Super 8 on Katella good/bad/ugly?

[clairabell29]

Hi everyone! I haven't been posting on here for a while. I have lurked a little lately though

I'm taking my niece on her sweet 16 trip, just her and I March 12-15. This will be her first trip to DL EVER. She went to WDW when she was 8. I have been looking at all the regular places we stay and they are either sold out on Saturday and super expensive or just way more then usual.

I was wondering if anyone had ever stayed at the Super 8 at the park/convention center on Katella? They are a lot cheaper then any where else for my trip. I know it's a walk, but we're 2 healthy young women and the 15 min walk won't kill us.

Thanks everyone!

 

[kiwitravel]

We stayed at Americas Best Value Inn next door and did not find the walk too onerous... We considered the Super 8 but got a better deal next door... it's really handy to the Gardenwalk shopping centre which has lots of good restaurants...

 

[LavenderPeach]

We've stayed at the Super 8 twice.

The good: Cheap, free breakfast (although it's small- cereal, juice, muffins, donuts and there's a guard there to make sure you don't take too much, lol), free parking, within walking distance (not the closest hotel but we did the walk 2 days in a row and it was fine. I don't think i would want to walk it more than 3 days though), right next to GardenWalk, furniture seemed fairly new (not from the 70s, lol), rooms are pretty good sized.

The bad: bed was not that comfy to me, the first time we stayed the clock was set to the wrong time and then the clock broke and flashed the rest of our stay (too lazy to try to get someone to fix it), sister-in-law thought the rooms were musty and bothered her asthma/allergies. I also have allergies but it didn't bother me, some cosmetic issues like cracks/small holes in the walls or paint chipping, staff wasn't that friendly the first year we went and they didn't have a fridge available for us even though we "reserved" one

The ugly: the exterior walls, lol! They're this weird extremely textured stucco which isn't a big deal but it was ugly, lol.

Hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions about it.

 

[clairabell29]

Thank you LavenderPeach! How long did it take you to walk to the gate? Does the area it's in feel safe? As far as the beds, I think as tired as she'll have me, the floor would do! lol As for the stucko, that might be a deal breaker...lol! Is the staff more friendly now? As for the fridge, I saw there was a fee if you wanted one, not sure we'll need it. Sounds like it's a decent hotel and if the walk isn't that bad, it's definately worth $150 savings over other places!

 

[kiwitravel]

Took us 13 - 15minutes from door to the security check depending on the crosswalk... That wasn't walking really quickly... Its about 3 or 4 minutes further than the Candy Cane or HoJos in walk time and about half the price...

 

[clairabell29]

Thank you KIWI that just about seals the deal for me!

 

[kiwitravel]

Thank you KIWI that just about seals the deal for me!

It did for us too... We ended up down to the Super 8 and its neighbour America's Best Value... We emailed both asking for their best deal and Americas Best Value sharpened their pencil the most....

The walk wasn't annoying enough to stop us coming out at 2 or 3pm each day and going back to the hotel for a rest, swim and dinner before heading back around 7pm... Previous years we has stayed right across the road and I have to say that was great but not $100 a night great...

 

[clairabell29]

wow I learn something new every day! I didn't know you could find better deals then the ones online by e-mailing the hotel directly. I don't know if they can do better then the $47/nt including tax that I found but I will write them and see! Thank you!

 

[kiwitravel]

We were there in the shoulder season... mid August so if they are not full they have a lot of room to move on the price... We were four people so got a one bedroom suite with fridge, microwave, breakfast, free wifi, free parking for $85 including Tax...Up until then we had been looking at connecting rooms at $188 per night from Anaheim Plaza....

 

[pixiewings71]

Took us 13 - 15minutes from door to the security check depending on the crosswalk... That wasn't walking really quickly... Its about 3 or 4 minutes further than the Candy Cane or HoJos in walk time and about half the price...

We have never paid more then the Ent Rate of $59-79 at the HoJo and it has never taken us that long to walk to the parks. It takes us about 7 minutes in the mornings and 10 at night when we've been walking all day. I would check the HoJo for the Ent Rate, if you can get it that hotel cannot be beat. Oh and we don't walk fast either, we have 2 kids, we just walk with them.

that said, we've never stayed at the Super 8 so I honestly can't compare,

 

[LavenderPeach]

Thank you LavenderPeach! How long did it take you to walk to the gate? Does the area it's in feel safe? As far as the beds, I think as tired as she'll have me, the floor would do! lol As for the stucko, that might be a deal breaker...lol! Is the staff more friendly now? As for the fridge, I saw there was a fee if you wanted one, not sure we'll need it. Sounds like it's a decent hotel and if the walk isn't that bad, it's definately worth $150 savings over other places!

Yeah, i think it took us about 15 minutes to walk. It felt safe to me. But as with anywhere, make sure you're aware of your surroundings and don't walk with your head down, etc. It's definitely still in the touristy part of anaheim so there's tons of other people also walking to DLR from their hotels.

