disneydreamer74
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jun 27, 2008
- Messages
- 1,354
Just got in late last night from another successful and magic filled DLR trip. We went for 5 nights/4days. We decided at the last moment to add a travel day so that we would have 4 full days in the park. We originally had booked DLH for the travel night so that we could take advantage of the FP offer, but 2 days before leaving I found an awesome deal on travelzoo for Hotel Menage that I could not pass up. We figured it would be nice to use the difference in price for more spending in the parks and I am glad we did that! We were able to walk right on Little Mermaid everyday (despite the crowds and because we went at park opening). We FP'ed Star Tours in the morning and we were able to ride twice a day. A man exiting the park one days gave us some ST fastpasses one night also..that was Way Cool!
So, I want to give a brief summary of the hotels we stayed at because that is one of the hot topics on this discussion board. Let's face it, your hotel does impact your vacation!
Hotel Menage: I had called a day before arrival to find out what kind of room we would get. We were assigned a pool view room, which is what I wanted so that we could watch the fireworks. At check-in we were given a city view.
I asked why we were moved , the Front desk rep said we werent.
Now, having worked for Hampton Inn hotels up until a month ago, I am pretty familiar with how hotels work and room controllers, etc. I asked to speak to a GM and he said they were overbooked (in other words, they gave my room to another guest that arrived earlier than we did!)I stated just that and lo and behold he gave us a pool room. So, I must add that he mentioned "well you booked through a third party site" which tells me that they will give different treatment to people who book on Hotwire, Orbitz, etc. Not cool!! Anyhow, the hotel itself is nicely decorated with a modern theme. I liked that it was a hip boutique style hotel, and the pool was just awesome. There was a tiki pool bar and the pool was opened 24 hours. The restaurant was nice, fast service and really cheap! Kids eat free with a paying adult. We had breakfast the day of check out and it was very good! the negatives about this hotel are the close proximity to the freeway.WOW!! I cannot stress this enough..you WILL hear the free way on the pool side. So, it is a trade off!! We had our door shut and the air on and it was really noisy. The room was in need of repair..especially the bathroom!! Overall it was not a bad hotel, the fireworks view was impressive! But I would not stay there again for one reason: I am looking for a family-friendly environment when on a DLR vacation. This place was obviously geared towards the young/hip scene. There were bars near the front desk and plenty of drunk people walking around the grounds. For that reason I would stay somewhere else.
On the second day we checked into Fairfield Inn on Harbor.
Let me just say..I am SOLD!! We absolutely loved this hotel and DBF and I agreed that we found our offsite hotel for future trips!! Being a rewards member I had already arranged via email to have a gift amenity sent to my room on arrival for DD4, extra pillows and towels.Front desk allowed us to store our luggage and called me on my cell phone when the room was ready. (1:00 p.m.) Now I was not all that impressed with the front desk workers. I met 4 of the during my stay and not one was courteous or friendly. I had reserved a Disney princess themed room and when we arrived in our room my DD4 was really excited. ( I will post some room pics in a bit)There was a pink bouquet of Mickey shaped balloons, a gift bag with Disney postcards, the princess heart candy box and princess mickey ears!! Very cute.My DD4 claims that Cinderella must have personally delivered them for her!! That was a real magical moment for the three of us!!I will say that the gift amenities cost $15.00 and the gifts were all purchased in the parks. The price tags were still on them and we figure that the total came to $25 easily so..what a deal!!I realized at that point that the promo package I booked included a $50 gift card for Disney parks and I had not received it at check-in. I went down to front desk and the rep was totally lost!!
After checking with many others I finally got my gift card. I think they need to be more aware of these things. I did see the rep in the next lane speaking quite rudely to an Asian woman that was trying to ask for help coordinating her airplane trip home via shuttle. There was an obvious language barrier, but the rep (a male) was rude when she asked for a late checkout! He said "No, you need to be out by noon!!!"
Like I mentioned, the Front desk needs more training!!If he would have talked to me like that....
yep, it would have gotten ugly!!
