A question about offsite hotels, most notably the Anabella. (plus a bit of a vent)

[winkytink]

Hi all, so I've been trying to plan our upcoming trip since last year but DH of course wasn't interested in helping - so all the plans I made have now at the last minute been thrown into the air because he didn't give me a budget and now that we are TWO WEEKS AWAY FROM OUR DAY IN DLR he decides to start throwing the big bad N word around (that would be "NO"). Needless to say I'm more than a tad miffed at his complete lack of interest in helping me with this for the past year. Apparently he wasn't expecting to spend more than $100 for a hotel room.

Needless to say staying at an onsite hotel will not be happening because to top it all off even if he had said yes the other night to one I'm pretty sure all the rooms are booked up for our needed day, but since they are out of our price range anyway it doesn't even matter. I'm interested in staying at the Anabella because I've heard good things but of course he is saying that since "that's $50 over budget now" (because you know, NOW we have a budget) that means we will have to sacrifice (MORE) elsewhere.

That said, here is what I'm looking for.

1. A clean, safe, family friendly hotel.
2. Walking distance to DLR if possible.
3. Will allow us to park in their lot before check-in because we will have a U-Haul trailer with us and I don't really feel like parking in the RV lot. I can deal with driving ourselves over without the trailer attached if we can leave it in our hotel lot.
4. In the price range of $79 (go ahead and laugh) to $150 a night, because I'm still not quite ready to give up on the Anabella.

ALSO - walking to DLR. Is this ill-advised? Now that we have all of these new, stupid factors coming into play, I would really like to know what others suggest. AND is it allowed still for people to leave the park to go eat outside of it or go to their hotel during the day and still return?

Thanks so much in advance. I know I'm probably coming off as a huge newb…but that's because I more or less am. I've never had to plan a Disney vacation before. And I love DH but he has really made me just so angry about this whole mess that he has made in the eleventh hour because he has decided that the trip HE said we could take and refused to help with at all is suddenly The Worst Thing Ever and needs to be done as cheaply as possible…at the LAST MINUTE. Ugh. I don't need this stress! (And if someone here gets all sanctimonious I won't hesitate to verbally eviscerate you because I am that OVER IT. So for everyone's sake, let's play nice and be helpful.)

 

[FryingPansWhoKnew]

We stayed at the Super 8 on Katella. We liked it fine. "Walking distance" is kind of relative. It's a good 10 minute walk to the park, but doable. I like walking/jogging though, so this was not a big deal to me, but I know my wife even though she is a trooper was kinda wishing the motel wasn't so far away at the end of the night.

As far as your husband is concerned, I know only the context you gave, but I will defend my thoughts because they are usually similar to your husband's. Some people are planners...they love to plan and in fact they seem agitated/anxious when they can't plan. I understand and respect that. I'm not a planner, and while I wonder if this means I'm lazy, I at least like to think that planning actually makes me nervous. I feel trapped, committed, locked in, unable to change my mind.

I've made my fair share of last minute plans and have definitely paid the price for not planning more in advance. But I still feel the way I do, and our visit to Super 8 a month ago...was last minute and we had a fantastic time. Sometimes things work out in the end even if it wasn't the way you thought you'd get there. Hope you have a good time.

 

[winkytink]

FPWK - thank you so much for the tip and the insights.

You are absolutely right. I am a planner and my husband really isn't. Well, he plans the budget. The issue is that when I need to buy something and tell him to give me a budget he doesn't. He just tells me to make a list and we will "make it work". The next thing I know I'm looking at my list of ten items slashed to two. For example DD starts kindergarten this fall and we just went school supply shopping for her on Wednesday. I had the list and no budget, even though I've been asking him since June to help me figure it out so we can find the best deals and coordinate it with our upcoming trip. We all went out together and the next thing I know he's gone from being pretty easygoing in the store to literally following me step by step and muttering numbers under his breath. Finally stops and says "OMG you've got to slow down, we already have $80 worth of stuff in the cart" and I was like "Just her school stuff, or the necessities as well?" (we were at Target.) He was combining all the items in the cart and it turns out he thought we could get away with spending $50 in school clothes for her (not including shoes and backpack). I looked at him like he was crazy. Everything was on sale and items were still $6 for a pair of leggings and $10 for a pair of kid size jeans. We have this issue where he still lives in 1989 and gas is still less than a dollar a gallon and every time we go ANYWHERE he freaks out about how much things cost. It's because he was raised in a very poor family. His sister will save moldy bread and eat it, it was that bad. It has affected them all and I try to be patient and understanding about it, but to deal with it EVERY time we go ANYWHERE has really started to frustrate me and give me anxiety because I'm anticipating his grumbling about money. It's become a buzzkill!

Sorry for the offloading. He knows how I feel about it and I'm not perfect. I can have a tendency to overspend. That's why I get so upset when I ask for a boundary and I am not given it. Then suddenly he's getting all worked up because we are "going over budget" but I have NO idea what the budget is. It's a Catch-22.

I will look into the Super 8. I'm glad to hear it's really close by the park; ten minutes is cake. I just want to make sure we aren't dragging our kids past anyplace that doesn't have sidewalks.

