Need Hotel recommendations and stroller question

[Ally_DeVille]

Hi, I need some hotel recommendations. My family is having a small family reunion at Disneyland; in total there will be 4 adults and 2 toddlers. One of the adults is in a wheelchair so having a large hotel room or suite would be ideal. Do the handicap accessible rooms have a connecting door to another room or are they stand alones?

What hotel rooms are the largest? Which hotels are the closest to the main Disneyland entrance? Are the cribs regular cribs or pack-n-plays and do they count towards room occupancy?

My sister would prefer to stay at one of the resorts but from what I've seen when looking at the hotels the prices are way out of line ($4k) or we wouldn't fit comfortably. We will be there 7 days; luggage, car seats, strollers, cribs, wheel chair, souveniers and food. We will need a lot of closet space as not one of us knows how to pack light and no one wants to do laundry if at all possible but with two 2 year olds it'll have to be done.

Personally I think the HoJo's would fit us best and still be well within budget (more money for character dinners!) My sister is a bit of a princess so the more luxurious a room the better for her but being a single mom, I am more practical. Being within walking distance is preferable (the wheel chair is motorized and getting onto shuttles is a huge hassle).

Our travel date is September 4-11. What suggestions do you all have for us?

As for the stroller question, what kind are the ones at Disneyland? It's been a while since we've been to Disneyland and I haven't found any pictures of them online. Do they recline? Are they the hard plastic ones like at WDW? I'll have a stroller with me because of the airport but it's huge and I'd rather not take it to the park.

thanks so much for all input and any tips are very welcome!

 

[kuusimo]

The strollers at Disneyland are the jogging type strollers. One thing that you may want to consider though is that you would need to leave the stroller at the park and then take your toddler back with you to the hotel. This would be for any hotel. They only have single strollers- not double.

As far as hotel rooms- HOJO's is actually further away than most of the other hotels. If that is not your sister's idea of "luxury" you may have a battle the entire time with a room. Sounds like only the Grand would do for her then.

BWPPI (Best Western Park Place Inn) has mini suites that sleep 6, but are not large enough for a wheelchair. Park Vue Inn has suites, but I don't know how large the rooms are. You might want to contact them and see if they have rooms large enough. Desert Inn has suites that can sleep up to 10 (2 rooms). They are a little larger and may be able to fit a wheelchair. I think as far as room- Anaheim Del Sol rooms are very large. They do not have suites though, but rooms that do join with a door in the middle. All of the rooms across the street though are your basic room. Not a lot of luxuries. You are paying for the fact you are right across the street and can get to Disneyland in 5 minutes.

http://www.geocities.com/ashpsyche/DisneylandLinkMap.html

All of the hotels have links to their websites. Good luck

 

[RMH]

Another option might be the Residence Inn Maingate. They have large rooms - up to a 2 room suite - that would be manageable with a wheelchair. I've never been in the 2 room suite, but I read something that said they were all on the second floor and they don't have elevators. Definitely call and ask if you are considering this. They are not as close as Hojos, but it is still walkable. ART does pick up right there so you could split between walking and the shuttle if it was too far for the little one. Marriott is certainly upscale IMO, but only your sister could say if it was luxurious enough for her. There are a lot of good reviews on TripAdvisor.com

I can't help you with the stroller. Our youngest is 8, so we have bid them a fond farewell !

 

[VegasMike21]

Another option might be the Residence Inn Maingate. They have large rooms - up to a 2 room suite - that would be manageable with a wheelchair. I've never been in the 2 room suite, but I read something that said they were all on the second floor and they don't have elevators. Definitely call and ask if you are considering this. They are not as close as Hojos, but it is still walkable. ART does pick up right there so you could split between walking and the shuttle if it was too far for the little one. Marriott is certainly upscale IMO, but only your sister could say if it was luxurious enough for her. There are a lot of good reviews on TripAdvisor.com

I can't help you with the stroller. Our youngest is 8, so we have bid them a fond farewell !

Exactly what I was gonna recommend, the Residence Inn Maingate

 

[xmansmom]

We very recently went for the first time and stayed at the Marriot Suites. We liked it but we bought the ART (?) bus passes and it was terrible. The hotel was a the end of the route and the bus would show up full and wouldn't take any more passengers. The driver said (on more than one occasion) that he'd call for more busses but never did. We wasted a lot of time and finally ended up just driving and paying for parking.

