After checking out of our hotel in Newport Beach, we all drove up to DLR. My parents - especially my Mom - had expressed a desire to walk around DD, so we did that first. We both parked in the DD parking, which is located behind the Paradise Pier Hotel (PPH). We met up with my folks and took the bus to DD. After walking around for a little while it was clear that my Dad would have a hard time walking around a lot, so I decided I would see about getting a wheelchair. I should point out that my Dad had major surgery last September, and while he has been recovering, it's a slow process. Anyway, I asked at the monorail station if there was somewhere I could get a wheelchair. The CM said that the only place I could get one was at one of the hotels - assuming I'm a guest. And guess what? I am! So, I went to the DGC lobby and picked up a wheelchair. Upon my return I was immediately hailed as a hero.

All the ladies...

...looking very fashionable

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We walked around until about noon, when Andie, my Mom, Nat & Charlie took off for a 12:30 reservation at "Mary Poppins Practically Perfect Tea" (MPPPT) at PPH. I gave Andie my digital camera and asked her to take some pictures at the Tea. My Dad & I stayed to have lunch. We looked at the menus for Brennan's, House of Blues (HOB), and Arriba Y Arriba (AYA) before settling on ESPN Café. In truth, I would have preferred AYA, but my Dad avoids spicy food.

Hangin' with the Poppins

Girl's day out.

We're having fun, right?

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When we checked in, the host asked us which room we wanted to sit in. I don't recall the names of the rooms, but one of them had a huge TV and was laid out something like a sports book. I asked what game was on, and when they told me it was the Yankees, well that decided it. We ended up having a really fun time, sitting there watching the Yankees on this huge TV, drinking beer, eating and chatting. It was a lot of fun. The Yankees were winning, the beer was cold, the food was good and the company enjoyable. What more could you want?

After my Dad & I were done with lunch we walked back to PPH to see how the ladies were getting along with Miss Poppins. I popped in long enough to check out the decor - very Victorian - and found that they had not even started eating yet. My Dad & I went back down to the lobby of the hotel and sat in the little coffee bar, sipping coffee and chatting. About an hour later the ladies were done with their Tea. Andie said they had fun - even though neither Nat nor Charlie were to hot on the tea (pun intended).

It was time for my folks to head home. They weren't relishing this idea, as they had just moved and their new apartment was in a shambles. We, on the other had, would be checking into a nice clean room at DGC. Such is life.

We walked to the parking lot and said our good-byes - although we would be seeing them again on Thursday night.

We drove all the way across the street to the entrance for DGC. Actually, I should not have been able to drive right across as there is a "No Left Turn" sign - but it seemed to me that it didn't matter because the DL parking lot exit was closed, so I made the turn. So arrest me. We did valet parking, which considering the hassles of parking around there was a great deal at $6 per day. We left our bags at the bell desk and I checked to see if our room was ready. As I suspected it wasn't, but they gave us our keys with a number to call to verify when our room would be ready. I bought 3-day hopper passes for us all, and we headed out to DCA. We entered through the DGC entrance, which enters the park on the southeast side near the entrance to Grizzly River Rapids (GRR.)

I'm going to take this opportunity to give some overall impressions of DCA. These are my impressions that were formulated over the time that we spent there.

DCA has, for whatever reason, received a lot of scrutiny and criticism, going all the way back to when the park was initially proposed. This was especially true in the world of Disneyland fans who use the internet. In retrospect, it now seems that it was mostly a small group of somewhat fanatical and very vocal critics. Now, all along I thought it was rather silly to criticize a theme park that has not even opened to the public yet, so I reserved my opinions until actually visiting the park.

Overall, in every department, I found the park to be something of a mixed bag - albeit with more positives thrown into the bag than negatives. The park excels in the areas that are most important to me and my family, while its weakest points are in areas that aren't as important to us.

You see, we're not the kamikaze - must ride every attraction - stay all day 'til you drop kind of theme park goers. We like to take it easy, enjoy ourselves and ride whatever attractions we can. We will almost never wait in line for more than a half-hour for anything. So, the fact that DCA may be a little light in the area of attractions - well, that doesn't impact our enjoyment much. More important to us is whether the park has charm, and how much you are immersed into the world it is trying to create. In this area, I felt DCA exceeds.

