Hotel advice, please - which to pick?!

[Moosie3005]

I am looking at three hotels and would love your advice.

Having had a fab stay over Half Term, we are now planning to go see the Christmas theming over the last weekend in November. Flights are all booked, and kidling will be skipping school for one day so we are there Thursday evening to Sunday evening. It is just after kidling's 10th birthday, so we will be picking one day of the trip to be his birthday day.

At Half Term, we stayed at the Ibis Budget in Val d'Europe. Location was so easy, and it was dead cheap. BUT it was a tiny room and husband really struggled with feeling penned in; so we are going to splash out a little more. Plus son really fancied a pool!

Options:

Explorers Hotel - looks great theming, great pool, got an option on a good deal (£240 B&B) BUT it is a shuttle bus. And there are no options of eating in cheaper restaurants, as there were in Val d'Europe. How bad is the shuttle bus going to be in November? I read the reviews and dread the idea of waiting and fighting to get back to the hotel. How much is the food in the hotel?

Relais Spa - has a pool, but no theming. (£262, room only) Great location, can use the RER, option on local restaurants (half the price of Disney Village) and to get breakfast from a local shop. But not as kiddy fun.

Santa Fe - no pool, theming, can walk to the park. (£229, room only) Great location, no option on cheaper meals out, get Magic Hours

I'm leaning towards the Explorers but don't like the idea of the shuttle bus. Husband was dead against it for half term, but may be swayed if it won't be too bad in November. Also like Santa Fe because you can walk there and get the Magic Hours (if we ever got up in time), but no pool (personally I don't care, but son would love one) Husband would probably go for Relais Spa.

What are anyone else's thoughts? Please?!

 

[Moosie3005]

Oh, and I have just realised that because we have annual passes and are shareholders, there may be better options with other Disney hotels, than I had realised.

So, hit me with your best options!!

 

[markpsych]

If the pool is important, then the Explorers is definitely a good choice.
Nice to have the option of a swim in the evening as well when park hours are short over Christmas.
Fantastic pool, buffet breakfast, relatively cheap pizzas available in the evening, and a cocktail hour!
The shuttle buses are very regular.....every 20 min I think?

 

[Moosie3005]

As long as the shuttle busses are regular, then I think that will be our option. Husband is concerned in case busses aren't running for some reason, as he has little faith in any kind of public bus service!

Nice to know there are relatively cheap pizzas there, too. Thanks.

 

[donsullivan]

I stayed at Relais Spa in Val de Europe for a 3 day weekend in April and found it very nice. The rooms are very modern and very clean and well maintained. As you stated, it's very convenient to the RER station. I would definitely stay again in the future. it has very much of an adult, business hotel. There are a lot of options for food as you walk toward the RER station and the mall.

 

[Dingdingding]

I stayed at hotel B&B for one night the last time I visited DLP (March 2017), which uses the same shuttle bus as Explorer's. I was afraid the Shuttlebus wouldn't go often enough as well, we even took the car to Disney Village on our first night and paid a lot for parking which was very stupid of ours in hindsight. The shuttlebus goes really often, almost more often than those of the Disney hotels.

Even though I was against using the shuttlebus (because I hate waiting), I really loved having the option in the later days (when we stayed at Seqoia) when our feet hurt. We saw the shuttlebus of the partner hotels (like B&B and Explorers) all the time!

 

[anthony2k7]

We've only stayed at Santa fe once and it was a lot of years ago now (before the "retheme"). We didnt like it at all. Of all the Disney hotels we've stayed in, its the only one we've not liked.

Why not go for the Cheyenne? Its a tiny bit closer than Santa Fe, and the theming feels less cheap + nasty. Plus its just going through the refurb so you may well get a recently refreshed room.

 

[Tink'sMum]

I'd pick Explorers. We stayed there for 6 nights last Christmas. The shuttle buses are not that bad. Certainly in terms of frequency and waiting times. Coming back at night can be a bit of a squash but you can either brave it and get on or if you really can't face it get a taxi. The hotel itself is great as mentioned above. My kids (11 and 9 at the time) loved it.
You could also ring for a quote for room only at the other hotels with your annual pass discount. I got a room at New York this way for 2nd week in November for 4 nights, €650. It was only about 20 euro cheaper than booking via the website, including tickets, but crucially I only book for one adult. We'll add my husband and 2 kids to the room when we get there for around €15 room tax. We did this last year with the Disneyland Hotel and it worked out really well. I emailed a week before to say they were coming too and there was no problem. This time I said to the lady on the phone to make sure I had a room with 2 double beds as my family might be joining me and I'd add them to the booking later if so.

I have no breakfast included in this which is a bit of a pain but we'll probably go to the Auchan in the shopping centre and get some bits to do us for breakfast.

 

[maleficent_man]

I would check with your AP - we are there the same time (staying Thurs to Mon) and with my Dream AP we got 4 nights at the Santa Fe for £208 which I thought was great.

 

[Moosie3005]

Thank you everyone. That has been REALLY helpful. We are going to go with the Explorers hotel, because of the theming and the pool - son is going to blow his mind when he sees it all, as we normally stay in budget hotels (bless him, he thinks Premier Inn is top notch!) I feel reassured regarding the shuttle busses, and I found an excellent deal for the three days through a booking website - only 159Euros for three nights, including breakfast . Now, of course, I am nervous about the booking site, but I used my credit card and there were enough reviews of it online for me to feel reasonably secure!! But, if the booking falls through, I will still book there.

Now to investigate the best place to get cheap tickets for Wild Bill show....

 

[petals]

I've been in November before and the buses weren't to bad. We stayed in the Kyriad that time which shares a bus with the Explorers. The worse time for the buses is in the evening after the parks close so what we used to do was hang out in World of Disney or the Disney village for a while after the parks closed before heading for the bus and then the crowd would have died down a bit

 

[elena_n2o]

My daughter LOVES the Explores, it's a great choice with kids. Their pool is really good fun (you can rent towels for a couple of euro, I think, or bring your own) It's not very big but with the slides and the pirate ship, kids are entertained for quite some time.

They have a few restaurants, the buffet is not bad, their pizzas are good and cheap, and there's also a table service one which was good value for money (for Disney prices anyway).

Have a great trip!!

 

[meggiebeth]

I would say the Explorers Hotel would also fall under the budget category. Personally I would look into Sequoia Lodge with your AP discount- it's a little more than Santa Fe but a much nicer hotel set on Lake Disney. The theming is frankly incomparable to the offsite hotels and the huge plus for us is location- you can easily walk to and from the parks and pop back for a rest or swim in the afternoons without it taking hours. Staying offsite, you have the hassle of the long walk to the car park and then driving to the hotel. Plus, if you pay a little extra for a Golden Forest room, you get a free cooked breakfast every day, unlimited drinks in the lounge throughout the day, and afternoon tea in the afternoons all included. I believe we paid £250 or so for two nights in Golden Forest which is pretty good value when you factor in the food included (and the extra FastPasses)

Oh, another thing to bear in mind with staying offsite is that you are dependent on buses unless you have a car, which can get very busy. There is also quite a bit of pickpocketing in the area (and DLP in general) - so if you do have to rely on buses I would be very careful with bags and things