Just canceled - Bummed

Status
Not open for further replies.
Captainkidd76, going by your posts, I really don't think you'd like Candy Cane Inn. It's a great little motel, but it IS a little motel and in no way resembles DLH or GCH or any other deluxe hotel. If that's what you have your heart set on, then choose a full-service hotel off site (or maybe a vacation home rental) and Uber/Lyft to the parks.
 
When we lived in Mass we flew out of NJ. It saved us a lot for 4 people even with adding in the driving cost, hotel room for the night before, paying to park the car for the week, and the toll costs.
 
My family of 7 took a trip to California at the end of August. We're from NJ, we usually do DW but the prices there are getting so crazy that we decided to give DL a try. I searched the boards and web and found the Tropicana Inn and Suites, which is literally across the street from the entrance to the park. The hotel was clean, had a nice pool (yes it was in the middle of the parking lot, but it was still nice) and found a great rate through their site (we did other things in CA but stayed in Anaheim until we left for San Francisco) for an extended stay (I believe you have to stay for 5 or more days.) We had two rooms for around $950/each. It was well worth the price. If your heart is set on DL you should consider staying offsite, there are plenty of options out there.
 


It is one thing that has always upset me about Disneyland. It is pure and simply a locals destination. They give no thought to tourists coming from a distance.

This makes no sense. You think it’s locals staying onsite? I mean, I’m not saying they aren’t, but to think that everyone paying that much to stay onsite lives locally is ridiculous.

Not to mention alllll the hotels around. They are not to house the locals in general. They are to house people who come in from elsewhere.

DL is filled with non-locals. I’ve been one many times! I go on solo trips and I talk to people, and I cannot even tell you of a time when I struck up a convo with someone who turned out to be from the area.

I want a nice hotel to come and to go swimming at. And I don't see any hotels within walking distance with really nice pools

Meanwhile, DLH is a big blob of a pool filled with people playing so you can’t swim.

People tend to hate the PPH pool even though it’s terrific for swimming. I love PPH, but my income hasn’t kept up with their rates.

The Grand’s pool was closed when we stayed there so I don’t know what it’s like. Looks a bit small from the outside.

Hojo has a very nice swimming pool away from their water play area. Walk to and from on the Disney side of harbor, and you can hear the park music almost the whole way, and you have the landscaping Anaheim has out on to shield you from some of the traffic etc. it’s most pleasant.

HRH pool is 3 1/2 feet deep. It isn’t great for swimming. I agree with the rest, but that pool was a disappointment.

Yep. It’s a sitting and drinking pool.

If you want to do it cheap you've got to stay off site, which can still be VERY close, in fact probably closer then the walking distance from Paradise Pier and maybe even DLH.

Not just probably. I’ve mapped a variety of walks to the center of the esplanade, and the ones across from the entrance are closer. Our specific room at the Grand was barely closer to that spot than walking from HoJo sidewalk.

Gotcha. Just kinda gets old people always saying DL is just a locals park.

Yep.

And so wrong as well.

The Courtyard has a great looking little water park but the pool itself is very small.

We were at Universal Orlando this past weekend and I just got to thinking how nice it was walking back to the hotel with the beautiful landscaping, foliage and waterway. It really makes the trip so much nicer. And I kept thinking how I just would be disappointed walking down Harbour Blvd past a McDonald's. I know it seems silly. But I'm just so into escape and immersion. It's why I love Disney so much to begin with.

I’ve literally never noticed the McDonald’s. And Wdw, DL, universal...it’s all so peopley who even notices where you are? I’ve had far more magical walking to the hotel experiences at DL than I have at Wdw. Mainly because it’s so much quicker to get back to the hotel at DL.

And I own Dvc at Wdw lol, so I’m no stranger to it. And I love UO and even USH! I’ve been to them all, and I stay onsite at all BUT Disneyland, because being onsite at Disneyland is just so unnecessary.


We stay there and love the Premium rooms. They bring you breakfast in the morning, have a small snack basket in the room, and rooms are quite nice. My favorite off site. But it is a motel layout.

To me it looks kinda like if Port Orleans French Quarter and Port Orleans Riverside merged. At least from the outside. And so much closer to the parks then PO resorts are to WDW!

Next time I go I’m staying there.
 
Captainkidd76, I know that you have certain things that you value, but judging by your posts it does seem you are very disappointed that you aren't able to go.

