Tell me more about the DLH!!

[tracer]

We are staying at the DLH soon for the first time with our children! (it's been a long time since I have stayed there) What are the things you think everyone should know about the hotel? The things you must do while staying there? Things you should not miss? What makes this hotel so special to you?! Or any tips, advice or tidbits??

 

[gatorfreud]

Well I can reply next week... we are staying at DLH Thursday-Sunday! I would also love to hear anyone's tips before we go!! I know my boys will want to drive the boats for sure. I wonder if they have any organized kids' activities?

Kim

 

[godalejunior]

Let's see.......free coffee in the lobby of your tower, they feed the koi at a certain time everyday, Goofy hangs out in the main lobby where you check in, you can get a free copy of where all the penny smashing machines are at the hotel gift shop.

 

[Sherry E]

Yes, the koi fish pond is great. The waterfalls are great. The miniature remote-controlled Jungle Cruise boats are adorable and fun for kids. Goofy's Kitchen is there, of course. There is a rather good shop near Goofy's (can't recall its name) that has lots of good merchandise also sold in the parks. There are Hidden Mickeys/Minnies/Plutos/Goofys/Donalds in some of the carpets. There are adorable bath products in the bathrooms. The bottles have Mickey ears on them. It is a cute hotel!!! It actually used to have many more shops and restaurants - even a couple of bars/lounges on the property - but that all disappeared in the late '90s when they refurbished it to make way for DTD and DCA and all that.

 

[victorandbellasmom]

Leave your blinds open duing the day. The borders of the room are glow in the dark, so when you turn in for the night they should be charged enough so that you can see the pixie dust on the walls.
We noticed that Goofy was only in the lobby during prime check in time, roughly 3pm. If you check in before noon, I doubt you'll see him there.
The remote control jungle cruise ships are lots of fun as is walking by the waterfalls.
If a wedding is going on and they are using it, you may lucky enough to see Cinderella's carriage.
The pool is awesome and can get busy. If you have young children, they won't be able to go tandem down the big slide with you or go on their own if they can't swim and need a life jacket. There is a minoi slide that should be suitable though. If the main pool gets busy, know that there is another pool by the laundry that tends to be more quiet.
Have a great stay. We stayed there last Oct for 7 nights and had a great time.

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

We have actually encountered a wide variety of characters in the lobby at all times of day. My girls had some amazing interaction time with both Cinderella and Alice, when really no one was around the lobby. Pluto has come out, too. Not sure if this has changed, but on the off times, it's usually 2 characters together - 1 face and 1 fur, with no wranglers. The face character manages the set and crowd for both of them.

 

[godalejunior]

We have actually encountered a wide variety of characters in the lobby at all times of day. My girls had some amazing interaction time with both Cinderella and Alice, when really no one was around the lobby. Pluto has come out, too. Not sure if this has changed, but on the off times, it's usually 2 characters together - 1 face and 1 fur, with no wranglers. The face character manages the set and crowd for both of them.

That is good to know. The two times we stayed there we got Goofy both times!

 

[YellowMickeyPonchos]

We had Alice and Goofy one time, Alice and Pluto another, and Cindy and Pluto another. We've also seen maybe the Mad Hatter and also maybe Baloo. Then, we've seen both Pluto and Goofy with a wrangler. We've also seen Mickey with Goofy, but I hear that's pretty rare.

You can probably ask at the Front Desk about when the characters are scheduled to appear. I wonder if the slate of who comes is partially dictated as to who is alloted to visit Goofy's Kitchen that day and who is generally staffed and available.

 

[jenksdj]

Hey Tracer, we will be at the DLH at the same time as you! We are going Dec. 6-12.

We stayed there on both of our previous visits and didn't see any characters in the lobby either time. Maybe 3rd time will be the charm?! Not to worry, in any event, if there are no characters in the lobby while you are checking in there is a television with a kid-sized sofa for your kids to watch Disney cartoons while you are busy chekcing in.

