Anyone stayed at "My Travel Explorers"

[jillrobinson]

Jamie fancies staying at the Explorers on our next trip, the prices are very reasonable compared to the Disney hotels (could stay here cheaper than at the Santa Fe) and the reviews I've found on it are all very good, excellent for facilites for kids.
Breakfast seems to be the only complaint, bit chaotic, but then that happens at the Disney ones too.
Just wondered how frequent are the shuttle buses ?
I know we can't have the "Disney Express baggage" and would have to take our luggage via the shuttle buses, which wouldn't be a problem on arrival but what would we do with our luggage on departure, is there somewhere at the Eurostar station we could leave them ?
and same question if we flew, I assume we wouldn't have a problem geting the VEA Navettes bus to the park, but am I right in thinking you then have to transfer to the shuttles or is there a dedicated service to the hotel ?
Same question with luggage - is there a baggage holding place in the park ?
Thanks guys.

 

[Cyrano]

Jill we were about to stay here until Holiday Inn offered one of its' deals.
I'm sure Elaine and others who speak highly will be along later

 

[Bexx]

Jill - here is the bus service between the hotels and the parks - hope it makes some sort of sense to you!!

If you have a look at the timetables on the VEA site, the times in bold, from the airport, travel to the selected hotels, as well as the on site ones. Otherwise you take the VEA to the DLP bus station and then transfer to the hotel bus service.

 

[Quack]

We stayed at Explorers in March 2005. The rooms are fine - they have double beds and (for an additional cost) you can book an adjoining bunk-bed room. The bathrooms are small but functional and the toilet is in a separate small room of it's own. The rooms are not huge (we found the gaps between the two double beds small enough that you could 'step' from one bed to another) and they do not have any Disney theming - but they are perfectly acceptable and usable and we would have been happy to use these rooms again (although we would have booked a bunk-bed room to give us some additional space for two boysterous children!).

As with most of the Disney hotels, you have to book a time slot for breakfast in the morning and the continental breakfast is limited (croissants, tinned fruit, ham cubes, cheese cubes and yoghurts) - plus juice or hot drinks. You can pay additionally for a cooked breakfast. We found the breakfast to be 'ok'. But, having just stayed at a Disney hotel - we now realise that the choice really was limited! However it was not awful and the croissants were warm and fresh.

The best part of Explorers is it's ability to keep children occupied. The pool is nice (it was VERY VERY cold when we visited but they were doing maintenance work). It has two slides which older children will love. There is also a sectioned off area that is much shallower and appropriate for toddlers to stand up in (if only the Disneyland Hotel had this). There are plenty of lockers and changing rooms plus communal showers. They also have woggles, floats etc on the pool-side.

There is an indoor soft play area with two layers of the normal foam based slides, climbing areas and ball-pits. There was an age limit for this (I 'think' it was 7 or 8) but my 7 yr old still happily played there with his younger brother. Right outside the play area are lots of tables and chairs and a bar - so you can have a drink and watch the little ones at the same time. There is also a small arcade room and decent, if small, Disney shop.

You will find another separate bar area with a pool table and sports TV. Plus a waiter service restaurant (we did not eat here as we heard it was overpriced). The main eating area (same place as where you have breakfast) is s self service style buffet for a fixed price. In all honesty I have nothing positive to say about the food we ate here. We found that it had been left under the lamps for way too long - the meat had dried up and the vegetables had gone past soggy - not nice at all! If we were to stay there again we would eat out for all meals except breakfast.

Would we go there again? Well we had originally booked to go there again this year before we decided to treat ourselves. Of course, now we have been spoiled at a Disney hotel it would not be quite the same. The theming and characters at the Disney hotels to add a special something - plus staying at the DLH or the NYH means no shuttle buses. But if we were on a tighter a budget this year we would have gone back.

 

[jillrobinson]

Thanks everyone, esp. Quack - to be honest I am weighing up the pros & cons of squeezing in another trip this year on a budget.
October 2007 is a definate for all the family - but with my DH and my sister's DH not wanting to go again so soon we're looking at the options for going just with the kids for 2 or maybe 3 nights around 10th Nov. to catch the last Bonfire Spectacular and the start of the Christmas season.
Unfortunately this means we're looking for hotel accomodation for 5 and there isn't a lot of choice "family room" at the NPB, Explorers or Holiday Inn. The NPB family room is out - it's far too expensive for this trip.
The "Explorers" came out tops for the other 2, just for the kids facilities really, I'm not bothered about eating at the hotel, we've chosen to eat in the parks or village on all our previous trips, and breakfast can't be any worse than at the Santa Fe and we usually have at least one Character breakfast anyway.
I assume GMF is not available here ?