Is it possible to compromise at all in terms of your hotels/preferences/etc? I can tell you that very few of my vacations have had me able to do/have everything I was hoping for. At some point or another, something gets cut or I have to change something I'd love for something that isn't perfect just to make it work.

At one point I had my heart set on staying at AKL for a week in FL; I've come to the conclusion that this simply isn't feasible for me, perhaps ever. BUT because I was able to compromise with another place to stay, I've been able to go to WDW twice since I gave up that dream. Going twice when maybe everything wasn't 100% what I wanted is definitely better than not going at all, IMO.

Maybe the solution is to cut Disneyland and go to Universal, but maybe there's some compromise that you can make.
 


I'm staying at the Residence Inn on Katella for our arrival night in November and I've heard the pool area is really nice, but I haven't seen it myself. However, I have stayed at the Springhill Suites next door and we did walk past some of the more...colorful characters of Anaheim.
Everything's a tradeoff. It was nice being in the Disney bubble the one time I went to WDW, but my goodness I got tired of waiting for the bus all the time. I love being able to walk whereever and whenever I want at DLR. It is just no big deal to go to the parks, take a break, and go back again. I personally really like that when I'm on vacation.
The pool area IS very nice. The entire hotel is. I've stayed there twice and will always recommend it.
 
There are 25 Disney resorts at WDW plus 18 "Good Neighbor" hotels - where you get benefits like extra magic hours. Staying onsite at Disneyland is not the same thing as WDW. The Disneyland Hotel and Grand Californian are almost always full which is why they can charge a premium.
 
There is no reason to pay $600 a night to stay onsite. Some of the offsite hotels are actually closer to the front gate than the Disneyland Hotel.

Depends what you're looking for. If the hotel is just a place to sleep and shower, then I agree. But if you're someone who likes to use the amenities and spend time at the hotel, it can be.

My wife and I are gonna talk about it tonight. We may opt to go and stay at the Courtyard. Those rooms look very nice. Pool is small, but I'm sure my kids will still be able to enjoy it. I mean, we stayed at Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando in JUly, and I didn't feel as though any of the Disney magic was lost because of it. Unfortunately, some of the magic was lost because of other things at WDW.
 
There are 25 Disney resorts at WDW plus 18 "Good Neighbor" hotels - where you get benefits like extra magic hours. Staying onsite at Disneyland is not the same thing as WDW. The Disneyland Hotel and Grand Californian are almost always full which is why they can charge a premium.
Plus DL draws more guests from high income areas that are used to paying outrageous prices for hotels. I tell my coworkers who go to DL they are crazy to pay $700 a night at the Grand Californian. They just shrug their shoulders and say they like to stay onsite. I would rather pay $150 and stay at the Candy Cane
 
I think I've been desensitized by the prices of "nice" hotels in California, being a native Californian. We were looking at staying in Bodega Bay recently and the hotel we were eyeing was over $500/night! We figured we'd shelve that trip and put the money toward our APs in October.

I love GCH, but my wallet doesn't. That's why we usually go during Dapper Days (and participate in the Expo of course) to get a heavily discounted rate. Otherwise, I'm happy to stay offsite if it means not going at all.

But, OP, I get where you are coming from. DH is an admitted hotel snob, but he's been quite happy at Hyatt House and Hotel Indigo (although he prefers Hyatt House, I like Indigo for the price!). There are some good offsite options that still allow for a nice experience. I hear great things about Courtyard and I think you guys would really enjoy it! Good luck with your decision making.
 
...My wife and I are gonna talk about it tonight. We may opt to go and stay at the Courtyard. Those rooms look very nice. Pool is small, but I'm sure my kids will still be able to enjoy it...
I'm glad you're thinking about giving your trip another try and maybe doing it a different way. There is more than one way to make a DLR trip work, and if this is one way to make this trip happen this time, then why not? It cannot hurt to have as many different strategies and tricks up your Disney sleeve to know how to make a DLR trip work whenever you see a great airfare sale or whenever you find a great ticket deal. It is so rare when all the pieces fall into place at the exact same time (and if they do, drop everything and plan that trip!), so the more flexible you can be about one or more of the pieces of the puzzle, the easier it will be to put everything together. Knowing what can work for you and your family and what won't is super important -- the more familiar you get with the DLR area hotels, with airlines and the ups and downs of fare predicting, and with Disney ticket deals/crowd patterns, the easier it will be to plan "spontaneous" trips and the more quickly those trips will come together. There will always be some planning involved, but it won't always be so painful.
By the way, if this trip does work out, plan some time to check out a few of the hotels mentioned here that you think might work for you. Being able to see the properties, inside and out, see the distance to the gates, check out the pool, get some brochures, etc., can help you know better how to plan future trips.
 
