Opinion on off-site hotels

[G's mommy]

Anyone have an opinion on Explorers, Holiday Inn, or DreamCastle? Trying to pick between these, expedia has good rate for DreamCastle making it comparable in price with Explorers. Holiday Inn has best rate. Looking for best fit for 2 adults and 9 year old boy for 3 nights.

Opinions or experiences anyone??

 

[Cyrano]

I can only help with HI. we stayed there twice last year and can recommend it. Lovely pool. Rooms have plenty of space and nice circus theme with curtained off childs area with seperate tv.
Only complaint that breakfast was expensive and IMHO not great.

Reid

 

[eileds]

We're staying off site for 1st time this year at Pierre & vacances. I know it's not one that you mention but can let you know what it's like when I get back at the end of next week

 

[nicola]

We stayed at HI and KYriad and much preferred HI and they were both 65 euro with no breakfast.

 

[G's mommy]

Thanks for the input, I think I'm going with the Holiday Inn. Anyone know the real difference between standard and superior room? Superior worth extra $$?

 

[raptor1982]

They're cheap and new, but lack the Disney Magic. Well, and I'm not going to start about the transportation to the parks........................

 

[BONITATIME]

We stayed in the HI last june and had no trouble with transport. So much so that we have booked for this december. If you are booking on line on their site try and get b'fast included in your reservation as Kids go free and that makes it cheaper. We are paying 80 euros per night including b'fast.
Hve you looked at the Kyriad, that looked o.k. but it has no gym so we didnt book it.
nikki

 

[nicola]

The rooms in Kyriad are very tiny and felt very claustrophobic to me. We only stayed for one night and I was very glad to be moving to HNY. We got HI standard room for same price and much preferred it for the extra night.

 

[raptor1982]

We had a terrible experience at Kyriad. Our plug of the bath was broken. We filled it to take a bath, but it wouldn't drain out. So we called the reception and they sended someover. The guy came after an hour or so, he looked at the bath and nearly got angry at us saying we broke it. He phoned to maintance who promissed it would be fixed the next day. 2 Days later when we left, it was still broken...

And then there's the coffee incident. We spulled coffee by accident on the bed... It was on the matress sheet and on the pillow. When we came back from the parks, all the beds were made up, but when we pulled away the sheets from the coffee bed, the huge spot was still there and they just had turned around the pillow...

 

[BPTP]

We've stayed at Seq L, HNY & Newport Bay. In Feb we stayed at Hol Inn & were very impressed, no probs with transport to & from Park. We're staying at Explorers in August as there are 6 of us and we're using the 'extra bunk room' facility. Disney Hotels are lovely but we don't feel we spend enough time in them to warrent the extra money & anticipate staying at these cheaper hotels more often. We've got annual passes & have already booked flights for October & December (we feel we need to get our moneys worth!). We're waiting til after August to see what Exploreres is like before booking Hotel for these later trips.

 

[raptor1982]

No problems with the transportation during the day. But at night when park closes, everyone wants to get on the bus. I've seen people pushing and actually fighting to get on! The bus driver didn't care how many people got on, as long the doors would shut...

 

[Renate_do]

Thanks for the input, I think I'm going with the Holiday Inn. Anyone know the real difference between standard and superior room? Superior worth extra $$?

Hi,

the only difference is that the superior room might have connected doors. So go and book the standard room if available.

You can do this quite easy through the link at my website
http://www.dlrp.spantig.net/Hotel_buchen.htm

Greets Renate

 

[gaila]

We stayed in the Dream castle two weeks after it opened last year with an excellent rate, however that was because the pool wasn't open nor some of the other things for kids - which was why we went there. It was a lovely hotel and we couldn't fault the service, and apart from the odd trip on the transportation which was very crowded had a great time. Just a pity a lot of it wasn't quite ready for guests although it should be fine now.

We stayed in the Newport Bay a few years ago but we were very disappointed with it which is why we decided to go outside the park.

we are also staying at the Holiday Inn first week in Sept to try it out, but so far have only heard good reports.

Gail

 

[mini-mse]

Holiday Inn is lovely, clean, comfortable, great staff etc but if price is more or less the same I would go with Dreamcastle. Its got a touch more luxury, rooms are slightly bigger, they have a very handy fridge, and pool is nicer too. Im not saying that HI isnt good, it's great, I just prefer Dreamcastle and also breakfast is better in Dreamcastle. You will enjoy whichever you stay at andyway. And also, transport is no problem, I actually think the pink buses are more frequent than the yellow ones but that may not be true>

 

[mej]

We stayed at The DreamCastle in April and it was lovely. Beautiful rooms, the kids loved the bunks, super breakfast, nice pool and very easy to get to and from the parks. We never waited more than a few minutes for a bus. We booked through hotels.com and got a really good deal - £70 ish for BB for a room for 4.

