Second guessing hotel choice!

[lvdis]

I'm hoping you can help put my mind at ease! I'm driving myself crazy with my hotel decision for our upcoming trip. We currently have reservations at the Ramanda Maingate At the Park (6/15 - 6/19/13) in a 2 queen deluxe room. I have requested one of the free roll-a-way beds and a newly remodeled room. I was able to get a free upgrade to the deluxe room and feel I got a decent rate, but I keep second guessing my hotel decision. We are a family of 4 and the kids are older (teen/early 20's). We really won't spend much time in the room since we are typically open to close people when we are at Disney!

Every time I read a thread about DLR hotels, I start looking into another hotel. I've just need to quit! Of course, I would love to stay at a on property hotel but this is already going to be a expensive trip and I just can't justify the extra cost. Our trip will include 10 nights staying at Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, DLR, San Diego and Santa Barbara, so Disney is just a part of the trip!

Thanks for listening!

 

[danaesacto]

Make yourself a note: Write down your best guess for the rack rate for the room you got- and what you got it for- figure out the % you saved and make it bold (if computer printed) or draw a cute little design around it if hand written.

Write down "newly remodeled", "close", "deluxe", "free parking" (that is starting to be unusual in the area), and "free breakfast" (it's enough to tide you over)
and It is #23 out of 107 on Trip Advisor.

Keep that list where you can see it and just keep reminding yourself why you are happy with your choice- it is just so overwhelming to think about all the hotels- I'm sure at least 10 would be fine- but at some point we just need to move on and plan the next bit

 

[darph nader]

I'd stick with the reservations knowing I got a good deal and it's one 'less' thing to worry about for this trip..

 

[Mr Snappy]

Life is too short to stress about this kind of stuff....

You did the right thing and have a decent hotel to stay at. Are there better? Yup, would it be cooler to stay there? probably.....would you hate yourself once the trip is over and you have to pay off that credit card? YES.

If it's any comfort, we can afford to stay anywhere and will NOT stay at the Disney hotels....it's simply insane pricing designed to sucker people in convinced that they are not getting the full "Disney" experience unless they stay at one of their hotels.

The magic is the parks, not the beds.

 

[starshine514]

We stayed at a 2 queen deluxe room at Ramada Maingate just a week and a half ago. We were pretty happy with it. The walk to/from the park was pretty good, the room was nice, the breakfast was ok (it had some protein in the form of hard boiled eggs, which was nice). The only complaint we had was that we didn't have an in-room safe. Also, we didn't have housekeeping during our three-night stay, as they didn't come around until after 2 pm each day (when we were back in our room for our mid-day break). I was fine with that, especially since there was no safe in which to store our electronics. Oh, one more thing, getting the Internet setup on my Kindle Fire stumped me. I called the front desk and they said they could set it up for me, but I didn't bother to take it up there to get them to do so.

 

[wdwfan22]

Life is too short to stress about this kind of stuff....

You did the right thing and have a decent hotel to stay at. Are there better? Yup, would it be cooler to stay there? probably.....would you hate yourself once the trip is over and you have to pay off that credit card? YES.

If it's any comfort, we can afford to stay anywhere and will NOT stay at the Disney hotels....it's simply insane pricing designed to sucker people in convinced that they are not getting the full "Disney" experience unless they stay at one of their hotels.

The magic is the parks, not the beds.

I agree totally. I have stayed at the Ramada Maingate before. Have I stayed at others nicer, yes. But for the price and location, I will be staying here again. They are very nice, clean rooms. The roll away was a super thin mattress and not very comfortable, but we are pretty easy sleepers, so we did ok. Some might not.

My family, like yours, with older kids, one in 20s one late teens, also still share a room. We just can't justify the cost of another room when we just sleep there. I know many don't like having 4 adult family members in the same room and need their space, but we get along just fine.

 

[SweetAlex]

We stayed there for our last trip and had a great stay. It's not a 5 star hotel by any means (most of us can't afford those ones anyway ) but it was clean, SO close to the park and we loved having the coffee shop and convenience store down below. We hit those every morning for our caffeine fix (we are Canadian... California coffee DOES not cut it for us and this place served coffee similar to home) and drinks for the day, saving us a ton of money. We definitely did not regret staying there. It totally works, especially since you aren't there much anyway. Plus we could see the fireworks from just outside our hotel room each night. bonus!

Don't worry! You picked a good one

We're staying further away from the park this time around and although they have a free shuttle, I know I'm going to miss being so close. I'm having second thoughts too because of that but my reservation isn't refundable. We're just going to make the best of it!

 

[PixieDustD]

I agree with what everyone has said. If you are a parks "open to close" family you are smart basing your decision on price and proximity to DL/DCA, since you wIll be there to sleep and clean up.

Your trip sounds awesome...have a great time.

 

[Magalex]

We have our first trip in July & we booked BW Stovall's Inn. I try not to keep reading about the motels 'across the street on Harbor" I don't know why I worry about the walk(influence about postings of how many minutes). We live in Pittsburgh, PA where there is no such thing as a flat side walk. We are always walking up hill. In our neighborhood we walk every where (right now in the snow & wind chills of -1). I walk our brittany spaniel for 45 minutes or more. My DH laughs when I showed him footage of the walk from Stovall's Inn to GCH. Really? Nicely landscaped flat side walk in the summer CA sun & I am worried. We got Southwest bonus points & AAA discount for the motel. We can deal with that walk.