Last edited:
We have never stayed on site.

This may sound silly but part of the culture at Disneyland is the off site hotel guest/ local guest.

Idk we just like the feel of that. You connect with people at your hotel with a hello, etc.

We’ve planned a Disneyland trip is 3 months, 10
Months, and 22 days lol! Our next trip is booked for October 2020. We’ve stayed at hojo and Anaheim hotel.

And 5 days at Disneyland is enough.. more wont hurt, but I think you will be surprised at how with maxpass how easy it is to navigate and get stuff done!
 
Depends what you're looking for. If the hotel is just a place to sleep and shower, then I agree. But if you're someone who likes to use the amenities and spend time at the hotel, it can be.

My wife and I are gonna talk about it tonight. We may opt to go and stay at the Courtyard. Those rooms look very nice. Pool is small, but I'm sure my kids will still be able to enjoy it. I mean, we stayed at Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando in JUly, and I didn't feel as though any of the Disney magic was lost because of it. Unfortunately, some of the magic was lost because of other things at WDW.

We have 4 kids under 8 and they are all huge fans of the courtyard pool, and frankly the room layout with bunk beds works better for us than anything I've seen onsite. And...speaking as someone who has to trek to goofy's every time we go...CY seems a lot closer to me than the DLH. There are so many nicer and cheaper options offsite, IMO.
 
And also agreed with PP, with strategic use of maxpass my kids are bored by mid day 3 because we've ridden everything so many times.
 
We have 4 kids under 8 and they are all huge fans of the courtyard pool, and frankly the room layout with bunk beds works better for us than anything I've seen onsite. And...speaking as someone who has to trek to goofy's every time we go...CY seems a lot closer to me than the DLH. There are so many nicer and cheaper options offsite, IMO.

From the pics the pool itself just looks so small. My kids will enjoy the water slides, but it looks like there's barely any room to move around in the poolm
 
They do offer longer tickets for Australians for sure. Not sure about other countries.

Maybe it would help OP to re-frame their expectations of a DLR vacation to be less like an Orlando resort vacation. Spend fewer days at the parks (really 5 days should be more than enough for two parks) and then visit a more "resort" hotel destination somewhere else in California to fufill the hang at the pool part. Or even better- head on to Aulani for a few days (I know, that's hardly a budget option but...)

I agree wholeheartedly with this. I would always stay onsite at WDW but Disneyland is a whole different experience, and there is just so much around there that you can do with the savings from staying offsite. Our Disneyland trips are always part of a larger vacation that includes - but is not exclusively - DLR, and it's a blast. It changes every year but has included LA, Vegas, San Diego, Tucson, The Grand Canyon, San Fransisco, the 101 coast - the list goes on and on (we actually did do Hawaii one year - now THAT was a budget buster :scared1:). But I think seeing it as a different type of vacation is useful, and the possibilities for spending that $$ don't seem nearly as bleak.
 
We usually go to WDW as we live in PA, but in March we visited Disneyland. We stayed at the Homewood Suites which gave us two rooms (bedroom and living room with pull out couch) and a kitchen. We had a nice breakfast every morning and supper Sunday-Thursday nights that was included. We were a 15-20 minute walk to the parks or a 5 minute walk to a Disney parking lot to ride the bus to the security gate at the park. We never had to wait for busses. The walk to the bus from our hotel was less than what most people describe as the walk to some bus stops at WDW (we only stay off site).
 
I'm a big fan of keeping my options open and not locking myself into something when there's no real advantage in doing so.

OP is looking at Disneyland next summer. And he indicated in a followup post that he would need to start making payments now in order to make that work. So start making payments now, but make them into your own private vacation account. Set aside the same amount that you'd be paying if you booked it now (and even a little more any month that you can manage to scrape it together).

This has all kinds of advantages. Maybe your family has a great year financially, or maybe you have a hard year. A lot can change, and it can change quickly. But in six months you'll be able to make an even more informed decision about what you can afford. It could also be that in six months, the pool doesn't seem like quite as big a deal to you and your kids. Or maybe you realize that it really is the make-or-break thing. Who knows? Maybe you even start missing WDW (and forgive them for whatever went wrong last time) and decide to go there instead. And on top of it all, it gives you a chance to sit back and watch for deals. Who knows what kind of promotion Disney might come up with between now and then?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!





Top