 

[FryingPansWhoKnew]

Maybe a tad inappropriate for these boards only because of the dark nature of the film, but sometimes I feel a little like the Joker in The Dark Knight:

"Do I really look like a guy with a plan? You know what I am? I’m a dog chasing cars. I wouldn’t know what to do with one if I caught it. You know, I just… do things."

Anyway, I think the best thing, at least from me and my wife's perspective is that knowing my nature, we have to decide if some things really need a plan or if they can be thrown together at the last minute. I know it's frustrating that all of a sudden you are getting input, but to me when something like this happens, I wasn't ready to plan that far in advance. Now that it's closer, ok, now I have to I guess.

The key is to find where that breakpoint is and work around that. I usually have to move back my last minute planning, and my wife needs to move in her "plan-every-last-detail-three-years-in-advance" mentality. So like your school supplies example, maybe this is a loose plan immediately before you go to Target, or maybe a small discussion in the car on the way to. I don't know, we just had to find something that worked for both of us. I can tell you this, I get the feeling that your husband thinks he is in planning mode right now while it seems that you have been there for months.

The Super 8 is priced right for your budget and there are sidewalks to walk there. I quite enjoyed the walk actually. There are 2 Super 8's in the area. We stayed at the one on Katella, but I know there is one on Disneyland Drive as well. Based on the reviews, we chose the Katella one.

 

[pennyring]

The Alpine Inn

 

[pennyring]

or the Alamo Inn.

 

[GeneralTso]

Sounds like he is not into this trip at all. Like, AT ALL.
Maybe best to leave him home because it sounds like you two will just be at it on the Happiest Place on Earth

I got a room at Annabella for $85 with AAA discount. I can't remember if it was off or on season. Super close walk!

 

[peterpanandwendy]

This has nothing to do with your post… but I thought Id mention it anyway My husband is the same. He grew up in a one income, 5 kids family and heard his parents fight about money all the time, so he is VERY touchy when it comes to money and budgets. Very early in our marriage I took over the banking/budgeting completely, and started giving him a small cash allowance every payday… this has SAVED our marriage. He is so much happier never thinking about money and knowing that I have it all under control and he can just sit back and relax.

I have done EVERYTHING for this trip, and it is not because he is not interested, it is just because he stressed out way too much about it to enjoy it. He enjoys it much more when I take control…

OK, and now onto something more relevant lol…

I don't know if you have a trailer or camper or anything, but we have stayed twice at the Anaheim RV village, about 10min walk from Disneyland, with a shuttle, and it was FABULOUS, and like, $30/night or something like that! I think the Anahiem RV village is closed right now for refurb, but there is the Anaheim Resort RV park, which is only a mile away from Disneyland, and it looks like it is about $50/day…

 

[Mugglemama]

We've stayed at the Super 8 on Disneyland Drive several times (anywhere from 3-8 days at a time).

We can almost always get it for under $80 per night (and sometimes much cheaper). We spend very little time in our hotel room (usually), so we have been fine with staying there when our choices were either: cheap hotel, or don't get to go at all.

It's an old motel. No indoor hallways, etc. All doors and windows face the parking lot. Pool is small (but sufficient). As far as cleanliness, I'm kind of a germ-freak, so NO hotel/motel is probably ever going to feel clean enough to me, but I will say that the Super 8, with the exception of ONE stay many years ago long before their renovations in '08, has been cleaner than some other, more expensive, Anaheim hotels we've stayed in (i.e.: The Comfort Inn, which we paid close to $200 per night for...).

The people who run it are hit-and-miss...some are SUPER nice and helpful, others are rude and negligent. But that might be the case almost no matter where you go (I've heard similar stories about on-site hotels, too).

There's a free "breakfast"....usually donuts, milk, coffee, maybe some fruit, etc. We don't usually utilize the breakfast, but it came in kind of handy a few times before we went gluten-free.

Parking is also free. And I've actually *seen* Uhaul trailers parked there. You are given one parking spot, so if you unhitched your trailer to drive to the park, I can't imagine that would be an issue - you're still just utilizing the same spot.

We don't drive and park from Super 8, we just walk. Takes about 15 minutes to walk to where the Mickey & Friends Tram picks up, and then we just take the tram in to the entrance turnstiles.

Anyway...hope you have a really great time, despite the current stress. We've done the drive-to-Disney-from-a-few-states-away road trips with kids before, so I fully understand. There have been several times when DH was stressed in the days leading up to the trip, but as soon as we've been on the road for about an hour, he is always SO happy to be going and the whole mood changes. I think it's just the stress of what a huge task this kind of road trip + Disney vacation is overall. I, like you, do ALL of the planning, packing, prepping myself - but in the end, it's my DH who is responsible for getting us all to our destinations safely, and on-schedule (I've learned over the years to become extremely good at planning every stop, having a daily itinerary, printing maps, checking google earth to familiarize myself - and him, too - with any new freeway exits we'll be looking for if we plan to stop at new places along the way, etc. I create a folder that has all of our maps, printed schedules, reservation confirmations - EVERYTHING. And all of those practices combined have taken as much stress out of our long-haul family road trips to DLR as possible).

Try to enjoy it! There are a ton of us sitting at home this summer just WISHING we were getting to go! (At our house, we've been having to settle for watching Disneyland ride Youtube videos all summer - how's THAT for sad?!! LOL!!)