Tropicana or Desert Inn

[mummabear]

Trying to chose between the kitchen suite at the Tropicana and the executive suite at the Desert Inn.
Pros and cons?
4Adults and 4 kids.

 

[Diszona]

How many nights are you staying? I don't know about the Desert Inn, but at the Tropicana you can get a $20/night discount if you stay 5 nights or more. As far as the quality of the hotels, I really enjoyed the Tropicana but I have never stayed at the Desert Inn so I can't make a fair comparison.

 

[scrapshappen]

Last summer, my brother stayed at the Desert Inn and we stayed at the Tropicana. They were underwhelmed by the Desert Inn and we were pleasantly surprised at the Tropicana. His foremost complaints were that the pool was shut down and the breakfast was worthless. However, he had a large enough party that it saved him quite a bit of money to stay at the Desert Inn vs. two rooms at the Tropicana.

What we liked about the Tropicana was the size of the room (plenty big for three adults, 1 child and a toddler in a play and pack plus all our luggage) and the pool was big enough for all the bodies who were using it. Is it anything fancy? Not by a long shot. They don't offer breakfast but that was OK with me. I'd rather get something hot at McDonalds two doors down.

ETA: At the Tropicana, ask for a room on the third floor facing the office side of the building. You will have a view of the fireworks from there.

 

[nicolispicoli]

I haven't stayed at the Tropicana, but I love the Desert Inn. I wouldn't pick the Desert based on breakfast, it's nothing special. But it's also enough for my family, toast or cereal, fruit and coffee is enough to get me going in the AM and it's appreciated when facing DL prices. The rooms are clean and the location fantastic, so if the prices were similar, I wouldn't know how to say which to pick. They have a nice rooftop patio where you can watch fireworks, that was perfect since our 3-year-old couldn't hang until late.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

I just chose BWPPI over desert inn because of a few things. I wont say desert inn is bad. I had one rude guy on the phone a few days ago, the beds were kinda hard in nov and my hubby wished the breakfast was just a bit better.
BWPPPI won because we found a rate for 125 a night for the king room with sofa bed for my son.
Now Tropicana was one in the list when we were looking at places to stay.
I have stayed at Camelot before and it was nice. At that time it had breakfast too. I would think the sister hotel was a lot like Camelot inn.
With the two you listed i'd chose Tropicana at this time. Don't pick desert inn just for the breakfast.

 

[grammakelly]

Stayed at the Tropicana last year, but a regular room. Rooms were average size. We had 3 adults and added a rollaway for 2 (little) grandkids that wanted to stay in our room. It was quite crowded, had to move furniture around each night and morning. I wish we had stayed in a suite! Pool was good. Otherwise nothing special.
We usually stay at the Fairfield. The rooms are just a bit larger.
We are staying at Desert Inn & Suite for a week, staring this weekend...in an Executive room.
Will let you know how that goes. I have heard good things about DI & S, and it's a bit closer, so I am hoping!

 

[ClaraOswald]

Haven't stayed at Tropicana. But we recently stayed in a Parlor Suite at the Desert Inn. The location was great. Staff was really nice. Parking was iffy. Beds and pillows were a bit uncomfortable. Breakfast was 'eh.' Overall, we liked it there, especially for the price. And we'll probably stay there in the future. Just hoping they get new beds before then...haha!

 

[JadeDarkstar]

Oh if they got new beds id stay there again no questions asked lol. Also they should update the breakfast just a bit.

 

[nicolispicoli]

The beds are definitely horrid. I thought maybe I was being picky, but that is my only complaint about DI&S.

 

[Geemo]

We've stayed at the DI&S 4 times since Jan 2013, with the last time March of 2014.
I never had a problem with the beds. I thought they were fine.

I agree with the opinions on the FREE breakfast. But it is FREE......

Geemo

 

[ClaraOswald]

The beds are definitely horrid. I thought maybe I was being picky, but that is my only complaint about DI&S.

Yeah, I read complaints of the beds before we left and I just assumed people were picky. I am not really that picky in that I don't expect much from a hotel bed. And I know it will never be as nice as my Tempurpedic bed at home. But if I wake up with fresh aches and pains because of the bed...that is not a good thing at all.

For breakfast, I never actually went down there so I don't know what all they had. But a couple times my husband went down and brought me mini-muffins or a cinnamon roll with some tea. Since it's free, I was happy with it. The rest of the time, we pretty much just had cereal in our room (we stopped at Target for some supplies when we arrived.) The fridge had plenty of room for 2 gallons of milk, bottles of water, and some string cheese.

