Santa Fe

[diabeticmum]

Hello everybody, my husband are organising our first trip to disneyland paris with our children aged 13,12,8 and 5 in April. We plan to stay in the santa fe hotel so im just wondering if any of you have stayed there and if so how was it? and we are going for 3 days 2nights is this enough?
Thanks in advance

 

[DLPdaft]

Hi,

I've stayed at the Santa Fe twice now, both last year. We also do 2 nights/3 days when we go to DLRP, and I find thats enough time to do everything we want to do, some of them twice (or more) over.

The Santa Fe beds are sooooooooo comfy - we (me and DD(6)) always sleep like logs in those beds !

Reception is nice and bright, the restaurant can be hit and miss though (but theres plenty of choice in the Disney Village or other hotels for dinner). The corridors do look like they need a lick of paint, but otherwise, I have absolutely no complaints about the Santa Fe. Our room, and the main areas of the hotel, have always been very clean when we've been there, and the staff are helpful.

Elaine

 

[nodrog]

Hi, ive got 4 children too, its tricky finding hotel rooms to accomodate a larger family without having to book 2 rooms. We have stayed at the santa fe before but it was before baby number 4 came along. The budget hotels at dlp are all much of a muchness i think, they fit the purpose and you dont often see compaints posted on here relating to the hotel rooms, they are all ensuite, they all have 2 double beds to sleep 4, they all have some kind of restaurant facility, its more a case of finding one to suit your family set up and budget really.

the only hotels offering accomodation for 6 are the davy crocket and the my travels explorer. ive stayed at both. The davy crocket is self catering "cabins" situated off site a few minutes drive from DLP. You need to use your own car to get back and forth becasue the davy crocket is not serviced by the free shuttle bus. Accomodation is a double sofa bed in the lounge and a double bed and a set of bunks in the bedroom. I think you can get 2 bedroom cabins to and i presume thats the set up for that would be a double in one room, bunks in the other and a sofabed in the lounge but maybe someelse can confirm that?
Going self catering means you have facilities to make packed lunches to take into the park. However taking your own food into the park is not encouraged by DLP, obviosuly they want you to spend more money in their restaurants and quite frankly whilst i love dlp, i dont like their fast food style food nor their prices. We *have* had some more passable meals on site but thats a different thread all together i think and one everyone has their own opinion on.
The my travels explorer is a hotel just off site and *is* serviced by the free shuttle bus so you dont need a car. A 6 person room has 2 doubles in the main room, en suite going off it and another seperate bunkroom for another 2 people. We give this to our teens to let thme have a bit more privacy. theres a nice play area downstairs too.

Something to think about before you book is crowd levels, and i dont mean in the park, i mean in the hotel. Picture the scene, youve been in the park all day, crowds, people, lots of noise and fun all day, you are shatered and head back to the hotel for a bit of peace only to find the communal areas equally as busy, full of people and their kids, quese for the restaurant, queues for the bar. In a "hotel" there would be no where for you to gp to get away from it apart from your room. With self catering at davy crocket we like the privacy of our little cabin. Its a far cry from 4 star luxury of course but it is quiet and convenient.

hope thats given you something to think about - good luck with your trip

 

[jillrobinson]

We've stayed at SF and it provides good budget accomodation, the rooms are clean and the beds are comfy. With it being your first trip I doubt whether you'll spend an awful lot of time in the hotel, after a day in the parks we're usually already to collapse into bed the moment we return to the room.
With 3 days I'd suggest a day in each park and then on your final day do your favourites again, I'd say 2 days for the main park and 1 for the studios, but it depends where and what the favourite attractions are.

Staying at a Disney hotel means you'll get the benefit of the Extra Magic Hours allowing you earlier access to the parks, which is handy for some of the rides that build up bigger queues during the day.

Just one thing which I'm sure you've taken into account, you will have to book 2 rooms at SF, Disney doesn't cater very well for families over 4.

Welocme to the DIS BTW and if there's anything at all you want to know - ask. Enjoy planning your trip.

 

[Cyrano]

Hi diabeticmum and welcome to DLP DIS board
We are a friendly bunch here so please join in on any other thread or if you have a number of questions then just start a new thread for each

If you have not had a look yet, DLP posting rules are here, DIS posting guidelines can be found here.