My sister said she stayed at HoJo's and really liked the location. She said it was easy to run to your room during the day.

As for the stroller...they were jogging type strollers with, I think, mesh seats. I always take my own because my son is big for his age and always sleeping when we're leaving. Last year I bought a Maclaren Volo stroller to take to WDW and it's the best purchase I've ever made. I bought the one with the mesh seat because it seemed like my child would fit in in longer. He was 3 at the time and I took it again this year and it worked great. I was able to hold a tray of drinks and food in one hand and still maneuver it through a crowd. It was worth every penny!!!

 

[kiwitravel]

Carousel Inn had kitchen suites with easy lift access. Looked wheel chair friendly from the outside but would pay you to check with them. Best of all very easy walking distance, about 5 minutes to maingate. HoJos is very popular but about 10 mins further away. The CI suites have amazing views looking out over the park. Tropicana (next door) also has suites, same walk don't know about access or size, we have stayed at both sites and favour the CI.

 

[Ally_DeVille]

thanks to this website and all the great tips, suggestions, and other wonderful information we have booked our hotel rooms.

We booked 2 premium rooms at the HoJo at the Entertainment book price! Who knew that the book I buy so I can get free bags of coffee from Dunkin Donuts and restaurant discounts would end up saving us SO much money!

I am so pleased to have found that tip! Thank you!

We are also ditching the big stroller and have picked up a double reclining umbrella stroller at Walmart for $50.

Our airfare is bought, Southwest $99 fares (which from Boston just can't be beat!), hotel is reserved, now all we have to do is plan out our strategy for the parks.

And of course wait until September which is so very far away.

So, what is a Must-Not miss at either park, I haven't been to DL in 5 years.

 

[lilsprstr]

We used our own umbrella strollers for my 4 and 2 yo. They worked great for us!

 

[kiwitravel]

Everyones experience is different but for us it was:
Splash, Space and Thunder Mts
Soaring California
Staying so late taking photos after everyone had gone that we were asked to leave!!! (night pics with no crowds)
Going hard in the mornings while there were no queues
My 9yo sons joy at getting his autograph book full with photos and autographs of all the characters he wanted
Then his look of abject terror when were on the Hotel tower ride
My 14yo daughters delight in still doing kids stuff
Rather than not miss anything just do everything, give yourself enough time so you're not rushed. We had a 14 day pass but give yourself at least 4 days.

 

[blackjackdelta]

Another option might be the Residence Inn Maingate. They have large rooms - up to a 2 room suite - that would be manageable with a wheelchair. I've never been in the 2 room suite, but I read something that said they were all on the second floor and they don't have elevators. Definitely call and ask if you are considering this. They are not as close as Hojos, but it is still walkable. ART does pick up right there so you could split between walking and the shuttle if it was too far for the little one. Marriott is certainly upscale IMO, but only your sister could say if it was luxurious enough for her. There are a lot of good reviews on TripAdvisor.com

I can't help you with the stroller. Our youngest is 8, so we have bid them a fond farewell !

We have stayed at the RI Maingate and all the 2 room suites are on the 2nd floor with no elevators. The rooms are spacious. Go to their website and click on the room descriptions. We wont stay any place else off site.

Jack

 

[abby]

thanks to this website and all the great tips, suggestions, and other wonderful information we have booked our hotel rooms.

We booked 2 premium rooms at the HoJo at the Entertainment book price! Who knew that the book I buy so I can get free bags of coffee from Dunkin Donuts and restaurant discounts would end up saving us SO much money!

I am so pleased to have found that tip! Thank you!

We are also ditching the big stroller and have picked up a double reclining umbrella stroller at Walmart for $50.

Our airfare is bought, Southwest $99 fares (which from Boston just can't be beat!), hotel is reserved, now all we have to do is plan out our strategy for the parks.

And of course wait until September which is so very far away.

So, what is a Must-Not miss at either park, I haven't been to DL in 5 years.

You will enjoy HOJO's we stayed there last october and are booked again in December. They have a great little gift shop with tons of stuff. My kid loved the pool also.
Taking your own stroller is the best.