DLH advice needed for large group!

[gsrieff]

Help!

Planning a trip to DL in late September 2016 with 7 adults and 1 child. At the request of one adult, we are planning to stay at DLH. Never stayed onsite before, only at good neighbors. I have a couple questions.

One adult needs his own room. That leaves 6 adults and 1 child left to make reservations for. I know they only allow up to 4 adults per room, so whats the best way to go about this? We want to make the best decision financially but it seems silly to get THREE rooms? I did notice that there are "suites" with multiple rooms but i cant tell if that would allow enough privacy for everyone. is it only one bathroom? Is there a possibility the one adult can still have his own room and the rest of us still have beds?

What would your advice be for this odd number of people with odd requests?

AND what is the recommended amount of time before booking this hotel? Do the standard rooms or suites fill up quicker than one another?

Also, how is the walk from the hotel to the park compared to the HOJO?

If there are any threads that are already out there that would be helpful, please link them here! i couldn't find any specific enough to my dozens of questions LOL! Thanks for any input!

 

[5forMickey]

It kind of depends on the relationship of the people traveling. A two room suite would be plenty big for the 8 of you. There would technically be three rooms that you could make private. You would have one room on each side of the living/entertaining space. So the first room would have one or two beds with a private bathroom, middle room while technically the living space will have a couch that makes into a bed with a 1/2 bath and the second room will also have a bed and bath of it's own. Also, we add two roll-aways that my kids say are really comfortable. We had plenty of room for 9 people but needed extra roll-aways because we were dealing with unmarried dating couples. My parents shared the King bed with one of my grown sons on a roll away, the boys' girlfriends slept in the living room and my husband & I, daughter, and second son slept in the second room. You are able to shut doors between all three spaces and while the living section only has a 1/2 bath it worked fine for us. You also can access the rooms in the hall from one of the bedrooms or from the living area, so technically you could have the third room attached and no one other than the one person would ever need to go into it. Think of it as a connecting room that you could keep the door closed on.

Now, for some reason on our next trip we have to get a three room suite for the same amount of people (I'm still confused on this) so I was originally just going to book the two room suite and then get another standard room. Because we were staying club level the third room would not have been with the suite because I didn't want to pay to upgrade it to club also. They were the ones that actually suggested I go with a three room suite which ended up being $165.00 more a night which was cheaper than a third room and we will all still be together. I'm curious about this but it has something to do with the bedding options that were left for the two room suites when I made my reservation, which answers your other question -- make them as soon as you know you are going, especially the suites because there aren't many of them. The only down side to the suites is that you really can't pay for a certain view so you never really know what you are going to get. They are scattered through all three of the towers, on many different floors. We have been lucky and always had a nice view but my least favorite is the Frontier Tower just because it is not really handy if you want to use the E-Club.

I don't think the walk is that bad and while I'm not sure about the actual steps, it doesn't seem as far to me as the motels on Harbor. Something else I might suggest is dining reservations. Not sure how busy it is in September, but especially with 8 people it's sometimes hard to get seating.

Hope that helps and that you have a great time.

 

[gsrieff]

Thank you so much! that gives me a clearer picture of how the suites are. the pictures and description on the DL website are not much help. It sounds like it will actually be the cheaper way to go. since you said there aren't very many of them, how far in advance do you book them? Is it a better idea to call and speak with someone about the reservation rather than booking online? Sorry for more questions!

 

[5forMickey]

Yes, I would call and they can run both options for you and tell you the difference in pricing. They will require one nights deposit when you book but it is refundable if you cancel within 5 days of your trip. Even if you aren't ready to book they will be great about giving you all the info they can. Also, if they happen to have discounted rates later on, you can always call back and have them adjust them for you.

When you are making requests, ask for what is the most important first as I think that is how they try and fill them. So if you don't really care what tower you are in but want certain bedding, make that first and then on down. For us, I don't really care about the bedding but I like being in Adventure tower so that is my first request.

Club level is not automatically added to the suites anymore. It is (I think) and additional $200.00 per night but we use it a lot for pop and snacks. We always stop in before going to the parks, come back and eat snacks when we take an afternoon break, and then sometimes do the hot offerings, and we ALWAYS like to get the treats just before bed. My soon to be daughter in law is the only coffee drinker but she loved the machine's in the lounge and they do have wine and beer at night. We figure it is about $20.00 per person and fill like we eat and drink that much but not everyone agrees. Just something to think about also. The kids could probably do all their eating for the trip in the lounge (especially if they are paying for food and drinks) -- me, not so much!

I usually make our reservations a year in advance and haven't had any problems. For this next trip, we decided kind of late and I booked almost 5 months out, not realizing that we were going during a race weekend so I think that's why the rooms were a little limited.

Good luck, I think you will really like the Hotel and there are a lot of people on the boards that can give you great information.