WDW vet needs hotel help!

[crzy4mk]

Long post....sorry.

I'm a long time WDW veteran who has visited DL a few times but never stayed close to the park. Been doing a lot of research on various hotels and even though I've read lots of reviews and comments, plus checked out all the amenities on the net, I'm still really confused as to my best options. For various reasons I have my list narrowed down to 6 hotels. I'd like to share those with all you DL experts and hear what you have to say. Here is my top 6 and the different factors I'm basing my decision on:

Carousel Inn
Desert Palms Inn
Holiday Inn Express
Fairfield Inn
Ramada Maingate
Ramada Plaza

- Cost is obviously a factor. Planning to go about a year from now, sometime in April 2013.
- Walking distance to the park. They all look relatively close...5 to 10 minute walk. Is this right?
- Breakfast and parking. I know some of these offer both for free, others have no breakfast, others have a parking fee. Would like both but if the price is right a parking charge or no breakfast wouldn't be a deal breaker.
- Quality of property. Don't have to have a fancy room, but it has to be clean and not in disrepair.
- "Extras". If you love one of these places for a different reason I'd love to hear it.

No kids on the trip so anything to do with family suites or things like that will matter. Just 2 adults in a queen/king room. Thanks so much in advance for any help!

 

[coaches24]

Long post....sorry.

I'm a long time WDW veteran who has visited DL a few times but never stayed close to the park. Been doing a lot of research on various hotels and even though I've read lots of reviews and comments, plus checked out all the amenities on the net, I'm still really confused as to my best options. For various reasons I have my list narrowed down to 6 hotels. I'd like to share those with all you DL experts and hear what you have to say. Here is my top 6 and the different factors I'm basing my decision on:

Carousel Inn
Desert Palms Inn
Holiday Inn Express
Fairfield Inn
Ramada Maingate
Ramada Plaza

- Cost is obviously a factor. Planning to go about a year from now, sometime in April 2013.
- Walking distance to the park. They all look relatively close...5 to 10 minute walk. Is this right?
- Breakfast and parking. I know some of these offer both for free, others have no breakfast, others have a parking fee. Would like both but if the price is right a parking charge or no breakfast wouldn't be a deal breaker.
- Quality of property. Don't have to have a fancy room, but it has to be clean and not in disrepair.
- "Extras". If you love one of these places for a different reason I'd love to hear it.

No kids on the trip so anything to do with family suites or things like that will matter. Just 2 adults in a queen/king room. Thanks so much in advance for any help!

Ive never stayed at any of those but was booked with desert palms until DW and I decided to splurge and upgrade to PPH. But I know they have a free hot breakfast buffet that starts at 6am. And they have free parking. Its also a hotel as opposed to a motel so inside hall ways and such from what I have read. Posters here had good things to say about it when I asked in Feb. I estimated the walk to be about 10-15 min.

 

[Girimama33]

We are staying at the Fairfield Inn in a few weeks...have a great friend that stays there during their annual DL trip and highly recommended it.
They do not offer breakfast, but have several places to eat in the hotel, or close by. They typically have a parking fee...$11/day I believe, but it is waived for us because we booked our trip through Costco Travel.

 

[martinolichfamily]

We too go to WDW and will be going to DL this July for first time...we decided on Desert Palms.

 

[crzy4mk]

We are staying at the Fairfield Inn in a few weeks...have a great friend that stays there during their annual DL trip and highly recommended it.
They do not offer breakfast, but have several places to eat in the hotel, or close by. They typically have a parking fee...$11/day I believe, but it is waived for us because we booked our trip through Costco Travel.

Do you mind explaining this? Do you have to be a Costco member to book this way? What advantages (other than the waived parking fee) did you get by booking this way? Any price breaks?

 

[Girimama33]

Yes. You must have an active Costco membership to book a trip through Costco Travel. We purchased a package for 3 day parkhoppers (Me, DH and DD-3), 2 nights at the Fairfield Inn (FFI) and the 3 day dining plan (gives us each a table service meal, counter service meal and snack each day).
Costco offers packages to DLH's or Good Neighbor Hotels. On the Costco website, it lists the amenities you can get from each hotel. FFI stated parking was free on the Costco site, but their website stated it was $11 a day. I contacted them to see if we can park when we arrive on Monday to go to DL (not checking in until later), and they said fine, and that it was free since we booked with Costco.
Costco also includes a $20 Disney GC, a premium character meal for each of us, luggage tags and a pin/lanyard for pin trading.
Price wise, it seemed comprable to other quotes I received, but the added extras I received with Costco gave more value IMO.