Doubletree Hotel Anaheim/Orange County

[Dopey & Grumpy]

Has anyone stayed at this hotel before? I know it's not one of the closer ones to DL but we got it on PL for a very good rate. I understand they have a shuttle to and from the park and the reviews I've read are all positive.

I was wondering about first hand experience as opposed to reviews. Does anyone have an opinion on this hotel?

Thanks a lot for the info.

 

[c&m]

We stayed at the Doubletree Anaheim/Orange County in March, also on a PL stay. It was a really good rate at $52/night.

The Room. We're a family of 4 so we did find the bathroom on the small side. It was hard to squeeze in there to help our small child bathe. The room was also a bit small. Maybe they gave us a smaller sized room, because we were PL customers and not rack rate customers??? Though I was informed that the room was renovated, it just didn't look newly reno-ed. The room looked like it was redone 3-4 years ago, but has been well used. However, it looked like a typical standard room, it was clean, and we didn't mind it. We spent our entire day at Disney anyways and only returned to the room to sleep. Check in/out was efficient. We only had one disappointing event happen to us during our stay. The hotel gave us an unwanted wake-up call at 5am one morning. This resulted in us waking up in shock and then falling back to sleep, and then oversleeping. As a result, we missed our one and only early entry park day. The front desk was very apologetic and compensated us with 4 free breakfasts at their hotel buffet. They didn't have to do that, but they did and they scored major points in customer service. We rented a car, so we didn't use their shuttle. Parkng is at a cost...forgot how much but was in the $8-$12/day range.

The Surrounding Area. The area around the hotel is OK. You're close to the I-5 so very easy to head north or to LAX or south to San Diego. There's Starbucks across the street for that morning coffee fix. A Wendy's burger joint for a quick bite. The Block at Orange is next to the hotel. We never went there as we were Disney bound every day. Disney is only 8-10 minutes away, not far at all.

Overall, a very nice stay. Not the best (we prefer the Hyatt Orange County) but definitely a decent hotel that only cost us $52/night. What a great deal! We'd do it again.

 

[Dopey & Grumpy]

Thank you for the honest review. The ones I've seen praise it highly but they're not PL customers, apparently, and got a better room. I did learn that you could request a room on the upper floors facing DL. This was on the PL board so I'm going to try that.

We are there for the parks too so it's really just a place to sleep. Being close to I5 is a plus as we have to drive into LAX for one of our tours. We've rented a car so if the shuttle doesn't work out, we'll drive. I did read where the parking if $8 for self and $10 for valet but that one of the PL people showed their Hilton HHonors number and the parking charge wasn't on their CC bill. I signed up for that so maybe that'll work out for us too.

I appreciate your review and found it very helpful. Thanks again.

 

[c&m]

You may have better luck upgrading than we did. I did ask if there were other rooms available in the hotel and was told that it was booked full as there was a convention and a cheerleading competition in town, as well as it was spring break. Fall tends to be a bit more quieter. We've done DL in Sept/Oct timeframe, and it was fabulous. No line-ups in the parks, and the hotels seem less busy. Sadly, we can't go during Fall months anymore as both our DDs are school-age.

BTW, in my PL experience (used it since 2001), I've always found the Hilton chain of hotels to be particularly sticky with PL customers. They are known to give customers lesser quality rooms/smaller rooms/noisier rooms (came to that conclusion myself after staying at Hilton chains as a PL customer and reading a lot of PL reviews on www.biddingfortravel.com). But who can blame them when the PL customer only pays a fraction of the rack rate!!! The best chains for upgrades when using PL have been the Marriott and the Hyatt.

 

[yeartolate]

They have a dedicated shuttle, and we never missed it and it was almost always on time. The hotel is decent, especially at priceline rates. I never felt like I was given "the priceline room"

Very very small pool. There is one washer and one dryer out by the pool.

It is immediatly adjacent to the Block at Orange - an outdoor mall with lots of stuff to do and lots of interesting dining choices.

Frankly, I would rather stay at this hotel rather than depend on the ART shuttle at hotels that are geographically closer. I really dislike the ART shuttle, and my recent visit (I am at the airport coming home now) only reconfirmed my intense dislike for the system. It is fine on slow days, but it is awfulon busier days.

 

[Dopey & Grumpy]

Frankly, I would rather stay at this hotel rather than depend on the ART shuttle at hotels that are geographically closer. I really dislike the ART shuttle, and my recent visit (I am at the airport coming home now) only reconfirmed my intense dislike for the system. It is fine on slow days, but it is awfulon busier days.

I agree. We used that shuttle when we were there last spring and we walked back to the hotel a number of times rather than deal with.

Thanks for all the info. I appreciate it. Either way, that's the one we got and I've never really been disappointed in any of the hotels I get on PL. I know I'm paying less than others so I'm happy if they give me any upgrades but I don't expect it. When I ask, if they say "No" - well - it doesn't cost anything to ask.

Originally Posted by c&m
Fall tends to be a bit more quieter. We've done DL in Sept/Oct timeframe, and it was fabulous. No line-ups in the parks, and the hotels seem less busy.

We always try to go to WDW or DL in the Fall. It is less busy and we have that option, being retired. Sometimes we don't have that choice (like last spring) but we know we'll be going back so we don't feel like we missed a lot.