disneyland-to staty or not to stayoff property

Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
devoy1701 said:
I'll be there in Dec 09 (first paragraph :animwink:) So as of now there aren't any specials out for my dates...I'll probably have to wait until about July to find out...but if we can close that almost $1,000 difference to about $400-$500 I will heavily consider changing hotels. I love the Disney Magic...and whatever I can do to help the economy!
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:lol: Okay sorry, I read way too quickly!! You're right the specials for then won't be announced until much later if there are any. And how selfless of you to be thinking about helping the economy!:eek::lol:
 
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agent86

New Member
Disneyfalcon said:
I can't walk into my room at the Best Western and see a Mickey hand holding up my lamp.
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With the money you're saving by staying at a non-Disney hotel, you could go to the World of Disney store and purchase a lamp with Mickey's hand holding it up. Heck, with what you'd be saving, you could totally deck out your Best Western hotel room with the finest in Disney furnishings and still have money to spare. :p


devoy1701 said:
We're also getting a 2-room suite with a King bed for about $800 less than the cost of Paradise Pier. Did I mention that it included breakfast? That's going to cut an additional $150 of our expenses for a week-long trip for 2 people.
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What are you crazy?? Don't you realize that by spending that extra mere $950, you could get shampoo and soap with Mickey Mouse on them?? :ROFLOL::hammer:
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
agent86 said:
With the money you're saving by staying at a non-Disney hotel, you could go to the World of Disney store and purchase a lamp with Mickey's hand holding it up. Heck, with what you'd be saving, you could totally deck out your Best Western hotel room with the finest in Disney furnishings and still have money to spare. :p
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Umm, maybe is I was planning on staying a month or two?:lol: But to each his own.:)
 
TLS

TLS

Member
devoy1701 said:
I've booked the Embassy Suites Anahiem South for my trip in December 09 as per someone's advice on here and also because Embassy Suites includes a hot Cook-to-Order breakfast every morning with your stay. It's about a mile away from the Parks so we'll have a nice morning stroll on some mornings or take the hotel transportation over to the parks.

We're also getting a 2-room suite with a King bed for about $800 less than the cost of Paradise Pier. Did I mention that it included breakfast? That's going to cut an additional $150 of our expenses for a week-long trip for 2 people.

Now judging by how bad the economy is, I'm not opposed to switching over to one of the 3 Disney Hotels over there is there are some amazing deals (which I'm really hoping their are). But the price has to come significantly close to what the Embassy Suites is costing me right now.
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I'm not sure I'm the one who recommended you, but I've always been a good proponent of this hotel.

Good choice overall. If it's anything like it was in 2005, you'll really like it there. The breakfast is often overlooked in vacations/travel, but can be a very costly oversight. Them offering it for free, and it being pretty darn tasty is a BIG plus in my book. Often times, we ate such big breakfasts, that a mid day snack and a later evening dinner suited us just fine. I don't know, other area hotels may offer a free breakfast, but for the size of the room you get, and all the little extra's, you really leave there feeling you got your moneys worth.

It's a nice hub for day trips to Hollywood, LA, Universal, Knotts, San Diego, etc. Easy on off the freeway.

We ended up driving to the Disney parking garage each visit. The hotel shuttle seemed OK for GETTING there, but I was always concerned about missing it late at night and having to walk home (it's a bit of a hike!). Maybe you'll enjoy the shuttle and save a bit on parking fees.
 
Highland_Holly

Highland_Holly

New Member
We stayed at Candy Cane Inn... walking distance (not across the street, but not bad) and it was delightful. The room was wonderful and the bed was sooooo comfortable. Loved it! Highly recommended!
 
Plutofan1

Plutofan1

Member
I think that if you have the money for on site hotels (especially the Grand Californian), go for it. If not, stay at the Howard Johnson or other similar hotels across the street. It is an easy walk and when we stayed there, we could see the fireworks, space mountain, and the matterhorn. Staying on or off site is no where near as important a decision as it is @ WDW. Whether you stay at Grand Californian or not however, we had a really good breakfast at Storyteller's Cafe. We were one of the only ones there and the food was great (especially the carmel french toast)! Either way I'm sure you'll have a great time at DL!:wave:
 
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agent86

New Member
Disneyfalcon said:
I was referring to your comment about decking out my room with the finest Disney furnishings.:)
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By "furnishings", perhaps you thought I meant "furniture". I was referring to things in typical Disney hotel rooms that can likely be found (or at least items similar to them) at places like the World of Disney store. Things like your aforementioned Mickey lamp, a couple of pieces of mass-produced Disney artwork, etc. You know, the things that make a stay in a Disney hotel room "magical" and worth all that extra money. My point was that for far less money, you could definitely purchase those things, put them in your much less expensive offsite room, and still come out way ahead.
 
heliumalias

heliumalias

Member
If anyone is a DVC member then don't forget you can use your points to pay for your stay at Grand Californian. We did so it didn't cost us a penny.