The staff was more friendly the second time we stayed. The first year we "reserved" the fridge because my DS has special dietary needs and i need to bring all his food for him. Well, when we got there they said they didn't have the fridge because someone needed it to keep their medicine in. If i would have known ahead of time i could have planned for different food for DS. Luckily we brought the cooler so DH had to keep it filled with ice. And when we were discusssing it with the lady at the front desk she acted like she was doing us a favor by not charging us for the fridge that we weren't getting. The second year I was prepared to not have a fridge but we got one with no problem and so did my MIL for her her room.

I agree with pixiewings though, if hojo has the ent rate for your dates you might want to consider that. I've never stayed there myself but I'm under the impression that it's better than the Super 8 and it's also closer althoug no free breakfast there.

 

[clairabell29]

I've stayed at the HOJO before when my DS5 and I went on a trip last Feb. It is a very nice hotel. They only have the ENT rate for one of our nights the rest of the nights are 116. We need CHEAP and at $44/nt inc tax the super 8 wins out. Thank you all for your input!

 

[I5Blazer]

stayed there a couple times. not bad at all. seemed more then 15 minute walk to me. if your looking to save some money i would try priceline.

 

[kiwitravel]

We have never paid more then the Ent Rate of $59-79 at the HoJo and it has never taken us that long to walk to the parks. It takes us about 7 minutes in the mornings and 10 at night when we've been walking all day. I would check the HoJo for the Ent Rate, if you can get it that hotel cannot be beat. Oh and we don't walk fast either, we have 2 kids, we just walk with them.

that said, we've never stayed at the Super 8 so I honestly can't compare,

I was measuring the walk time from your room door to Security Check... The Guide I have puts the walk time for Hojos at 10 minutes 30 and the hotel we stayed at as 14 minutes... Don't get me wrong Hojos is a great hotel but there are much cheaper options, I couldn't get the entertainment rate for it in August for our entire stay (11 nights) and so the hotel we stayed at worked out at $1000 cheaper...I have walked past Hojos a number of times so I know the Manchester crossing route, its half a mile looking at it on Google maps and crossing at Manchester.

 

[aussiebill10]

We stayed there in 2005 and 2008 ask for room on top floor so you cant hear people walking around

we found it fine for our needs short walk to the 7 11 on corner and other shops

 

[luckycharms2010]

Before this post I had somehow completely missed the fact that there are two Super 8's near Disneyland. I get 40% of the regular price for being a "employee" (company owns a super 8), so the price is going to be only about $350 for the week... which is why we're going with Super 8.
We're booked at Disneyland Drive though, is the on Ketella closer to DL?

 

[LavenderPeach]

Before this post I had somehow completely missed the fact that there are two Super 8's near Disneyland. I get 40% of the regular price for being a "employee" (company owns a super 8), so the price is going to be only about $350 for the week... which is why we're going with Super 8.
We're booked at Disneyland Drive though, is the on Ketella closer to DL?

Hmmm.... I'm not sure exactly where on Disneyland Drive the other Super 8 is but I'm under the impression that the one on Katella is closer since I hear more about that one and usually the hotels that are closer are the ones that get talked about more. You could put the addresses of both in google maps to see if you can tell which one is closer.

 

[MerryFlora]

I follow the Priceline boards - betterbidding.com , biddingfortravel.com
people are getting 3.5* or 3* for under $45. Some have resort fees or require ART passes, but its something to look into.

Good luck!

 

[pixiewings71]

I was measuring the walk time from your room door to Security Check... The Guide I have puts the walk time for Hojos at 10 minutes 30 and the hotel we stayed at as 14 minutes... Don't get me wrong Hojos is a great hotel but there are much cheaper options, I couldn't get the entertainment rate for it in August for our entire stay (11 nights) and so the hotel we stayed at worked out at $1000 cheaper...I have walked past Hojos a number of times so I know the Manchester crossing route, its half a mile looking at it on Google maps and crossing at Manchester.

I'm counting from our room door to the security gates, it takes us 7 minutes average. Some mornings it's more like 10 because of the cross walk signals but usually it's more like 7. We generally stayed in the pavilion rooms, they felt closer to the parks and we liked the rooms better. The cheapest hotel we stayed in was the HoJo, everywhere we stayed was more expensive but we prefer the pavilion rooms that are $59 a night on the Ent Rate, honestly we never paid more then the $79 for the Disney view rooms there, if the Ent Rate wasn't available at the HoJo we stayed somewhere else, usually for $69 a night. Farther away from the parks but we had PAP's so we had free parking.

Before this post I had somehow completely missed the fact that there are two Super 8's near Disneyland. I get 40% of the regular price for being a "employee" (company owns a super 8), so the price is going to be only about $350 for the week... which is why we're going with Super 8.
We're booked at Disneyland Drive though, is the on Ketella closer to DL?

I *think* the one of DL Dr is the one by the parking structure......it's near Ball Rd, you cross Ball to get to the parks. My BFF and her DH stayed there, they said they just walked to the structure and caught the tram to get to and from the parks. She said it was fine, nothing spectacular but clean and cheap.

 

[Disneyland Veteran]

I've stayed at the Katella Super 8 about 3 times. The staff there was cool, each time I came the guy at the front desk recognized me. The batteries to the TV remote were dead and they ran some over to us quick, so they are attentive. The walk isn't too bad, any walk is bad when you leave the park at 1:00am and you feel like you can't go any further. HaHa. But for the price I'd say it is definately worth it.