Our Christmas trip to Disneyland in 2022 was great. We had a wonderful time. As usual, the next topic of discussion after our trip was; When is our next trip. Our biggest concern from the last trip was endurance. We love the Courtyard, but it is quite a walk after a full day at Disneyland. We decided we wanted to go again and try to stay at the Grand Californian.
Our family had some discussion of vacations other than Disneyland. We talked about going on a Disney cruise, but they are so expensive. We decided if we were going to spend that much, we would rather go to the parks. We also love Grady’s age at the parks, Josie (my niece) is 3, which is a great age for Disney parks, and Ellie still loves going to Disneyland. We thought we would go again before the kids got too old and didn’t want to go.
Time of Year and Hotel
Our first decision was to determine time of year to go. We have been at Christmas several times now and we want to maximize the possibility of getting a reservation at the Grand Californian. We landed on the end of January and beginning of February. I reached out to David’s Vacation Club Rentals to check on availability of the Grand Californian. We found the time we wanted to go was full, but we were put on a waitlist. I asked if we could adjust our days to give us a better shot, and that did the trick. We moved from a Sunday through Saturday to a Monday through Sunday. We were SO excited! My parents are getting older and a full day at Disneyland really takes a lot out of them so a quick walk back to the Grand Californian is going to be great for them (and for everyone). It is also SO convenient. We can just pop in if we need a break or something, especially from DCA.
Transportation and Length of Stay
After we got out hotel reservation, we needed to find airfare. This was an adventure. We found great rates on Delta to California and Southwest back home from California. A month or two after we booked it, we got a message from Delta saying our flight was changed. They changed us to an afternoon flight, so our first day was shot. We were on a morning non-stop and they moved us to an afternoon. We could have changed to a morning flight, but it wasn’t non-stop so half of the day was lost. My dad told us we could cancel because they changed our flight and get a full refund, if we wanted. I ended up finding a cheaper, better flight on Southwest. We were able to cancel the Delta flight and get.a full refund. We then borough the Southwest flight, which was about half price. Ended up being a pretty good deal. Our original plan was to go an extra day and do more around LA. When the Delta flight change occurred we decided to drop the extra day and only have 6 nights rather than 7.
I had some issues booking ground transportation. On our arrival, I got lucky and we are going to have a 12 passenger van from Avis. We will use it the first day to get from the airport, drive around LA and go to Anaheim. It will be fun to have all of us in one vehicle to explore LA and the area. Coming home, I was able to find a company to get us all in a sprinter van with car seats for the two little ones. I wanted to use Lansky, which we used last year and they were great, but they did not have any available vehicles. I tried multiple others who either didn’t have reservations, were too expensive or didn’t provide car seats. We ended up booking Anaheim Town Car Services.
Park Tickets and Entertainment
We had an interesting time getting park tickets as well. I looked at buying park tickets early, but then decided to wait because there was no urgent need to buy them. We were going to wait until park reservations opened up. Because of that, Disney announced a price increase. Dang it! Not long after the price increase, they announced a seasonal discount for kids tickets. It ended up being a great deal for the kids ticket ($50/day), and was cheaper than if we bought tickets early. We then found that my dad’s AAA account got a decent discount on top of the Disney discount. Ended up being a pretty good deal, but it was a long journey to get there.
Outside of our Disney park days, we are going to do another driving tour of the LA area and we are going to the Tam O’Shanter for lunch. We originally wanted to do the Warner Bros Studio Tour because they had the Friends set, Big Bang Theory set, Batman and Harry Potter exhibits and other studio related exhibits, but we decided the kids would be too young and not enjoy it (my 3 year old niece is actually not allowed on the tour). I have not found an alternative activity. There are some closures for our Disney parks days. Fantasmic and fireworks will not be shown. My favorite ride, the Haunted Mansion, will be closed for a significant refurbishment and expansion. World of Color, my favorite show, was announced to be closed when we planned the trip. Disney announced around Christmas that it will be open, so we are very excited to see it.
Dining
Food at Disney parks is always one of our favorite parts. We have come to love the Disneyland food, even above the Disney World food. It is consistently high quality, fresh menus including seasonal additions, great plant based options and overall, it’s delicious.
When laying out our game plan to get reservations 60 days before our vacation, we had a little trouble. The early park entry for Disney hotel guests was changing, but they had not announced to what. We had to guess which park to go to each day, but it’s gonna work out. When reservation dates started opening up, we found the app had been revamped and was much easier to find reservations. There also seemed to be more avaialbility. We able to get everything we wanted. It was great. We got Lamplight for brunch and dinner, Carthay dinner, Carnation Cafe dinner and an extra Lamplight dinner (as a placeholder). We even got an Oga’s Cantina reservation, which we are all excited for since we have not been there before.
Back to the placeholder. Lisa went to her high school reunion this fall with some friends she hadn’t seen in a while. One of them had been to Disneyland not long ago and mentioned they had been able to go to Club 33. Lisa asked how. Well, come to find out, her friends’ friend is a member and got them in. Lisa asked if the friend could get us in. After some back and forth, we found out New Year’s Day that we got reservations to go to Club 33 for dinner on our vacation!! We were/are SO EXCITED! We only got reservations for 4 so we are taking my brother and sister-in-law and my parents are going to watch all of the kids for us. We told my brother and his wife about it Christmas Eve Eve, when we were at their house and then I called him with the confirmation right after I got it. They were so excited they teamed up when we told them we were trying and waiting on confirmation. Club 33 was a pipe dream for me. I have heard of Adventures by Disney trips that get to go to Club 33 and I thought that would be my only way. I still can’t believe we got a reservation. I got the pdf with the rules and restrictions and they are thorough with a very specific dress code. I can’t wait, but I’m not sure what I’m gonna wear.
After the amazing news of Club 33, we got more amazing news that World of Color would be showing while we are there. Because of this, we changed one of our Lamplight dinner reservations to Wine Country in anticipation of getting World of Color dining package.
Final Thoughts
This trip has been a roller coaster of planning, but it has come together in amazing fashion. We got the hotel we wanted. We lost a favorite ride, but gained a favorite nighttime show and added a parade. Not only did we get all of the transportation worked out, but we saved money. We got all of our dining options and the unbelievable icing on top we got a Club 33 reservation. It should be an amazing trip. The kids are at great ages, Riley 12, Ellie 9, Crosby 7, Grady 5, and Josie 3. Grady is going to be tall enough to ride all of the rides, we’ll see how many he does. Ellie can’t wait to ride the Incredicoaster. We can’t wait to see the kids love life. Only 3 weeks now, and then it’s vacation time. We’re going to Disneyland!!
