I am making myself sick about worrying about the hotel we choose.

[mom4scrapbooking]

After everyone's great advice and my gut feelings I have switched hotels. I thought I would give it a chance and the reviews aren't bad. I did talk to the manager and she wasn't helpful at all. I just felt I needed to switch. So we are headed to the Desert Palms. Longer walk, but thats ok. Thanks everyone for all your help! I appreciate all of you!

 

[Gisele]

Just in case you experience the vapors again here is a paper bag.

~~ I love you Phil and you will forever be with me! Forever my very best and most special friend! I love you to no end. ~~​

 

[kymom99]

OP I'm glad you changed hotels because you need to find the place that is the right fit for you. I have no experience with either of the hotels you have mentioned, but you would have never enjoyed your trip if you spent all your planning worrying over your choice. We stayed one night at a Microtel here in Ky. not too long ago. It was VERY basic. I wouldn't call it dirty, but it had patched walls, etc. We literally checked in, ate some dinner, and went to bed. It was fine just for that, but if it had been a vacation, I would not have been comfortable. Inexpensive, no-frills is fine for some things, but in my opinion it doesn't make for a vacation.

When I planned our trip I went back and forth between CCI, Hojo, and Best Western PPI until I decided which of those would provide the best experience for us at the price we were willing to pay. I settled on Hojo. Hope I was right. we will find out in ...... 12 days! looky down below, Tinkerbell is almost at the castle!

Hope you have a fantastic trip!

 

[DisneyMomma81]

After everyone's great advice and my gut feelings I have switched hotels. I thought I would give it a chance and the reviews aren't bad. I did talk to the manager and she wasn't helpful at all. I just felt I needed to switch. So we are headed to the Desert Palms. Longer walk, but thats ok. Thanks everyone for all your help! I appreciate all of you!

I hope you enjoy your hotel and your visit to DLR! Looking @ this map you could take either route *Katella up to Harbor or Katella down to Disneyland Dr, we really enjoyed the Disneyland Dr route when we stayed @ Stovall's Best Western last Thanksgiving, it's quiet & lovely - we cut through the Grand CA and Downtown Disney to get to the parks.

 

[Mousequake]

After everyone's great advice and my gut feelings I have switched hotels. I thought I would give it a chance and the reviews aren't bad. I did talk to the manager and she wasn't helpful at all. I just felt I needed to switch. So we are headed to the Desert Palms. Longer walk, but thats ok. Thanks everyone for all your help! I appreciate all of you!

I hope you like it! I've never stayed there, but have heard good things about it. It was actually my number one choice for our next trip in September, but it was all booked up by the time I was finally ready to book.

 

[Nox54]

After everyone's great advice and my gut feelings I have switched hotels. I thought I would give it a chance and the reviews aren't bad. I did talk to the manager and she wasn't helpful at all. I just felt I needed to switch. So we are headed to the Desert Palms. Longer walk, but thats ok. Thanks everyone for all your help! I appreciate all of you!

Close friends of ours stayed at the Desert Palms last fall and really loved it.
Enjoy your trip

 

[pixiewings71]

Yep, I hear ya, I can be a bit of a hothead and a vengeful one at that ... if I had the experience you did at any hotel property, I wouldn't have been nearly as controlled about it or nearly as calm in my words, that's for sure I'll admit that I was sort of laughing reading about your experience, because that's seriously so outrageous it's comical, like jeez, can this be real?!?!? Let's hope the OP has a better ride than you did, preferably any staff that pulls the stuff they pulled on you either gets retrained immediately or, well, shown the door and finds a different career I've stayed in my fair share of 5-star hotels as well as 1-star properties, and as long as I have the proper expectations (and hotel staff don't deny me simple amenities like 1 towel per guest, sheesh!), I've seldom been disappointed. Fortunately the joy of DLR overcomes nearly anything else, so OP, just keep in mind that you're going to love DLR so forget the rest and have a great time!

Oh I can be a hothead too......LOL Trust me on that! To be honest if it had happened once more it would not have had a happy ending because DBF and I would both have been in that office complaining. We had to laugh because we honestly thought that it was one of those situations that no one would believe unless it happened to us. LOL I told DBF if we ever stayed there again we would take our own towels. LOL

After everyone's great advice and my gut feelings I have switched hotels. I thought I would give it a chance and the reviews aren't bad. I did talk to the manager and she wasn't helpful at all. I just felt I needed to switch. So we are headed to the Desert Palms. Longer walk, but thats ok. Thanks everyone for all your help! I appreciate all of you!

