Close hotel or bite the bullet and stay onsite

[Whistlebee]

To me, one of the biggest perks of DLR is getting an affordable hotel directly across the street. So unimaginable at WDW. I used my points for a free room at Fairfield inn across the street. Yes, i could also have stayed at the nicer Residence Inn a little further away - but walking distance was a huge perk to me. It was a basic room in a basic motel, but man, being able to walk across the street was amazing!

We like the Fairfield Inn too. The staff is the best and the short walk is awesome.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

I just booked for November at the Desert Inn and Suites right across from the DL entrance. We've stayed there many times before and know exactly what to expect. Since our two boys are now adults (22 and 19), we've had to expand the size of the room we book. They could share a queen bed when they were little, but now need their own beds. I was able to get a 2-room suite with four queen beds and one and a half bathrooms for $259 a night. I happened to check the website one day when they were showing a one-day sale for dates in November so I grabbed it. The website normally shows the same room for $289. For us, the extra space and the extra bathroom is much more important than staying at an on-site hotel.

 

[Athenaa]

If it's not a financial hardship to stay at the DLH, stay there. I would do it in a heartbeat. It's a beautiful hotel, and you're immersed in Disney. Over a 20 year period, I've stayed there twice (the l last time was three years ago). The best part of staying there is that you get early morning entry into one of the parks EVERY SINGLE DAY. That, quite simply, rocks. You can get more done in that hour than you can in four hours in the afternoon. If saving several hundred dollars really matters to you and you don't mind staying at a motel-style hotel, stay at one of the VERY closest hotels to the gate. (I wouldn't stay at Paradise Pier, by the way. It's actually a really long walk.)

We stayed at the Desert Inn and Suites last time and we weren't impressed. We are staying at Park Vue Inn next week, which is about a 6-8 minute walk depending on the speed of your family. I've never stayed there, but I'm hoping it's a little nicer than the Desert Inn. FYI, the Disneyland Hotel is a longer walk than the Park Vue Inn. I have stayed at the DLH and I loved it. It's just too expensive for us this time. I believe the Adventure tower is the closest, but I can't remember.

If you decide to go with a close hotel off site, just look at Google Maps. Park Vue, Desert Inn, and Tropicana are the closest.

Consider this: your entire experience is different if you are less than a ten minute walk from the gate. If you forget something, it's not a big deal to run back. If you feel a little sick from a ride and you need to lay down for 30 minutes, you actually can. If you really want to use your own bathroom, you actually can! At the end of the night, as you shuffle out with the herd, you can hoof it back quickly to your hotel, rather than run for your life, hoping you'll catch the next shuttle. (And then miss it, and wait for another one to show up, grumpy and exhausted.) I will never go back to dealing with a shuttle.

The one thing that I didn't like about staying at DLH is that, when we went, the onsite breakfast places weren't open early enough for EMH people. It's pretty lame, really, since everyone staying at the hotels has EMH, and most people like to eat before they get into the parks. Hopefully, they've rectified that. I just read that the Starbucks in DTD is open really early though. It wasn't open when we were there.

 

[BlueSuitDonald]

How far of a walk is Fairfield inn?

 

[HydroGuy]

How far of a walk is Fairfield inn?

Here are some links that tell you taken from this thread: "HydroGuy's Hotel Rule" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1199862

https://www.mouseplanet.com/7280/How_Far_Is_It

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=33.809655&lon=-117.918488&z=16&m=b

 

[danceanddisney2010]

This is a tough one! Since 2014 we have stayed exclusively at the GCH - 5 trips in a row - and have a hard time thinking about staying off property. Literally, the price is OUTRAGEOUS but it is our only splurge of the year so we can make it work. We usually only do DL once a year so it's always GCH, but this year we are doing DL twice! We will be there Thanksgiving weekend and prices were crazier than July so we decided to stay off property this trip. We have 3 nights booked at the Tropicana. Never stayed there before, but it seems like it gets pretty good reviews on here! We will be staying at the GCH July 2018, but for Nov. 2017 it's off property for us!

 

[bumbershoot]

Sniffle Sniffle....hydro, gotta get rid of Anabella from the list...



OP, I personally like Desert Palms down at the corner of Harbor and Katella. Included breakfast (with make-your-own Golden Malted waffles, which are from the same mix as Mickey waffles), decent staff, decent rooms... Near CVS and Walgreens, 7-11, and a mom and pop "corner" store for necessities... And not a huge walk away. And a little pool.

The onsite hotels aren't close enough or great enough to cause me to pay the rates now. I used to stay at PPH and twice at DLH, but the value isn't there anymore for me. Just too expensive and generally a longer walk than many offsite places. (our room at the Grand, which we paid for with DVC points not cash, so I didn't include it in the value comment above), was almost as far from the center of the Esplanade as it would have been from the sidewalk at HoJo for waaaaay less.

 

[BlueSuitDonald]

Which hotels have interior corridors? I know Fairfield inn looks like it does and courtyard theme park entrance. These look like they may be just as far away as Disneyland hotel. Are there any closer that has interior corridors? It is a must for my family.

 

[HydroGuy]

Sniffle Sniffle....hydro, gotta get rid of Anabella from the list...

Well, not my list. Just posted someone else's asking about the FFI.

Never stayed at Anabella but considered it more than once. The new place under design looks cool though.

 

[Shanti]

The current onsite hotel prices at Disneyland are astronomical, and they don't have the kind of regular deep discounts WDW deluxe resorts have. Plus no complimentary transportation to and from the airport...

I've had DL park hopper tickets (from an auction) burning a hole in my pocket for well over a year, but I could never see my way clear to paying those onsite hotel prices, and we really prefer to stay in the Disney bubble during trips (and I hate staying in motels). So I didn't book until I finally found a reasonable Dapper Day rate for the onsite hotels.

