Switch to on-property hotel for one night only?

[Keels]

Hey all!

The husband and I are planning on running the Disneyland Half Marathon over Labor Day weekend. Our plans are as follows:

* Husband flies in Sunday prior to race week and works from his office in Santa Monica.
* I fly in Thursday night before the race, and go to Anaheim.
* Late Friday afternoon, husband drives rental car to Anaheim to stay weekend with me.

I currently have the closest Marriott property to DL booked with a serious discount because of status. I'm really toying with the idea of moving us for one night (our last night) to a on-property resort. We'll have just run our first-ever half marathon, so I feel like this might be a treat!

But geez ... I'm having a hard time deciding if that one night room rate is worth it. Currently, I'm considering PPH with a theme park view ...

What should I do? Is it worth it? After the half, we plan to go back to our room, clean up and then head to the parks for the day. Monday will also be spent in the parks before we have to head to the airport.

Gah! I would normally wait, but I'm afraid that once race registration happens, on-property rooms will be completely booked out.

 

[SMD]

Do you really want to run a half marathon, then deal with switching rooms right after? You'd have the Marriott room until check out time, then switch and probably not get access to the new room. How much time did you want to spend in the room before going to the park?

If you're going to do it, it makes more sense to switch the day before the race, then you'd be closer to the start and finish line.

 

[4Mickeys]

I'm sure it would be a great treat.... bit is the swapping really worth it as you don't sound like you will be spending that much time in the room anyway?

Maybe save it for a time when you could swing a few nights there and make more use of the room and the resorts facilities?

Oh but congrats on doing the marathon

 

[8timesblessed]

What day would you be moving? We've done it on a Sunday for one night so we can use early entry to CA on Sunday and Monday.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Are you used to marathon running? If so you'll know your level of tiredness & whether checking into and out of a hotel are practical. That would my first consideration. Second: Will you take advantage of EMH? You would have 2 chances, the morning of check-in & check-out.

There is something Disney magical about staying onsite but I don't know about doing if for just one night. It won't even be a full day, from what I recall check-in is approx 3pm and check-out 11am(?), being race weekend I wouldn't count on those hours being flexible. Even if your room isn't ready you can still use EMH fyi (and after check-out). The magic of staying onsite for us is 1) easy afternoon pool breaks & 2) EMH. Personally, I wouldn't want to switch hotels part way through the trip. We have stayed off site and on. Unless it was a bad hotel, I wouldn't want to switch for the last day even for a day on-site, too much hassle for too little time.

Side note: As a non-runner I am in awe of you marathoners! Hope you both have a great time!

 

[SMD]

They don't usually have EMH on race days.

 

[Gisele]

Yes, I agree, something magical about staying on site. Unless you are the one paying for it. Then, personally, not so much.
If you don't have to think twice about the price, I say go for it. Otherwise, perhaps another time. Like during Dapper Days, when the onsite hotels are offered at a somewhat decent reduced rate.

Whatever you may choose, have fun!

 

[StyledSugar]

I say do it! We did that once and it was great! Unfortunately, now all we want to do is stay at the DL hotels. So it's a blessing and a curse.

 

[Gisele]

I say do it! We did that once and it was great! Unfortunately, now all we want to do is stay at the DL hotels. So it's a blessing and a curse.

Lmao. Exactly. Well...generally speaking for myself anyway. Lol
For as long as where I stay is nice enough for me, then I am goodwith it. I have stayed at the DLH, once upon a time ago, and very much enjoyed doing so.

 

[junmatno]

They don't usually have EMH on race days.

Incorrect, they had them during DL half and they are having them during Star Wars.

 

[pharmama]

They had EMH during the half last year so I think they will again. That said, since OP is running the race they wouldn't be able to take advantage anyway since they'll probably still be finishing the race or showering etc. I think you would get much more benefit out of staying on site Saturday night- DLH if you can swing it since it's very close to the race start/finish. I've done GCH, DLH and Ramada Maingate (on Harbor) for race weekends and the DLH was so awesome to be right at start/finish. I think I got at least an extra 45 minutes of sleep on race morning and was cleaned up and in the parks much faster after the race too. You would also then get EMH access on Saturday which would be nice. But it is annoying to have one day in the middle of your stay so then you'd be looking at squeezing out two nights... If it helps, the runDisney travel providers usually have decent room discounts (example- DLH standard is $339 for Tink Half vs. $444 for same room on DL website those nights). Those won't be available till after race registration opens though so you don't know what the exact rates will be...

 

[Astylla]

DH and I fell into the "curse" of staying onsite after 3 years of being in NorCal and always staying budget like Super 8 on Katella , Castle Inn , Hotel Indigo , Residence Inn in Garden Grove , Anaheim Marriott when I worked for the company , etc.