Have a look at the Hotel sticky at the top of the board and you'll find details about the Santa Fe. You'll find that those that have stayed there like it along with the Hotel Cheyenne

 

[Ware Bears]

Hi diabeticmum, welcome to the DIS!

 

[A Small World]

We have stayed at Santa Fe twice and really liked it. At the time we were on a tight budget and it gave us what we needed- a clean room with really comfy beds. Although the theming of the hotel wasnt as good as some of the others we werent bothered about that.

We have also stayed at Explorers which someone else has mentioned and it is a good choice to be able to have one room as opposed to 2.

We have also just returned from DCR which again we liked and gave more space but you do need a car to get to the parks. It also means really the whole family have to go into the parks together whereas from Santa Fe (or even Explorers) you may find you older ones want to follow on a bit later and meet you there or for some of you to return to the hotel earlier and the others make their way back.

 

[Disney owl]

We too love Davy Crockett ranch but as said previously you do need a car but you can always hire one. With 3 children DCR was ideal for us when we 1st started to visit. Onour last visit we only took 2 kids but staying at DCR meant we didn't have to share a bedroom with them.

DCR also has a brilliant pool & Snata fe doesn't have one

 

[hildasmuriel]

We stayed at the Santa Fe for the first 4 trips we made. The first time was 3 days/2 nights then after that we did 4 days/3 nights. We found that we were so busy we did nothing more than sleep in the hotel. We usually had the breakfast in the Park option, so we used to be out of the hotel by about 8.30 in the morning and then not return until we were ready for bed. If that's all you want to do then it is fine - clean and comfortable place to lay your head - a bit like a TravelLodge in the UK. A couple of times my husband went to the bar for a drink after the children and I collapsed in bed (usually about 10 at night!) and he said it was lively, cheerful, noisy place to have a pint (one time with karaoke). The other advantage is the petrol station at the entrance where you can buy milk, bread, crisps, snacks etc at prices far cheaper than Disney prices.

Last year we decided to go for an extra day - 5 days/ 4 nights. We figured we would have more time to relax and that we may like to swim and so for that reason only we upgraded to the Sequoia Lodge. We discovered we liked it A LOT and so I went back there at Christmas and I'm going next month. Sorry - this is turning into a very long-winded way to say......... if you intend to spend all your time in the Park, or you're on a tightish budget then Santa Fe is really very nice and will meet all your needs.

If you fancy a little bit more of a relax, intend to spend any time in the hotel or you're not short of a bob or two then it may be worth splashing out a bit more.

 

[Eeyore's Tailfinder]

We have chosen to stay at the Santa Fe this time - there are only 2 of us, so I can't answer your questions as to a larger family, but I did want to add my 2 cents.

This is the first time we've stayed at a DLRP Hotel - we've stayed at Holiday Inn before and the DreamCastle. By the time we added tickets to the Holiday Inn, it didn't work out much cheaper than the Santa Fe with the 5 Nights for 4 Deal we've got. I checked Trip Advisor for reviews and was really nervous about going. The Holiday Inn is a really nice hotel IMO as is DreamCastle and I kept thinking what have I done. However, I think some people expect too much of the Santa Fe - it is a Value hotel and it doesn't claim to be anything but. We are only planning to sleep and have breakfast at the hotel, so it is perfect for our needs and anything more expensive would be wasted on us... we're just happy to be staying at Disney, and the Santa Fe stay, rather than a Hotel NY or DLH stay allows us to go on a DCL in August.

A long-winded way to stay - I think it will be perfect for a budget stay at Disney.

Another option - as I mentioned the Holiday Inn. They do Family Rooms, as someone mentioned with the MyTravel Hotel with the seperate bunk area. They also only charge by the room and we find them to be very, very cheap.

 

[diabeticmum]

Thanks very much everyone, well we have it booked, we had planned on staying oin the santa fe as posted above but we booked it thro a travel consultant and for 200 difference we were able to book the Sequoia Lodge. So really looking forward to it now and glad to hear the 2nights 3 days is doable

 

[jillrobinson]

Well done on booking and for position alone you've made a good choice upgrading to the SL.
It's a lovely walk to the parks and the reason we've stayed there the last twice is because of my dislike of the shuttle buses.
You get a better standard of breakfast too BTW and if you've time there's also the swimming pool.