Disneyland first timer needs advice

[bookgirl2632]

Hi! We are going to be in Southern California for a convention in mid-August. We plan on going out a few days early to go to Disneyland. We've never been, so I need loads of advice. I've been to WDW several times, but I'm out of my element with DL.

Anyway, we plan on staying near DL for four nights, doing the parks for three days, before moving onto our convention hotel in Long Beach. We want to be in walking distance to the parks. Naturally, I've checked out the hotels and am a bit overwhelmed. I'm not familiar with any of them and want some personal opinions from fellow DISers.

Here are our requirements:
~two queen beds
~would prefer continental breakfast, but it's not a dealbreaker
~free parking (we are renting a car)
~a decent pool, but it doesn't have to be fancy
~a short walk to the parks

I would appreciate any help you all can offer. I've been researching on Tripadvisor as well as hotels.com, but like I said, it's a lot of info to sift from. I'd love to hear from true Disney fans here.

Thanks!

 

[PinkBudgie]

Many many people here love Hojos. I've never stayed there so can't say but it is walking distance. I'm sure someone will come along with more info on it soon, but in the mean time you can look it up. We always stay a little too far to walk but AAA sells park hoppers with free DLR parking. For us, the breakfast was more important than walking distance. We stayed at Holiday Inn Express and loved it. Not walking distance.

 

[Quilter007]

These are my guidelines from staying at multiple hotels in Anaheim/Garden Grove:

1) The closer your hotel is to the park, the worse the service. Now if you are just crashing at your hotel, that might be OK. However, if you are expecting decent breakfast service or anything else -- get a little farther away.
2) ART (Anaheim Rapid Transit) works OK -- be sure to get the multi-day tickets from your hotel and make sure you get on the right one!
3) Unless you are staying in a Disney hotel, the walk from your hotel is guaranteed to be farther than your walk if you park in the garage.

We usually stay near the Anaheim Convention Center, but we have Premium APs, so we get free parking @ DL. And we just bought into DVC, so we'll be staying on property once the villas open!!!

I am NOT a morning person, so one day I sent DH and DSes to the park and said I'd walk over later. Well, I went at a pretty good clip and it took me 40 minutes to get from the hotel at the convention center to the park entrance & there wasn't a line at bag check. It was definitely farther than I thought. I still wasn't feeling 100%, but I thought I'd be there in 20 minutes.

Also, we've give up on the hotel breakfasts. We get a room w/ a mini-fridge and buy some cereal, fruit & milk.

If you want to PM me, I'll give you specifics on which specific hotels I thought were better.

Katrina

 

[avalon451]

Hi, Carrie, welcome to the left coast DIS!

A good place to start would be Hydroguy's sticky thread at the top of this forum: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1520483 He has several threads specifically for WDW vets doing Disney for the first time, plus lots of other great info and tips.

Do you have kids with you on this trip? How old? I'm a big HoJo fan; they have free parking, free internet access, a fabulous new water play area as well as a pool and hot tub, plus the nicest rooms on Harbor, with inside corridors. You can get 15% off for being a DIS boarder by calling up the hotel directly and talking to IN HOUSE reservations. They have a great Entertainment book rate, too, but it's not currently showing for August. Regardless, they often add more dates for othe Ent rate closer to the time, so you'd want to check back on that: http://www.hojoanaheim.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=14

HoJo doesn't have breakfast, but we always just eat muffins, cereal etc. in the room anyway. They are a couple of minutes farther up the sidewalk than the "crosswalk" hotels, but more than worth the extra 5 minutes' walk for the comfy beds and great service.

Other hotels that get good reviews here that are right at the crosswalk include Desert Inn, Park Vue Inn, BWPPI, Camelot, Carousel... they are mostly catagorized as reasonably clean but plain. Some of them have simple continental breakfasts.

Hope that helps! Have fun planning!