In addition to what has already been written, here are a couple of more things to know:

The smaller, less crowded pools near the laundry seemed to be warmer both times we were there, and the one is a lot shallower than the Neverland Pool (which might be good for your pint sized crew).

At night the Neverland Pool has a picture of Tinkerbell at the bottom. We couldn't figure out how it got there. It's not painted on the bottom, and we couldn't see a light where it might be projected from. I guess it's just Disney Magic!

The huge sorcerer's hat has twinkling lights on it after dark.

Look at the hedges on the pathways - most of them are cut in the shape of Disney characters.

Take a good look around your room. There are a lot of subtle (and not so subtle) characters and Disneyish stuff. Some that I remember are the wallpaper, the picture on the door of the armoire, the bed spread, the lamps, and the light fixtures in the bathroom.

I know you have boys, but if they like the princesses, there is an in-house channel on the tv in your room that has bed-time stories told by the princesses. A good way to end the day!

And to wake up, you can get Mickey Mouse himself to phone for a wake up call!

If I think of anything more I will let you know. I think our kids would revolt if we decided to stay anywhere else (even the Grand Californian!). I think you made a great choice!

Enjoy your trip!

 

[tracer]

Cool stuff!
1-see waterfalls
2-mini jungle boats
3-carpet murals with hidden characters
4-open shades so the tinker bell glows at night
5-characters in lobby
6-bedtime storys! I have never heard about this on the tv's there...very cool!!
7-Tinkerbell on the bottom of the pool
8-hedges in character shapes

Anything else?

Oh and last year we saw Santa in the lobby went we went to Goofy's for dinner. We spent about 10 minutes with him ALONE! It was great!

 

[DizMe]

I LOVE the free coffee!! They even have real cream for it, as well as 2 kinds of milk.

There is a tour of the hotel if you're interested--they go over the history of the hotel, and I believe it's free. Probably not something your kids would be interested in, but thought I'd mention it.

Guests at DLH can utilize Pinocchio's Workshop, or whatever it's called, at the GCH. It's a child care service with games, toys, and so on. I think it's $13/hour for 1 child and I don't know if there is a family discount.

You are super close to the monorail.

You are super close to Rainforest Cafe, which is a lot of fun for kids, and Compass Bookstore, which has good coffee drinks.

Steakhouse 55 is a great place to have breakfast. Don't be fooled by the appearance--it looks luxurious and not kid-friendly, but it is very family oriented and the prices are quite reasonable.

If your room does not have a fridge or coffee maker and you want them, be sure to ask. They are available upon request. Most rooms will have the fridge, but I've heard that not all of them do. They don't usually give you the coffee maker unless you ask for it.

Most of the rooms are pretty big, but there are some that are very tiny. If you get a tiny room, ask for a different one. We (my sister and I) were given a room that was just big enough for a double bed. We requested a different room and were upgraded to a king suite in the Dreams tower overlooking DTD! And that was at the AP $149 standard rate. We didn't rant or anything, just pointed out that we sisters preferred not to be quite so cozy and that's what they gave us! The earlier CM who checked us in told us our room was in the Magic tower, which was ok but I had requested the Dreams tower twice with lots of notice so I asked if we could get a room in Dreams. He gave us a flat no and told us the hotel was totally booked. Our room wasn't ready at the time we arrived (11:00 AM) so we weren't able to see how small it was until we came back around 4:30. The nice CM at Information (Lisa!) gave us the big King room. Oh yes, it was a corner room and we could see DTD, lots of the rides in both parks, and the fireworks! We had the giant Mickey sorcerer's hat right outside our corner window (that room had windows on 2 sides). We pulled the daybed over to the giant sliders, opened them up, and watched the fireworks one night. We could see the DTD Christmas tree right below us and hear the music of DTD. It was magical!

I stayed in the GCH last month and the DLH remains my favorite. I will tell you something else...our room at GCH was a longer walk to DL than our room at DLH. If you're put in one of the outlying wings at GCH, as we were, it's a pain in the neck to get anywhere. On top of that, we paid $110/night more. With kids, I really think DLH is by far the better hotel, and for adults who are kids at heart, the same!

