Question about Sheratons vs. staying at Disney Property

[becd]

OK, I am a WDW vet who took my DS-6 and DS-6 to DLR last Christmas for their first visit. We stayed at the DLH and had an absolutely wonderful time. Thinking about going back Christmas 2015 and bringing my DS-5 with us. Considering staying at one of the Sheraton Good Neighbor Hotels instead but I have a few questions I thought I would pose to the board.

1. How close are these hotels to the parks compared to DLH or even PP? The websites say a 1/2 mile, but does this really translate to a quick walk.

2. How daunting is the walk? Meaning, cutting through DTD to get to the DLH with 2 youngsters was not that big of a deal, but navigating city traffic with three might be a nightmare. Truthfully, I never left the DLR property while I was there so I have no idea what the Good Neighbor Hotels neighborhood is like at all - any input would be appreciated.

TIA!!!

 

[disney world dreamer]

i stayed at the sheraton park hotel.
we just had to walk across the street to the toy story parking lot and hitch a free ride on the disney bus over to the main gate.
we also walked the about 2 blocks to get to downtown disney district.
either way the walks were nothing in comparison to WDW.
it takes longer to walk from the little mermaid section of AoA to the buses than it does to walk from the sheraton park hotel to the toy story parking lot bus.
if you can handle WDW walking then you can handle the walk from the hotel to the parking lot bus or the hotel to downtown disney district.

 

[CW in BC]

We are staying at the Sheraton park in a couple of weeks. Thanks for the tip about the parking lot shuttle.

 

[jcarwash]

The specific Sheraton hotels near Disneyland aren't going to be as walkable as compared to other, closer hotels. In the case of the Sheraton Anaheim north of Disneyland, I would advise taking their shuttle.

Several hotels that people like are considered even closer to the parks than the actual Disney hotels, especially Paradise Pier. These include Best Western Park Place Inn (my choice), Park Vue Inn, Fairfield Inn, Howard Johnson's, and Candy Cane Inn, just to name some. These are all on the east side of Disneyland on South Harbor.

 

[Imdboss]

We stay offsite and have made a 1 mile walk to DL and also used the ART. The walk isn't bad, nice wide sidewalks all the way there, felt very safe. Taking the ART is very easy also, the bus is on a continuous loop that makes stops at a few different hotels and takes appx 20-30 minutes for the entire round trip depending on where you stay. Ours was always 20 minutes and it made 3 stops, that was staying at Worldmark.

Like others have said there are several other places to stay just across the street from DL that will make for a quicker walk (or comparable anyway) than coming from DLH.

Our upcoming trip we are staying at DoubleTree Suites so I'm not sure if we will walk or ride the ART, maybe do a combination of both.

 

[tarheelalum]

If you want to walk with the kids you should pay more and stay at one of the Disney Hotels as opposed to either of the Sheraton properties. The Sheraton Anaheim has its own shuttle and the Sheraton Park I think uses the ART bus so both of them have transportation but neither are walkable for little kids.

But a couple of Hotels on Harbor Blvd are closer to the park entrance than any of the Disneyland Hotels and cheaper so you might consider one of them.

 

[Kittymomm]

We stayed at the Sheraton Park in 2012. We quite liked the hotel and staff but it is quite a walk, especially at the end of the day when you are tired. We ended up taking the bus and always seemed to be waiting and waiting. My daughter was 9, almost 10 and it was hard on her. After having stayed on site once, the perks are worth the extra $$ in my opinion

 

[Drusilla99]

I've stayed at the Sheraton park many times and it's a very nice property. Yes, dl hotel is always first choice, but sometimes things happen & this is 2nd choice. It can be a walk & the shuttle can be unreliable. I have done the walk pushing a stroller, infant in the front body sack alone at the end of the day with no issues. I'm an ap, so now that I'm a bit older, I drive in & park for free with my pass, & Sheraton has in and out parking privileges so that's easier for us.

 

[MICKEYFIL]

I am heading down to the Sheraton Park in November. It will be my third stay there. It took us 12 minutes to walk from the hotel to the security entrance. The walk involves walking a large sidewalk and only once do you need to cross the road. As long as you pay attention to the walk signals (like 85% of the people do)you should be just fine.

If at all possible try to get an upgrade to club level. The club level offers free breakfast and bottles of water and juice.

 

[bumbershoot]

The websites say a 1/2 mile

Be aware that sometimes hotels put their mileage to *the property*, which doesn't translate to "a way to get into the parks". You have to know mileage to the esplanade entrances, because I know you won't be hopping fences to get directly into a park.

 

[MermaidHair]

I have stayed at the Sheraton Anaheim and I can say that while it is walkable, we never walked Back after a day in the park. We did walk there once when we wanted to get to be first in line at MM and the shuttle was not running yet.

In general, the SA is a fine hotel with very big rooms, nice pool and a shuttle. On the bad, I think the rooms and common areas are starting to look worn (as of August 2012, things may have changed) and you need to know that if you take the morning shuttle it may leave early. If they say the first one departs at 8 and it fills up at 7;45 they will take off and then the 8 am crowd will have to wait for the bus to loop around to get them. Since we are get-there-when-the-gates-open kinda folks( see above) that was a bummer for us. Your mileage may vary.

I am a big believer in staying on property when you can but have stayed off property more frequently. Darn budgets!

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I can't really speak to the distance, but I wanted to make a clarifying comment. There are plenty of places across the street that are indeed closer than the onsite hotels, but none of these are HOTELS. They are all motels. To some, that doesn't matter at all, but to others it does. If it is important to you, just make sure you aren't comparing apples to oranges.

 

[sweethannah]

I have stayed at the Sheraton Park twice and it was a very nice hotel. We chose it originally because it was the closest to a traditional hotel I could find that was still walkable. It has room service, indoor corridors and a nice pool with a pool side bar and you can order food.

The walk is doable in the morning. Quite pleasant and you only cross one side road. You pass by several small shops so you can pick up snacks or drinks on the way to the Park. We did purchase the ART for our stay and it was hit or miss. We used it mostly on the return trips. It was very hot our second visit and walking about in 100F weather was a little much.

Our third trip down we stayed at the Howard Johnson and the distance to the Parks is about 1/2 as far. It is not a 'full service' hotel in that it doesn't have room service but the corridors are all inside and it was an 8 minute walk to baggage check. We could cross the road once and walk on the Park side to the entrance.

Neither the Sheraton or the Hojo are replacements for something like the DLH though. If you never left the DTD area and you liked that immersive experience its hard for non-disney property to match that experience.