New to DIS and new to Disneyland

[starwarsclark]

(Posted this in the wrong section so trying again)

First of all I would like to say Hello to you all out there. Love the site and as someone from the UK it is great to read and see information about Disney in America. Now if you don't mind I have a few questions that I hope you can help me out with as we are looking to plan our first ever Disneyland, as opposed to Disney World trip - where we have been 4 times.
There are 6 of us planning to come over in July/August 2008 (Never too early to plan in my experience especially with 4 kids) and with this number of people we would like to try to stay somewhere near to Disney but need to find either a hotel that has ideally 3 bedrooms and a kitchen that we can eat at, failing that a private villa - Can anyone recommend a hotel that has suites of this size or a company that rents out private villas near Disney please. Having trouble finding what we want on the web.

Can you take food into the parks? We have always done this without issue in Orlando so could someone please let me know if this is OK in California?

We are potentially looking at doing a 2 centre stay during our 2 weeks, 1 week near Disney and then one down in the San Diego area (Sea World etc) is 1 week near Disney enough?

Kids are going to be 16, 13, 12 & 10 by the time we go so we need to try to save money somewhere hence looking at making own food in the evening and taking food into the parks.

Thanks in advance for any help / guidance you can give to someone from the UK.

Keeping the Disneysmile
Starwarsclark

 

[darph nader]

HELLO.
As far as 3 room suite,I doubt it. You 'may' have to get a 2rm suite with a room next door/close by.
'Some' hotels have 'kitchenettes' (check tripadvisor.com for features).
As far as taking food into DL,they 'frown' upon it. (If you had a diaper bag,you might be able to sneak some food in. I've seen it happen).
Good luck on your trip,and have fun.

 

[starwarsclark]

Hey thanks for the reply.
Will continue to look around for hotels just in case I can find one but thanks for the advice.

Supposedly WDW frown upon food being taken in however as I said we have never had any issue at all in Orlando in taking it in in cool bags etc. Does anyone know for sure what the policy is in California?

 

[darph nader]

I forgot.There is a picnic area just outside the main gates at DL. I 'think' it's okay to bring a small/decent sized cooler,as long as it's not 'too' big.

 

[starwarsclark]

that could be interesting so thanks.
Anymore tips from anyone else out there?

 

[noryglory]

Hi Clark,

Have you checked VRBO.com (vacation rentals by owner)...I just did a quick peek and there are lots of places that claim to be nearby Disneyland...you can get anywhere from one bedroom to six bedrooms at varying prices per night and per week.

This might be the way to go for your group. You won't necessarily be as close to the action but...?

 

[starwarsclark]

Oooh not come across VRBO before will definitely take a look. Thanks.

 

[DangerMouse]

Check out the Residence Inn Maingate. They have larger family suites with full sized kitchens, and they are walking distance to the park. They offer a complimentary full breakfast as well.

Here's a map of hotels that are within walking distance to the parks:

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

As far as food in the parks. I have always packed in lunches (pb&j, chips, juice boxes, etc.) and have never been turned away. You can either rent a locker inside the park to store it, or have your kids each help tote stuff by carrying their own backpack.

Make sure you check out the thread on this board that contains Hydroguy's tips. There's a compilation thread somewhere. I'll see if I can bump it up for you.

 

[starwarsclark]

Wow this is the best place - Ask a question and everyone is really helpful.

So thank you for the replies.

Really good to hear about the food as 2 of the kids have mild food allergies (ADHD) and giving them burgers/pizzas/fries everyday is definitely a no no. that is apart from the cost.

 

[heatherleigh]

Technically, you are not supposed to bring food or drinks in, but people do anyway. I looked this up recently, since we are going on a trip in Oct.

Friends who have gone this past year were saying they did it w/out a problem every day.

I have a friend who stayed at the Embassy Suites last spring, and she said it was roomy. We actually lived in one when we first moved to the state we are currently living at, while we were looking for a house. We lived there for 3 mos. It is much more roomy than a regular hotel room. The downside is, they do not have full kitchens. They just have refrigerators and a microwave. They do include made to order breakfasts, which saves a lot of money too.

 

[lopezgang]

I believe the Peacock Suites has 3 bedroom suites, but you have to book WAY in advance. We stay there (because we own a timeshare through them). We get a 2 bedroom suite. It has one bedroom with 2 queen beds and a bathroom, one bedroom with one king bed and a bathroom and a living area with a refridgerator and microwave, toaster and a sofa bed. They also have a continental breakfast. It's not the greatest hotel, but it works (we don't spend a lot of time there anyway). The pool is really nice too.

We always bring food in to. Never had a problem.

I think one week and Disney is plenty. We usually do 5 days at the parks, 1 day at the Aquarium of the Pacific and one day at the beach.

When you go to San Diego I'd definitely look into renting a house. It's nice to have more space and I'm not sure of many hotels that have bigger rooms.

 

[princessofcandles]

I love LA!!!

I'm out there a lot. So I've done Disneyland several times over and am in the process of planning my first WDW trip. Believe me.... Disneyland is much easier to plan.

OK.... The area surounding Disneyland in NOTHING like WDW. You have hotels that practically slam against the gates into Disney. So any hotel will be close by. I've stayed at a hotel called ExtendedStay America (www dot extendedstayamerica dot com). Now let me tell you. They are not fancy AT ALL. But they are clean and have kitchenettes. I don't think they have seperate rooms though.

Where ever you end up staying check out the shuttle system to get you to the park. They have little ticket stations (kinda like a metro station ticket) and the shuttles run all day up to right after the fireworks and stop at most hotels.

