No love for the Fairfield Inn?

[Peanut Giggleface]

We too are Marriott rewards people and we just stayed at the Fairfield Inn a couple of weeks ago. We have stayed at many Marriotts over the years and this location is on the bottom of my list. The doors open to an outside walkway which is very loud in the evening when people let their kids race and scream down the walkway at 12:30 at night, the bathroom is extremely small and because of this the door was warped and didn't close right. When it did, it made a horrible squeaking/screeching noise. The wallpaper is mid-eighties and the seams are coming up. The shower head is very short. On the plus side, it's a short walk to the main entrance and there was a sign saying they will soon be renovating. It's time!!

 

[AndyLL]

Scratch my last post, we're sticking with the Hojo. I've read through far too many reviews tonight about the Fairfield and it doesn't match up to the Hojo on cleanliness and mattress comfort. Those are my two biggest needs.

The Fairfield uses the standard marriott mattresses which are high quality latex.

My wife has severe back issues and loved the fairfield mattresses enough we 1500 on a latex mattress.

We've stayed there the last 4-5 times and it is our fav outside of the Disney Hotels.

If you have to have a business quality internet connection ( I do ) the fairfield has is.

The only reason we are staying at the Park Vue on our March trip is to check out the new renovations. We'll likely be back at the Fairfield again. after that

 

[yupikgal]

Its possible that they have upgraded; in general I remember the rooms being kinda dark. But, we didn't spend much time in the room other than sleeping and naps (tried the pool once, too crowded, but we aren't pool-on-vacation people). Fairfield Inn can be noisy with guests, but you hear less traffic since its farther from Harbor itself, and we've usually gotten high floor rooms which has nicer views of fireworks but longer elevator rides (which can be looong when everybody's heading to the parks in the morning).

I'm thinking the other reason we haven't been back to BWPPI is the next trip after we stayed there we'd bought into VGC, so that is our one "full price" trip where we stay for a whole week and stay very close to the park, whereas any other trips we make during the year are 'bonus' trips where we're looking for rock-bottom prices, which BWPPI I've rarely seen go below $120, and rightly so for its location.

I'd say if you're going for location, give BWPPI a try. Your feet will thank you!

And let me know how the Costco thing works out ... thinking we might not renew our AP's this fall and just buy the Costco SoCal tickets, wondering how the upgrade on that works cause we'd still want 6 Disneyland days ...

I guess my main concern is cleanliness, and also the room that we have to spread out. That is where the Fairfield room lacks for us, we each bring our own suitcase, and it can get very congested in the room with 4 of us, especially with our kids being teens. That's why I thought having a mini suite might be nice this time...I'm also eyeing the Park Vue too, it sounds very nice and it's in the top 5 hotels on Tripadvisor! I'm kind of waiting to see on the Costco deal, in the past I've always booked everything separately, but the premium meal & $20 gift card are tempting! I will update this thread if we decide to do it!

 

[puffinp51]

We arrive mid-morning and know we can't check in until later. That's great news about the luggage room, too! I was wondering if we will be able to park at the Fairfield even though we can't check in? I sure don't want to try the parking lot at Disneyland. Thanks!

M.K.

 

[taaren]

We arrive mid-morning and know we can't check in until later. That's great news about the luggage room, too! I was wondering if we will be able to park at the Fairfield even though we can't check in? I sure don't want to try the parking lot at Disneyland. Thanks!

M.K.

Since they now charge for parking (I think $8!), they certainly should let you park there all day even if your room isn't ready! Debating on whether to have my travelling companion bring a car or not for my May trip there since gas + parking works out to the same price as plane ticket + airport shuttle from NorCal ...

 

[yupikgal]

taaren, still not sure if we will book Costco pkg or not...had them hold a reservation recently, they will hold it for 7 days w/no payment, but I was really hoping that DL would have a promotion again last the last few years with the 5 for 3 ticket deal, because we book now with them, and then our pkg goes down because of a special, they will apply it, but they also charge $50 change fee unless you add on something else (character breakfast, Universal pkg, etc.) so I'm just not sure. It would be nice to have everything in one pkg alright...but then again, I'm also considering us staying on site for 2 nights for the last 2 nights of our Disney stay because of the new rides opening up, and to have one extra MM...by the way, how would you get the Socal deal if you are in Hawaii? Just curious...

