It'll Be Alright: Disneyland February 2020

We just returned from our family trip to Anaheim. We had a great time. This trip report will be more of a bullet point report. This was one of our better trips. We have really come to love the Disneyland resort and will continue to visit. Let's start with day one.

Day 1 - Monday (President's Day)

Not so early morning - Typically we have a really early start to all of our trip. Due to Southwest changing our flight, our departure wasn't until 10:35am so we got to sleep in a little. I of course couldn't go to sleep until 1:30am the night before, so it wasn't as much sleep as I wanted.

At hotel early - For us, we are generally rushing to get to the airport on time. We left 2.5 hours early since we were leaving during the morning rush hour, but we didn't have any traffic issues. We got to the Parking Spot and on a bus quickly. We were through security very easily (thank you TSA pre-check). And ready to board with extra time.

Kids good at KCI - The kids had some time to walk/run around before the flight. Grady was very interested in looking out the windows. He liked seeing the planes and all of the vehicle movement outside. We also got to watch/see the construction of the new airport from our terminal.

Kids good to Den except end - The kids did really good on the way to Denver. They got a little antsy the last 10 minutes or so.

Grady NOT good at Den (hangry) - When we got off the plane, Grady just wanted to run. He kept taking off, which is tough in a busy airport where you are trying to watch all of your bags and make sure Ellie is still ok. Lisa and Ellie went to get food and when they left he wanted to go with them and was really upset. He was hiding under the waiting areas and throwing himself on the gross airport floor. Once they came back with food, he ate and was much better. He must have just been hangry.

Grady rough on first part of Flight to SNA - We boarded the next flight to SNA from Denver and Grady was a mess. He was tired and there was not a good place to sleep. He was everywhere. He was crying/screaming on the plane. We got to a point where another mom tried to give us snacks and one of the flight attendants stopped to get him to calm down and brought a drink for him. He did finally calm down and was bearable the remainder of the flight.

Found driver - very nice and personable, very helpful, met in luggage and helped with luggage, new Navigator, forgot to close trunk - We got off the flight and went down to the baggage claim and there was a driver holding a sign with our name on it. Sweet! I've always wanted to do that. We met our driver, Steven Fink, and we was wonderful. We used Best-VIP Worldwide Chauffeur again this year, and the smaller vehicle service was much more personable. He helped get our luggage and helped us haul it out to the car. Our vehicle was a new model Lincoln Navigator. It was a really nice vehicle. We got the car seats setup and everyone got in and settled. We were leaving the garage and found that the trunk was still open. Dang it. Our ride to the hotel was very comfortable. Steven was great. We talked to him about our trip and his experience and some of his life story and family. He was very friendly, personable and beyond helpful.

Short drive to hotel - Grady fell asleep almost to hotel - The drive was less than half an hour and Grady fell asleep about 10 minutes from the hotel, so we had to wake him up when we got there. He probably could have slept another hour or so, but there was no putting the genie back in the bottle.

Checkin was easy, everyone very helpful, room ready - Steven dropped us off right out front and he and the bell service helped with the luggage. Everyone at check-in was professional and overly courteous. We checked in and went to our room. We found that my brother's family was actually across the hall from us.

Old style DVC room, very comfortable, seems bigger than Boardwalk, view of DCA - Our room was actually surprisingly nice. The Grand Californian has gone through a rehab recently and I was expecting to get a remodeled room, but we got an old style room. I had heard/read not so great reviews of the older rooms, but we really liked it. It had the craftsman style from the rest of the hotel. It didn't seem dark at all, there was plenty of light. It had a good amount of space, even for the 4 of us, 2 strollers and all of our stuff. We had stayed at the Boardwalk in the DVC rooms and comparatively it felt a little smaller than the Grand Californian. We used David's DVC Rentals to book the room. Thanks to them for finding points and availability. The cherry on top of this room was it looked out in to California Adventure. We could see parts of the Fun Wheel, a couple of the rides at Paradise Gardens Park including Goofy's Sky School (more on that later). It was really cool to have that view from our room. When we opened the balcony door, the sights and sounds almost made it feel like you were in the park.

Void really good - We met my brother's family and they wanted to go to the pool so they took Ellie. We kept Grady and we unpacked and got settled. It was really nice not to be rushed to hurry out of the room to the parks. After that, we all went downstairs to Downtown Disney, which is SO close to this hotel. It was almost literally downstairs. My brother and I did the Void Avengers VR experience. This was a lot of fun. Disney has a VR experience in Downtown Disney with a Star Wars experience and a Marvel Avengers experience. I wanted to do the Avengers and it was a lot of fun. You where a backpack and helmet and walk through different areas to fight Ultron with the Avengers. It was a lot of fun. Not something I would do every time, but definitely glad we did it.

Dinner - rough with tired kids, didn’t eat - After the Void, we met everyone else at Tortilla Joe's for dinner. It took a LONG time. The kids were melting down and or falling asleep. Grady had a meltdown and Crosby fell asleep. I left with Grady and didn't really get to eat.

Rough sleep - We had requested a pack in play for Grady and planned on Ellie sleeping on the pull out couch. After some negotiation, I slept with Ellie on the pull out couch and Grady slept with Lisa in the bed, and no one slept in the pack and play. We did sleep, but it took a while to figure out our spots.