Ramada Plaza, Islander, or Castle?

[jojo&goliath]

Anyone who's stayed at these, please weigh in. We're a military family on a pretty strict budget and are staying for 5 nights (3 days in park) from 7/13-7/18. I was all ready to book Cortona for a great rate ($69/night), but seeing that it's not really walkable with 2 kids, I decided to keep looking. We really need to keep it under $550 total and these are the only options we are coming up with that are within our range and close enough to the entrance. I think I'm leaning toward the Islander based on reviews/pics, but I'm not sure. I saw some bad reviews of Quality Inn on Manchester (was looking at that one, too) so I've tentatively nixed that one.

We're not too picky - the only things we really require are a fridge in the room (micro would be great) and a clean bed. We stayed in the Park Vue Inn in '06 and won't be returning any time soon (they were remodeling our room WHILE we were staying in it - we were unable to use our room when we came home from the park for our afternoon break). We got them to knock off 15%, but we were really disappointed, needless to say. We're pretty easy to please, but that was just ridiculous! Too bad, cause we had a nice room with a queen bed and bunk that DD just loved!

 

[GrandBob]

I just booked a room at the Carousel Inn for late Sept through bookit.com. It has just a single queen bed, but is only $64. I just looked at your dates, and they have this deal, plus a room with two queen beds for $94/night, including parking.

I've never been, so I don't know how the Carousel Inn is. I have another thread going on the subject to see what other DISers think. But it's right across from the entrance, so would be ideal with kids.

-Bob

 

[jojo&goliath]

Thanks Bob! Carousel was one I was really interested in but the best rate I found (incl AAA and military) was more than $100. I'll have to check out bookit.com now!

 

[pixiewings71]

Don't stay at the Castle Inn & Suites. We did over President's weekend and it was HORRIBLE!!!! Room was not very clean, it was loud outside our room, we had a room booked for 6 people and we had 4 towels, we asked 3 times and NEVER received "extras", the staff was rude and one of them yelled at my DD for asking a question about WiFi. It was basically horrible and I do not recommend them to anyone. To top it off I sent a complaint to management and heard nothing back, no reply at all from the manager. Talk about poor service.

I really can't weigh in on the others, we've never stayed at them.

 

[DLR29]

Ramada Plaza is nice and pretty cheap, but it might be a little far from the parks. Our family has never had a huge issue with the walking distance, but especially with little kids, that walk back seems like it's going on forever.

 

[DangerMouse]

I would pick Anaheim Plaza over any of the three you mentioned, and they usually have excellent rates and are within walking distance.

 

[spacemermaid]

I would pick Anaheim Plaza over any of the three you mentioned, and they usually have excellent rates and are within walking distance.

That's just what I was going to say! If you book online, the rates are usually about $10 a night cheaper than booking by phone. It's clean, safe, has a GIANT pool, and is an easy walk to/from the Park.

Also: Castle Inn.

It used to be a good place to stay, about 10 years ago. After the last time I stayed there, I'll never stay there again! The room was dirty, the bedsheets had..."issues" (which, to avoid a gross-out, I'm not going to write about here!), the toilet was broken, and the hotel itsself was noisy & kind of scary. I'm used to staying at "budget" hotels, but "affordable" doesn't have to mean "nasty and scary".

 

[jojo&goliath]

Thanks everyone! I am also looking at the Holiday Inn Express now - found rates for 88 a night there and I think I might prefer it over the others. We've decided that we'll just stick DD in the stroller on the way home from the park if she's too tired to walk. She'll probably enjoy that anyway! I figure we're going to be walking a ton in the park all day so a few extra steps won't kill us!