Storytellers Cafe is great for breakfast and dinner. The chefs are really chatty (I had a nice conversation about Heroes) as are the characters (Go Bruins!)

The bar was really nice as well. We sat in there each evening after spending the day in the parks having coffee and hot chocolate.

THe Grand Californian is an amazing hotel (It's like a cross between the Grand Floridian and Wilderness Lodge). I haven't stayed at the Disneyland Hotel for nearly 20 years but it does have the monorail.
 
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agent86

New Member
heliumalias said:
If anyone is a DVC member then don't forget you can use your points to pay for your stay at Grand Californian. We did so it didn't cost us a penny.
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Not to split hairs, but those points that allowed you to stay "for free" very likely ended up costing you more than if you just stayed at non-Disney hotels.
 
devoy1701

devoy1701

Well-Known Member
TLS said:
I'm not sure I'm the one who recommended you, but I've always been a good proponent of this hotel.

Good choice overall. If it's anything like it was in 2005, you'll really like it there. The breakfast is often overlooked in vacations/travel, but can be a very costly oversight. Them offering it for free, and it being pretty darn tasty is a BIG plus in my book. Often times, we ate such big breakfasts, that a mid day snack and a later evening dinner suited us just fine. I don't know, other area hotels may offer a free breakfast, but for the size of the room you get, and all the little extra's, you really leave there feeling you got your moneys worth.

It's a nice hub for day trips to Hollywood, LA, Universal, Knotts, San Diego, etc. Easy on off the freeway.

We ended up driving to the Disney parking garage each visit. The hotel shuttle seemed OK for GETTING there, but I was always concerned about missing it late at night and having to walk home (it's a bit of a hike!). Maybe you'll enjoy the shuttle and save a bit on parking fees.
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you might have been the one who recommended it. It was in a first time trip to Disneyland thread sometime around May or June. And I agree with you that free HOT breakfast is a very big perk and can definitely add up over the course of a week.

As for driving to the parking garage...that sounds like a good possibility, but we'll just be 21 when we're out there and I am worried about the hefty fees associated with rental cars for those of us under 24...as of now we're just planning on walking or taking the shuttle or getting a cab on days we need to get down there in a hurry for tours or ADRs. I dunno yet!

how is that part of Anaheim for walking back to your hotel late at night anyway?
 
Disneyfalcon

Disneyfalcon

Well-Known Member
devoy1701 said:
As for driving to the parking garage...that sounds like a good possibility, but we'll just be 21 when we're out there and I am worried about the hefty fees associated with rental cars for those of us under 24...as of now we're just planning on walking or taking the shuttle or getting a cab on days we need to get down there in a hurry for tours or ADRs. I dunno yet!

how is that part of Anaheim for walking back to your hotel late at night anyway?
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The shuttles and walking are easy enough that you can definitely make it without a rental car. We drove to the parking garage from Homewood Suites which is just a little farther then Embassy Suites (both owned by Hilton, hot breakfast every day and dinners on Monday-Thurs!!), but we had annual passes and didn't have to pay for parking.

I have never felt worried walking on Harbor Blvd. You are usually with a massive group of people all headed back to various hotels.

Embassy Suites is a little bit of a walk, in fact you may decide the shuttles are the way to go at the end of the day when your feet are tired. But in the mornings when you're raring to go and too impatient to wait for a shuttle, it should be an easy walk.:)
 
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agent86

New Member
heliumalias said:
Actually - they did for various reasons that I'm not going to get into.
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Sorry to hear that. But I'm also not surprised. That's why I would never buy a timeshare. They're always presented as a money saver (as well as an "investment"), but statistically, people who buy and use timeshares end up spending more money on their vacations than people who don't. It's like frequent flier points. Consumer Reports has done reports on both, and have shown that people who stay loyal to certain airlines (just so they can earn points) end up paying more for that "free" airline ticket than someone who shops around for the lowest fare whenever they fly.
 
KingdomHeart

KingdomHeart

New Member
I stayed at the Candy Cane Inn. Could not have been nicer people. The rooms were nice, clean, and well kept. I loved the walk (good to get a little exercise after you've eaten at Cafe Orleans and Blue Bayou - lol), and just thought it was great, especially for half the price (LITERALLY LESS THAN HALF) of staying at the Disneyland Hotel.

-Nicholas
 

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