Holiday Inn Express and Suites Anaheim or Paradise Pier

[Canadian Girl 77]

We're going to Disneyland this August 5-12. Last time we got to stay at Grand Californian because DH had a conference onsite so we got the amazing conference rate. No such luck this time.

I've narrowed our hotel options down to the Holiday Inn Express and Suites Anaheim Resort area - penthouse or a standard room at Paradise Pier.

Both pools are small. They seem to be about the same distance from the parks. The Holiday Inn is about $400 cheaper and way bigger. But the Paradise Pier is Disney and gets us early entry on all days.

Thoughts? DH is kind of picky which is why I discounted the older hotels. We want to be able to walk to the hotel from the parks. TIA!

 

[ParkHopper1]

From a fellow picky hotel snob, look at the new Courtyard as an option if pool is a priority. Right next door to the HIE and a really nice brand new property with a better water park than both your options.

Personally I am always a fan of staying on site, but the PPH pool is pretty indeed dismal for a Disney property if that is important to you.

 

[blue888]

I love early entry, so I would vote for PPH.

 

[Disney Rose]

I vote for PPH as well, but that's only because the pool isn't important to me. If its a factor for you then I'd look elsewhere.

 

[Nevada Jen]

Check courtyard theme park for your days. Same walk as pph. Its a full service hotel like hie. But if you can do standard room concierge at pph for close in cost I prefer that. Ask for one of the patio rooms in the third floor.

 

[rentayenta]

I didn't find the PPH hotel all that small. I would choose the PPH over offsite any day.

 

[clori]

We did a split stay. The first day we got there we didn't go to the parks. We stayed at DLH. That gave the kids time to spend at the pool/waterslides etc, gave us a chance to check out downtown Disney, and gave us early entry to California Adventure in the morning. We had friends staying so we put our luggage in their room in the morning then I think it was around 5pm. We went back got our bags and took a cab to our 1 bedroom suite hotel room at Desert Palms Hotel on West Katella. We checked in, quickly made dinner from food we had delivered and waiting in our fridge/freezer etc and went back to the park for a bit longer. Our park pass gave us an early entry day to Disneyland so we did early entry 2 out of 5 days.

Switching hotels saved us money since even though we moved from a DLH standard room to a 1 bedroom suite it cost less. We also found it was nice to be able to cook some basic meals in our room since we had a full kitchen. We also got a nice free breakfast. The walk was 10 minutes tops from our hotel to the park entrance plus we could easily cross the street and take the shuttle bus 1 stop to the park. We still had a pool but it was a basic pool surrounded completely by the building (not visible from the street). The pool still had a hot tub and the kids enjoyed hanging out with other kids the little time we spent there.