need some reassurance: good neighbor hotel versus a DL hotel

[MandyMo427]

So... I am headed to DL resort for 3 days in February 2014. Yay! This makes me especially happy because I just returned from WDW and I'm having Disney withdrawals. I have not been to DL in a while. I really want to see Cars Land. I've heard that the wait times are NUTS.

If you stay at a DL hotel, you get access to CA Adventure earlier on some mornings. Everyone who buys a 3 day or more ticket gets access to DL early on some mornings, but the only way to get early CA Adventure access is to stay on property, right?

But if I stay at a Good Neighbor hotel, I can save over $500 on hotel costs. I don't think that early access to CA Adventure is worth $500 or more...

Can I get some thoughts on pros and cons of staying in a DL hotel compared to a Good Neighbor hotel? FYI, I have stayed at the Grand Californian once. I didn't think that the cost was worth it other than for location -- the person I traveled with needed to go back to the hotel during the day to rest, so the location helped a lot.

Thanks!

 

[Geemo]

If you go during DapperDays you can get a DLR hotel for a very nice rate.

We have stayed on-site and over on Harbor. If I only go once a year or have less than 5 people, I book on-site. When I have more than 5 or want to go more than once a year, I book on Harbor Blvd.

The cost difference can be substancial$$$.

My group prefers Harbor, due to the shorter walk to and from the parks. I'm usually beat by the end of the day and the room/hotel doesn't matter to me. Provided it's clean and safe.

Geemo

 

[tlovesdis]

Here's my most recent experience...

In March of this year we went to DLR Fri-Mon. We stayed off site, across the street. On Saturday morning we lined up at DCA a half hour before opening, got in and went straight to RSR. We were on the ride and done within a half an hour. So it is totally possible to get on the ride quickly without having to stay onsite!

 

[Butterfly123]

You will get one early entry to DL with a three day (or more) ticket. That has always been enough for us. We always stay off site. We aren't in the room enough to care about whether or not it gives a Disney feeling. When we are there we are sleeping or showering. Plus, it is hard to get three teens up and ready for an early morning more than once a trip! Especially when you have stayed out late the night before. For us the savings is worth it. We always stay right across the street at BWPPI. You can't get a closer walk, which is nice if you want a quick nap mid-day, or you want to drop off or pick up a jacket, etc.

 

[iamtabby13]

We just booked at the Best western Park Place Inn which is supposedly right across the street from the entrance to the parks. We are going to be there for three days in March in between cruises out of San Pedro. Never been to DL before but have been to WDW once. We decided to not stay on property just because of cost. For us, the extra money does not justify it. We are going to be in the parks all day and going back to the hotel to crash late at night. As long as there is a comfy bed, shower and it's clean, we will be happy.

 

[luulu1999]

I have to agree I would love to stay on site but every time I think about it I think of what all I can buy/do on our trip with that money saved, and you can just as easily enjoy RSR with the FP system or the wide right tech. $500 can buy a lot of yummy goodies and souvenirs

 

[MandyMo427]

Yes, we're looking at Best Western Park Place Inn. That's where we are likely to stay.

It's helpful to hear that a rope drop on a non-early morning day will allow for access to Radiator Springs Racers. I think that will work for us.

I always stay at Pop Century at WDW, so I am a value lady when it comes to hotels. I agree -- just a place to sleep and shower!

I'm feeling better about this choice to say at a Good Neighbor Hotel. I just started to worry when thinking about whether or not we would get on RSR...

 

[yoyoyo]

Yes, we're looking at Best Western Park Place Inn. That's where we are likely to stay.

It's helpful to hear that a rope drop on a non-early morning day will allow for access to Radiator Springs Racers. I think that will work for us.

I always stay at Pop Century at WDW, so I am a value lady when it comes to hotels. I agree -- just a place to sleep and shower!

I'm feeling better about this choice to say at a Good Neighbor Hotel. I just started to worry when thinking about whether or not we would get on RSR...

You won't regret it. If you're just a sleep/shower kind of person regarding hotels, this is the best Good Neighbor one because of the distance

 

[Eighty8Keys]

We just came back from a week's stay at the Best Western Park Place Inn & Suites (our second stay this year). It's located right at the crosswalk to the Disneyland Resort entrance. It look us 7 minutes to walk to the turnstiles and our rooms were located about 2/3 of the way towards the back of the hotel property. As much as I would love to stay onsite, I just can't justify the expense. We were able to get two Disneyland trips this year staying offsite instead of one trip staying onsite. Since we have AP's we didn't have any early entry opportunities. We always started our day at the park without early entry and found by getting there by rope drop we were able to head to Radiator Springs Racers first thing and ride standby with a minimal wait. After riding, we headed to the FastPass line and we're able to get FP's for later in the day.

