Detroit Metro Westin?

[emcreative]

We are debating whether or not to stay at the Detroit Metro Westin the night before we leave for DW.

We live about a 1.5 hour drive from the airport, and our flight leaves at 7:15. We'd need to leave our home at about 3:30 am (and we have a full day planned at the park).

One problem with staying at the Westin is that we have 5 children. We noticed it did not specify the number of children per room, however with 1 room we would most likely need cram into double beds and a roll-away or put a few kids on the floor. I'm worried the cost will be very prohibitive to get two rooms.

Any feedback? Anyone with experience staying there? Any suggestions?

 

[Colleen27]

We decided against the Westin since we were flying out of the other terminal anyway and instead booked a room at the Sheraton Four Points across the street with a "park, sleep & fly" package. The room plus parking for our whole stay came to right around $110 after tax. IIRC, the pre-tax room rate was $90 with the parking and a second room without parking would have been $79.

 

[emcreative]

We decided against the Westin since we were flying out of the other terminal anyway and instead booked a room at the Sheraton Four Points across the street with a "park, sleep & fly" package. The room plus parking for our whole stay came to right around $110 after tax. IIRC, the pre-tax room rate was $90 with the parking and a second room without parking would have been $79.

Thanks so much for the info!

We're flying out of McNamara but their entrance will not be open early enough, unfortunately. We'll need to arrive about 5:30am (at the latest) I figure.

How was your Four Points stay? That's one of the places we're considering as well. When I called to see if they have adjoining rooms the person who answered said they have 5 kids as well and all sleep in one room, but I can't imagine piling at least 4 of them in a double bed and getting any more sleep than they would here. I assume we'll have to do adjoining.

How was the transport to the airport? Did it run 24 hours? Was there someplace close to eat dinner? I'm assuming there will not be much for us in the way of breakfast at 4:00am, lol!

 

[Colleen27]

Thanks so much for the info!

We're flying out of McNamara but their entrance will not be open early enough, unfortunately. We'll need to arrive about 5:30am (at the latest) I figure.

How was your Four Points stay? That's one of the places we're considering as well. When I called to see if they have adjoining rooms the person who answered said they have 5 kids as well and all sleep in one room, but I can't imagine piling at least 4 of them in a double bed and getting any more sleep than they would here. I assume we'll have to do adjoining.

How was the transport to the airport? Did it run 24 hours? Was there someplace close to eat dinner? I'm assuming there will not be much for us in the way of breakfast at 4:00am, lol!

We enjoyed our stay. We left home (in St Clair County, about 2 hrs from the airport) right after the kids got out of school and checked in around 6-ish. There's a Big Boy right next to the hotel that was fine for us for dinner. There are a lot of other chain options around too, but the kids like the Big Boy milkshakes so that's what they wanted. The room itself was clean and a nice size (but not big enough for 5 kids, I don't think - I'd want adjoining rooms), and we love the Sheraton beds. The hotel has an indoor pool, so we took the kids swimming for a couple hours before bed to wear them out so we wouldn't have the "too excited to sleep" problem that we have at home before a Disney trip (worked like a charm too!). We didn't eat in the morning, but DH did manage to find a cup of coffee around 5am in the hotel lobby. I waited to hit the Starbucks at the airport, because since moving to the middle of nowhere, a good cafe mocha has become a rare treat indeed.

The way the transportation worked for the park & fly package was to park at the hotel the night we stayed there, and then move our van to a nearby gated/guarded lot for the remainder of our trip. The lot has 24 hr transportation and seems to be very efficient. When we came in it was pretty early, about 5:30 or so, and the woman working the gate just radioed for a shuttle. By the time we got the van parked and all out stuff out of the back, the shuttle was waiting for us, which was a very nice touch since it was January and VERY cold. At check-out when leaving the hotel we got a voucher for parking that took care of the parking charge for 9 nights.

We haven't decided yet whether we're going to fly out of Detroit or Flint this time so we haven't booked our airport stay yet, but if we go out of Detroit we'll stay at the Four Points again.

 

[phillmolly]

On our last trip to Disney we spent the night at the airport also, I can't recall the name of the hotel right now, but there three or four that offer the same type of deal. Even though we only live about 25 min from DTW we decided to stay for a few different reasons, we had two families going and would have needed two cars to get to the airport and parking or a taxi would have been about the price of one room at least, and we had an early morning flight and my brother and SIL are late for everything and I was afraid they would cause us to miss the flight. As it was they didn't get to the hotel untill about 11 or 12!! My DH and I enjoyed a nice dinner and movie in the hotel room. (interesting side note, I found out that I was let go from my job right as we were getting settled in our room!) I would recommend checking out packages from different hotels and see which one is best. I think we payed about $85 total and we had really nice rooms.

 

[NMAmy]

I've stayed at both the Westin and Four Points multiple times. I like the convenience of the Westin when flying out of MacNamara--especially with an early flight. But there is no place close to eat and the hotel restaurant is outrageously expensive.

Four Points is a nice, comfortable hotel with several restaurants close by. The shuttle runs 24 hours.

If you haven't yet, I'd sign up to be a Starwood Preferred Guest at www.spg.com It's free and you can often get better prices on rooms.

So, basically, I like them both. With five children, I'll bet you'll need two rooms no matter which hotel you choose.

 

[emcreative]

Thanks everyone!

We decided to do Four Points, with two rooms. We would have to do two rooms at Westin, and they wouldn't even have their entrance open when we had to leave, (we'd have to walk around) so it almost defeated the purpose of staying there! This way we'll go up that afternoon before, let the kids swim their little hearts out and hopefully they will doze off to sleep without too much trouble!