A tale from someone who prefers (preferred?) staying off-site.

coast2coastmickey

Mouseketeer
Joined
Apr 13, 2018
Figured I'd entertain the DIS with my recent tale of Disney pixie dust, and how my wife is now converted to an on-site Disney fan...

In the past, I have absolutely railed against staying onsite at Disney (either coast). Stalk my post history if you want. I'd comment that staying offsite is usually cheaper (still true), and that the room checks are a horrible policy (I still think this is a horrible policy).

Last week, we arrived to our Anaheim hotel for our week in Southern California with 2 days at Disneyland thrown in. We arrived at our offsite hotel (which is highly regarded online), and we proceed to do our usual "check for bedbugs and nastiness" inspection. The mattress was quite dirty. Whatever, not the best start to a vacation, but fixable. Call down to front desk, and they move us to another room in the same category. Wonderful, should be better, right? Wrong. Mattress was quite dirty and looked like someone peed or something nasty. On top of that, the fridge didn't work, and we needed it to store milk for our kid.

So, one argument with my wife later (why did you pick this hotel?), I'm calling Disney directly. Maybe staying on-site will heal all wounds.

Website tells me that all 3 of the onsite Disneyland hotels are booked. Sold out. The WONDERFUL phone cast member tells me that they can squeeze me in at the Disneyland Hotel, but not that first night. I agree, and we figure we can just survive the first night in the bad hotel. The cast member tells me to wait on hold, possibly for a long time, she's going to do her best to fit us in for that first night.

It took a while, maybe 15 minutes on hold, and she comes back with some PIXIE DUST. We get the LAST room available since someone cancelled. So we moved, last minute, to the Disneyland Hotel, in a standard room, which was perfectly clean with a nice cold mini fridge.

My wife and I had stayed at the Grand Californian for half of our honeymoon, but neither of us had ever set foot on the grounds of the Disneyland Hotel, so we didn't know what to expect. The theming was amazing, our kid was over the moon, and the easy access to the parks was just a bonus to boot.

After the trip was done, my wife (who shared my feelings about staying onsite in the past) said that she was done staying offsite. For CA trips, we'd stay at the GC for adults only trips, and for trips with the kid, the Disneyland Hotel is the only option. For FL trips, only Deluxe hotels, for the convenience and theming.

We were both aware of the stupid room check policy, so we agreed to housekeeping each day to avoid an extra visit. It worked as intended: we left each day in the morning for whatever reason, came back for a nap mid day, and we never had additional knocks, and the room was cleaned appropriately. We also had turn-down service and it was nice coming back to chocolates on the pillows.

So, RIP my wallet...we'll be staying on-site going forward. She's now looking at December prices for a trip to Florida. Can't say I disagree with her thought process. The trip was truly magical.

Cheers,

coast2coastmickey
 
This year was perhaps our last nuclear family trip as one daughter is off and married, one getting ready to head for college, and my son who will be around the house a bit longer. After many trips, staying off property every-time, we committed to staying on property. Plan A was rent DVC points, but that did not play out. Plan B we settled on a family suite at AoA.

Cliff notes....Parked car, walked in the lobby, and came to the conclusion we will never stay off property again. The balance of the trip cemented that opinion in our minds. Best trip EVER.
 


We tried to talk ourselves into an offsite this time for 13 days in December, but 9 days in April onsite was the best vacation ever.
It was our first time picking a value, AoA, though planning the trip 2 weeks before going didn't leave many options. I'm sooo glad we ended up there; it's now our favorite resort (even over the moderates)!
We've booked 11 days at AoA this time and are only doing 2 offsite nights to stay at a Universal hotel while we visit that park.... and of course DH is even debating THOSE two nights :rotfl:
 
We had the opposite experience. Stayed offsite for the first time in 25+ years last year in a split stay off/on. Couldn't wait to get back "in the bubble" the whole first half of the trip. Was disappointed when we finally did. Going onsite in 3 weeks and hoping to re-capture the magic that used to be or will likely be offsite from now on.
 


We had the opposite experience. Stayed offsite for the first time in 25+ years last year in a split stay off/on. Couldn't wait to get back "in the bubble" the whole first half of the trip. Was disappointed when we finally did. Going onsite in 3 weeks and hoping to re-capture the magic that used to be or will likely be offsite from now on.

Where did you stay offsite?
 

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