Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa — Attraction in Anaheim

My wife and I recently took two of our grandkids to Disneyland for the parks and stayed at the Grand Californian for 4 nights. We have been taking our grandkids two at a time when they are 8-10 years of age to share the "magic" of Disney We had a great experience visiting the parks and enjoying the convenience of the hotel's location. The reason for my negative review occurred on the last day of our stay. Early in the morning my wife and I and grandkids were awakened to a hot room with the smoke detector emitting a piercing alarm. I did not observe any smoke but opened the doors to improve ventilation. The HVAC vent was blowing hot air. I did not hear any other alarms in the vicinity of our room and no one else was in the hall. I returned to the room and my wife was attempting to calm our upset grandkids and I threw a towel over the alarm and called the front desk. I got a message saying they would call back when they were available. With the kids becoming increasingly upset and convinced that there was no real emergency I removed the smoke detector from the wall and disabled it by disconnecting it and removing the battery. In a while a maintenance man arrived, He manually reset the thermostat to "cool" and left to get a new battery for the smoke detector. This all seemed a bit odd but I was grateful for the "fix." With the grandkids now calmed we decided to make the best of our early "wake up" and do another early entry into the park. This was to be our last day and our strategy has always been to make it a big day. We had early morning flights the next morning and have always found "tired kids" seem to travel better. We enjoyed a full day in the parks to maximize our last day. We said farewell to Disneyland late in the evening with the famous Disney fireworks giving us Walt's kiss goodnight. In bed asleep after preparing for our early departure we were once again awakened by the piercing of the smoke detector. Suspecting there was no emergency I called the front desk again only to get another message that they would call back. I repeated the checking of the HVAC and opened the room doors finding that our room seemed to be the only one having issues. Frustrated I removed the alarm from the wall while my wife tried to calm the kids. I took the alarm to the front desk with my frustration building in light of our grandkiids' distress. Finding the front desk attendant on the phone with who I now believe was my wife, I tossed the alarm to him and he caught it. He must have sensed my frustration as I informed him of this being the second time today this had happened. All he could say was that he was prepared to call security. I returned to the room where my wife was still consoling our grandkids. They did not feel safe given all that had occurred . Exhausted we all tried to go to sleep to get rest before our early departure, all the while I suspected someone was going to come to reinstall the smoke detector due to code and liability. In about 30 minutes an entourage of management, security, and maintenance knocked on the door. I stayed in the hall so they could observe that I was no threat while two maintenance replaced the detector. Sleep did not come easy but eventually we fell asleep and were awakened by our gentle phone alarms. I have never written a negative review. I have written a few positive reviews usually recognizing an outstanding staff member. I would like to apologize to the front desk person who I obviously presented as a threat. That has never been my disposition and I'm sorry he was fearful. A full day at Disney and a repeat negative experience brought out "bad grandpa." Maybe we can caulk this up to an isolated event in a 750 room mega hotel serving who knows how many guests that night, but my wife and I decided that when we bring the next pair of grandkids we will probably look at options. They may not even let me back in? I am a bit surprised that we haven't heard from the resort in any fashion. Kent &...

My family and I stayed at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa and went to Disneyland and California Adventures. My reviews will have similar wording, but the overall review will differ.

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa is really a 4.5-star place, but it is rounded up. So why not an honest 5-star? You are paying a lot for a basic-ish room with fewer comfort features. However, the service by the staff and cast members is fantastic, and I have some call-outs for that. The convenience of the hotel is also a huge plus.

So, let's start with some cons and then end with pros to leave a positive impression on the happiest place on earth.

The stay was just north of $4K for 5 nights, which includes a $40 a day self-parking. There is an option of $70 a day valet. The room has a balcony, two queen beds, a refrigerator that can barely hold a gallon of milk, a small closet, dual sinks, and a shower with a handheld or over-the-head showerhead. There is no microwave. Also, with this price, there is no basic breakfast or anything. You must come out of pocket for everything. The shower’s water pressure didn't really exist. The shower drain backed up (to be fair, we did not call this issue in). That's really about it with cons.

Now the pros. The staff is super professional, and they enforce being happy. They don't show personal worries and make you the priority. When showing up in a car, a person greets you at the gate and then directs you to a person. The following person will then direct you to a spot in front of the main door. A person walks up and offers to take your belongings into storage, which you can call for later. Then you drive across the street to park. The hotel is gated; the only people inside are the guests or those with dinner reservations. The place is vast, but the workers are there to answer questions.

