Best Hotel for taking elderly parents

[mom4scrapbooking]

I am planning on taking my parents to Disneyland in October. I am hoping mid week will be quite but we are going at the end of the month so might be busy.

Anyways my mom does not walk all that well. She has had both knees replaced. She refuses to use a wheelchair or a scooter in any way. I am hoping she changes her mind when we are there but for now she is not. I am planning to spend extra days in the park so we can take our time.

Which hotel is best for her to be able to go back when she is tired. My dad will be with her but what do you think is the best option? I am looking into the Disneyland hotel but is it really closer than Best Western Park Place inn or Park Vue??

Thinking do I want to do two rooms or do you suggest a hotel that has room conected to save some money? So that they can have some space but cost less than 2 rooms.

Thanks so much!

 

[DSNY4ever]

I am assuming you have kids, so I would say separate rooms because the Grandparents might want a little down quiet time and maybe the kids will need to nap etc. Sometimes your own space is good

The Disneyland hotel really isn't much closer than the ones directly across the street on Harbor blvd. (but keep in mind not all the "motel" style hotels have elevators, so make sure you check that before you book). Another good option from the ones directly across is one that has a shuttle like the Hyatt (very nice big rooms), or the Candy Cane Inn or the Sheraton.

Good luck!

 

[VandVsmama]

Connecting rooms are not necessarily cheaper....you usually still get charged for two rooms. They are just connected together through a door. The DLH's walk to DL entrance is about as long as it is from Hojos to the park entrances. Closest on site hotel would be GCH. Closest off site would be BWPPI.

I hope for your mom's sake that she changes her mind about the scooter because after a few hours on day 1, her knees might be pretty cranky. You might want to consider having a backup plan for when thr inevitable does occur. For example, you and kids go on rides while Grandma sits for awhile. Have her camp out in New Orleans Square for example. There is great people watching to be had at DL.

 

[Malcon10t]

There are a couple options for you. The Carousel Inn Resort suite is cheaper than 2 rooms, offers 3 queens and 2 bathrooms. It is one of our preferred places to stay off site. It is about a 3 min further walk than the BWPPI or PVI, and it has elevators.

Camelot has a family suite that could work also, it is about another minute or so.

Deckert's Surgical is local and can deliver quickly, should your mom decide after a day that she needs a scooter! (714-542-5607.)

 

[Stitch35]

The DLH is a farther walk then BWPPI and PVI, unless you take the monorail. Desert Inn has some large suites for a decent price and they are a few steps past PVI...literally. HTH

 

[DizMe]

We took my mom under similar circumstances. What worked extremely well for us was to book a concierge room at GCH. That gave us breakfast, snacks, appetizers, drinks, and desserts. In addition, it gave my mom a place to relax and rest in comfort, with immediate access to food or beverages. She could read, play games, watch TV etc. She loved being in the parks but she got too tired to do that as much as the rest of us so it was great having the lounge for her and the one(s) with her. I prefer the GCH lounge to DLH's because it's quite a bit larger and has better offerings IMO.

My mom also swore up and down she didn't need a scooter or a wheelchair, but she quickly changed her mind. She preferred a wheelchair as she had difficulty maneuvering the scooter.

ETA: the convenience of being right there at GCH was huge.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

We took my mom under similar circumstances. What worked extremely well for us was to book a concierge room at GCH. That gave us breakfast, snacks, appetizers, drinks, and desserts. In addition, it gave my mom a place to relax and rest in comfort, with immediate access to food or beverages. She could read, play games, watch TV etc. She loved being in the parks but she got too tired to do that as much as the rest of us so it was great having the lounge for her and the one(s) with her. I prefer the GCH lounge to DLH's because it's quite a bit larger and has better offerings IMO. My mom also swore up and down she didn't need a scooter or a wheelchair, but she quickly changed her mind. She preferred a wheelchair as she had difficulty maneuvering the scooter. ETA: the convenience of being right there at GCH was huge.

