BayAreaMom
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2011
- Messages
- 171
We stayed at Park Vue Inn on 8/17 & 18 (2 nights) in the two-room suite with 2Q plus sofabed/kitchenette. The stay at the hotel was “ below average” for these reasons:
Pros:
Beds- super soft and comfortable. Nicest feature by far! but possibly too soft for some? Nice to have no germy bedspread.
Newer carpet.
Super close to the park.
I got a birthday gift pack with balloons, fruit, bottled water, wine, and a mini cake from coldstone.
Pool was super warm. Not a nice pool location (in the middle of the parking lot) but fine for < 1 hour.
Nice to have two sink vanities since the bathroom was super tiny.
Lobby is small but has cold punch/lemonade/lemon water and cookies, plus a bathroom.
No parking fees.
Cons:
Room didn’t appear clean. The tile in the kitchen and bathroom looked dirty.
Much of the furniture and cabinets were chipped. Looked dirty too.
We did hear noise from outside our room and in the adjacent room one night pretty late (midnight?). It was loud enough to wake me up. We wanted a first floor room because we wanted to park right in front of our room for easy loading and because we have two strollers. There was lots of free parking and we were able to move our car on the first night to be right in front of our room.
I didn’t eat anything at the onsite breakfast or dinner, but I’m a picky (health-conscious/vegetarian) eater. My kids and DH did eat a variety of the foods offered and thought it was “okay”. There was plenty of food and seating inside and outside.
Towels were old, thin, ratty and we didn’t get enough of them.
Kitchen area was cramped- the sink was super small (much too small to wash a pan!). We didn’t really end up needing the kitchen- we used the fridge and microwave. Before we left I thought maybe it would make sense to bring things like frozen entrees and heat them up in the oven, but that never happened. Given the small size of the fridge, and nonexistent freezer, the stove/oven seems useless.
Fridge wasn’t cold when we arrived, and took about a day to get cold. The freezer part never got cold enough to freeze our ice packs.
Bathroom was really small. The hotel room was really shallow (about 25’?). I’d never want to stay in a regular room with our family of 4 for that reason. I peeked in on the standard rooms, plus the ones with bunkbeds, and they were really small rooms without a lot of space.
Staff weren’t that friendly- only interacted with them at check in/ out quickly. Never asked if we needed anything, about our stay, the parks, anything…
It was expensive- $183 all-inclusive per night. Certainly, overpriced. This was with an AAA discount.
My basic conclusion is that we’d probably only stay there again at a cheaper rate. I have the same suite booked again for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon for about $130/night base. However, I also have the HoJos kids suite booked for $140/night. We’re staying at HoJos in September so I’ll decide after we try that out. Originally I thought we’d love PVI because of the proximity and the free breakfast/dinner. BUT overall, the noise and lack of cleanliness is a big drawback.
Other trip observations that might be helpful:
DLR:
We did Star Tours both days with FPs and parent swap cards. That was AWESOME!!
Still impressed with the Hungry Bear fried tomato sandwich. This is my fav place to eat at DCA, partly because we can sit on the pretty river.
It was pretty crowded overall on W/Th/Fri. Definitely worth it to get there at opening because the lines got worse mid-day. Fri actually felt the least crowded which was surprising.
DCA:
We ate at Boardwalk Pizza- the pizza was good but very thin. The eating area was really nice- shaded with lots of landscaping that made it feel really lush. It is set up cafeteria style so you can get your food and eat quickly. The espresso brownie was good but was refrigerated so I saved it for later when it softened up.
Oh, and we didn’t get stuck in any traffic on the I-5 construction /one lane area. That was great.
Pros:
Beds- super soft and comfortable. Nicest feature by far! but possibly too soft for some? Nice to have no germy bedspread.
Newer carpet.
Super close to the park.
I got a birthday gift pack with balloons, fruit, bottled water, wine, and a mini cake from coldstone.
Pool was super warm. Not a nice pool location (in the middle of the parking lot) but fine for < 1 hour.
Nice to have two sink vanities since the bathroom was super tiny.
Lobby is small but has cold punch/lemonade/lemon water and cookies, plus a bathroom.
No parking fees.
Cons:
Room didn’t appear clean. The tile in the kitchen and bathroom looked dirty.
Much of the furniture and cabinets were chipped. Looked dirty too.
We did hear noise from outside our room and in the adjacent room one night pretty late (midnight?). It was loud enough to wake me up. We wanted a first floor room because we wanted to park right in front of our room for easy loading and because we have two strollers. There was lots of free parking and we were able to move our car on the first night to be right in front of our room.
I didn’t eat anything at the onsite breakfast or dinner, but I’m a picky (health-conscious/vegetarian) eater. My kids and DH did eat a variety of the foods offered and thought it was “okay”. There was plenty of food and seating inside and outside.
Towels were old, thin, ratty and we didn’t get enough of them.
Kitchen area was cramped- the sink was super small (much too small to wash a pan!). We didn’t really end up needing the kitchen- we used the fridge and microwave. Before we left I thought maybe it would make sense to bring things like frozen entrees and heat them up in the oven, but that never happened. Given the small size of the fridge, and nonexistent freezer, the stove/oven seems useless.
Fridge wasn’t cold when we arrived, and took about a day to get cold. The freezer part never got cold enough to freeze our ice packs.
Bathroom was really small. The hotel room was really shallow (about 25’?). I’d never want to stay in a regular room with our family of 4 for that reason. I peeked in on the standard rooms, plus the ones with bunkbeds, and they were really small rooms without a lot of space.
Staff weren’t that friendly- only interacted with them at check in/ out quickly. Never asked if we needed anything, about our stay, the parks, anything…
It was expensive- $183 all-inclusive per night. Certainly, overpriced. This was with an AAA discount.
My basic conclusion is that we’d probably only stay there again at a cheaper rate. I have the same suite booked again for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon for about $130/night base. However, I also have the HoJos kids suite booked for $140/night. We’re staying at HoJos in September so I’ll decide after we try that out. Originally I thought we’d love PVI because of the proximity and the free breakfast/dinner. BUT overall, the noise and lack of cleanliness is a big drawback.
Other trip observations that might be helpful:
DLR:
We did Star Tours both days with FPs and parent swap cards. That was AWESOME!!
Still impressed with the Hungry Bear fried tomato sandwich. This is my fav place to eat at DCA, partly because we can sit on the pretty river.
It was pretty crowded overall on W/Th/Fri. Definitely worth it to get there at opening because the lines got worse mid-day. Fri actually felt the least crowded which was surprising.
DCA:
We ate at Boardwalk Pizza- the pizza was good but very thin. The eating area was really nice- shaded with lots of landscaping that made it feel really lush. It is set up cafeteria style so you can get your food and eat quickly. The espresso brownie was good but was refrigerated so I saved it for later when it softened up.
Oh, and we didn’t get stuck in any traffic on the I-5 construction /one lane area. That was great.
