First time Trip Q's

[nolatron]

Hi all,

Playing around with the idea of surprising the wife with a mid-week trip to Disneyland in October..

We've never been to Disneyland, so it's all new territory for us. I understand the Halloween season kicks off on Sept 26, and thought it would be a neat time to go for our first trip to see all the Halloween theming in the park and the Haunted Mansion.

How are the crowds that first week following the start of the season, like that Tuesday - Thursday? I see POTC is closing for refurb on 10/13 and I *REALLY* wanna see it, so my planned dates would either be 9/30 - 10/2 or 10/7-10/9.

In general what are crowds like at this time? And how's the weather? No idea what California weather is typically like.

For the hotel, while not as necessary as WDW it sounds like, I'd still want to stay on grounds just for the full experience. I like the Grand Californian hotel. Looks like the nicest of the 3 Disney hotels. Anyone have photos/reviews of the hotel? Not much is shown on the disney website of it.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Thanks!

 

[Iknewagirlnamed]

Oddly enough, POTC is no longer listed on the Disneyland website as being refurbed during the week of the 13th. Weird. anyone know about this?

 

[Disneysue]

Hi all,

Playing around with the idea of surprising the wife with a mid-week trip to Disneyland in October..

We've never been to Disneyland, so it's all new territory for us. I understand the Halloween season kicks off on Sept 26, and thought it would be a neat time to go for our first trip to see all the Halloween theming in the park and the Haunted Mansion.

How are the crowds that first week following the start of the season, like that Tuesday - Thursday? I see POTC is closing for refurb on 10/13 and I *REALLY* wanna see it, so my planned dates would either be 9/30 - 10/2 or 10/7-10/9.

In general what are crowds like at this time? And how's the weather? No idea what California weather is typically like.

For the hotel, while not as necessary as WDW it sounds like, I'd still want to stay on grounds just for the full experience. I like the Grand Californian hotel. Looks like the nicest of the 3 Disney hotels. Anyone have photos/reviews of the hotel? Not much is shown on the disney website of it.

Well, that's all I can think of for now. Thanks!

Any weekday visits are always less crowded and the best times to go. During a relatively new celebration though, I'd opt for the 2nd week. The Haunted Mansion is decorated with Nightmare Before Christmas and is AMAZING! As far as POTC, I'd keep checking back for updates and even call the Disneyland resort for up to the minute refurbs.

The Grand Californian is AMAZING! The lobby is bigger than it appears online. While I don't have any pictures, the rooms and the hotel itself reminds me of Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone Park. All the rooms have bathrobes and the beds are COMFY! The convienence of it being so close to both parks is great. It is WELL WORTH the splurge! I have always found the Disney sites to be very limited on pictures of their own hotels. I use Expedia and Trip Advisor for pictures.

The weather is great. Typically 60's to low 70's. Of course with the craziness of this year one never knows :animwink:
You will not need heavy sweaters or coats, but I would not recommend only tanks and shorts. It is VERY comfortable and NO HUMIDITY!!!!:sohappy::sohappy::sohappy::sohappy:

 

[TP2000]

Oddly enough, POTC is no longer listed on the Disneyland website as being refurbed during the week of the 13th. Weird. anyone know about this?

Other boards with knowledgeable CM's state that the Disneyland Pirates is scheduled for it's routine refurbishment, cleanup. But the dates were pushed back from October to January/February now, once Haunted Mansion reopens after the Holiday version is replaced by the regular version in mid January.

Disneyland routinely closes all of the attractions for freshening of technology, general cleaning and mechanical refurbishment. They don't do this type of maintenance at WDW, and it shows quite frankly, especially on rides with animatronics and special effects. Disneyland has more rides than Magic Kingdom, so it can close a couple of things at a time and there's still plenty of other major attractions open to soak up crowds and keep people happy.

Meanwhile, WDW keeps the Magic Kingdom as a dusty reminder of what things were like in 1978. But that's another thread.

 

[nolatron]

Thanks for the info yall!

 

[Sassagoula-Rvr]

As someone said the Grand California is worth it! We were going to stay at the DLH but it got booked so we just said oh well and bit the bullet. It is alot closer than the other Disney hotels but in my opinion all three are closer than outside hotels. But if you have older people with you like we did the GC is the way to go. The lobby is HUGE, one thing is it is ALOT more expensive to stay at the DLR hotels than it is to stay on property in WDW. It seemed like the GC was way more expensive then when we stay at the Poly in WDW.

 

[nolatron]

Thanks for hotel info.

We've gone ahead and booked our vacation package! Yay! We'll be in Disneyland for our first trip Sep. 30 -Oct 3 staying at the Grand Californian. We can't wait!