If it's in the budget, I wholeheartedly agree with this. The location is perfect and the concierge makes for a nice down time place. I would look into a 2 bedroom suite maybe -concierge is per room and the suite counts as one. Plus it would give you all some nice space to hang out & visit.

 

[KeKy4]

I read a review once and BWPPI is the closest you can get. With DLH, it's so large that if you got a room in the back, you could end up pretty far away. I would encourage her to rent a motorized scooter, she can always park it, walk around then get back on it as needed or to travel from land to land without feeling like she's stuck in it all day. Better to rent offsite as I've heard you can't take the Disney ones out of DL/DCA.

 

[Kristina4109]

Have stayed in both the DLH and the BWPPI, both of them multiple times. The walk to the parks from the BWPPI is shorter than the walk from the DLH. But not by a huge amount.

 

[allsaintsatx]

We had a very similar trip this past summer with 2 grandparents who stubbornly refused to rent ECVs. By day 3 of the trip both of them were not doing well physically at all: they were having to make frequent stops, were constantly looking for places to sit and all of this in the swarm of people at the park. It slowly turned into a nightmare and we forced them both to rent ECVs if they were going to continue touring the parks. They didn't want to feel like "old ladies" but at 70+ years each they're not exactly spring chickens! It doesn't seem like it, but you walk constantly at DLR from 7:30am until you call it quits (we lasted until about 8pm) and that's a lot of physical activity for an able bodied person, never mind an elderly person with knee replacements/ankle issues. As soon as they rented the ECVs it was a whole new ball game - they LOVED them!! They zoomed ahead of us (constantly), always had a chair ready which really came in handy when we viewed the parades at DCA and DLR, and the basket on the front fit all of our backpacks and souvenirs so we didn't have to carry anything in the parks. Don't hesitate and play the "oh I'm ok" game - get her an ECV!!

 

[mom4scrapbooking]

Thanks so much everybody I am going to look into all options for them. My parents are both older than 70 so I worry about them. They have not been back to the park for over 40 years.I worry about getting my mom in a spot where she can watch fireworks is going to be tuff with her legs. I figure i just need to get there early and sit on a bench.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

The concierge level at the DLH has fireworks viewing (with the music piped in). This may be true for the GCH, as well, so your mom could view fireworks from a comfortable place.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Thanks so much everybody I am going to look into all options for them. My parents are both older than 70 so I worry about them. They have not been back to the park for over 40 years.I worry about getting my mom in a spot where she can watch fireworks is going to be tuff with her legs. I figure i just need to get there early and sit on a bench.

DH and I both rent scooters for touring the parks. Actually, that's one of our favorite rides there. The cast members keep telling us to stop racing each other. ahem. There's a handicapped viewing area for Fantasmic! and World of Color. The scooters have padded seats, which are a lot more comfortable than a bench.

The longest walk is the walk back to the hotel at the end of the day. Riding/driving a scooter makes all the difference. As mentioned above, renting from an outside vendor allows you to take the scooters to/from the hotel. They're also cheaper than the DLR klunkers and usually in better condition. When you get back to the hotel at night you just plug them into an outlet to recharge the battery overnight. That's important -- you don't want to run out of "juice" the next day. If you do, you can plug them in for a partial recharge while you have a meal. The DLR restaurants are accommodating -- just ask a hostess or waiter where to find an outlet.

Do both of your parents still drive cars? If they don't have the reflexes to drive a car, then a scooter wouldn't be in their best interest. You have to be quick to avoid pedestrians in the parks who stop and gawk right in front of you. If your parents can't handle the scooters, then a wheelchair would be better than walking, but someone would have to push. When DMIL needed a wheelchair she didn't want to "impose" on the rest of the family so she got a scooter, which gave her independence. Instead of slowing down the rest of the group, she became the leader of the pack.

You could have your parents do a "test drive" before going to the parks -- take them to Costco or Target or other store that has scooters for shoppers to borrow. If your parents can steer those beasts around a store, they should be able to handle the smaller, quicker scooters at DLR.

 

[jason41483]

GCH for proximity to the park and amenities.