I have brought snacks and water into the park before and they have never said anything. But I have never packed a lunch for 4 either. Again the park is very different. It is really easy to go back to your car. All you do is step out of the park (Disneyland or CA), walk towards Downtown Disney and jump on the golfcart trams. In minutes you are at the parking garage. So I would suggest only taking in water bottles and a few snacks, packing a cooler in the car and having a car-picnic during lunch. You won't be the only ones doing it. I see it all the time.

Lastly... Personally I think one week in Disney area and one week in Sea World area is totally do-able. In the Disney area you got lots to check out but don't forget LA and Universal are only a couple of miles away. The longest its taken me to drive is an hour and to me thats not bad for a day trip. The traffic isn't as scary as people make it sound. If you're gonna come all this way I would definently try to do an LA day-trip.

 

[starwarsclark]

Thanks to everyone for the replies (sorry for late reply). The Peacock Suites look interesting and definitely have a 3 bed option so will look more closely at that as an alternative to hiring a villa. Found some nice ones through vrbo but as usual pricing varies so more study time required. Can't seem to really plan a lot for a few weeks as finding flights for next July / August seems difficult at the moment as they all seem to not go that far in advance. Anyone have a recommendation as to who is the best/cheapest to fly with to LA and where we should fly into?

Thanks.

 

[RMH]

Check out the Residence Inn Maingate. They have larger family suites with full sized kitchens, and they are walking distance to the park. They offer a complimentary full breakfast as well.

I second the Residence Inn. They have one and two bedroom 'villas' with two queen beds and a queen sofa bed and will comfortably sleep 6. They are more like a condo than an typical hotel. In addition to the free breakfast they will do your grocery shopping while you are at the park and there is no fee - just the price of the food added on to your bill. They have full kitchens with pots, pans, microwaves, etc. Only enough place settings for 4, so you may have to suppliment with paper plates, or they might give you more if you ask. Rates usually start around $170 US a night, but if you look you can sometimes find better deals on the internet. If you do, Marriott will match it and then take an additional 25% off. You can see a number of reviews for the Residence Inn Maingate on tripadvisor.com

As for food, we've never had anything said to us about bringing it into the park, but it has always been in backpacks and not in a cooler or picnic basket.

 

[Danauk]

For flights I would take a look at Max Jet. We are going to DL from the UK next August and I have been researching various flight options. Max Jet are a business class airline who fly from Stansted to LAX and their prices seem to be working out the same price or cheaper than Virgin or BA. All the seats on the flight are business class (almost flat beds). My friend flew with them 3 weeks ago and she said they were good.

 

[HydroGuy]

(Posted this in the wrong section so trying again)

First of all I would like to say Hello to you all out there. Love the site and as someone from the UK it is great to read and see information about Disney in America. Now if you don't mind I have a few questions that I hope you can help me out with as we are looking to plan our first ever Disneyland, as opposed to Disney World trip - where we have been 4 times.
There are 6 of us planning to come over in July/August 2008 (Never too early to plan in my experience especially with 4 kids) and with this number of people we would like to try to stay somewhere near to Disney but need to find either a hotel that has ideally 3 bedrooms and a kitchen that we can eat at, failing that a private villa - Can anyone recommend a hotel that has suites of this size or a company that rents out private villas near Disney please. Having trouble finding what we want on the web.

Can you take food into the parks? We have always done this without issue in Orlando so could someone please let me know if this is OK in California?

We are potentially looking at doing a 2 centre stay during our 2 weeks, 1 week near Disney and then one down in the San Diego area (Sea World etc) is 1 week near Disney enough?

Kids are going to be 16, 13, 12 & 10 by the time we go so we need to try to save money somewhere hence looking at making own food in the evening and taking food into the parks.

Thanks in advance for any help / guidance you can give to someone from the UK.

Keeping the Disneysmile
Starwarsclark

The first thing I thought was Residence Inn, and I see a couple others have already recommended it.

As others have said, the security people at DLR are pretty lax about bringing in food. As long as you are reasonable about it, they allow it.

We bring in sandwiches, but I would not try to bring in anything substantial like a full meal. It might work, but it might not. Potato chips, snacks, fruit, etc., will all be OK.

I think one week at DLR will be more than enough. I have kids about the same age as yours (15, 14, 12 and 11) and they get bored by the fourth day during summer visits. Three days is enough for us, but we have been there a lot. For a first visit I suspect you will be fine with five full days. Even four days would work, but since you are coming so far I would do five. If you want to plan for seven, I do think your kids will get a little bored towards the end. Hard to say. Some folks around here go on 10-14 day trips to DLR. So some people do not get bored after so many days.

Finally, check out these two threads for helpful info:

Getting The Most Out of a Summer Visit To DLR
www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1345319

A DLR Guide for WDW Vets
www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1162599

 

[Master Mason]

check out homewood suites as well, it is about a mile and a half to the parks, but We had a similar sized family last year and it worked out great for us. We used the ART to get back and forth.

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Tropicana Inn right across the street has 1 and 2 queen room kitchen suites.
http://www.tropicanainn-anaheim.com/rooms.asp

 

[DisneySuiteFreak]

Here's a link to most of the hotels/motels in the area in case you need it:
http://www.geocities.com/ashpsyche/DisneylandLinkMap.html

 

[darph nader]

Tropicana Inn right across the street has 1 and 2 queen room kitchen suites.
http://www.tropicanainn-anaheim.com/rooms.asp

Thanks DSF, that will come in handy next May. My DD was 'thinking' about the Tropicana for our next DL trip.