 

[lalasmama]

My vote would be the Tropicana... but we're never sleeping on DI&S beds again When DH heard me asking if it was okay to take an Aerobed through TSA, or if I should have it shipped to the hotel instead, we made the call that we won't be there again. Our first night there, my best friend and I were actually wondering if it would be softer to sleep on the floor than on the bed.... And for the record, I'm so not picky, LOL! My mattress before I got married was used by 4 other family members before me, and was probably 25 years old, and not top of the line, so I was used to bad mattresses! Theirs are just so hard!

 

[ClaraOswald]

Yeah, I actually don't like super soft beds so I thought I'd be okay on theirs. But they sucked. Not the worst I've ever slept on but definitely toward the bottom of the list.

 

[JadeDarkstar]

I think desert inn needs to be watching these threads and invest in a hotel wide room update. All I'd say is the bed but if they are updating things maybe new carpet too. I don't know but yes the beds were so hard. I did wake up many days with an extra pain here or there.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Yeah, I think people should definitely write reviews and stuff after their trips. Management sent me an email to ask how my visit was and I mentioned the beds and pillows.

 

[californiamomof4grls]

We are a family of 7 so the DI&S is our go to hotel. The breakfast is underwhelming but it's free. The beds aren't anything fancy but I bring my own pillow and blanket because nothing is ever soft enough for me. My girls bring their Disney sleeping bags and the we don't get under the covers most of the time. There's a lot of fighting over who feet are where when they share beds in DL so I did thing a long time ago and it just works for us. The staff is always more then gracious to us in fact when we went in November and left our daughters with my mother. My second oldest came down with a horrible high fever and we cut our trip short and checked out early. When they asked us why we told them we needed to get home to our daughter and they didn't charge for our last night. The pool is always clean and we like that it's in doors because that's less sun time for the kids. For us it's about location, cost and convenience and they have all of those factors. For a family of 7 we stay for very reasonable cost. They are very close and have always honored our request to be at the front of the hotel! If you want an amazing hotel that's close we LOVE the Hojo they just can't come close to the under a 100 a night for a family of 7. We would have to book two rooms at their hotel and that would be crazy expensive for us. But they have amazing beds, beautiful grounds and amazing pools.

 

[lalasmama]

My second oldest came down with a horrible high fever and we cut our trip short and checked out early. When they asked us why we told them we needed to get home to our daughter and they didn't charge for our last night.

That was nice of them... Especially since they refused to reverse the first night charges for us when my FIL died and I wasn't able to make the trip as planned, and cancelled with 36 hours notice. Glad that at least someone there has a heart and good customer service!

 

[grammakelly]

We stayed at the Desert Inn & Suites for a week, just got back. AWESOME location! Closest we've ever been. To tell you the truth, I thought the beds were great. Did not hear any of the mattress noise mentioned on here. I always travel with my own pillow, but forgot it this time, and I thought the motel pillows were just fine. My issue was with the parking...there was NONE! Parking valets were very unhelpful. Although when I finally found a spot, days later...after valet parking...one of them volunteered to park our truck for me. He got a LARGE tip!
I think parking issues will be the only reason we try a different motel next trip.

 

[nicolispicoli]

It is now my definite opinion that the beds differ in sections of the hotel. Last time we stayed on the second floor all the way towards the front, those were the beds I said were absolutely awful. This last week, we stayed allllll the way at the other end of the hall in 223 and the beds were amazing! Super soft, not thin or hard at all.

No bed noise to complain of, other than that of my super "awesome" young, childless neighbor couple. No Name Fella and Courtney made very good use of their bed...and the 2 inch gap in the connecting door between our room didn't help matters. Luckily my 3-year-old sleeps more soundly than I do

 

[nicolispicoli]

We stayed at the Desert Inn & Suites for a week, just got back. AWESOME location! Closest we've ever been. To tell you the truth, I thought the beds were great. Did not hear any of the mattress noise mentioned on here. I always travel with my own pillow, but forgot it this time, and I thought the motel pillows were just fine. My issue was with the parking...there was NONE! Parking valets were very unhelpful. Although when I finally found a spot, days later...after valet parking...one of them volunteered to park our truck for me. He got a LARGE tip!
I think parking issues will be the only reason we try a different motel next trip.

We didn't drive this time, but we had the same problem last time. His instructions were unhelpful, so we ended up self parking in the valet side of the underground garage. I told him if he had a problem with it's location, just call us. They never did, it stayed there the whole time. I was glad not to deal with parking this time around.