Just made my last hotel reservation!

[starshine514]

So, I made my Anaheim hotel ressie a few weeks ago, and I just made our San Diego (we're do a quick one-night stopover there to visit Sea World before heading up to Anaheim) area reservation tonight! I'm so happy, I got our favorite Travelodge in La Mesa for a price lower than I could get on Hotwire - and it's refundable! It is the Entertainment rate and I reserved two rooms, does anybody know if I will need to have two cards in order to get that rate on both rooms?

So excited! Everything is falling into place!

 

[yupikgal]

So the Travelodge that you are staying at is in San Diego? If you don't mind me asking, what type of rate did you get? Do you have an Entertainment card/book from California? We don't have ENT books here in Alaska. The reason I'm wondering is because we have two older kids (teens) and I thought maybe it would be good if we got 2 rooms...we will be in SD for 4 nights. Thanks!

 

[ConnieB]

Could you give more information? We're going to SeaWorld in early May and I've been looking for suggestions for hotels. I looked up Travelodge La Mesa and it gave me one on University Avenue that is about 15 miles away from Sea World. The mapquest estimate is 20 minutes, but how is traffic in that area, will it increase travel time?

What rate did you get and how? Just plugging my dates in at their website I got $41 for a standard 2Q and $49 for a signature 2Q (AAA rate). What makes the signature worth more?

Can you also tell me about the breakfast? It simply says "deluxe continential breakfast". I've found this can mean anything from a few danish and apples to make your own waffles/omlets, sausage etc, lol.

Thanks so much for any information you can share!

 

[starshine514]

So the Travelodge that you are staying at is in San Diego? If you don't mind me asking, what type of rate did you get? Do you have an Entertainment card/book from California? We don't have ENT books here in Alaska. The reason I'm wondering is because we have two older kids (teens) and I thought maybe it would be good if we got 2 rooms...we will be in SD for 4 nights. Thanks!

It's in La Mesa, about 11 miles straight down I-8 from Sea World. The drive hasn't given us any problem in the past, and the hotels we've stayed in closer have had 2 problems:

1. Less than perfect hotel, in a bad area (think lines of strip clubs w/ hotels sprinkled in)
2. Nice hotel, downtown, big parking fee (think $30/night)

So, we took a chance and bought a 2.5 star in La Mesa from Hotwire one time - and got the Travelodge, and we really liked it! Other sites rate it as a 2 star, but I agree that it deserves the extra half - interior entries, elevator, nicely furnished rooms.

We're getting it for $39.99 a night with the Entertainment card, the current going rate is $50, so it's 20% off the best available rate - and we can cancel until 6 pm the night before w/ no penalty. Not a huge savings, but for 2 rooms, it's over $20 after taxes for one night...

My Entertainment card is from Tucson, AZ - but they all look exactly the same. So, you can buy a book from anywhere (somewhere you are going to vacation perhaps) and use the card discounts nationwide. I registered mine online and just went through the hotels link to get the discount. I've never called to get the 50% off like people do for HOJO, but I can't imagine the rack rate on this room is less than $80 anyway...

My only warning would be is that in the past we have reserved two rooms (via a third party booking company - Hotwire) and have not received two rooms together (they were on the same floor, but 20 rooms away), so they won't automatically try to do this for you just because you reserve at the same time/under the same name, you'll need to request that.

 

[starshine514]

Could you give more information? We're going to SeaWorld in early May and I've been looking for suggestions for hotels. I looked up Travelodge La Mesa and it gave me one on University Avenue that is about 15 miles away from Sea World. The mapquest estimate is 20 minutes, but how is traffic in that area, will it increase travel time?

What rate did you get and how? Just plugging my dates in at their website I got $41 for a standard 2Q and $49 for a signature 2Q (AAA rate). What makes the signature worth more?

Can you also tell me about the breakfast? It simply says "deluxe continential breakfast". I've found this can mean anything from a few danish and apples to make your own waffles/omlets, sausage etc, lol.

Thanks so much for any information you can share!

There is a bit of a drive. I think it is 12 miles or so from Sea World. We haven't had trouble with the drive (Sea World often opens at 10, so traffic wasn't an issue for us), but it is definitely not super-close (a lot closer than the timeshare we've stayed at in Escondido, though!). I'm not truly sure of the differences between the two rooms. I've always booked via Hotwire in the past, so I wasn't really sure what type of room I was getting! However, we have had rooms that were larger than others, though it was just wasted space (an extra 5 feet between the foot of the beds and the tv and such along the wall, nothing to write home about), but I can't say for certain that those were deluxe rooms.

Their breakfast falls somewhere in the middle. Make your own waffles, danish, toast, donuts, bagels, etc (they have a bunch), coffee, orange/apple juice, whole pieces of fruit, two types of cereal w/milk. No eggs or other protein, though. They let us take it back up to our room, so some people can eat while others are getting ready (especially important w/ slow eating children, who can then eat w/ everybody). Rooms have microwaves, coffee makers and mini-fridges and they give you a little basket of snacks on your first night.