Other than the front desk experiences, everything else was lovely. The General manager went out of her way to assist guest and was very nice. She saw me come back for a mid day break (my face was flush b/c it was HOT!!) and she helped me get my stroller in the elevator, then offered to get me the complimentary lemonade they offered in the lobby! Very sweet woman!!
The rooms were VERY clean! New carpet and really comfortable beds!! Housekeeping was awesome! I asked our housekeeper to leave extra coffee one day and she never forgot our whole trip! She definitely deserved the large tip we left at checkout! I did not use the pool, but DBF did and said it was nice. I felt that there was not enough privacy being that it was in the parking lot and there were only a few tendrils of ivy on the fence. But many people enjoyed it! The air worked great in the room (climate controlled). The refrigerator had a small freezer compartment also. The bathrooms are really small, but very clean with good water pressure. I must say that the walk was maybe 5-7 min. to the security gates.Easy as pie!! We went back to the hotel for a break everyday too and the walk was never an issue for us! I can see that Hojos would be doable as well. For those worried about the hotels on Harbor and the walking distance, rest your fears. Every hotel on that main strip near the crosswalk is an easy walk. Overall, I have to say I will have a hard time paying to stay onsite again. I loved the FFI and the price difference was amazing. Oh, no free breakfast at this hotel, but we ate at McDonald's (next door) and Millie's everyday. I will post pics from the room in a bit...but must warn the readers, I did not take pics from the park. I will also add more thoughts on the parks, reviews, complaints, and new discoveries!!
So, I want to give a brief summary of the hotels we stayed at because that is one of the hot topics on this discussion board. Let's face it, your hotel does impact your vacation!
Hotel Menage: I had called a day before arrival to find out what kind of room we would get. We were assigned a pool view room, which is what I wanted so that we could watch the fireworks. At check-in we were given a city view.
I asked why we were moved , the Front desk rep said we werent. Now, having worked for Hampton Inn hotels up until a month ago, I am pretty familiar with how hotels work and room controllers, etc. I asked to speak to a GM and he said they were overbooked (in other words, they gave my room to another guest that arrived earlier than we did!)I stated just that and lo and behold he gave us a pool room. So, I must add that he mentioned "well you booked through a third party site" which tells me that they will give different treatment to people who book on Hotwire, Orbitz, etc. Not cool!! Anyhow, the hotel itself is nicely decorated with a modern theme. I liked that it was a hip boutique style hotel, and the pool was just awesome. There was a tiki pool bar and the pool was opened 24 hours. The restaurant was nice, fast service and really cheap! Kids eat free with a paying adult. We had breakfast the day of check out and it was very good! the negatives about this hotel are the close proximity to the freeway.WOW!! I cannot stress this enough..you WILL hear the free way on the pool side. So, it is a trade off!! We had our door shut and the air on and it was really noisy. The room was in need of repair..especially the bathroom!! Overall it was not a bad hotel, the fireworks view was impressive! But I would not stay there again for one reason: I am looking for a family-friendly environment when on a DLR vacation. This place was obviously geared towards the young/hip scene. There were bars near the front desk and plenty of drunk people walking around the grounds. For that reason I would stay somewhere else.On the second day we checked into Fairfield Inn on Harbor.
