park place inn vs carousel vs desert palms?

[bumbershoot]

I've looked at hotel websites until I'm blue in the face (odd image, that), and now it's time to ask for personal observations.


We're currently booked at Paradise Pier in September. But after reading and reading and reading, we're looking into changing the reservation (and incurring a $25 fee, sigh) for money's sake.

So I'm looking at prices and continental breakfast (even a boring pastry is enjoyed, we're weird that way) and too many other factors to bore you with, and I've come up with:

Desert Palms
Carousel
Best Western Park Place Inn

Can anyone compare them based on personal experience? Worthiness of continental breakfast, rooms, comfiness of beds, etc? I know that Carousel and Park Place are across the street, while DP requires walk or shuttle type of thing, yes?


Thank you for any help you can provide!!!

 

[casaazul]

The location was great. Our room was small, but we had a refrigerator, tv and a door between the bathroom area and the bed area. The room was very clean, and there was an elevator in our building if we were too tired to walk the stairs!!! Parking was easy, we just pulled into a covered spot under the building and stayed there.

For us the Carousel Inn was just fine. We were at the park most of the time anyway. The breakfast was ok, fruit, pastries, coffee, juice and a view of DL!! There is a pool on the roof, but we didn't use it.

Hope this helps some.

 

[MATTERHORN]

Desert Palms is a long walk. Much much longer than your other two. Of the three I would choose the Carousel!!

Andrea

 

[disney-super-mom]

I've never stayed at the Carousel Inn, so I can't comment on it except it seems to get pretty good reviews. It's in a great location for walking to Disneyland (right across the street from the main entrance).

I also haven't stayed at Desert Palms, but the reviews it gets are hit and miss, and it's a further walk, which puts it out of contention in my book.

We have stayed at the Best Western Park Place Inn, and it was fine. The rooms are clean, but the decor there is dark making the room feel a bit, well, dark. Not that that's a big deal because we weren't in the room very much (mainly for sleeping and that's it). The location is excellent for walking to Disneyland (right across the street from the main entrance).

You might also want to consider the ParkVue Inn. They just recently refurbed their rooms, they have a nice complimentary continental breakfast, and they get good reviews. They're also located right across the street from the main entrance into Disneyland. Right now they have a special on Expedia for $79 per night in September.

So these hotels would be great choices if you want clean rooms, very close walking distance to Disneyland, and free continental breakfast:

Best Western Park Place Inn
Carousel Inn
ParkVue Inn

Of course, September is a long way off, so maybe you could leave your reservation as it is and just try to save enough money up to pay for the difference in hotel rates. Also, you may want to wait and see if Disney offers the "stay three nights and get the fourth night free" deal for the fall again like they did last year. I think last year they started that promotion in June, so maybe wait until June and see what happens. We used this promotion last year to book our room at the Paradise Pier for our October stay. We stayed for five nights and with the free night, our rate ended up being $135 per night.

Anyway, hope you have a wonderful time no matter where you stay. By the way, I LOVE your name "Bumbershoot"! Of course I live in Washington State, so I know what Bumbershoot is.

 

[bumbershoot]

Thanks everyone!


(disney-super-mom, DS loves your avatar. even though he REFUSES to watch the movie)


We've already booked through Costco travel (I watched prices SHOOT up on Costco and on AAA one evening, so decided to not delay any longer), with a package.

Had our savings plan all calculated.

And then got our electric bill for Nov to Jan, which was over $400 to heat this ridiculous rental house. So there went this paycheck's savings, probably the next bill will be ghastly too, AND now at the end of our lease we HAVE TO move to a cheaper-to-heat place.

Savings plan? What savings plan???


So we gotta downsize, travel-plan-wise.

I'm very interested in the Park Vue, but they aren't part of the Costco deal.

I found disboards AFTER making reservations, silly me. I could have done alot better if I'd found this place beforehand! (we're also canceling the silly meal plan I signed us up for, after finding out here that it doesn't save you money!)


Thanks to all for your help so far!!!

