Disneyland’s HPG, Day 1 Part 2

Thought we may as well finish up the day. There really isn’t much to report. We were so comfortable in our Hilton room and so tired from the trip, from non-stop working etc. that we stayed in and ordered room service. Besides, we figured we had only one try at the Parking Garage in us and we’d be so done for the whole trip. Little did we know then how true that was.

We called the Disney desk and asked about the hours for Sunday morning. We were told it was early entry or magic morning or whatever they call it at Disneyland. We told ourselves we’d start off as early as we could and go to Disneyland first thing the next morning.

We ordered Kobe beef sliders and a BLTA (A for avocado) sandwich to share and 2 glasses of wine. Room service was there lickity split – in 10 minutes. Just like Vegas, they wheeled in a room service cart complete with warming oven, white table cloth, a single rose in a vase, 2 plates covered with food, 2 glasses of Merlot wine (don’t remember the vineyard but it was a bit too fruity for our taste), 2 glasses of ice water with lemon, and 4 chocolates.

We loved,loved,loved this room and enjoyed the food and wine and fireworks – felt like we were at the park without being in the park. We watched game 1 of the Angels vs. Dodgers freeway series where the Weaver brothers faced off – Jared Weaver pitching for the Angels and Jeff Weaver pitching for the Dodgers. Too bad Jared lost to his brother Jeff. Oh, what a night! We were looking forward to game 2 the next night when we would be in attendance.

Disneyland’s HPG Trip Report Pics

We didn’t get our iPhone in time for this trip (it’s back ordered), so I took a few pics from the phone I do have. I noticed the views were actually better than shown in these pics – here everything looks farther away. Even though I was disappointed when we first got there, I’m feeling nostalgic already looking at these pics.

The Serenity Bed at the Hilton

View of Tower of Terror, Matterhorn, and
Convention Center from room
(hard to see in pic – much closer in reality)

View of DCA and Paradise Pier Hotel
beyond the Convention Center – nicely lit up at night

Disneyland’s HPG Trip Report Day 1, Part 1

In case you just popped in, “HPG” means “Haunted Parking Garage.” See previous post for details.

As a recap, this trip was planned on the spur-of-the-moment after returning from the Grand Californian during the Food & Wine Festival in early May, ostensibly to do the rides we didn’t do because we were so busy wine tasting. But as the trip got closer, we changed our focus to one of catching up on rides to living like a local. I grew up here but hadn’t lived here in years – and hadn’t spent any time as a local since we moved back from living outside the gates of Walt Disney World.

In case you’re regular fans of Disney World and thinking you’d like to move there, you may want to try renting a pool home instead of staying onsite so you can get more of a feel of living there. One thing we’ve learned with all of our moves is that you can’t really know what it’s like to live somewhere until you actually live there. But you’ll get a peek into the experience if you stay offsite – staying onsite only tells you what it’s like to stay onsite. Now on to the trip.

We left our home in Las Vegas at our usual 9:30 a.m. time on Saturday morning on June 20th. This was the first time we’d done the trip in summer and we noticed the heavier traffic. We did our usual gas/lunch stop in Barstow, which is about the halfway point, and then arrived at the Anaheim Hilton around 1:30 p.m. It was cloudy still, which is unusual because the summer morning coastal fog usually burns off by noon – especially in Anaheim.

We’ve become accustomed to valet parking at Disney resorts so we pulled up to valet at the Hilton. The porte cochere was a bit confusing, but eventually we found our spot, the valet got our bags, and we headed for the registration desk. We hadn’t stayed at the Hilton in years and had forgotten how humongous and impersonal this convention hotel is. There is a Disney desk, which we called a time or two to get information about park hours. But the front desk person was all business – our room wouldn’t be ready until 4 p.m. and she didn’t offer us any advice or give us a number or beeper or anything to check when our room might be available. Has Disney spoiled us or what?