Of course it could be argued that, in the case of DCA, that is not a very tall order. After all, the world it's trying to immerse you into is the world of the enchantment of the state of California, all while you are actually in California. I suppose it's harder to make you feel you are in a Fantasy Kingdom, or the future than, say, a Monterey harbor town, but, still, the effect is surprisingly complete.

Anyway, back to our trip...

We made our way through the Condor Flats section to the Sunshine Plaza. While admiring the giant golden sun sculpture and the really cool wave fountain, we saw that Minnie, Mickey and Donald were there with not much in the way of lines. Excellent! I love it when we get the obligatory Mouse Meeting in without having to wait on line for an hour. The threesome was dressed as tourists - very cute.

Minnie & the girls.

Say "cheese".

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After communing with the Mouse, we headed to the Hollywood Pictures Backlot section. I had heard very positive things about Disney Animation, and I thought it would be fun for us to check out. You enter Disney Animation through the Animation Courtyard; a lobby area decorated with scenes from Disney animated films. The scenes change periodically from one film to another, and do so in such a subtle way that it is easy to miss the transition. From there you can pick one of four areas to visit: The Screening Room features the film "Back to Neverland", starring Walter Cronkite and Robin Williams and lifted from the Animation walk-through attraction at Disney Studios. The film explains the entire process of making an animated film and is quite entertaining. "Drawn to Animation" is a live show where a human host interacts with Mulan's Mushu the dragon to explain character development. "The Art of Animation" has displays of drawings, models and tools used in animation. Unfortunately we didn't get to visit "The Sorcerer's Workshop", which was the most crowded section.

The really cool wave fountain.

Entrance to Hollywood Pictures Backlot.

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We then headed over to the Paradise Pier section. First things first - we got FP for me and Nat to ride California Screamin' (CS), the section's signature roller coaster. Nat loves coasters and was very excited about the prospect of her first looping coaster.

After picking up the FP we rode King Triton's Carousel. This is a very charming carousel with sea creatures replacing the horses, and a calliope that plays carousel versions of Southern California beach tunes. If, like us, you love carousels, a ride on this is a must.

We decided to head back to the room for check-in. We reached the DGC entrance just as the Eureka! Parade was starting. We were in a good viewing spot, so we settled in to watch the parade. I must say, I didn't have a strong desire to see this parade, but it was a real surprise. The kids loved it and Andie was very impressed. I found it to be a bit odd thematically - a problem that Andie did not have - but I still enjoyed the show.

After the parade we checked in. I suppose it would make sense at this point to write a bit about Disney's Grand Californian Hotel, and as I am a sensible guy, I will do so.

DGC is touted as the first hotel to be "inside" a Disney park. In fact, this is a bit of a stretch. It is, in reality, located at the Southwest corner of DCA, sort of wedged between the Golden State section and Paradise Pier. Most of the rooms have "park views", most of those overlooking DCA with some overlooking DD and DL. There are also "standard view" rooms overlooking courtyard areas and "city view" rooms overlooking the street. DGC also has it's own, separate entry to DCA.

The view from our room in Disney's Grand Californian.

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The hotel is modeled after the Arts and Crafts style building popular at the end of the Victorian era. The style is known for exposed, dark wooden beams, big overhangs, shallow gables and lots of decorative touches (although these decorative touches are much less intricate than what is found in some earlier Victorian buildings found in places like Cape may, NJ (http://www.thompsonfamilyweb.com/capemay/index.html). The Disney designers seem to have taken care to integrate the exterior of the building with its surroundings in such a way that it is actually rather understated and blends into the background.

The lobby, however, is not quite so understated.

The lobby is, in a word, awesome. DGC has often been compared to Disney's Wilderness Lodge (WL) in Walt Disney World (WDW), a comparison that I find to be a bit lazy. Besides the use of exposed timbers (fiberglass though they may be), the design of the two hotels is really quite dissimilar. The Arts and Crafts style of DGC is quite a bit more refined than the rustic National Parks inspired design of WL. While the lobbies of both hotels are equally impressive, the lobby of WL is on such a grand scale that the visitor feels dwarfed by comparison. I have no idea what the proportions of the lobbies of these hotels are, but the DGC lobby feels - if not smaller - certainly more cozy. More in a human scale.

