This is a copy and paste of what I posted on tripadvisor.com from our stay in mid October. For $398/night I was expecting a bit more of the Disney wow factor. I was disappoint in our stay.
As a family, we go to
Disneyland at least once a year. This was our first time staying on property. For the cost of just this hotel stay, we can usually pay for an entire vacation (including food). I'm a big Disney fan and I was super excited when my husband surprised me with a Disneyland Hotel for our entire vacation!
We booked through priceline.com and paid extra for a "preferred room" and called the hotel to request a view of Down Town Disney so we could see the fireworks from our room. Well, we checked in around 10am and our room wasn't ready. We had tickets for the Halloween Party that day and we needed our room by 1pm at the latest in order to get ready. The guy at the front desk said he'll try to get us a room to see the fireworks & the pool. I thought he was doing us a favor. Turns out the fireworks/pool view is in the oldest tower. The wallpaper was peeling and it kinda felt we were tucked away and forgotten. The pool view was amazing, the fireworks not so much. One of the perks was you're supposed to be able to turn your tv to a specific channel and you could hear the soundtrack that goes with the fireworks. Ours didn't work. Neither did any of the "special" channels like bedtime stories or the world of color channel.
Another of the perks was if you left a card at check in, you're supposed to be able to charge purchases to your room at any Disney owned location. So one day I walked over to the Brand's White Water grill after hearing how great their food was and reasonably priced. I got all the way there, verified that I could use my hotel key to pay even though it was a different hotel, made the order, and. . . It didn't work. I had left my stuff back I my room so I couldn't pay with something else and I wasn't about to make that long walk again.
During this vacation, my youngest developed a nasty stomach bug (not Disney's fault). I got to the point where he couldn't go 10 minutes without having to go poop. Dumb mommy moment, I left our medical Id's at home. So I went to the front desk and told them of the problem with mini 's tummy and we are with Kiaser (yuck) and we needed a Kaiser facility. They let me talk to an on site nurse. After describing symptoms, nurse said not to worry but if he starts to throw up or get a fever to go see a doc. When we get home, the first thing I did was make an appointment with his doc. She said nurse was wrong and only gave a diagnosis for someone with an ulcer, which my 5 year old didn't have. She also said not to give pepto bismo to a little one with diarrhea as that causes the bacteria to grow while his system is trying to flush it out, prolonging the experience.
The hotel knew we were staying for a birthday, but we never received a birthday card. I've heard stories from friends who when the hotel was notified that someone wasn't well, they got a little get well card. We didn't

Like I said before, it's like we were tucked out of the way. We didn't even get towel animals.
The headboard was very cool, and the kids and I really liked Tagarroa Terrace. On my birthday, I went to soak in the Minnie hot tub, that was lovely. Afterward I went be Trader Sam's to get a birthday drink. I tired an attendant just outside in the door door seating, she said she couldn't help. I tried walking up to the bar, after 10 minutes of trying to get someone's attention I gave up that plan. Flagged down a waiter inside the bar, he said I'd have to order at the bar if I wasn't at a table. Almost in tears, I sat down at the fire pit and waited for a host/hostess. One did come, I ordered a drink, 20 minutes later she came back with my order, I gave her my credit card to pay for the drink, 20 minutes later she comes back with my card and my check to sign. The drink was outstanding! But such a headache to get. I don't drink much, maybe one adult beverage every 4 months. Having one on my birthday while at the Disneyland Hotel was something I was really looking forward to.
We were put in the Frontier Tower on the 9th floor.