 

[PrincessSitka]

Also staying at the hotel you get to go in to the park earl. You also can ask the desk and have them call build a bear and get in there 1 hour before they open it to the public. My Granddaughter ordered us breakfast one morning and they delivered to the room. She at the time was 5 they made her feel like a princess. When we checked in they had a card from Thinkerbell signed for my Granddaughter. They really go out of their way to make your stay magcial I feel. And I stay there every time just for the extras and how they make me feel.

 

[PCHoffman]

Add two more to the list of those stayin at DLH that week!

 

[thecapells]

How big are the rooms? We'll have 5 for our next stay - me, DW, and an 8yr old, 6 yr old, and 4 yr old. Can you fit 5 comfortably or do we need the 1 bedroom suite?

 

[smiley_face2]

Just want to emphasize the good meals at Steakhouse 55! The breakfasts are amazing to say the least, far too much for one person to eat! and the prices are great! we went there because the wait for Goofy's was going to be too long, thought we'd just take the chance and go because we wanted to have breakfast.... we were soooo glad we did! There dinners are also amazing, a bit more pricey though.

 

[Lostgirlz]

We have done DLH 2 times March will be number 3. The details are great. Me and DD stayed concierge lvl 10th floor dreams tower. It was nice just wish concierge offered a bit different choices. During dessert in the evenings they offered pretty much the same thing each night, but it was still nice. They also have themed suites on the 11th floor for people who don't mind splurging for it. I toured the pirate suite, and fell in love, they also have a Mickey Penthouse.

 

[tracer]

So get this. We booked our package through Costco to get all the extra savings (free b-fast and $100 GC)...anyhow because we originally booked just a few days prior to our arrival they had all our documents sent directly to the front desk. With all the fires that happened we pushed our dates back a few weeks. WDTC was suppose to send our documents to us so we would have them...well 2 weeks later and still no docs. I called WDTC/costco today and they said we should recieve them by Weds. Well we got a phone call back a few hours later and they said there was some confusion on their end. They are going to just hold our docs at the front desk and not risk sending them at this point...but because of the confusion and lack of getting our docs to us, the DLH was going to do something "special" for us. What could be special? We already requested a DTD view, think it might just be a confirmed DTD view or something even better???

 

[Sherry E]

So get this. We booked our package through Costco to get all the extra savings (free b-fast and $100 GC)...anyhow because we originally booked just a few days prior to our arrival they had all our documents sent directly to the front desk. With all the fires that happened we pushed our dates back a few weeks. WDTC was suppose to send our documents to us so we would have them...well 2 weeks later and still no docs. I called WDTC/costco today and they said we should recieve them by Weds. Well we got a phone call back a few hours later and they said there was some confusion on their end. They are going to just hold our docs at the front desk and not risk sending them at this point...but because of the confusion and lack of getting our docs to us, the DLH was going to do something "special" for us. What could be special? We already requested a DTD view, think it might just be a confirmed DTD view or something even better???

It could be an upgrade OR it could be a free meal, like a free character meal or something! Or maybe they will put something nice in the room for you, like treats!

 

[DizMe]

How big are the rooms? We'll have 5 for our next stay - me, DW, and an 8yr old, 6 yr old, and 4 yr old. Can you fit 5 comfortably or do we need the 1 bedroom suite?

The rooms are pretty large. We have 5 in the room and it's no problem, at least with younger kids. We have two 5-year-olds and an 8-year-old plus dh and me. Last year, oldest dd (26) joined us one day and stayed the night in our room. She slept on the daybed and it was still fine. Most rooms have 2 queens and a daybed.

 

[DizMe]

tracer, you'll most likely get something pretty nice. When our sink backed up on a trip a couple of years ago, they gave us each 3 of those ride passes that get you on right away, any ride (unlike the fastpasses) plus a free character meal of our choice.