So we're going to stay at Disneyland Hotel, dress dapper, and experience Disneyland once. But I don't see us returning anytime soon, given the usual onsite prices & my lack of enthusiasm for the alternatives.

 

[JeannieJay]

We spent a week at the GCH a couple of weeks ago and LOVED it. Would stay there every time if I didn't feel so guilty spending all that $$. And we're Canadian, so with the exchange rate, it's even more.

Our trip in December, we'll be staying at the Tropicana (3 nights) and in April, at BWPPI (7 nights).

If we fit another short trip in next year, I think we'll stay onsite again, but at DLH.

I don't think we would stay anywhere other than in 1 or 2 above. Candy Cane Inn is as far as I would want to walk.

 

[bumbershoot]

Which hotels have interior corridors? I know Fairfield inn looks like it does and courtyard theme park entrance. These look like they may be just as far away as Disneyland hotel. Are there any closer that has interior corridors? It is a must for my family.

I don't think Fairfield has interior corridors.

Most places around Disneyland are motels, which have exterior entrances to rooms.

Hojo and courtyard, and desert palms, are exceptions. Ramada plaza as well. And other new (and old) ones which are further than RP and DP.

 

[provencio]

Try tripadvisor.. they have tons of reviews and photos of hotels/motels close by Disney. May help... We chose Super 8, now know has Kings Inn good reviews, free hot/cold breakfast, walking distance and $57.00 a night with AAA. We are two adults who will spend are time out and about.

 

[mfleeting]

I think it depends on how your family uses the room. If you will be at the parks most of the day and/or don’t care about a pool (or what it may be like) then maybe offsite is best for your family. We’ve look at the Howard Johnson across the street before and the Best Western.

Another question to ask is if you splurge for staying onsite does it mean you need to sacrifice another part of your trip?

For our family we’ve always stayed onsite at the DLH. We enjoy being in the “Disney bubble”, we like being able to get into the parks an hour early every day, and we enjoy mid day breaks for a nap or playing in the pool. These options alone make the extra cost worth it in our opinion.

 

[beachdreamr1229]

You're going to hear many different opinions. I have a family of 5 (sometimes 6 if my mom joins us) and am usually on the fence myself. We have stayed onsite. The standard rooms that sleep 5 are okay. Onsite, PPH has slightly larger rooms, or it at least feels that way. DLH is good, too. GCH rooms that sleep 5 feel too small for me. If you have the money to splurge on a suite, any of the onsite options are good, but you're looking at $700+ per night, which for me at least is not reasonable anymore.

Offsite and close, we like the hotels on Harbor. Specifically, HOJO is my first choice because of cost-effectiveness. The rooms in building 1 are great for a family. Building 2 is good, too. I feel like the smaller buildings can work for 5, but they only have full beds, which doesn't really work in my experience. Courtyard (the one with the waterpark) is awesome if you can afford it. All rooms come standard with bunk beds, so you can comfortably sleep 6.

If you're willing to go a bit further away, but still in walking distance, there are many all-suite hotels near the convention center. While walking is occasionally a bit much at night after a long day, for many of them, you can take the Toy Story lot shuttle for free and only have a short walk to your hotel.

I personally tend to choose offsite at this point (my kids are 7, 3, and 3). We like the hotels across the street on Harbor best, but as our kids are getting older, we're starting to explore the options with a full suite as we find for more than 1 or 2 nights we really need the space.

 

[rentayenta]

Bite the bullet. There isn't an offsite hotel that compares to the GCH or the DLH.

 

[lcp9]

We are Marriott associates, and we absolutely cannot justify staying onsite when we can get a room at the brand new RI for less than the cost of dinner. So, totally financially biased, but we are early 30s with 3 little kids and we've never found any of the hotels a 'walking hardship.' haha. We also do not typically take naps during the day, and that doesn't change whether we're at the FFI or one further away.

FWIW we always feel like the walk to DLH for Goofy's is not significantly shorter than our walk back to the hotel. GCH would be different.

As far as recommendations, they recently renovated the FFI and it's super close. The new RI on Katella and Harbor is SUPER NICE, you can get suites, and it comes with a full breakfast which saves us like $50/day.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

We've stay on site (GCH) and off site (Sheraton Park, Candy Cane Inn, Hilton, etc.). If we can get a great rate, on site is convenient, but not noticeably more luxurious than other hotels off site. For example, the old Sheraton Anaheim (now the Majestic Garden) had much larger rooms than the GCH on average. The kids had more space to spread out. We get great service at the Sheraton Park and at the Candy Cane. Disney magic is fun on site, but we don't miss it at these other hotels. Neither presents a distance problem for us (and the Candy Cane has a private shuttle). For our last trip, the Candy Cane saved us $1800 over the GCH. The free breakfast and free parking saved us even more. Max Pass more than made up for the EMH. That extra savings covered a lot of nice perks and treats during that trip. Everyone's taste and priorities are different. But for us, staying off site made total sense on our last trip.

 

[Canadian Harmony]

Our first trip, we stayed at PPH and it was lovely! The 20 minute walk to the gates? Not so much. If we had more than a week to hang out and just wander around, as well as the budget, we'd love to try the Disneyland Hotel just for the awesome rooms, cool pool, monorail, etc.

BUT, the savings of over $800 for a week, plus the 5 minute walk to the gates makes staying across on Harbor a better choice for our family.

It all depends on what your priorities are - EVERY day EMH/MM? Stay on site.

More money for souvies, churros, and Dole Whips? Stay across the street.

 

[mercydisney]

Following along because my family is planning a trip this summer.