 

[julydeya]

We stayed at a 2 queen deluxe room at Ramada Maingate just a week and a half ago. We were pretty happy with it. The walk to/from the park was pretty good, the room was nice, the breakfast was ok (it had some protein in the form of hard boiled eggs, which was nice). The only complaint we had was that we didn't have an in-room safe. Also, we didn't have housekeeping during our three-night stay, as they didn't come around until after 2 pm each day (when we were back in our room for our mid-day break). I was fine with that, especially since there was no safe in which to store our electronics. Oh, one more thing, getting the Internet setup on my Kindle Fire stumped me. I called the front desk and they said they could set it up for me, but I didn't bother to take it up there to get them to do so.

Nice to hear you had a nice stay. This is the hotel we booked for our upcoming stay.

 

[starshine514]

We have our first trip in July & we booked BW Stovall's Inn. I try not to keep reading about the motels 'across the street on Harbor" I don't know why I worry about the walk(influence about postings of how many minutes). We live in Pittsburgh, PA where there is no such thing as a flat side walk. We are always walking up hill. In our neighborhood we walk every where (right now in the snow & wind chills of -1). I walk our brittany spaniel for 45 minutes or more. My DH laughs when I showed him footage of the walk from Stovall's Inn to GCH. Really? Nicely landscaped flat side walk in the summer CA sun & I am worried. We got Southwest bonus points & AAA discount for the motel. We can deal with that walk.

I see where you are coming from, and most of us could easily walk that as well. However, after walking 10+ miles at Disney, some people (especially those under the age of 10) prefer a shorter walk back to the motel. I've heard good things about Stovall's, I'm sure you'll like it there!

 

[Rubygoose]

We stayed at Ramada Maingate in Sept, before they started renos and we loved it! It's so close and free breakfast. We have young kids and they enjoyed the pool, which is open until 10pm. One evening, we stayed at the park until it closed at 8 then swam for an hour or so before bed.

 

[Djibouti]

Let me know if you need any Santa Barbara tips or recommendations! Sounds like a really fun vacation!

 

[lvdis]

Thanks everybody for all your very helpful comments. It has really made me feel better. My husband has been telling me all along it will be just fine. I guess I just had to hear it from others too! Now on to the planning of our days!

Let me know if you need any Santa Barbara tips or recommendations! Sounds like a really fun vacation!

We actually only have one night in Santa Barbara, our last night of the trip. We have an 9:30 AM flight out of Santa Barbara on a Saturday morning. I wish we had more time there, it looks beautiful. Any suggestions on what to do on a Friday afternoon/evening in June? I have reservations at the Castillo Inn for that night. Thanks!

 

[Djibouti]

Thanks everybody for all your very helpful comments. It has really made me feel better. My husband has been telling me all along it will be just fine. I guess I just had to hear it from others too! Now on to the planning of our days!

We actually only have one night in Santa Barbara, our last night of the trip. We have an 9:30 AM flight out of Santa Barbara on a Saturday morning. I wish we had more time there, it looks beautiful. Any suggestions on what to do on a Friday afternoon/evening in June? I have reservations at the Castillo Inn for that night. Thanks!

Depending on what time you get there we have a small but really awesome and beautiful zoo www.sbzoo.org

If you want something more relaxed and not really planned I would walk by the waterfront on Cabrillo Blvd and also walk on Stearns Wharf www.stearnswharf.org

The Mission is really well known and has a beautiful rose garden.

For great views I would go to the top of the courthouse.

I could go on and on Santa Barbara is awesome. Great restaurants and it's really just so beautiful.

 

[Blue32]

The magic is the parks, not the beds.

I really want to..... but I won't.

 

[lvdis]

I really want to..... but I won't.

Haha!!! I love it!

 

[lvdis]

Depending on what time you get there we have a small but really awesome and beautiful zoo www.sbzoo.org

If you want something more relaxed and not really planned I would walk by the waterfront on Cabrillo Blvd and also walk on Stearns Wharf www.stearnswharf.org

The Mission is really well known and has a beautiful rose garden.

For great views I would go to the top of the courthouse.

I could go on and on Santa Barbara is awesome. Great restaurants and it's really just so beautiful.

Thanks for all the ideas! I just looked at the link for Stearns Wharf and in 2012 they had free movies on Friday nights in the summer. That would be fun if they continue that this summer. Any dinner suggestions?

 

[Djibouti]

Thanks for all the ideas! I just looked at the link for Stearns Wharf and in 2012 they had free movies on Friday nights in the summer. That would be fun if they continue that this summer. Any dinner suggestions?

Oooh, I can't remember when it starts but they do free movies at the courthouse also.

What type of food do you and your family like?

 

[lvdis]

What type of food do you and your family like?

At that point we'll probably be wishing for a good "home cooked" meal! I love Italian food, seafood and we also like meat/potato/salad type places. But, actually I'm open to most anything!!! Thanks for your help!