New Here... Need lots of help!

[hlovesj]

Hi. I am Heather and I live in Salt Lake City. I have three kids, 6,4,and 1. We want to come to DL the first week of January (shouldn't be too crowded, should it?)

Anyway, I haven't been to DL since the late 80s and it has been longer for dh. First we need to figure out where to stay. Money needs to be a consideration. This is what we are looking for (if it exists =0)):

Not too expensive.
Offers some sort of breakfast or kids eat free deal.
Shuttle service or close enough to walk.
Would prefer somewhere that we could see fireworks from the hotel but not a requirement.
Good place for kids.

I would be willing to pay a little more for the room if it offers the meal incentives.

Also, what is the best way to get good prices on whatever hotel we decide on? Anyone have suggestions on how to best plan this trip?

Thanks everyone!!!

Heather

 

[AFMom]

My 1st suggestion - with young kids - is to also look for a hotel that is VERY close to the parks - walking distance. You'll have a lot more flexibility in returning to your room.
Candy Cane Inn is always my favorite - great with kids, wonderful, large free breakfast, and close to the parks. It isn't cheap, though, but cheaper than staying on-site.
I would look at the hotel map of the area, find the hotels that are the closest walking distance, figure out which ones you'd like, and then start comparing amenities and prices. Try doing a hotels.com search for the actual hotels - but then going to that hotel's actual web site to get more info. Usually the hotels will now offer better prices than the priceline and hotels.com websites - see what you can get there and then call the actual hotel and see what they'll offer. We always get offered the same or better.
Many people here recommend the Howard Johnson - I've never stayed there, so I really can't say on that one. There are soooo many places to choose from - you shoud have no problem finding just the right hotel!
The first week of Jan shouldn't be too bad. New Years is completely crazy there. Keep in mind that many kids are still on Christmas Break that week as well. A lot of kids have that whole first week of Jan off - I know my Nephew in Northern CA has off until sometime in the 2nd week of Jan!
How many days are you going to stay? Are you planning any non-park days? Try to plan as many days as you can there so that you can take hotel breaks and not feel as if you're missing anything! With older kids, we can manage to see almost everything in 3 days, but we like to do 4. With younger kids, I'd say 4 would be great! You could even do 2 days, day off, then 2 more days.
Good luck - you've got lots of time to plan!

 

[Darcy]

I know a little bit about the park, but not a lot on hotels. We stayed the Marrioitt and it was around 60-80 per night. They do have some breakfast things, but this was about 4 years ago,

Anyways welcome

 

[LucyKate]

The week between Christmas and New year is the busiest of the year at DL. But after schools go back (which I believe is January 2 or 3) crowds disappear. The table at http://www.scottware.com.au/theme/feature/crowds.htm indicates it should not be a very busy week.

Candy Cane gets great reviews here as does the Howard Johnson where we stayed. Both are within walking distance - the difference is Candy Cane has breakfast, Howard Johnson doesn't. Except Howard Johnson has a great heated pool which kids will love (we swam in it in December and it really is warm). And if you choose a Disney View room you can see fireworks from your balcony - which is great if the kids are too tired to stay in the parks late. For breakfast at HoJo you can eat at Mimi's across the street or buy cereal, bread, milk, juice etc from the great little on-site shop - they also sell disposable bowls, cutlery etc

It is a superb hotel for kids and a 10 minute walk from the DL turnstile.

Both Candy Cane and HoJo rate extremely high on tripadvisor.com.

 

[hip]

We recently stayed at the Park Inn International. Our kids are 7, 6, and 4. The room was nothing special, but clean, comfortable, and affordable. We could see the fireworks from the pool area of the hotel. We had free continental breakfast of pastries, cereal, fruit, juice, coffee, and milk. We were right next door to a McDonald's, and there were a few other restaurants nearby. We had about a 5 minute walk to the park. That was great. We would recommend this hotel and would stay there again.