Standard Room Requests at Paradise Pier

[dec2009mama]

This Sunday we are checking in for 8 nights at PP in a standard room – for our length of stay we couldn’t afford a view or club room.
Are there any requests for room preference I can make to increase my odds of getting a Disneyland drive view room? I assume a DL drive view would be slightly better than a parking lot view?
Does anyone know where within the hotel the standard rooms are located or which floors?
Any tips would be appreciated!!

 

[ParkHopper1]

Unlike the Grand with a zillion categories...there are basically two "categories". There are rooms on the front side and rooms facing that back side of the hotel. Front side facing Disneyland Drive overlooks DCA park once you are a few floors up, backside overlooks the pool, parking lot and city of Anaheim.

The "club" level will put ya on the higher floors but the actual lounge is on the second floor.

 

[dec2009mama]

What is the best way to request a room facing disneyland drive?

 

[Geemo]

What is the best way to request a room facing disneyland drive?

Short of upgrading your reservation to a "View" room, the only thing you can do is ask for a note to be put on your current reservation.

 

[ParkHopper1]

Or simply ask when you check in to see if they can move ya to a room with a view.

And a "standard" room does not mean that you will not have a park view...I have gotten many
standard rooms and wound up with a great view...it only means that a view is not guaranteed.

 

[l4dyj8]

I have never booked a view room. But half of our stays have faced the park. I have never asked, just luck / availability. Not sure what the protocol would be to ask.

 

[Sherry E]

Are you asking how you can get an upgrade to a park view room? I just want to be sure I understand the question correctly.

An 8-night stay is going to be tricky for a free upgrade to a view room, quite honestly. Unless there are not many people staying at the PPH next week and there are plenty of view and/or club rooms to go around -- and that could always be possible -- generally the really good upgrades happen to people who are staying less than a week.

Disneyland Drive is what separates the GCH from the PPH (when you're at one hotel you have to cross Disneyland Drive to get to the other hotel -- otherwise known as the "short cut"). So, when you are at the PPH and you are facing Disneyland Drive, you automatically have some kind of a view of California Adventure and of the GCH. How far down at the end of the hallway the room is located may dictate how good the view is (the closer to Mickey's Fun Wheel, the better), and the same goes for which floor the room is on. A lower floor will have you facing a lot of trees and not as great of a DCA view.

Free upgrades to club or park view rooms from standard rooms are done based on luck, timing, availability and the CMs you deal with at the hotel. Obviously they want people to pay for club or park view rooms -- they don't want to give them away to everyone, and they only do it if they happen to have some park view rooms available to move the guests to. If the CM is not feeling generous that day, they won't move the guest. And I tend to think that they will resist and ignore guests who try too hard to get a free upgrade, so be careful to not seem too eager.

My last 4 stays at PPH have involved free park view upgrades -- with the most recent room having the best DCA view out of all 4 of those upgrades! I have never once asked for an upgrade. I've never tried to hint at it. I've never used any tricks other than simply just showing up at the hotel really early in the morning to take care of pre-check in paperwork -- I am talking before sunrise -- but that's what I would have been doing anyway. I don't know if an early arrival has much to do with it, as others have said they were upgraded when they arrived for check-in in the afternoon. So, again, it goes back to luck, timing, availability, the CM's mood that day, etc.

I've also had standard, non-park view rooms at PPH in the past -- one of which was facing the pool -- and they were fine. The view rooms were better, but the standard rooms served their purpose.

 

[4Siamese]

We were there last week from April 20-27th. I was talking with one of the desk staff last Friday, commenting on how it seemed the hotel was much busier then from the the beginning of the week. They commented that this week coming up was going to be more like the weekend crowd (busier).

FWIW we had the standard view room from the 12th floor. View was of the pool and parking lot but was fine. We watched some of world of color from the hallway one evening but we had already seen it in the park. Truely when your not in the park you probably wont be staring out the window all that much and seeing WOC fromthe room is just ok IMO, in the park is always way better.

Overall I thought the PP was great and would stay again in a heart beat.

 

[dec2009mama]

i am not looking to upgrade my room -- the options with standard at PP is parking lot or disneyland drive view -- I am trying to request a view of disneyland drive instead of the parking lot plus on the highest floor I can possibly get with the standard room
I know with the duration of my stay plus the tinkerbell race, an upgrade is highly unlikely

 

[mom2rtk]

We were there last week from April 20-27th. I was talking with one of the desk staff last Friday, commenting on how it seemed the hotel was much busier then from the the beginning of the week. They commented that this week coming up was going to be more like the weekend crowd (busier).

FWIW we had the standard view room from the 12th floor. View was of the pool and parking lot but was fine. We watched some of world of color from the hallway one evening but we had already seen it in the park. Truely when your not in the park you probably wont be staring out the window all that much and seeing WOC fromthe room is just ok IMO, in the park is always way better.

Overall I thought the PP was great and would stay again in a heart beat.

We felt the same way about it. We're usually in the parks anyway but enjoyed the WoC view from the 13th floor hall window a couple times.

The Back Side of Water by mom2rtk, on Flickr

 

[dec2009mama]

all good - i called the hotel for another reason and asked about the location of the standard rooms -- if you want a disneyland drive facing room then the highest floor is 5th -- if you want a high floor room going up as high as the 13th floor you will get either city, pool or parking lot view!
so i requested a room facing the pool area on the highest floor I can get

 

[AC7179]

Yes, the Disneyland drive views are like the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th floors. Honestly, at those heights, a pool view would be better. We've always enjoyed looking out at the pool! If you ask for a high floor pool view, you *might* luck out and get one on the highest floors (maybe 14 and 15? I can't remember). Those rooms are generally club level rooms and are a little bigger and nicer. I don't think those fill up as quickly bc people are more like to pay the big bucks to have an upper level theme park view than to upgrade to club level just for a view of the pool. We stayed in one of those rooms once and loved it. You can tell when you look at the hotel, the tallest two floors have larger rooms, causing the hook in the architecture.