The Land part of Sea in Cali....

[sftnslky]

Good Sunday morning everyone, I am new to this fourm, but have been active on the Disney Cruise forum for a few years. We will be doing three 'land' days prior to our Mexican June 8th sailing...Since there will be 8 of us, staying on site is WAY to costly...so we have been researching off site properties.... We are leaning towards the Portofino Inn and Suites. They offer really cute kids suites, and we would get two of these, but was hoping to get some kind of feedback....positive AND negative from some of you. If you haven't stayed there, I would love to hear about other hotels in the area... At this moment our second and third choice would be either Embassy Suites or Hampton Suites. Please let me know what you all think. Thank you in advance

 

[DangerMouse]

There have been recent positive reviews of the Portofino on this forum. I believe nurse_darcy stayed there and said it was wonderful for her family. I stayed there years ago, and it was fine, but I prefer to be closer to the parks.

The Portofino is bit of a walk (about 15 min) to the entrance to DLR, so you may consider using the ART at least to get you back after a long day on your feet.

Another highly rated off-site property for larger families is the Residence Inn Maingate. Also within walking distance, but also includes a kitchen in their suites.

Good luck with your choice!

 

[sftnslky]

There have been recent positive reviews of the Portofino on this forum. I believe nurse_darcy stayed there and said it was wonderful for her family. I stayed there years ago, and it was fine, but I prefer to be closer to the parks.

The Portofino is bit of a walk (about 15 min) to the entrance to DLR, so you may consider using the ART at least to get you back after a long day on your feet.

Another highly rated off-site property for larger families is the Residence Inn Maingate. Also within walking distance, but also includes a kitchen in their suites.

Good luck with your choice!

Thank you so much for your very quick response. As for the walking I have Fibromyalgia and have to save any energy that I can, soooo no matter where we stay we would either be driving our own car into DL or ridding the shuttle service... but a few years ago when we went we stayed the Sheraton...the one that looks like a castle [? ] and it was darn near impossible to get on a shuttle at night time ... The kids saw the photo of the Portifino in our AAA book and love the look of it... The kids actually do not know that when we check out that Sunday that we are heading over to the pier and sailing on DCL for 7 nights. Our younger girls have gone on one DCL cruise before, but not our twin boys.. We are also bringing our 11 year olds best friend who also doesn't know, and my brother who has never been to DL let alone a cruise... but he already knows he is going...have to have someone to help out with 5 kids all ages 11 and under So it will be such a blast. Now if I can only keep our secret from all of the kids for 5 more months from them

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Oh, you are going to have a great time!

Welcome to the DL side of the DIS

I can't give you any reviews other than the ones here on the DIS for Portofino Inn & Suites, but I do have to agree with DangerMouse - I really like the Residence Inn Maingate, plus they offer hot breakfast - great option.

 

[bumbershoot]

"The kids actually do not know that when we check out that Sunday that we are heading over to the pier and sailing on DCL for 7 nights. "

Awesome.

 

[sftnslky]

Oh, you are going to have a great time!

Welcome to the DL side of the DIS

I can't give you any reviews other than the ones here on the DIS for Portofino Inn & Suites, but I do have to agree with DangerMouse - I really like the Residence Inn Maingate, plus they offer hot breakfast - great option.

Thank you so much for the warm welcome. I'm not sure but, It must be me [?] I can't seem to get the search feature to work. I would love to read any/all reviews on Portofino, but hubby has also said he would love to stay at Embassy Suties since he is a Hilton Platinum Member...and free breakfast for the 8 of us wouldn't hurt. Maybe once I can get the search to work I can look up past reviews on both hotels.

 

[PigletGurl]

I have stayed at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott, and it is about 5 mins walking distance to the gate. You can see space mountain out the window. It is moderately priced, we are staying there this summer for 14 nights and it is $149/night. Its pretty and nice to watch the fireworks at night from the hotel. I have also stayed at the Embassy Suites, that gives you free breakfast and a nice two room suite , but you have to take ART because it is about a mile from disney, about a 10 min ride. But we decided to stay at the fairfield because we do not like to wait for the shuttle, and find out it is full after youve been waiting for a long time at night lol Good luck!

 

[RKB]

Have you tried looking up the reviews for the hotel on tripadvisor? Also - when I want to head for DL for a quick, inexpensive trip I usually just get a hotel thru Hotwire (great deals). You can go to betterbidding and pretty much figure out which hotel you will be getting. This has saved me alot of money and allowed me to take a few extra trips. We have stayed at the Grand Californian twice but that is a lot of $ and can't do it everytime! Good luck on your search!

 

[cirquelovers]

We have stayed at the Embassy Suites south and it was great! We didn't use the ART because it looked really busy in the morning and at park close, we prefered to drive ourselves. They have an evening reception as I'm sure you already know being platinum. The free breakfast is a great perk, being platinum will only get you free water and snacks or extra hhonors points, or whatever you chose in your profile. Breakfast can get hectic, so we always left someone at a table and the rest got breakfast including for the one sitting out. The line was huge some mornings but they will tell you the best times. What I liked best was that if we were hungry or thirsty after returning from the parks we could get room service or stop in the bar at our hotel.

Wow I rambled a lot longer than intended, sorry