Storytellers Cafe is a great buffet, but it costs $70 a person; magical guests under 3 are free. What makes this place extra special, besides the food, is the characters that walk around. They visit every table and make each person feel important. I felt so blessed that my daughter was not scared, and the characters seemed to have loved her. Thank you for doing that.

The pool was lovely and very warm for the climate. Didn't spend too much time here, as the focus was on the parks, but it was refreshing.

The person who took care of our room, 5336, seemed nice. She decorated our beds with the stuffed animals we brought. They came by twice a day to fix up our room, which leads to the next thing.

So as of now, we had early entry into parks, that rotates parks per day. We will leave early to go to the parks, but since we are so close to the parks, we will just take a short stroll from the parks to the room for a two-hour nap and then go back out for more fun. One of the biggest perks.

So some call-outs! At the question desk in the lobby, a person named Charlie (I hope that is his name) gave me some maps and buttons (I will return to buttons later). Mellina at the registration desk was also very friendly and gave me another button. Then there is Jack (bell service). Jack, who was not our bell service guy, and we ran into each other randomly, spoke for a few minutes to ensure we had the best experience. Jack fixed my app for early entry, gave the best suggestions for food, and advised us on naps. Jack deserves a thousand thumbs up.

Now the button. You can get FREE collectors button for almost everything, which I did not know. You can get a button for your first visit, graduation, marriage/anniversary, birthday, veteran, and character dinners like Goofy's Kitchen. Get your buttons!

All guests can enjoy a view from the 6th floor, the Pixar Pier view. You will need a room key to access it, but it is relaxing and awesome.

I will make edits if I remember...

Prefacing this review with it was an Easter stay so it was busy. The Mix: Greeted at a gate where you need to give your name - and then proceeded to check in - there are 2 choices - self park and valet - with a 30 $ difference - so I went self park - bad choice. Upon saying "self park" the valet derisively told me I would have to park my car down the hill to the left then left and ONLY 20 mins he emphasized. I asked for luggage help as Im 56 with a back issue and my son had just pinched a nerve in his shoulder - it was one large piece and a backpack -the guy said "since you are self parking one of you should just take it while the other parks". Wow - far cry from a luxe experience. Check in WAY better and the front deck people were highly efficient and way more magical disney attitude - phew. We took our luggage (quite a ways to room) and were quite pleased with the theme park view especially knowing we would view World of Color (Note if you want Quiet DO NOT BOOK A THEME PARK VIEW - but we loved it. Ice machine - 3 separate tries - never worked. Called the service - in our stay it was never fixed and they cant bring you ice. Parking: self park is a LONG WAYS down the hill from resort crossing Disney drive (a busy intersection and then in this outside not great area. Its a 15 min plus journey from our room. Pay the extra 30. I had a very magical moment with customer service person Liz on the phone - again - she had "disney magic" and helped me get a robe so I would not have to purchase at store - and she was every bit the Disney magic we missed at the other stuff. Beds are comfy - rooms are getting a needed renovation right now but it was the weekend so no noise. Pool crowded but nice - bar at pool has an awesome espresso Martini with another magical bartender. We just got back from Disneyworld where we were at the waldorf astoria. The service there was amazing and we were in a suite. The price point was the same. We had just a standard room here. So for the price both of us were disappointed overall. At 1k a night - they can do better. I appreciated the very magical staff - and that made up for some but again when we checked out - we were told it was min 20 min wait plus for a bellman - so again we took it ourselves. The we waited in a line where we were ignored for a good 15 mins (along with the other people waiting) then it was another 10-15 finally getting someone. I would suggest having some staff that can "double up" as bellman during busier times - a note we left at a later check out and were told this was a better time to do this - I cant imagine how bad it is at actual check out time! I do want to say the bellman who got our luggage later that night was vey kind and attentive - and put our bag in the car for us. So at least we excited more gracefully. I debated the star rating - 5 star to some magical people - 1 star for the bell desk and valet (minus the last guy) and 3 stars for the room itself (but Im sure after updates a little better) and no ice machine (the closest one was 5 floors down - make a left then a right etc.) Ive had better rooms at the nearby Hilton and...