A really good illustration of this is the differences in the fireplaces. The WL fireplace, styled to resemble sediment rock, is several stories high and has a firebox you can practically stand upright in. In front of this fireplace are several rows of rocking chairs. By contrast, the DGC fireplace is only about the size you would find in a large home. It is stone carved in lines reminiscent of Art Deco design, and is tucked in a corner surrounded by a few rocking chairs and overstuffed armchairs.

Now, I'm not going to say one is necessarily better than the other, although with it's scale (and lower room cost) you get more of a sense of what you pay for with WL. They are, however, really quite different hotels, although they may appear much more similar at first brush.

The pool area of DGC is very nice, with 2 pools, a kiddy pool and a Jacuzzi. One of the pools is a fairly standard lap pool. The other, called the "Redwood Pool", is themed as a natural pond. The Redwood Pool boasts a water slide inside a man-made redwood tree. The slide is nice - as they usually are in Disney pools - but the ride is short. It's not as nice as, say, the slide in "Stormalong Bay" at the Yacht Club & Beach Club or, more so, the Kiester Koaster at the Boardwalk. Still, it's a fun little ride. It was pretty cool when we were there, so Nat and I only took a few turns on the slide. Overall, the themeing of the pool area is very nice. In that area, It rates right up there with the best WDW hotel pool areas (save, of course, the Gold Standard of "Stormalong Bay".)

The Pool Area.

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DGC boasts 2 full-service restaurants and a snack bar. The snack bar, named "Whitewater Snacks", I found to be a bit lacking. We only used it once. It's conveniently located near a Pool Gate that, for some unfathomable reason, was marked "no exit". Regardless, coming in and out through the gate was not a problem and I saw plenty of people use it. Regardless, the selection struck me as being pretty slim. I went in looking for some fruit - something you can find in any WDW hotel snack bar - and there was none to be found. The drink selection was poor, as well.

One of the two full-service restaurants, "Storyteller's Café" (SC), hosts a character breakfast. SC is the more casual of the two, with a traditional American Cuisine menu. The décor includes a large stained-glass mural of a child reading a book as you enter, and backlit carved silhouettes of characters from famous American stories lining the walls at the ceiling. There are also painted murals of highlights of famous American stories and legends on many of the walls. These same illustrations, along with the stories from which they originate, also decorate the menus. The food is hearty and plentiful, though not terribly subtle. The prices are reasonable - at least by Disney standards. We ate at SC twice, and enjoyed it on both occasions. It is a particularly good place to bring your kids and still enjoy a somewhat grown-up meal.

We had intended to go to "Napa Rose", the more elegant of the two full-service restaurants, but, unfortunately, we didn't make it. So, I can't really comment on it.

Anyone who stays at a Disney hotel for the first time may very likely be somewhat disappointed in the rooms. I'm sure Disney's attitude is that you're really not paying for the room so much as the convenience, the ambience and the facilities. That is not to say that the rooms in Disney hotels aren't nice, it's just that they tend to be somewhat small and utilitarian. Still, even the "budget" resorts of WDW have pleasant decors, fluffy towels and comfortable beds.

Our room, with bunk beds.

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It's in this area - that of the level of luxury in the rooms - that DGC excels as compared to other Disney hotels we've stayed at. For the record, we've stayed at WL, The All-Star Music Resort, The Boardwalk Villas (BWV), The Disneyland Hotel and I've stayed at The Dolphin. Of course the room at BWV was bigger, but the luxury of details we found in our room at DCG exceeded it. The décor, the bedding and linens, the fixtures, all was top-notch. It came close, but not quite, to the level of Shutters on the Beach in Santa Monica (http://www.shuttersonthebeach.com/), perhaps the most luxurious hotel we've stayed at. We did have one major gripe though - one we commonly find with hotels. The lighting was severely lacking. It was as if Disney took the Arts and Crafts themeing a bit too far and decided to provide turn-of-the-century lighting. It may seem like a minor gripe, yet every time Andie and I reminisce about our stay at DGC, the lack of lighting is always remembered.