 

[Bexx]

I assume GMF is not available here ?

No, it isn't available if you are staying at the Explorers Jill.

 

[Dianetigger]

We stayed at the Explorers last July and loved it, we are a family of four - myself and three children, two girls and a boy, all teenagers and it was the only hotel we could find that offered a double bed plus two singles.
This year we have decided to go to the Sequoia Lodge but the only reason being the infrequence of the shuttle buses. We found they could be anything from 15 - 20 minutes and depending on which way round they did the hotels (the shuttle serves the four hotels in that area) it could be full by the time it gets to you. After the fireworks at night it was impossible to get a bus back (unless you fought your way on) and we did the 25 - 30 minute walk back on two occasions, although we did cheat and jump on the Sante Fe shuttle and walk from there!
We took the VEA from the airport and changed at the bus station to the purple shuttle bus serving the hotel - it was very easy. We didn't know quite what to do on the way back as our flight was 9:15pm and we were told to be at the airport by 7pm and the reception desk told us that taking the 6pm VEA was a huge risk. Consequently the bus before that was 4pm so a very long wait at the airport, the hotel did keep our luggage until 4pm which was great but I should have looked into finding some storage at the bus station or park and taking the VEA out of the bus station a little later instead.
The hotel was lovely, even though it was the busy season it was a quiet area and we slept really well, rooms were very clean, beds comfortable - we loved the breakfasts (they were the same as the Santa Fe ones we had two years previous) and with it being the summer we chose the 7am time slot so we could be in the park for opening. Oh another thing to add, the pizzas at the hotel were GORGEOUS!

 

[Ware Bears]

Jill, we have stayed here twice and have booked again for August. I can only repeat what the others have said, the hotel is very clean and comfortable and although we haven't yet used the pool it does look very nice. As there are 5 of us, we have the room with adjoining bunk room for 6 and there is plenty of room for all of us. We pick the 7.30am slot for breakfast and notice that it doesn't start getting busy until after 8am. The breakfast is perfectly adequate but we have not eaten any other meals here, purely because there are so many other restaurants to choose from in the parks/Disney Village. The only thing you would probably miss is there is no Disney theming or characters in the hotel, however it is very child-friendly and the Disney shop is small but nice.

If you do go by Eurostar, AFAIK if you book through Disney itself you can use the Disney Express Luggage service but we didn't find it a problem dealing with our luggage ourselves. There is a left-luggage room at the hotel although we take it into the park on our last day and leave it at Guest Storage. There is a small charge of 2.50 euros per item. If I was flying, I think I would do as Diane suggested and take my luggage into Guest Storage and catch the VEA from the station rather than the hotel.

The buses would probably be your biggest bugbear, however at Christmas we did not find them to be so much of a problem when the park shut at 8 and most people were then wandering into the Village as in the summer when everyone was trying to get onto them when the fireworks ended.

If you don't mind walking, we have walked both into the parks and back to the hotel a few times and it is a very pleasant walk through the Village and along the canal past the Disney hotels. Certainly helps walk off a large Disney meal! It takes about 25 minutes.

I have started doing an Explorers Hotel FAQ and hopefully will put it in the sticky soon.

 

[marcus.ka]

Does somebody have a website were I can check the prices? And does someone know if it is possible to book rooms only. (like in Holiday Inn or Kyriad) Because we want to stay there only for one night without visiting the parks!

 

[Ware Bears]

Marcus, we have booked through Benotel for our upcoming trip. Last time we booked with Expedia who were the cheapest but Benotel were cheaper for us this year. We book rooms only (breakfast is included) because we have annual passes. Or you could try the official Explorers site here.

 

[marcus.ka]

Thank you Ware Bears you are an angel!

 

[jillrobinson]

Thanks everyone, the info. has been great, if we can squeeze another trip in this year I think this will be the hotel and there is a significant difference in price booking through Benotel and getting our own tickets and booking a package through DLP.

 

[Cyrano]

Hopefully this will work out for you Jill