 

[alexandra uk]

I totally agree with Raptor.

Heres the review I wrote on Trip Advisor about our recent trip -


"We stayed at The Movenpick for 5 nights in June this year with our two sons aged 3 and 18 months.

The hotel itself is beautiful. The food in the restaurants was lovely as was the room service.
The pool and jaccuzzi were nice for a cool down after a long hot day in the parks.
We felt the rooms were a little on the small side, and our fridge didn't work for the first three nights of our stay. Only after complaining four times did they replace it.This was a big problem for us because of the little one's milk.

The T.V. only has one English channel which is BBC World. I think they should at least have a Disney channel for the children, after all Disneyland is why the majority of their guests are there.

The biggest problem with this hotel was the buses. They really were a pain and too much hassle.
When they pick you up from the parks to return to the hotel, they don't just wait until the bus is full, they wait until its packed to capacity like a tin of sardines. In 32 c heat it was just unbearable.
The Movenpick is the last drop off too. It goes to 3 hotels beforehand.
We were getting off at The Explorers(1st drop) and walking.
Although it says its only a 10 minute shuttle ride from the parks, we were finding it took over half an hour. By the time we waited for the bus, then sat waiting for the bus to fill up, drove to the hotels, and finally got to ours (whether we walked from the Explorers or sat it out while it went to all 3 of the other hotels before) it is definatly alot more than 10 minutes.

Another thing is we found was that there was no atmosphere or Disney magic. It felt more like a conference hotel. Having stayed in The Sequoia on our last visit we really noticed the difference.
Even popping back to The Disney Village in the evenings was just too much hassle.
We would never consider staying offsite again. Next year we are going to try The Hotel New York."

Hope this helps

 

[Michael623]

I spent part of my Honeymoon at DLP and spent the one night at HI and 3 nights at Newport Bay. I wish I had spent 4 nights at HI. Newport Bay was way overrated and overpriced. I really didn't feel any Disney magic. For the price the HI is an excellent hotel. I only took the bus once from there but it seemed fine to me. At NB I got so sick of the bus lines I drove my rental car to the parks for the last 2 days.

 

[Cyrano]

I spent part of my Honeymoon at DLP and spent the one night at HI and 3 nights at Newport Bay. I wish I had spent 4 nights at HI. Newport Bay was way overrated and overpriced. I really didn't feel any Disney magic. For the price the HI is an excellent hotel. I only took the bus once from there but it seemed fine to me. At NB I got so sick of the bus lines I drove my rental car to the parks for the last 2 days.

Sorry to hear that NPB did not hold up. I'm curious why you didn't just walk to the park as I could not have been bothered to walk to car from hotel and then the same from the Park carpark?

Reid

 

[eileds]

Just back from P & V where we stayed for four nights.

Hotel is ok. All communal areas - reception, breakfast and pool areas all very clean and very well kept.

the rooms are very basic - didn't expect anything else - they are clean but looking very tired looking, definitely in need of some tlc and a good lick of paint. We had a duplex room over looking Disney. The lounge area was quite small and included a dining & kitchen area - there was a double sofa bed in here. There were bunk beds in another room and also toilet and washbasin. Upstairs there was a double bed and bathroom with bath and shower and a small balcony. The stairs are quite narrow and steep.

We had good views of NBC, the balloon going up and down in Disney village and could see part of the Disneyland hotel, BTM, we could also see the tip of the castle peeping from behind an ugly white building but you could see Wishes from the comfort of you bed! although you can only hear a little of the music if you open the window.

Breakfast costs 9 euros/adult and there is an excellent choice of food.

There is a bus that takes you to the parks - no. 50 but we didn't use it as the times never seemed to fit. We actually walked it there and back, it takes 20 -25 mins and thats with 3 kids aged 7,6 & 4 (4yr old also walking).

We chose to stay here because there are 5 of us ( so very limited on accommodation) and we weren't going into Disney everyday so didn't want to pay for passes we weren't going to use.

I would stay there again but if there were other options that weren't horrendously expensive then we would probably look at these first.