So, the question of the day is; is it worth the price? Well, we stayed having exchanged for Disney Vacation Club (DVC) points, and that is always less painful that forking out cash on hand. Sure, it still costs money, but it's money we pay out every month and we really don't notice it. If you're used to staying at truly first-class resorts, and that great location is just too good to pass up, then I'd say yes. If you just want to be near DL, you can certainly find a much more reasonably priced way to do it. If you really want that park view, you might consider the somewhat less expensive Paradise Pier Hotel, which also has views of DCA. All in all, it certainly is a great place to stay and, yes, we might consider staying there again some day.

And again, back to our trip...

After checking in and settling into our room, we had dinner at SC. The food was quite good and, again, the prices were reasonable (by Disney standards) for a sit-down meal.

Nat and I abandoned Andie and Charlotte after we were finished and headed back to PP to ride California Screamin' (CS). This was to be Nat's first ride on a looping coaster, and she was real excited about it. We actually had 2 FPs so, assuming we wanted to and there was enough time, we could ride twice. When we approached the CM in charge of checking the FP ticket times, I asked if he thought we'd have enough time to ride a second time and he said "no problem". Later, I would discover that the CMs don't really care about the end time on the FP - as long as it's later than the begin time they'll let you on. So, we really didn't need to rush out of dinner. I figured that was a good bit of info to file away for future use.

The line for FP holders was perhaps 10 minutes. Once again I was amazed that anyone actually complains about this system. It isn't perfect, and on several older rides it feels somewhat retro-fitted, but I would say I've spent an average of at least 2 hours less on line in a given day when I've been to parks that use it, and you can't argue with that success.

You are loaded into cars that are linked together perhaps 10 cars to a train, 2 people per car 2 abreast. Each car is a different vibrant color - purple, orange blue, etc. the cars reminded me of the cars used in Rock 'N Roller Coaster, only themed differently. Also like RnRC (and Space Mountain at DL), each car is rigged with a sound system for playing a musical score timed to your ride.

Ready for launch.

Gotta do the carousel.

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After loading, the train moves forward to a spot on the track that is right on the PP Lake, where you wait to be launched. Nat was a bundle of nerves and energy, despite the relaxing effect of the sound of waves lapping in the water below you. It's actually quite peaceful for a few seconds there - the calm before the storm.

And then you are off!

The launch is very smooth and very fast. Immediately upon launching you shoot up a "lift hill". Be sure to look out over DCA and DL at the crest of the launch - the view is awesome.

What follows is a series of drops, banks, bunny hops and, of course, a loop around Mickey's head. It's a fairly long coaster, and a pretty smooth and mild one. I'd say it's a perfect coaster for a first "looping" coaster - there is only one loop and, while it is an exciting ride - it's not real radical.

After the ride was over I asked Nat if she wanted to ride again. What do you think she said?

After our second ride I told Nat it was time to go back to the room. When we passed King Triton's Carousel she said she wanted to ride, and that's something to which I simply can't say no.

As we were walking through PP I was looking around and thinking what a pretty place it is. All the criticism of what people thought the park is (or was going to be) is, in many ways, valid. But once you're there and in the middle of it, the place really takes your breath away. I also thought about all those carnival style rides that populate PP. The Golden Zephyr, the Orange Stinger, the Maliboomer -- We didn't ride any of them. Am I glad they're there? Absolutely. They add immensely to one's enjoyment of the park - in my opinion - even if you don't ride them. They're big, they're colorful, and they're beautiful. They add so much to the park just with their presence. It's like the canoes in Frontierland. Very few people ride them, but you don't have to ride them to enjoy them. What they add to the atmosphere is enjoyment enough to justify them to me.

We walked into our hotel through the entrance in DCA - and let me tell you that is as cool as it sounds. There is no hotel in any Disney park, with the exception of the DL Hotel in DL Paris, where you can just walk out of the park and into your hotel. It's just very cool.

We put the kids to bed in their bunk beds, and then Andie and I sat on our terrace and enjoyed the view. A perfect end to a very pleasant first day at a brand new Disney theme park.

Go on to Day 2