containers were already bad. Everything else was good and just like we ordered.

I would give them a 5 out of 10. I'm hoping my experience was more of an anomoly then the norm. I'd would try them again on the next trip if that helps.

BTW - I called Vons after our trip and they credited us back for the fruit (had to argue with them a bit since I didn't call within 24 hours) and also gave us a $10 credit for the delay in delivery (after they first offered me free delivery on my next order).

[Islander]

Hmmm....thanks for the info about Von's delivery. It makes me nervous considering we are arriving on a Sunday as well. Do you know of any other stores in the area who deliver to the DLR hotels?

Your pictures are awesome and make me want to go NOW!!! I will have to be patient for the next 31 days (not that I'm counting )

Linda

[Brian5581]

Once again, really great pictures and report, thanks a lot.
-Brian

[kidsatheart]

Really enjoying your Trip Report. And, I have to say....PistolPete is such a COOL username!

[PistolPete]

Originally Posted by Islander

Hmmm....thanks for the info about Von's delivery. It makes me nervous considering we are arriving on a Sunday as well. Do you know of any other stores in the area who deliver to the DLR hotels?

Your pictures are awesome and make me want to go NOW!!! I will have to be patient for the next 31 days (not that I'm counting )

Linda

Von's was the only store that I found that did the delivery. I heard someone mention a couple of other services: Yummy Delivery or Pink Dot, but I have no idea about them and didn't want to try something brand new. Like I said, I'd try using Vons again if I was headed out there - I think my experience was more of the exception than the norm.

Have fun counting down the days, we've got another year before our next venture, but the planning is beginning already *