Review: Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort

[SteveH]

We just got back from an 8 night stay at the Sheraton Park Hotel. This was a combination vacation and conference for me. Originally I had had booked the first part of our stay at the conference hotel, the Anaheim Hilton and the last part over at SpringHill Suites Maingate. I’ve been to these conferences for work enough times to know that the host hotel ends up being slammed hard and gets very loud. So when a deal on the Sheraton came up that saved me money vs the conference hotel and meant I didn’t need to change hotels for the rest of my stay I made the switch. Few of the nights were in the $160/night range.

The location is good, its a straight walk to the entry, or to Downtown Disney (aka Trader Sam’s). We did use the Toy Story parking lot once for a bus ride, but I don’t think it really saved much time and the distance itself it’s that big of a difference.

To start off with the staff at the Sheraton we all very nice, helpful and accommodating (except for one issue). My wife had an injury that required her to rent a scooter. Guest services offered her to store it with them and they would charge it over night and have it ready in the morning. This was a big plus, and it saved space in our room. I think they also did it so people wouldn’t ding up the rooms or park in the halls.

I’ve stayed here perviously in a King room, this stay we had two Queens. We did get a nice upgrade to a fireworks view room! While nice, I think a pool view would be my preference, facing Harbor/Katella was pretty loud due to all the street noise and we were only in the room once to see the fireworks.

The rooms are very nice, comfortable beds and very clean. A small table with 2 chairs, dresser had 3 drawers. There are no other drawers in the night stand or “desk” so drawers space is a bit tight if you are staying with 3 people for a long period. Standard fridge was fine, Bonvoy members get 2 bottles of water per day, nice plus. This was another area for the staff to shine. My wife brought a clay pack to ice her back and ice block for her medications. They kept them in a freezer for us and we’d drop the clay pack off in the morning. Kudos to them!

The grounds and pool are very well maintained. People start staking out pool chairs pretty early, but seems to be a lot of turn over throughout the day.

There are a few areas where they hotel needs to do better. I am picky about quality fluffy towels, some days the towels were great some days they were pretty thing. They need to ditch the old towels. The shower head was pretty bad, old school and unimpressive, I wished they had the Heavenly Shower head! Came back early one day to rest my feet, maintenance was going to chance the shower curtain. Told him it looked fine to me, but I was impressed they were looking to make sure things were in good shape.

The restaurant on site has gone through three name changes in the past few years. It’s now Savor, but recently Park 55 Cafe and Molly’s Kitchen before that. We had breakfast several times, and each time it was very good. I judge a breakfast on the bacon, and they nailed it. One day we didn’t feel like venturing out far so we had a late lunch/dinner. We had their $25 steaks and honestly, they were petty damn good for the price. The staff were all very helpful and attentive.

The rooms are ready for a pretty major update if you ask me. They currently have carpet, which I personally prefer as I think the room feels more comfortable and ‘warm’ but the darker wallpaper and floors feel dated. However, the issue we had was with the Air Conditioning. The first part of our trip the weather was in the low 70s and the lowest I could get the room was down to 69 degrees. It never felt cold, so that reading may have been low. When temps shot up to the mid-90s the temps in the room were around 73. When I asked about getting it lowered I was told that was as low as it got, they offered to bring in fans, nice offer but that didn’t resolve the issue. This could be a problem, age of the equipment or the ownership being tight by not allowing lower temps, I don’t know. But it’s just not acceptable and needs to be addressed.

If not for the A/C issue I’d give it 4 out of 5 stars, but from my experience it would be 3 out of 5 stars. At the price I paid it’s decent value. However, the staff would get 5 stars though, they were all really outstanding.

My gut tells me that with the new Westin coming in a few blocks away that the Sheraton will either be given a new breath of life and renovated, or sold off. There are several Marriott properties within a couple of blocks. You have the Marriott, Residence Inn by Marriott and SpringHill Suites and the new Westin. Personally, I hope they give it a good upgrade as it was nice to be close to the convention center (and Hilton/Marriott), but out of all the hustle that those hotels were dealing with.

 

[Reepicheep]

The grounds and pool are very well maintained...

However, the issue we had was with the Air Conditioning. The first part of our trip the weather was in the low 70s and the lowest I could get the room was down to 69 degrees.

We used to stay at this hotel a lot (in a Club room), although our last stay was three years ago. I think the Sheraton Park has the best grounds of any hotel in Anaheim that I've stayed in. I also like the glass elevator. The vintage Disneyland photos on the walls are also a nice touch, although some of the costumed characters from the 1960s are downright spooky.