 

[Susie63]

We have only stayed on site....until 2 weeks ago. It was a very hastily planned surprise birthday trip from my DH and the standard rooms were all sold out on the 27th. I have heard lots of good things about PVI and booked there. I am unlikely to stay on site again, unless there have huge discount rate during my stay. Free hot breakfast and free parking were with the extra cost for me.

 

[Butterfly123]

My advice would be to go to DCA on a non early entry day. Get in line at least 45 minutes before the park opens. When you get in, do the wide right technique to ride RSR. Then afterwards get a FP for an evening return time, and ride RSR again at night. It really feels like a different experience riding it at night. You should have no trouble at all getting on this ride. If you don't mind doing single rider, that is also another option for this ride.

 

[Zbugz]

So... I am headed to DL resort for 3 days in February 2014. Yay! This makes me especially happy because I just returned from WDW and I'm having Disney withdrawals. I have not been to DL in a while. I really want to see Cars Land. I've heard that the wait times are NUTS.

If you stay at a DL hotel, you get access to CA Adventure earlier on some mornings. Everyone who buys a 3 day or more ticket gets access to DL early on some mornings, but the only way to get early CA Adventure access is to stay on property, right?

But if I stay at a Good Neighbor hotel, I can save over $500 on hotel costs. I don't think that early access to CA Adventure is worth $500 or more...

Can I get some thoughts on pros and cons of staying in a DL hotel compared to a Good Neighbor hotel? FYI, I have stayed at the Grand Californian once. I didn't think that the cost was worth it other than for location -- the person I traveled with needed to go back to the hotel during the day to rest, so the location helped a lot.

Thanks!

I think your logic is good. For us the only benefits of staying on site that are important are the nicer pool area and the early entry, and IMHO those are not worth an extra $500. I'm glad we tried it, but Harbor Blvd is just fine for us. The cons for us are the $16 per night parking and no breakfast.

 

[GeneralTso]

If you get there early enough, it doesn't matter where you stay.
We've done both and it works both ways just fine.

If you can afford to stay on property--do it. It's just great. Wonderful. Nothing not to like.

 

[CAFarmerGirl]

We are actually doing both this coming vacation. I wanted the extra hours due to the Thanksgiving holiday crowds. So, we have 2 nights at PP and 3 nights at Park Vue Inn. We also added in an extra night at some nearby hotel (cannot remember the name) before our stay at Pp, so we can get up early and take advantage of one more EMH.

 

[Aaron70Monte]

Even if I could afford the extra cost of staying onsite at DLR, I don't think I could ever do it. For me I just would not get another $500 value out of the trip. We're also the type of people who don't really care if the hotel looks fancy or has the "disney" feeling. It just has to be clean and convenient.

I have stayed onsite for my trips to WDW but I find that there are more benefits of staying onsite there.

 

[july2011]

One extra thing to consider - we stayed at DLH this past summer and on the day that we planned to go to CA early, RSR was down until at least 8:30 (Extra magic hour began at 7). While we were able to ride Luigi's & Mater's without a wait, the headliner is of course RSR. I ended up waiting in the crazy long line for fast passes and got a return time of 3:30 or so. I think if you're there at opening and go straight to the line (it moves fast) you're better off with the fast pass. Paying $500 more for an unreliable ride (assuming that would be your only reason based on what you've written) might end up not working out anyway and then you'd likely be really upset with yourself.

I should add, we did love the DLH hotel - I just didn't want you spending more than you were comfortable with and not being aware of how unreliable RSR can be in the mornings.

 

[MandyMo427]

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts! I feel good about my decision not to stay in a DL hotel now.

One question, though... Sorry for being clueless, but this seems like insider talk -- what does this mean? "do the wide right technique to ride RSR"?? (I know more of the WDW insider talk than I do DL insider talk right now...)

 

[clori]

Since we were arriving after noon and could only get 5 day tickets what we did was book our arrival day at the Disneyland Hotel. We got there around 12:30 ate brunch at Goofy's Kitchen and spent the rest of the afternoon at the pool area with the kids. We spent some time walking around Downtown Disney. The next morning we were up early and quickly got everything packed up (didn't unpack everything to begin with), ate breakfast from home.

We left our items down the hall in a friends room but there was also a Disney place to leave luggage. We went to CA for early entry. I think the regular park hours were 8 so we were at the park by 6:30 (easy with 3 hour time change for us). Around 4 or so we all went back and got our luggage. We took a cab to our new hotel, checked in etc. I believe we were all set to return to the park by 5.

For us that gave us the pool slides on a day we would actually use them then early entry to CA. We did go straight to Carsland but as many people say RSR was done. We ended up doing it later as single rider. We paid less per night for a 1 bedroom suite, full kitchen, free breakfast. We were fine with our 1 early entry to CA and 1 early entry to DL. The hotel was on Katella on the corner of Harbor. We walked across the street to Harbor and jumped on ART. We found that easier and more relaxing then the walk from DLR to the parks. It was less than a two minute ride and the very next stop to the parks. I felt we got the best of both worlds.