Hotel Menage Question

[RockAndRollBallerina]

My husband and I have reserved Hotel Menage for our trip later this month as it's listed as a good neighbor resort by Disney, and looked reletively close to the parks. We will have a rental car available to us to use as we will be doing other things in the area, not just Disney. For those who have stayed there; is walking to Disneyland doable, or should we drive and park?

 

[MaxnElliesMama]

I would drive and park. We didn't think the walk was "doable" ( I mean clearly it is, but we would not have wanted to, especially at night) If my memory serves me correctly you have to walk across the highway overpass, just wasn't pedestrian friendly and not super close. The ART stops out front too, but if you have your car, we found driving super simple.

 

[tarheelalum]

It's not a bad walk (10 minutes or less) but you do have to cross over the 5 freeway. They do have a sidewalk the entire way though.

 

[Darkbeer1]

It's not a bad walk (10 minutes or less) but you do have to cross over the 5 freeway. They do have a sidewalk the entire way though.

And the need to cross a busy entrance/exit freeway ramp, marked and some of it is controlled by a traffic light, but one segment you better be watching the cars carefully, as they don't usually expect pedestrians there.

The Hotel Menage has applied for permission from the city for a total interior remodel of the Hotel to rebrand itself as a Sheraton/Marriott brand. (They already use Sheraton's booking website).

Alas not much around it, except for a couple of Gas Stations and a large Disneyland CM parking lot, and of course, the freeway.

I would look at the new Hotels at Harbor and Katella, such as the Hyatt House, Springhill Suites and the new Residence Inn. Also Hotel Indigo and the Red Lion are about the same, walkable, and has a lot of choices in restaurants and shopping next to it.

 

[tarheelalum]

I agree the with your recommendation regarding the Hotel Indigo. Much betterand safer walk with nearby food options, CVS and free parking.

 

[dshimel]

I will agree with what seems to be the general consensus.

Walk-able: Yes, but on the longish end of the spectrum. Less to see, fewer places to eat and shop. Less crowded and busy than the south on Harbor.

Safe: Yes. When crossing the freeway, make sure the right-turners see you and stop before you step out into the crosswalk (of course, that goes for every intersection). If you are going South toward Katella on the east side of Harbor where most of the hotels and restaurants are, then you have that issue at about 100 driveways instead of just at 1 freeway.

New and super nice: Nope. Older, been a decade since its last remodel. Freeway noise can be a problem in some rooms. They were trying to brand themselves as a young, hip and edgy hotel with a poolside bar that stayed open late, and that caused some noise issues too, but my understanding is they have dropped that and close the bar and pool early.

But for the price: I stayed there because of the lower price... and got exactly what I expected for the lower price: Safe, clean but older hotel room, with some noise issues, on the long-ish side of walk-able distance.

 

[dcraythorn]

I have heard horrible things about this hotel. I don't think I would stay here till it was remodeled.

Here is one review from the travel site that I book thru:

I would not even give this hotel a 1 if I did not have to. It is by far the worst hotel I have stayed at. The first room they checked us into was being "renovated". When we opened the door, there was nothing on the ground. Not carpet, no tile, just foundation with rebar sticking out. I requested a second room, and the carpet was soaking wet, there was white stains all over the carpet, the bathtub did not look clean. By that time after driving 8 hours I just settled. I was very disappointed paying more for this versus the Castle Inn or the Quality Inn. Go somewhere else, it looks nothing like the pictures, I am not being sarcastic or over dramatic either. Motel 6 looks better in person compared to this place. DONT WASTE YOUR TIME

 

[Winnowill]

We stayed there in 2013, and I quite liked it. We chose it because it had free parking and free wi-fi. We took the ART to and from, and it was fine. If I had known then what I know now, we wouldn't have bothered with ART, but since it wasn't on the list of walkable hotels, we didn't attempt to. Our room was nice enough, too. It didn't SEEM like it would have been an onerous walk if we had chosen to do that.

 

[Belledisney]

I stayed there one night because it was cheap and we had a really late flight in and I didn't want to pay for the DLH to get in after midnight. So I thought it would be fine before we went to the DLH I was wrong.We left at like 5am to get out of there. In my opinion it was gross and I wouldn't stay for free. I also wouldn't walk from there over the freeway and we have walked the further from the garden walk area no problem. This was also 6 years ago now I think we stayed there. I hope it's better now but, I wouldn't recommend it.

 

[DLgal]

Find another hotel. This place is sleazy.

 

[ADLFAN]

We must be in the minority, but we liked the Menage.

Full disclosure, we happened to get the exact same room on both visits, so we have only seen the one guest room.

The hotel felt like it was trying desperately to "be something", and you could tell they were trying to make it happen, with their two bars (even though the poolside one was never open), restaurant, valet parking, etc. They even offered room service, which I have not seen before at this level of accommodation. We tried it once and found it a bit closer to hospital food than DLH room service, haha!

The walk is do-able, and in my opinion easier than driving and parking at various Disney lots. The freeway intersection isn't too bad, (seems like there were crosswalks with buttons/signs) just make eye contact with drivers before you walk out in front of them.

We did enjoy the 24 hour pool, though I'll admit to being grossed out by the guest garbage left to hang around all night and wondering when it was being cleaned...

We got super low rates at 100.00 a night, but after they changed to the Sheridan booking site, the rates had gone up and we went back to the Tropicana.

 

[RheBot]

I stayed there a couple years ago and found the walk very doable - after a long day and night at the parks though I wish we had been closer haha!

Also I'm sure I'm in the minority but I really liked the hotel. The grounds were nice, it was nice having a 24 hour pool, the food was good, our room was fine and overlooked the pool (with that said I know some of the rooms are terrible! My friends were in a room on the ground floor that was cement and had beams and pipes everywhere, and one of them even burst and water got everywhere!)

 

[RockAndRollBallerina]

I more than appreciate everyone's input, answers, and personal experience staying at the hotel itself. We got a good deal on it, but I'm looking at other options now.

 

[Diszona]

I don't know much about it other than it has probably been my favorite review that Tom has done on the podcast!

 

[RockAndRollBallerina]

I don't know much about it other than it has probably been my favorite review that Tom has done on the podcast!

Podcast? Where might I find it? I'm not on the boards much, so this is the first I'm hearing about it.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

I don't know much about it other than it has probably been my favorite review that Tom has done on the podcast!

Here's the blog. Link to the podcast is inside. Enjoy

Hotel Menage

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Newer reviews are more positive. It was recently purchased by SPG hotels (which has now merged with Marriott) & is undergoing renovations from my understanding.

 

[ImTooExcitedToSleep]

Newer reviews are more positive. It was recently purchased by SPG hotels (which has now merged with Marriott) & is undergoing renovations from my understanding.

Yeah. I hear renovations are supposed to be done in March. Should I give it a THIRD chance??

 

[Darkbeer1]

Just to clarify, Sheraton did not buy the property. As with most Sheraton/Marriott Hotels, they are run as Franchises.

A Taiwan investor, Kitty Lo bought the property last April.

http://www.ocbj.com/news/2016/aug/11/hotel-menage-rebrand-sheraton/