WE had our first on site stay for 4 nights early last year..then another later that year..and another in 2 weeks for FIVE nights..
We consider the DLH our home away from home now. We don't only stay there but for longer trips we do whatever we can , even if that means going a week earlier to get better rates. I will say for one day - I wouldn't do it except for a super duper omg convention type rate because we enjoyed the pools , Dh LOVES the slide - he;s so adorable ; and Trader Sam's in walking distance is vital to me..

We have no regrets waiting and glad we did so we could take it all in.

Our last trip my favorite memory was being in Frontier tower looking over the Matterhorn/Big Thunder and seeing the fireworks from our room with the music pumped into our room via the channel. Eating a pork flat-bread from Tangoara terrace and the lights out seeing the sky light up. It was truly magical.

Only you can decide what is worth it to you - but beware it's an addiction

 

[Keels]

Thanks, all, for your advice!

And I totally agree - if I can find a way to move for Saturday and Sunday night, I think that would be more beneficial.

We're Texas Rangers season ticket holders, and the Rangers happen to be in Anaheim playing the Angels that weekend too (talk about perfect, right?) - so our trip is going to be split three ways between parks (more days for me than DH, obvs), baseball games at night and then the half on Sunday.

I'm doing my first half in March and then I'm making a short DLR trip in April, so I may wait to make a decision on hotels until after both of those.

I don't think moving hotels would be as much of a hassle - we would go back to change and shower and then would have to come back to the parks. Might as well drive, leave the car there and then check in and get our things from the car whenever. But maybe I'm just over simplifying things ...

Also, if I do it, it's pretty much Paradise Pier only that would be what I'd be willing to spend.

 

[clori]

We always stay onsite in value at WDW. For Disneyland we stayed offsite in a 1 bedroom suite at Desert Palms. We opted to stay onsite at DLH the first night. We did this for a few reasons. The biggest reasons were meeting friends that staying there, not doing parks the first day due to 5 day max ticket, and to get early entry to California Adventure the following morning.

Check in was easy since we went right there from the airport. We had a 1 standard room reserved but at check in was told we were magical family of the day and given a free upgrade to a 1 bedroom suite. The room was really nice. That day we went to the onsite character brunch and took full advantage of the waterslide. One issue we had was the pools got closed often for cleaning. We also walked to Downtown Disney to look around, eat dinner etc.

The next morning we put our luggage into our friends room down the hall from us but could have brought them to the luggage area outside. We were inline for CA before early entry started. Around 7pm I think we left the park, got our luggage, and took a cab to our new hotel.

We had a full kitchen in our new hotel and had food order from Vons waiting for us. Due to the time change we were ready to go to the hotel A quick dinner in our room and some swimming/hot tub time we were ready for bed. Basically I found that it was easy to do a 1 night stay.

In all honesty other than for early entrance I doubt I would stay onsite at DL again. We loved having a full kitchen and included hotel breakfast. We could either walk 10 minutes (all sidewalks and no major street to cross) or take the ART shuttle one stop to the parks. The other days we were gone too much to really enjoy time outside at our hotel so not once did the girls complain about not having water slides etc. However the ease of switching hotels was simple since the hotels were close enough to each other and if it were not for the time change we may have gone back to the parks that night.

 

[Keels]

IF - and this a big IF - I can make it work ... would you pick a premium/park view room at PPH or a basic room at DLH? We're looking at staying Saturday and Sunday ... eeek!!!

 

[Astylla]

IF - and this a big IF - I can make it work ... would you pick a premium/park view room at PPH or a basic room at DLH? We're looking at staying Saturday and Sunday ... eeek!!!

Personally given the lagoon is drained at DCA I would personally go for DLH standard because it's closer IMO - however it depends what you value more. The views at DCA even with the water drained are wonderful I hear though I have only stayed DLH myself. We also love the pool areas and slide at DLH that we make use of. We also visit Trader Sams at least once per trip so being steps from that is important to us.

If you will spend breaks and time in the room I would probably opt for PPH view room however if proximity is more vital I would choose DLH. Can't go wrong really

 

[DaveNinja]

We're planning on trying the "one night on site" plan for our late august trip. We'll stay at a cheap room at Desert Inn and Suites for 5 or 6 nights but halfway through the trip, take a day off DL and go to the DLH for a pool day. We figure we can leave most of us stuff at the cheap hotel and just wheel over one suitcase with a PJs and a change of cloths for us and the kids. We can play at the pool all day, go to trader sam's and then get early entry the next morning before running back to check out.