We were in Disney withdrawal pain immediately. We headed for the nicely-appointed lobby bar and ordered 2 glasses of Echelon Pinot Noir. It was quite tasty, but I remember wanting to cry and thinking we had really screwed up our Disney vacation by staying off-site. But I also knew we needed to experience what it was like not staying onsite in case we decided to move back to Southern California. It was going to be a painful but necessary exercise. But I couldn’t help remember the last time we waited for our GC room by enjoying a tropical drink out by the pool. And the last wine we had on a Disney trip was at the Golden Vine Winery at DCA. The contrast was brutal. I told myself to stop being a baby – you know – put on my big girl panties and deal with it.

We started enjoying ourselves more with every sip of wine. Rich went back to the desk a couple of times to check on our room, but it still wasn’t ready. By the time we finished the wine, we decided to head over to the Starbuck’s just off the lobby near the registration desk. This was nicely-appointed, too, and we had some coffee and split a couple of sweet treats. Life was looking up. We were remembering the fun we used to have at business hotels – we had immersed ourselves so much in Disney for the past 5 years we had forgotten what the real world was like.

At about 10 minutes before 4 p.m. after we were finished with our wine and our coffee and our sweets, Rich checked on our room again. It was ready. Hooray! We took the slowest elevators ever up to the 7th floor, walked down a long hallway, turned the corner for another long hallway and got to our room – a King Corner room. The door was open and the maids were sitting around, thinking they had another 5 minutes before they “had” to be finished, I suppose. When they saw us, they quickly finished and were out of there.

Finally, we got to tour the room, a lovely newly-renovated large room with floor to ceiling windows on two sides, and a heavenly Hilton Serenity bed, which we could barely leave the entire trip. We love our bed at home and usually can’t wait to sleep in our own bed again, but this bed was even better! They’re available for purchase and we may have to get one.

There was also a nice desk with laptop connection, comfortable office chair, and safe big enough to store a laptop. It was a wonderful, wonderful room with a “Disney” view of Tower of Terror and other DCA attractions, the Matterhorn at Disneyland Park, and nightly fireworks.

From the artist renderings, it appears that the new rooms at the Disneyland Hotel will be similar to this room, but even nicer and we’re looking forward to staying there again after the renovation.

Disneyland’s Haunted Parking Garage Trip Report

What started out as the “Beach, Baseball, and Disneyland” trip report has become the “Haunted Parking Garage” trip report. And before we start the report, we’re going to have to talk about this parking garage at Disneyland and what Disney needs to do to fix it.

To start off, this was our first trip staying off-site since DCA opened, eliminating the parking lot. The individual hotel free shuttles have been replaced with a fee-based shuttle that serves several hotels in the area. It seems that there is still an East Shuttle area near Harbor Blvd. so if you’re staying off-site at a good-neighbor hotel, you’ll want to pay for the shuttle service so that you can go back and forth from your hotel/motel to Disneyland easily. But whatever you do, avoid that parking garage.

We arrived before park opening and CMs were doing their usual orchestrating of where to park. Now this may not be too bad in an open parking area, but in a parking garage it’s aggravating and claustrophobic. We park in parking garages regularly in Las Vegas, but nobody tells us where to park. When you arrive in the morning at Disney parks, the CMs tell you where to park. So even if you’re early, you may end up parking at the far end of the garage because they park you in order instead of roping off the back end of the garage for later arrivals. Then you have to walk for what seems like forever to get to the escalator at the far end near the trams.

There is absolutely no setting of theme or atmosphere in this ugly, creepy, claustrophobic parking garage. How can you feel excited about arriving at Disneyland in such dank surroundings? After walking this huge distance, we chose not to get in line for the tram, but chose to walk the short pathway to Downtown Disney, to enjoy the flora, soak up some fun atmosphere, and to be on our own schedule. Besides, it was faster to walk and we weren’t alone in making that choice.