 

[MATTERHORN]

Is the Desert Inn and Suites part of it? They are great too and right by Park Vue Inn and I have stayed at both. And check around, you may do better pricing it out yourself unless you can't cancel without losing money!

Andrea

 

[bumbershoot]

Can't cancel without losing money.

I have pages of calculations (if I could find a combo that would be better and at least break even, taking into account the $100 that I'd lose plus the little perks that the Costco package gives us, i'd do it) in my binder. I thought I'd done my research before booking, but it turns out I didn't!

Actually, truth be told, if I could be SURE to get this one kind of room at the Anabella, I'd go with that. But it's not the standard room and it would cost more than the others even with the standard room, so I'm not going to chance it.

Of course, I timed things really weird, so I think I have to tack on another day at the end of the trip anyway... Obviously I needed more coffee before booking!


Oh, and no, the Desert Inn isn't, just D. Palms.

 

[tinker&belle]

It probably won't work with the cosco plan, but if you have any interest in the HOJO, we got the entertainment book rate for $69 a night for a park view (it was 54 for a reg. view. I don't know if you can combine that, but just thought I'd share the info in case you cancel. It ended up saving us about 150 and that was only for 2 nights.

 

[disney-super-mom]

I'm very interested in the Park Vue, but they aren't part of the Costco deal.

Not to worry about the ParkVue Inn.....both Best Western Park Place Inn and Carousel Inn are fine places to stay and literally a five minute walk from the front gates of the parks. Between those two, I'd pick the one that looks most appealing to you and go with it! Besides, you're going to Disneyland at a great time of year(September - fine weather and smaller crowds) so you and your family should have a wonderful time!

 

[bumbershoot]

THank you all!

 

[godalejunior]

Mousesavers.com just posted some deals for September on Good Neighbor Hotels- including Anabella and BWPPI. I believe it is the 4th night free and don't quote me I believe you can combine it with other deals going on........

 

[bumbershoot]

Thank you.

Before I saw your post, I decided to just call and switch my reservations and dump the dining plan, having decided that the overwhelming appreciation of Carousel (not necessarily on this post, but in many, many other threads) meant it was a good place to stay.

Then I saw your post, and the plan includes Park Place. Oh well, I don't want to call again. Even though we do need another day.


I don't normally say things like this, but when calling to make the changes, I was touched by a bit of Disney "magic". I was expecting a change-charge of at least $25, and maybe $50, because my paperwork said that a change is $25. Since I had two changes, I was expecting the worst. The Disney guy I got (thought I was calling Costco Travel, but you're actually phoning Disney) said that it was only considered *one* change, and then once he made the changes, told me to not worry about it, that he wouldn't charge me.

Woohoo! I was annoyed by, but resigned to, having to spend money to save money, but of course I knew about the fees even before booking, and it would have been fine. But to have NO change fees, yay for C-the-supervisor that I got on the phone!



Anyway, thanks to all of you who chimed in, I really appreciate your help!

 

[MATTERHORN]

Hooray for no fees!! Even better, you'll have a great time in September!


Andrea

 

[Pinnie]

We have stayed at the Best Western Park Place Inn and found it to be extremely convenient and clean. We rented a car and ended up never moving it from the parking lot for 4 days. The continental breakfast is located in the restaurant next door (had to walk up steps...don't know if that has changed.) We loved the convenience of being right across the street from the pedestrian entrance to the park.

As a matter of fact, we enjoyed this place so much, we are returning in August!

pinnie

 

[casaazul]

You will like Carousel. We spent so little time in the room that when we did return, we were happy that we had such a nice spot.

One night when we returned we could see the fireworks from the Anaheim Angels stadium, they had just clinched a playoff spot I think. That was very cool.

We also like Carousel in that we could walk to DTD easily to eat and shop and not go into the park. We were there for 2 nights, but only had 1 day of park tickets. We spent time the night before enjoying DTD and having a fun dinner at Rainforest.

Have a great trip.

 

[AZMickeyfans]

Carousel is a great hotel and usually the first one we try to get into on all of our trips. I'm glad you could change with no fees.