 

[kkmcan]

Hey, is this Carla? I got your pm and I clicked to add you as a friend but everytime I do that nothing happens. I looks like its updating or whatever but it never shows we are friends.

Anyways, congrats on your Disneyland trip!!! Have you ever been there? It's very addicting......

We just came off the 2 night Disney cruise last weekend out of LA and we are doing the 7 night Mexican Riviera in March. Then hopefully we will go to Disneyland in October.

We should get together sometime and talk Disney. hope everything is going well with you guys! Have a great DL trip!

kelly

 

[starshine514]

Hey, is this Carla? I got your pm and I clicked to add you as a friend but everytime I do that nothing happens. I looks like its updating or whatever but it never shows we are friends.

Anyways, congrats on your Disneyland trip!!! Have you ever been there? It's very addicting......

We just came off the 2 night Disney cruise last weekend out of LA and we are doing the 7 night Mexican Riviera in March. Then hopefully we will go to Disneyland in October.

We should get together sometime and talk Disney. hope everything is going well with you guys! Have a great DL trip!

kelly

Yup! It's me! Hmm...maybe the friend thing doesn't work as well as it should here.

I haven't been since I was 8, though we went to WDW with the in-laws from Texas last year - and had a great time! I heard about your 2-day cruise! Gary wanted to do one after hearing about it, but it looks like it may have been a one-time deal?

We should totally get together, perhaps at one of those germ-ridden pizza places where the kids can run around while we chat (I hear the PPP by Park Mall has a roller coaster inside), or the zoo - we have a membership w/3 guest passes... I think the boys have each others' real contact info.

 

[kkmcan]

Have Gary give Kyle a call and we'll set up a time to get together. PPP sounds good. The one on oracle and magee has a carousel and it's much bigger than the one on thornydale.

We are going to Vegas next weekend but maybe we could meet the weekend after that?

 

[ConnieB]

It's in La Mesa, about 11 miles straight down I-8 from Sea World. The drive hasn't given us any problem in the past, and the hotels we've stayed in closer have had 2 problems:

1. Less than perfect hotel, in a bad area (think lines of strip clubs w/ hotels sprinkled in)
2. Nice hotel, downtown, big parking fee (think $30/night)

So, we took a chance and bought a 2.5 star in La Mesa from Hotwire one time - and got the Travelodge, and we really liked it! Other sites rate it as a 2 star, but I agree that it deserves the extra half - interior entries, elevator, nicely furnished rooms.

We're getting it for $39.99 a night with the Entertainment card, the current going rate is $50, so it's 20% off the best available rate - and we can cancel until 6 pm the night before w/ no penalty. Not a huge savings, but for 2 rooms, it's over $20 after taxes for one night...

My Entertainment card is from Tucson, AZ - but they all look exactly the same. So, you can buy a book from anywhere (somewhere you are going to vacation perhaps) and use the card discounts nationwide. I registered mine online and just went through the hotels link to get the discount. I've never called to get the 50% off like people do for HOJO, but I can't imagine the rack rate on this room is less than $80 anyway...

My only warning would be is that in the past we have reserved two rooms (via a third party booking company - Hotwire) and have not received two rooms together (they were on the same floor, but 20 rooms away), so they won't automatically try to do this for you just because you reserve at the same time/under the same name, you'll need to request that.

Thanks for all the great information! I think I'll stick with my $41 AAA rate and have to buy an Entertainment book....we're that odd family that doesn't eat out much at home so our Entertainment Book last year was barely used. Thankfully I got it in January when it was only $17 so I know we made that back and then a little, but I hear about families using it weekly, and ours maybe monthly, lol.

Since there are only 3 of us we only need one room, but I'll make a note about what you said in case we travel with another family.

Thanks again! Too bad the Anaheim Travelodge wasn't a good price, lol. But for what they're charging I can get the Extended Stay with a full kitchen for slightly less.

 

[yupikgal]

Starshine514, thanks for info on the Travelodge. We will need a place that has public transportation near it, since we don't typically rent a car. We are not comfortable driving down there, I know for sure that I'm not, but if my husband has a wild hair, we may do it for a day or two. We're taking Amtrak from Anaheim, so we'll need to get to our hotel with a shuttle or cab. I think we're going to stay at the Dana, they have watersports equipment that we can rent, a shuttle that will pick us up from the train station, and a shuttle to Seaworld, and transportation nearby. If I could find somewhere similar where they have a "buy 1 room, get 2nd 1/2 off" that would be great too... I'll have to check out that 1/2 priced ENT book ConnieB, is that off their website? Thanks everyone, and have fun on your trips!