We spent two nights at the Candy Can Inn this past weekend. While planning our trip I searched for reviews and information on area hotels and found a few helpful threads and wanted to do my part.
We had one day only in the parks so we planned two nights at CCI. We were doing things in LA that day and headed down so we could be in Anahaeim and have an early start for our one day. I chose CCI because of the reviews here and on Trip Advisor. The proximity and the availability of the dedicated shuttle were important even though we never used the shuttle. The price was the same as the Howard Johnson which was the other we were considering with a breakfast included.
Overall the stay was very good. I have developed my own set of priorities for inns and staff has the highest weighting for me. I travel a good deal on business and run into pompous hotel staffs fairly often. Even though these hotels may have outstanding amenities, the staff can quickly override that advantage for a hotel. Cleanliness is another component high on my list.
The staff at CCi was very helpful. The room was clean if a bit dated. My one complaint was that we did not get a scheduled wake-up call one morning. I can easily overlook that because I was awake in time anyway. I'm sure my views would have been different had we overslept and arrived at the parks late.
There were a couple of areas that concerned me based on reviews I had read; noise from the parking lot and the "small" breakfast selection.
1) I don't think I heard very much noise from the outside even though we were on the first floor. That includes the two nights and the one day we stayed later. So far on this trip we have stayed at 9 hotels (three more to go). One other opened to the outside but that was to a wide patio with chairs and tables. There was a separate parking garage. There have been at least three hotels on this trip where we could hear much more noise from the hallway than we could hear from the parking lot at CCI. We could hear some of the fireworks but apparently not all.
2) CCI offers a continental breakfast - cereal, breads, fruit and juices. I was pleased that they had a variety of bagels and had doughnuts and muffins with the normal bread and pastries. We had no problem finding things for our picky kids.
One other advantage to a motel is the ease of loading and unloading the car. Something I really appreciated this trip. Our previous night was at the LAX Hilton. We were in a room on the 11th floor and our car was parked on the 5th level underground. There was an elevator from the lobby level down and one for the lobby level up. Since we are hopping from place to place, we have different items for different locations (hiking boots and jackets for the Grand Canyon for example). Every stop means grabbing different things which makes bell service difficult.
Overall I liked the Candy Cane Inn and would recommend it. I cannot compare to other local hotels since this is the only one I have used.
We had one day only in the parks so we planned two nights at CCI. We were doing things in LA that day and headed down so we could be in Anahaeim and have an early start for our one day. I chose CCI because of the reviews here and on Trip Advisor. The proximity and the availability of the dedicated shuttle were important even though we never used the shuttle. The price was the same as the Howard Johnson which was the other we were considering with a breakfast included.
Overall the stay was very good. I have developed my own set of priorities for inns and staff has the highest weighting for me. I travel a good deal on business and run into pompous hotel staffs fairly often. Even though these hotels may have outstanding amenities, the staff can quickly override that advantage for a hotel. Cleanliness is another component high on my list.
The staff at CCi was very helpful. The room was clean if a bit dated. My one complaint was that we did not get a scheduled wake-up call one morning. I can easily overlook that because I was awake in time anyway. I'm sure my views would have been different had we overslept and arrived at the parks late.
There were a couple of areas that concerned me based on reviews I had read; noise from the parking lot and the "small" breakfast selection.
1) I don't think I heard very much noise from the outside even though we were on the first floor. That includes the two nights and the one day we stayed later. So far on this trip we have stayed at 9 hotels (three more to go). One other opened to the outside but that was to a wide patio with chairs and tables. There was a separate parking garage. There have been at least three hotels on this trip where we could hear much more noise from the hallway than we could hear from the parking lot at CCI. We could hear some of the fireworks but apparently not all.
2) CCI offers a continental breakfast - cereal, breads, fruit and juices. I was pleased that they had a variety of bagels and had doughnuts and muffins with the normal bread and pastries. We had no problem finding things for our picky kids.
One other advantage to a motel is the ease of loading and unloading the car. Something I really appreciated this trip. Our previous night was at the LAX Hilton. We were in a room on the 11th floor and our car was parked on the 5th level underground. There was an elevator from the lobby level down and one for the lobby level up. Since we are hopping from place to place, we have different items for different locations (hiking boots and jackets for the Grand Canyon for example). Every stop means grabbing different things which makes bell service difficult.
Overall I liked the Candy Cane Inn and would recommend it. I cannot compare to other local hotels since this is the only one I have used.