There are several things that Disney could do to improve the situation at the parking garage. Here are 3 things they could add to the garage that would greatly enhance the guest experience as soon as they’re on Disney property:

1. Technology. The Las Vegas and Portland airports (to name 2) both have technology in their parking garages that show which parking spaces are available. A green light above the space shows it’s empty, and a red light shows the space is occupied. Plus there are lit numbers at the end of each row indicating how many spaces are available. Disney should adopt this. This allows Disney to know how full the garage is, and points guests to where the open spaces are, eliminating the need to be shoveled into wherever Disney CMs want you to park.
2. Moving walkway. Like many airport parking garages, Disney could add a moving walkway to move their guests from one end of the giant garage (holds 10,000 cars) to the other.
3. Theming. In the Las Vegas airport baggage claim area, there are video screens and audio recordings with Las Vegas personalities. Disney could add these screens or audio recordings at the very least. Mickey and friends could greet guests, offer tips, and advertise “big doings” in the park, including where to eat, shop, or otherwise spend extra money.

After that horrid experience, we vowed to never step foot in that garage again, even though it’s free for Annual Passholders. Imagining we might find ourselves being Disneyland locals again, we wondered what do locals do? Surely they don’t go through that experience just to drop in on Downtown Disney for a couple of hours. No, of course not. There is short-term parking near Downtown Disney where the first 3 hours are free. You can get an additional 2 hours if you eat at a restaurant that validates. After that you pay $2 for every 20 minutes or $6 per hour. It also pays to drop in on Disneyland during the less busy times, before all parking lots are full. Attendance this summer is already reaching maximum capacity even on Mondays. Guess the Birthday promotion is working…

Maybe Disney is already working on this. Who knows? But we had to get this out of the way before we could start the report from the beginning.

Beach, Baseball, and Disneyland Pre-Trip Report

After staying at the Grand Californian with a park view during the Food & Wine Festival last month, we decided two things when we returned home: (1) we hadn’t had enough park time, and (2) we may not be able to enjoy the Disneyland Hotel after staying at the GC.

Because we had just been at the Grand Californian, we did book the Disneyland Hotel. True, the rate was less than what we would pay at the GC, so we would be saving money on this impromptu trip. But when we discovered lower AP rates online than what we had booked, we called about getting the lower rate. Apparently, we were about a day too late because none of those rates were available – we were stuck with paying twice the price.

We were already worried about our stay since the Disneyland Hotel seemed like slumming it after the Grand Californian. We had been happy enough before, but now we weren’t as satisfied. So when we couldn’t get the lower rate, we made a decision to stay at the Anaheim  Hilton – across the street from DCA.

When we were relaxing on our park view balcony at the GC, we noticed how close the Hilton, facing the opposite side of DCA, looked and thought they must have a pretty nice park view themselves for a lot less money. So, we cancelled the Disneyland Hotel ressie and booked the Hilton and got a “Disney” view. Before we moved to Florida, we would go to Disneyland from the San Francisco area and often stayed at nearby hotels, including the Hilton. This would be the first time at the Hilton since DCA was built, though.

Another reason we’re willing to cut the Disney onsite hotel umbilical cord is that we want to test out what it’s like to live in Orange County again. I grew up there and since then have lived in San Francisco, Oregon, Florida, and Las Vegas. Plus, we’re also going to see an Angels game and want to spend time at the beach, so we figured it was time to act like locals so we could more effectively compare being a Disneyland local versus a Disney World local – instead of comparing being a WDW local to a Disneyland onsite guest. Depending on economic and opportunity factors, this could be the deciding year: live near Disneyland again or live near Disney World again. If neither of those plans work, well, then, we’ll just have to stay right here in Las Vegas and visit both.

And then the final reason we decided it would be a good idea to cancel the Disneyland Hotel is the news of its rehab - sorely needed – and we’ll look forward to staying there again once it’s finished. This is just what this hotel needs. Maybe then they’ll bulldoze Paradise Pier and build a Boardwalk/Yacht & Beach Club-type hotel and area like at Walt Disney World. Now that would be awesome.

Disneyland vs. Disney World

That’s a popular topic – Disneyland vs. Disney World. For us it was also Orlando vs. Anaheim. Florida vs. California. East Cosat vs. West Coast.

For those of you who have read our blog or book, Two4Disney: the 10 Year Celebration (now retired), you already know this story. But for those just landing here, I thought I’d give a little recap of our California to Florida moving adventures.