Reviews I've read on other websites claimed that it is impossible to change the room temperature (i.e., the room control basically does nothing). I have read many reviews complaining about the inability to get the room temperature down to a comfortable level at night. (as I type this, I'm staying at the Best Western Courtesy Inn on Ball Road, and it is possible to set the temperature as low as 61f). If it is impossible to get the room temp down to at least 68f, then I think that would be a deal breaker for me.

Too bad you didn't get a Club room. I'm very curious to know what the lounge is like now. From what I've read, they've eliminated all hot items at breakfast (no scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, etc.). The last time we stayed there Club guests could actually eat for free in the restaurant (as an alternative to the club room, which was also available) and order custom made omelettes. The omelettes were most excellent. Also, I know that the club level for a time stopped offering free alcohol, but supposedly they now give each adult 2 free alcoholic drinks each evening.

Anyway, thanks for the review. I tried to arrange a four or five day stay there this trip, but the prices on the days I wanted were too high.

 

[theluckyrabbit]

Thanks for this review. We have a stay here coming up next month, so this information was helpful. The staff here is usually great, so I'm glad they came through for you and your wife!

 

[SteveH]

@Reepicheep yeah for me it would be a deal breaker going back. I will be contacting the management with a nice email sharing my thoughts as well as completing the guest evaluation (assuming I get one). When I priced the hotel out originally the rates were insane. I think many of the area hotels stuck to the high rates anticipating a big turn out for Galaxy's Edge, and that didn't happen.

@theluckyrabbit I was really impressed by the staff, from check-in to wait staff, and those working around the resort everyone acknowledged us with a smile and greeting, held doors and provided top notch service. I really hope they fix the few things that need to be done, I'd come back in a heart beat if the A/C gets fixed.

 

[Reepicheep]

I was really impressed by the staff, from check-in to wait staff, and those working around the resort everyone acknowledged us with a smile and greeting, held doors and provided top notch service.

The staff was always friendly during our stays, but they were especially friendly and helpful during our last stay. For example, in the morning, I always search for a cleaner and trade my package of decaf coffee for regular coffee (ASIDE: who the heck drinks decaf while at Disneyland? in my opinion, they should make special coffee packages with "double the caffeine"). During our last stay, I happened to encounter a gentleman in the hallway who appeared to be the maintenance manager. When he saw the package of coffee in my hand, he asked if he could help me, then he took me to the supply room (while having a friendly conversation with me), handed me 4 coffee packages, asked if there were any other supplies I needed, and told me to contact the front desk if I needed anything else.

The staff were so friendly that I'm pretty sure they must have gone through some special "customer support" training of some sort (kind of like "Disney University", where all the new employees learn the Disney way of providing customer service).

 

[ChrissyLou]

This is one of our favorite DL area hotels also. We've been at Christmas both times and the weather was amazing, but not ridiculously warm so we didn't notice or have any issues with the controlled temperature in the guest rooms, but as above poster did, I've seen several others in different reviews bring up the same thing. The hotel common areas and probably most of their rooms could definately use some building renovations/updates, (they were making some changes our last visit, but honestly I don't know what they were doing), but we think the pool area is one of the nicest in the DL area with the lush landcaping and palm trees, the pool bar, etc. It beats all those typical pools located in the center of a parking lot. It has never had more than a hand full of people when we've been there, which has always surprised me. We've always had pleasant and good meals at the onsite restaurant, it was named Park 55 on our last visit, looks like it has changed names again, but I think the items served and quality seem to remain consistent. I think since our last trip they are now affiliated with Marriott Bonvoy maybe, I know there was a change of some sort, but we were incredibly grateful they allowed us a late checkout to 2 (we had all gotten sick) but many of those corporate chain hotels either don't allow or charge for that and I so appreciated their accomodation. We've always had good interactions with staff. The hotel feels more "resort" ish to me than some of the other hotels with the large lobby, lobby bar, little gift/sundry shop, small grocery/market and then of course the beautiful pool area, gas fire pits, there is onsite laundry, weight room. I've read some really poor reviews here and there, but both of our trips here were great and I would stay there again in a minute.

 

[SteveH]

@ChrissyLou that's great, I really hope they can address the A/C issue. My gut tells me that its just how they set things up to control costs. But I agree with you, the resort definitely felt more like a resort (without a resort fee too).

I'm attaching a couple of photos of the pool area. The second photo was from my stay last September when I had a pool view room, the first was from the glass elevatory and gives a good idea how green the area is.