My family and I spent part of our Spring Break at ...

My family and I spent part of our Spring Break at Disneyland this year and stayed at the Disneyland hotel. Personally I think that if you are going to go to Disneyland, staying at one of their hotels is the best way to go because you get early entry to the park, you can leave during the middle of the day when the crowds and wait times are ridiculous and you can return later in the evening for the fire works and such. Staying in the Grand Californian would be better I would think because they have an entrance directly into the California Adventure Park and they are closer to the entrance to Disneyland.

I have 2 complaints. One specific and one general. My specific complain is I booked through Disneyland travel. They did not have a suite available for the first night we wanted to be at the hotel, so I decided to book a regular room and then move to a suite the second night. I specifically asked and was told that it would not be a problem to stay in the room until the other room was available and simply move our stuff over. This was especially important because we have an infant who naps in the middle of the day so being "homeless" between check out time , 11 am, and check in time, 3pm, would not work well for us.

When we got to the hotel we were told "sorry that's not true, but we will see what we can do." We were told we could definitely stay until noon, again check out is normally 11, but that we would need to check with the front desk about staying longer the next day. Long story short, my wife was able to stay in the room with our infant, but because we did not know for sure, she had to wait in the room the entire time even when the baby was not napping, just in case they called and said we needed to get out. That was both stressful and meant she pretty much was unable to enjoy the parks that day even though we had paid for a ticket. I also just don't like being lied to.

My general complaint with Disneyland is that everything is set up to be as efficient for Disney as possible with little to no regard to visitor experience. Want to make a restaurant reservation? Use their automated system. Want to ask a question? Use the automated system. Want a bell man? Use the automated system. Want to get your car from the valet? Wait in a long line. Need to ask guest services a question? Wait in a long line, etc, etc. It definitely is not a "high end" experience. I have stayed in many hotels for less where the service was significantly better. I know you are paying for the location, but does that really mean the service needs to be lousy?