I grew up 8 miles from Disneyland so when we first went to Walt Disney World in 1999 as a couple, we fell in love with WDW and the environs – at least the environs we imagined were just an extension of Disney. We made plans to one day move to Florida from our then home in the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2003, we seized the opportunity. We moved to Orlando without jobs, but it soon became clear that the jobs were in Tampa Bay at that time, so after 7 weeks in Orlando we moved to Tampa.

As beach lovers, we adjusted quite well to Tampa Bay and Tampa is more of a cosmopolitan city with better services and all-around daily life than Orlando. But after traveling the 70 miles to WDW every 3 or 4 weeks, we still longed to live outside the gates of WDW. When Rich began telecommuting on a regular basis, he asked if he could telecommute from Orlando and his employer said yes.

A long-time California artist friend and Disney lover said, “So, you’re telecommuting from the Magic Kingdom” and little did we know how true that would be. We sold our house in Tampa and rented a townhouse just 2 miles from the Magic Kingdom. Unfortunately, we learned that was a little too close – if you can believe it. The nightly fireworks were like gunfire exploding overhead and the cats would hide under the bed and we learned not to go to bed until after the fireworks.

It was a jam-packed year. I not only blogged for the Orlando Sentinel, but I worked  in the I.T. Department at Team Disney as a consultant. While there I met interesting people, and had special tours and peeks into behind-the-scenes. They were impressed that I had seen Walt Disney at Disneyland when I was just a kid. But working for Disney was spoiling my enjoyment of WDW, and I decided to curtail the length of my contract.

Anyway, after a full year of that we realized we weren’t all that comfortable in Orlando and were homesick for the west. But every time we were on Disney property we couldn’t imagine ever leaving this magical place. But as soon as we drove off property, as soon as we turned the corner, we knew we didn’t want to stay there.

We’re now living in Las Vegas just 4 hours from Disneyland and we go to Disneyland often. But we miss having such access to Disney and we ponder whether we should move even closer – back to my childhood home town near Disneyland – or move back all the way across the country and live near Disney World again. Each choice has a big gotcha.

It all comes down to Orange County, California or Orange County, Florida. Disneyland or Disney World. Florida or California. Because in our hearts we want both. We are truly Califloridians.

Beach, Baseball, and Disneyland

Two more weeks until our next beach, baseball, and Disneyland trip. After staying at the Grand Californian on our last trip, we’re curious how the Disneyland Hotel will feel to us this time. But good news – we have another trip scheduled for the Grand Californian complete with special birthday dinner at Napa Rose. We may even splurge for a spa treatment.

The more we travel to my Orange County, the more we wonder if we’ll be able to stay away permanently. There’s just so much that we love to do there. So much history for me. Like Tommy’s, where my mother used to hang out in L.A., is now in Orange County and, lucky for us, Las Vegas.

We just watched the Dodgers beat the Phillies in 12 innings with a final score of 3 to 2. To me, baseball and California are synonymous. My family on both sides of the family are long-time Dodger fans and my first professional baseball game was to Dodger Stadium to see the Dodgers beat the Giants with my mother and step aunt. That was also the first time I tasted a Pastrami sandwich.

Grandpa was a minor league pitcher and only gave up his baseball career when Grandma asked him to because taking care of her little boys while Grandpa traveled proved to be too much for her. Giving up baseball broke my grandfather’s heart – it seems to run in the family – my dad once said that the Dodgers “will break your heart.” Obviously, they both loved the game very much.

But as a teen living in Orange County, I became an Angels fan and here in Las Vegas we get to watch both teams on television. And on our trips to Disneyland, we often see the Angels play at Angel Stadium – just a couple of miles from Disneyland.

So on your next trip to Disneyland, get out and see what else you can do. See a baseball game, grab a burger at In-N-Out, a burrito at Del Taco or check out Duke’s at Huntington Beach or Malibu (or Hawaii) where the slogan is “Food tastes better served close to the waves.” We agree.

Now, back to the Angels game.