Can anyone tell me about concierge check in at Disneyland Hotel?

[tvwalsh]

I have reserved two concierge rooms for four nights in February at the Disneyland Hotel. I was told that "concierge check in" was available. Anyone know how that works?

 

[jdm_dkm]

There is a seperate line in the main lobby for concierge check-in. The Lobby is in the Marina Tower and the concierge lounge in in the Bonita Tower. There is an express elevator from the ground level to the concierge lounge. It is a glass elevator that looks on Downtown Disney.
The lounge offers continental breakfast in the AM, snacks in th emid Afternoon, wine a hors d'ouvers (sp?) in the evening and desserts late eves. Not much variety. I found the DL concierge staff much less helpful than the staff at the AKL in WDW. When we asked about the Walk in Walt's Footsteps tour they said we could go down to the lobby to the guest services desk. Not that it was a problem, its just that concierges will usually pick up the phone and get whatever info you need, not send you to another desk.
One cool thing is you get reserved seats for Aladdin through the concierge desk.

 

[noryglory]

Someone else might be able to advise here, but I don't think that the concierge lounge is in the Bonita...I did a lot of searching in previous posts and put together a "meld" of all the messages to figure out about the different towers, etc. in planning our trip and knowing what I wanted to request. Here's what I found:

The Disneyland hotel is made of three towers: Marina, Sierra, and Bonita, which are about 11 stories tall. Guests check in the Marina Tower. The Marina Tower offers the standard view (facing north towards the Mickey & Friends parking structure) and pool/resort view, which looks out on the Disneyland Hotel grounds. The Bonita Tower offers the standard view (facing south) to the city, and the pool/resort view, which looks out on the hotel grounds, and over the waterfalls. Some rooms have a view of the waterfalls and pine trees. The Sierra Tower offers pool/resort views on both sides - the west faces the hotel grounds, overlooking the Neverland pool, and the east side overlooks Downtown Disney with views of Disneyland and California Adventure parks. The concierge lounge is located in the Sierra Tower up on the 11th floor overlooking the parks and Downtown Disney.

 

[jdm_dkm]

You're right. Sierra Tower. My mistake.

 

[noryglory]

jdm-dkm, did you stay in the same tower (Sierra) as the concierge lounge when you had the concierge level? I am curious as we reserved concierge level when we go in November and I have a concern that we'll get placed in a concierge level room in a different tower and not feel like accessing the lounge as often as we would if we get into the Sierra. I plan on calling four days in advance of departure to be sure to request Sierra tower even though our TA has already made the note. I know I can't get a guaranteed Downtown Disney view, but I'd take a pool view no problem as long as we get the Sierra.

Any tips or tricks on getting the most out of the concierge level, and would you pay the extra $$ to do it again? We're going with it to try it once and see if it would be worthwhile again in the future. I love the idea of the elevator straight up to the lounge!

Do they give you the Aladdin tickets upon checkin? I didn't recall this being a feature when we booked but that would be cool.

Thanks!

 

[jdm_dkm]

We were given a room directly acrosss from the lounge on the 11th floor. I think all concierge rooms are in the same tower as the lounge on the upper floors. I saw people going from the lounge to the 10th floor for sure. There are not many rooms on the 11th floor due to the size of the lounge and a few suites.
We didn't pay the extra for concierge, it was comped due to another issue, so I don't know the difference in price between standard and concierge. Value is often subjective, so I will leave that up to your view. Breakfast is typical continental with cold cereals, pastries, bagels, fruit. Midday snacks were small bags of potato chips, tortilla chips, salsa and cookies. We were never there for the wine an horsd'ouvers. Late night desserts were finger sized chocolate cakes and cream puffs and large chocolate chip cookies. Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite, Dasani water, and Aplle juice were always available in the fridge. The sign said two drinks per person and that they were for your enjoyment n the lounge, but they didn't seem to mind if you took one to go.
When you go to the lounge they will likely tell you about the Aladdin tickets, if not be sure to ask. BTW Aladdin in dark on Monday and Tuesday. They also pipe in the music to the fireworks if you happen to be there on Fri & Sat when they do the fireworks.
When we were there the express elevator was down due to landscaping work outside the elevator, but it seemed to be a cool feature.