I've heard good things here about this hotel, enjoy!!

 

[traveln4fun]

You may actually have a shorter walk! If u walk west on Katella just passed the Alpine Inn, there is a gate opening which takes u into one of the parking areas. Jump on the shuttle, and u r on ur way. Have a magical time. P.s. if u have a Disney Visa, u can get a free photo before 11am in Cal Advent every day! They will give u a voucher which entitles u to a free 5x7 of any picture taken thru the day with any character. It doesn't have to be the one taken at the Visa sight, hope this helps the budget a little.

 

[BlueBayou]

You may actually have a shorter walk! If u walk west on Katella just passed the Alpine Inn, there is a gate opening which takes u into one of the parking areas. Jump on the shuttle, and u r on ur way. Have a magical time.

Is that still open since they built Cars Land?

 

[humboldthny]

I see that you were able to switch hotels...I will say that we've also been able to cancel reservations made with a third party as well.

Just FYI for anyone else who finds themselves in this situation - we were able to call the hotel and get a verbal confirmation that a) they would not charge us for nights we did not stay and b) they would tell the 3rd party agent the same thing when they called to confirm the cancellation policy. In our case we had an uncertain schedule that necessitated dropping first one day, then two, before finally having to drop all but one night of our reservation. It took a lot of calling, and waiting on hold, but we were only charged for the one evening we did stay.

 

[dnamertz]

You may actually have a shorter walk! If u walk west on Katella just passed the Alpine Inn, there is a gate opening which takes u into one of the parking areas. Jump on the shuttle, and u r on ur way.

Can anyone point out on a map the exact pick up location of the tram in this lot (I believe it is, or was, the Simba lot)? I'd like to judge how far of a walk to this tram location it would be from some of the motels on Katella.

 

[cmwade77]

Can anyone point out on a map the exact pick up location of the tram in this lot (I believe it is, or was, the Simba lot)? I'd like to judge how far of a walk to this tram location it would be from some of the motels on Katella.

There is no tram at this lot. It is walking only.

 

[DnA2010]

I see that you've switched now, so not going to go into great detail, but we stayed there in February of 2011 and had no issues.
We had a mini suite or something, and the room was kept very very clean. I spilled some oatmeal on the first day and cleaned up most- there were a few small crumbs left when we headed to the parks- they were gone. Our bathroom was spotless. We would book this hotel again. Our DD7 liked the theming a lot.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

Sorry, I have to admit I couldn't read throught 4 pages of responses but here's what I would do. Since most Marriott brands allow cancellation with no penalty up until 6pm on day of check in, I would book a back up hotel.
If your original hotel turns out to be ok, you can cancel. If it skeeves you to stay there, go to plan B.

I once got a hotel on Priceline that was so bad on reviews and I regretting dropping down to 2.5 stars, so I abandoned the res completely. Granted, it was only a 1 nt stay so it cost me $60, but at least we didn't stay in a dump. Hard lesson learned.

I used to stress to make every trip as inexpensive as possible until finally dh reminded me that usually the difference between an awesome vacation and a mediocre one is a few hundred $$. Why cut corners so much that it becomes a crappy trip? It doesn't have to 5* all the way but I've never regretted staying at a nice place.

Good luck & hope you have a great trip.

 

[Jkpark]

mom4scrapbooking: After your visit would you mind giving me your thoughts. I usually stay at one of the motels right across the street, but decided to book this one for a big family trip in November. I've driven past it many times and in my mind was only adding a few more minutes to our walk to the parks. We will be travelling with 4 kids between 1-7 (so afternoon naps are a must) and my MIL whose knees bother her on and off during days at the park. I'm wondering if I should try to move us closer. Will you post your thoughts on the walk to/from the parks each day? Thanks in advance!

 

[pixiewings71]

mom4scrapbooking: After your visit would you mind giving me your thoughts. I usually stay at one of the motels right across the street, but decided to book this one for a big family trip in November. I've driven past it many times and in my mind was only adding a few more minutes to our walk to the parks. We will be travelling with 4 kids between 1-7 (so afternoon naps are a must) and my MIL whose knees bother her on and off during days at the park. I'm wondering if I should try to move us closer. Will you post your thoughts on the walk to/from the parks each day? Thanks in advance!

I would move closer....

 

[Jkpark]

Thanks - time to start checking rates