 

[taaren]

by the way, how would you get the Socal deal if you are in Hawaii? Just curious...

The Costco SoCal deal that they offer here is a set of tickets that includes 3 day DLR tickets, 1 day Universal Studio, 1 day San Diego Zoo, and something else (Wild Animal Park?). My brother gets these quite frequently but they do more tourist-in-general stuff than we do since we've become more Disney devotees (DH knows he can't take me to Magic Mtn or Knotts after DL now bc I start to point out how dirty they are so if we do those it has to be at the beginning of the trip ).
But I do get the Disneyland SoCal offers for the 2fers,etc, in my mailbox. I suspect this is because several years ago we got the SoCal AP when we were in transition moving from NorCal to here and staying with DH's cousins in the SoCal area (still had the Cali drivers licenses). I'm tempted right now to book the PPH SoCal rate for my May trip, but that's supposed to be a cheap one and I do want to see the refurbed rooms at Fairfield Inn ...

 

[yupikgal]

Now you've intrigued me more than ever taaren! We've stayed at the Fairfield 2 times and liked it just fine, what refurbed rooms? I didn't realize that they are doing that! This may lure us back... What type of rates can you get at the PPH, that's where I want to stay if we stay onsite! We stayed there in concierge for 2 nts last May, and loved it! I've considered the GC, but it's so much more expensive, and if we can get a concierge room for the same price at the PPH, we'll do that in a heartbeat!

 

[Kittyskyfish]

Now you've intrigued me more than ever taaren! We've stayed at the Fairfield 2 times and liked it just fine, what refurbed rooms? I didn't realize that they are doing that! This may lure us back... What type of rates can you get at the PPH, that's where I want to stay if we stay onsite! We stayed there in concierge for 2 nts last May, and loved it! I've considered the GC, but it's so much more expensive, and if we can get a concierge room for the same price at the PPH, we'll do that in a heartbeat!

pbi - I stayed in one of the refurbished rooms last month and it was very nice! I think I mentioned it a few pages' back in this thread. Anyhow, it's about $134 per night for a park view room, which is a noticable price increase. However, you get a new carpet and light fixtures, large flat-screen tv, raised shower head (no longer have to stoop), new furniture, new shower surround, mattress, sleeper sofa. I think the only things that were the same was the fridge and linens/towels. There are a few pictures posted on tripadvisor (not mine) to give you an idea of the changes.

We're going back in December and staying at the HOJO, only because of the Entertainment rate. December is expensive enough w/ Christmas and all, but we'd do the renovated FFI again over HOJO+ent rate if it were any other time of year.

 

[taaren]

What type of rates can you get at the PPH, that's where I want to stay if we stay onsite! We stayed there in concierge for 2 nts last May, and loved it! I've considered the GC, but it's so much more expensive, and if we can get a concierge room for the same price at the PPH, we'll do that in a heartbeat!

I haven't seen the refurbed rooms yet, but people have mentioned watching furniture trucks go by in a couple of threads, so it sounds good to me.

Have also seen in a few threads regular rooms at PPH for $163/night w a PIN code, which I would love to get since that's about my max of what I'll pay to stay anywhere on-site other than VGC. I've seen a couple of people mention also that occasionally Expedia has PPH for as low as $150 but I looked for that in January when I did a quick 1-day-solo-trip and am watching again in case it turns up for my dates in May, but probably not from the looks of it ... (though I have seen AP DLH rates for just under $200, but that's still too high for our supposed-to-be-cheap-trip).
I'm thinking with the soft opening of LM & ST on May 20 the prices will start going up then, and with May 7 being the POTC 4 Premiere, my in-between trip might end up discounted?? Wishing for some since this will be an attempt to purge all the stress of this past semester of grad school and it would be soooo nice to walk downstairs and take DS4 to his first character breakfast.