Is Anaheim Entertainment Book a good deal?

[bscent]

Just looking for ways to budget for our August trip ( 9 nights). Are the restaurants that offer coupons in the Entertainment book worth patronizing? Also, how close to the Park are most of these restaurants? We will have a rental car so a 5 miles radius would be OK. I've noticed that there are quite a few in Costa Mesa & Garden Grove. Distance from Disneyland? Any info would be much appreciated.

 

[chrissiecutie]

I don't know about restaurant deals but I can tell you that the hotel deals are well worth the price of the ent.book!

Check into the HOJO, rates start at $59/night plus tax even during the busy summer months.

I'm not sure what other local hotels are there, but if you're looking for a good, kid friendly budget place- this is it! Look under HoJo's website and the blog for current dates available with the Ent.Card rate. They even have kid suites now!

 

[Pakytral]

I bought it when we went in Sept '08 and I'll be honest, I stuggled to find places to use it. That said, I never had a car - if you rent a car and have the ability to get around easily, ylou might make good use of it.

 

[bumbershoot]

I've never read of anyone getting good coupons for very local restaurants. The restaurants right around DLR don't participate because, frankly, they don't have to. So you have to travel a bit further away to use any coupons.

Just buy the one for your state, if you can use it there...or just the cheapest you can find. When we next buy one to use for the discount at HoJo Anaheim, if the grocery store coupons aren't there anymore (my South Puget Sound books the last two years had 4 $5 coupons for Safeway) I'll just buy the cheapest one I can find. Since Anaheim's is one of the most expensive, that won't be the one I get!

 

[chrissiecutie]

Bumbershoot- does this mean you can use local ent.books for the HOJO Discount?? Cuz that's what it sounds like you are saying...


I was under the impression that the Southern CA ent.books were the only ones that had the HOJO Discount.

 

[Eeee-va]

I used an Arizona Entertainment card last year to get the 50% Entertainment Discount at the Hojo (when it is offered). You don't even need the book, but just the card. It shouldn't matter where it's from (except it might be a problem if it's not American; I forget).

 

[rentayenta]

Trying to figure this out. Does just having the Ent book entitle you to the 50% off HoJo rate anytime or is that 50% rate only offered at certain times?

 

[bumbershoot]

You can buy any Entertainment Book, even the ones from Australia, to get the card that gets you the HoJo discount.

You can get the big HoJo discount if it is offered during your stay. If it's NOT offered during your time, they have a special smaller discount they offer anyway, if you have the card (at checkin).

hojoanaheim has message boards of their own (they sometimes change the links of their board, it seems, so the best way I can tell you where it is is: hojoanaheim.com and find "join the discussion" or something like that, which will take you to their boards) and they have a whole forum on discounts. Look for the Ent Rate discount section. They have a list that is kept updated.

They have been known to add dates even just 3 days before...I totally missed out on staying there at the Ent Rate b/c I had a one night reservation at Carousel that required 4 days cancelation, otherwise they took a one night fee. HoJo added my night 3 days out! I was so bummed.

If you have a reservation directly through them and the good rate comes out, just call their 714 number during pacific time business hours (I recommend friending them on Facebook too...just the other day they updated their status to say that their In House people needed to take a half day, because they had training), ask for In House Reservations, and they will change your rate for you!

 

[bumbershoot]

Just realized...for the '09 "divas" trip, they added the first day of the trip to their Ent Rate list on THAT day. Honored it, too!

 

[rentayenta]

Sweet, I have the Ent book for Utah. I will check their boards.

 

[bumbershoot]

Great!

Just as long as the card is current on your checkin date, you'll be fine.

That sort of thing gets tricky with late Fall reservations, since the books/cards expire in early Nov...it can be difficult to get a new one in time to make sure you have a current one!

 

[Littleprincess2010]

Great!

Just as long as the card is current on your checkin date, you'll be fine.

That sort of thing gets tricky with late Fall reservations, since the books/cards expire in early Nov...it can be difficult to get a new one in time to make sure you have a current one!

We usually get ours (In Canada) in September and then I usually have an overlap period of a month or so to use up any of the coupons from the last year.

Im not sure how other Provinces/States/Countries send theirs out.

 

[bumbershoot]

If you've made the plan to buy a new Ent Book it works out well. But if you find yourself right up to the end of your old book, then realize you need a new one, it can get hard to get that new one in time!

 

[chrissiecutie]

Thanks everyone!

I totally thought that you had to buy one of the So.Cal Entertainment Books in order to get the discount in that state/area.

I'm so excited to find out that I can buy a local book, maybe get to actually use some of the other coupons in it locally AND use it for the HoJo Discount!

We are going in late Nov and you say the books expire then?? Does anyone have experience with how this works? Should I buy the book online and "hope" it's still valid??

 

[Littleprincess2010]

Thanks everyone!

I totally thought that you had to buy one of the So.Cal Entertainment Books in order to get the discount in that state/area.

I'm so excited to find out that I can buy a local book, maybe get to actually use some of the other coupons in it locally AND use it for the HoJo Discount!

We are going in late Nov and you say the books expire then?? Does anyone have experience with how this works? Should I buy the book online and "hope" it's still valid??

The books expire Nov. 1, 2010 so I would wait until September when the 2011 books come out and buy then. The local schools usually sell them as school fundraisers.

 

[chrissiecutie]

Thanks!

I will def. keep that in mind! My son doesn't go to a regular public school and neither do many of the kids in our neighborhood, so I haven't had to many opportunities to buy from them. I would much rather support the kids/schools then buy online.

Good to know when exactly they expire!