Let me just say..I am SOLD!! We absolutely loved this hotel and DBF and I agreed that we found our offsite hotel for future trips!! Being a rewards member I had already arranged via email to have a gift amenity sent to my room on arrival for DD4, extra pillows and towels.Front desk allowed us to store our luggage and called me on my cell phone when the room was ready. (1:00 p.m.) Now I was not all that impressed with the front desk workers. I met 4 of the during my stay and not one was courteous or friendly. I had reserved a Disney princess themed room and when we arrived in our room my DD4 was really excited. ( I will post some room pics in a bit)There was a pink bouquet of Mickey shaped balloons, a gift bag with Disney postcards, the princess heart candy box and princess mickey ears!! Very cute.My DD4 claims that Cinderella must have personally delivered them for her!! That was a real magical moment for the three of us!!I will say that the gift amenities cost $15.00 and the gifts were all purchased in the parks. The price tags were still on them and we figure that the total came to $25 easily so..what a deal!!I realized at that point that the promo package I booked included a $50 gift card for Disney parks and I had not received it at check-in. I went down to front desk and the rep was totally lost!! After checking with many others I finally got my gift card. I think they need to be more aware of these things. I did see the rep in the next lane speaking quite rudely to an Asian woman that was trying to ask for help coordinating her airplane trip home via shuttle. There was an obvious language barrier, but the rep (a male) was rude when she asked for a late checkout! He said "No, you need to be out by noon!!!" Like I mentioned, the Front desk needs more training!!If he would have talked to me like that.... yep, it would have gotten ugly!! Other than the front desk experiences, everything else was lovely. The General manager went out of her way to assist guest and was very nice. She saw me come back for a mid day break (my face was flush b/c it was HOT!!) and she helped me get my stroller in the elevator, then offered to get me the complimentary lemonade they offered in the lobby! Very sweet woman!! The rooms were VERY clean! New carpet and really comfortable beds!! Housekeeping was awesome! I asked our housekeeper to leave extra coffee one day and she never forgot our whole trip! She definitely deserved the large tip we left at checkout! I did not use the pool, but DBF did and said it was nice. I felt that there was not enough privacy being that it was in the parking lot and there were only a few tendrils of ivy on the fence. But many people enjoyed it! The air worked great in the room (climate controlled). The refrigerator had a small freezer compartment also. The bathrooms are really small, but very clean with good water pressure. I must say that the walk was maybe 5-7 min. to the security gates.Easy as pie!! We went back to the hotel for a break everyday too and the walk was never an issue for us! I can see that Hojos would be doable as well. For those worried about the hotels on Harbor and the walking distance, rest your fears. Every hotel on that main strip near the crosswalk is an easy walk. Overall, I have to say I will have a hard time paying to stay onsite again. I loved the FFI and the price difference was amazing. Oh, no free breakfast at this hotel, but we ate at McDonald's (next door) and Millie's everyday. I will post pics from the room in a bit...but must warn the readers, I did not take pics from the park. I will also add more thoughts on the parks, reviews, complaints, and new discoveries!!
( the child lives for pizza) and it looked pretty tasty I must say. Dbf and I both had NY strip steak with sweet potato fries and snow peas and asparagus. YUMMO!! The steak was ok..not seasoned well enough IMO, but DBF said his was perfect. The sweet potato fries were awesome..not soggy at all. The asparagus was...
..yes..I LOVE asparagus when it is not overcooked. We also ordered drinks and they were so good. They make the best drinks there. With the $50 certificate the total came to $120..well worth it!! Those were the only table service places we ate at for the trip because we didnt want to waste a lot of time waiting on food and DD4 has grown impatient with it as well. She would rather eat quick service and go back to the rides. 
We also tried Tortilla Jo's Taqueria for tacos and nachos. I wasnt all that impressed and probably would not go back. 
So the ride starts and the little girl and her mom seated in front of me were so excited for her first time riding it...gulp!..well..as soon as we took off the boys behind me started shouting obscenities that are so vulgar I wont even repeat them..then they shouted.."We are ruining this ride for everyone..hahaha!!" They had planned to do that the minute they got in line!! I was SOOOO angry!!
The little girl was clearly distressed at what they were doing. I could not wait for the ride to stop so I could tell them what jerks they were..but they hopped off and ran off the ride..knocking people out of the way!! Grrrrrr...What makes people do things like that? I just dont get it! I saw many rides where people had throw their garbage on the ride..and it bothers me.
My DD4 wanted to dance where the DJ's were spinning music so we did for a while. What I noticed is that there was a lot of trance music played and there were groups of people in circles ..it was similar to a rave basically. I wish they would have made it more family friendly like Glowfest was. Despite that, my daughter and I danced to the music and I was in awe of the Tron-like atmosphere. I am glad they have that type of event as an option for late night fun at DCA!! Very Cool!!
