Anabella to be demolished

[Nonsuch]

I think affordable rooms within walking distance are going to get harder and harder to find...

The tax incentives Anaheim is using to encourage high end hotels will likely result in several more new hotels, eliminating many cheaper rooms.

 

[ClaraOswald]

The idea of all the streets around Disneyland being filled with high rises makes my claustrophobia set in for some reason.

 

[lildreamer101]

We went to the theater trip before last, I quite liked it. It was my first time being in an assigned seat theater (small town here), was sad to see it go but I didn't see another patron there.

Do they still have a movie theater in DTD? Was the Garden Walk theater cheaper than the DTD one?

 

[lildreamer101]

Yeah, we noticed the lack of customers and many vacant stores in the Garden Walk complex, too. I did like the mix of indoor and outdoor spaces and thought the place had great potential! The movie theatre did close, but that spot is soon to be taken over by the House of Blues restaurant currently located in Downtown Disney. Apparently they'll have more space to host live music, which should liven things up at Gardenwalk.

Oh? That sounds better than nothing I guess.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Do they still have a movie theater in DTD? Was the Garden Walk theater cheaper than the DTD one?

Yes the DTD theater is still quite operational. We had left DL at the time but were staying in Anaheim hitting up other attractions in the area. We decided to take a day off and catch a movie which happened to be playing at that theater and we didn't feel like fighting the DTD traffic. It worked out for us at the time. I would love to see GardenWalk actually work for Anaheim, as stated above it appears to have lots of potential. Right now I think the main thing it's used for is overflow DL parking...

 

[gottalovepluto]

The tax incentives Anaheim is using to encourage high end hotels will likely result in several more new hotels, eliminating many cheaper rooms.

Oh that's right! I'd forgotten all about the high end hotel tax incentives the city is pushing- shoulda had a V8 I guess

 

[sheetz]

Even though the high end chain hotels are usually more expensive than the small, independently owned motels I can often find better deals with the chains through all the special deals that they offer. For example, I have an IHG credit card and for the $50 annual fee I get a free night at ANY of their hotels worldwide--easily worth hundreds of dollars. Marriott's cc offers a free night at their category 1-5 hotels every year. Other hotel branded credit cards like Starwood offer generous sign up bonuses. Hilton's card grants you Gold VIP status, which gets you free breakfast. Then there are the lucrative seasonal promotions they all offer for free points or nights.

And for people who often travel for business or use their credit cards a lot it'll be quite easy to accumulate free nights.

 

[ClaraOswald]

We rarely travel. So one free night at an expensive hotel plus 6 or 7 paid nights is NOT a very good deal to me at all. I would much rather pay $100 for a parlor suite at the Desert Inn on Harbor. Fingers crossed they don't turn into a "luxury" hotel.

 

[sheetz]

We rarely travel. So one free night at an expensive hotel plus 6 or 7 paid nights is NOT a very good deal to me at all. I would much rather pay $100 for a parlor suite at the Desert Inn on Harbor. Fingers crossed they don't turn into a "luxury" hotel.

You'd be surprised what kind of great deals there are to found. There are lots of blogs which explain how to travel for pennies on the dollar, and much of it involves taking advantage of the numerous promotions which are often available.

 

[ThisGirlLovesDL]

The people that bought Anaheim Plaza own the Anabella. They also owned Carousel until Disney purchased it but continue to run it.

The Anabella project is still a few years away so the hotel will remain open and business as usual. Please come and stay there!

 

[T0rrent]

We rarely travel. So one free night at an expensive hotel plus 6 or 7 paid nights is NOT a very good deal to me at all. I would much rather pay $100 for a parlor suite at the Desert Inn on Harbor. Fingers crossed they don't turn into a "luxury" hotel.

This is where things like Priceline, Orbitz, etc. save you a ton of money. There are sites (i think one is called better bidding) that will break down what hotels fall under which star category when you bid on priceline, so if you know you want to stay at Hotel B or C but not A, and you know B & C are 4 star rated and A is 3 star rated, you k now to only bid on the 4 star hotels. For a disney trip in September, we scored a 3 night stay at Hyatt Regency for like 80 bucks a night, and since we were a late arrival and they sold out of our room, they upgraded us to a business suite for free.

As is, even the "cheap" hotels across the street are getting expensive as they are constantly remodeling, refurbishing, and adding more amenities to compete against the luxury hotels. We got 5 nights at Ramada Main Gate for about 800 bucks on a last minute booking, but 110-130 a night plus taxes & parking seems to be the norm for across the street. Every once in a while, we score a decent rate at the Super 8 on Katela, but even then the days of getting that for 60 a night are long gone.

 

[bookgirl]

I'd be thrilled with a Moderate Level that was a Disney Hotel.

 

[DSNY4ever]

Oh no, I really like the Anabella! We stayed at the Camelot for the first time recently and really liked it. But I agree, that affordable rooms in walking distance will likely get harder to find. I am not in the group that can afford a luxury hotel for our Disney vacations, so I don't think these hotels will ever interest me.

 

[mgd]

Disney doesn't care whether less wealthy people can enjoy disneyland. Disneyland will continue to be packed, and if they could replace the frugal guests who stay at the run down motels with wealthier guests who part with their money more easily which = more park spending, what do you think they will opt to do? But I also think having more hotel options that were not run down has been a concern of even average disney visitors for a while.

 

[ClaraOswald]

I don't think all of the affordable hotels are rundown. I didn't think the Desert Inn was bad at all (other than the bed.) But I suppose since I'm apparently a 'poor' person that Disney hates, my perspective is different...ha!

 

[AZMermaid]

We stayed at Best Western Park Place in November for Avengers weekend. I got it for $109/night. We own DVC but couldn't get into Grand Cal (not surprising for that weekend). We were totally satisfied with the Best Western and you can't get any closer to the crosswalk! Just in case anyone is looking for something else!

 

[My3Princez]

Just got back from a stay at Eden Roc hotel right down the street from GC hotel. They recently updated the rooms and they are really nice. I even got to watch the fireworks from my bed one night. Rates are around $100 night.

Thanks for this post. I've been hunting for a hotel for an upcoming visit, and although the Eden Roc had come up in searches, I hadn't really looked at it. I think it will be a perfect fit for our family and it was $74+tax cheaper than our other option! Doesn't include breakfast like the other one did, but for $74/night I think we can manage ....

 

[taniahappy]

So that is the reason I am finding so many deals of the Anabella! ...

 

[ThisGirlLovesDL]

So that is the reason I am finding so many deals of the Anabella! ...

The Anabella usually has deals when they need to fill rooms. All hotels do.

The hotel is still going to be open for at least three years. It is business as usual.

 

[Nonsuch]

The Anabella usually has deals when they need to fill rooms. All hotels do.
The hotel is still going to be open for at least three years. It is business as usual.

A current TravelZoo promotion for the Anabella