Potterswife
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2007
- Messages
- 140
Hi all, we just returned from a 5 day trip, myself, hubby and 3 daughters ages 7, 9 and 11. We stayed at the Anaheim Hilton ($51 a night plus $15 a day for parking thanks to priceline).
A few things I learned:
*The tiki bar (dole whips) does not take any AAA or AP discounts as of 2 weeks ago.
*The Disney outlet was amazing, I spent a few hours there looking at everything. We bought things there that were still for sale at Disneyland, a hat for $5.99 that was $22 at the parks. They had shirts, sweatshirts, hats, ears, toys, posters, jewelry, pins, books, etc.
*The parks were *dead* on Weds and Thurs, we were walking on a ton of rides. Friday and Sunday were busy, Friday night being the worst. We were lucky enough to ride Star Tours alone on Thursday night, a once in a lifetime thing for us.
*At Goofy's kitchen we saw Alladin, Mulan, Briar bear, Pluto, Chip, Dale and of course Goofy. We went for Saturday brunch and were there for almost 3 hours, we had asked how long we could stay and our server said they were dead so we could stay as long as we wanted. The characters kept coming back to our table, it was so much fun.
*We went to Huntington beach on Saturday, it was great, warm water, soft sand beaches...and the beach was clean!
*The Hilton was too big for us, I know I can't complain because of the price we paid, but it took forever to get an elevator, the pool was tiny, the parking garage would get busy and it was hard to get out of and the hotel is in the middle of a huge remodel. The night we arrived we had 3 girls who had to use the potty and we were informed that the water was off...until 5am...and they had a computer problem and made us change rooms the next day, to a room 5 doors down.
*The timon parking lot is still open!!! The tram runs whether or not it is open, so if you are staying at the Hilton, Jolly Roger, Sheraton Park or any hotel along there you can use the Timon tram to get into the parks quickly.
*We brought drinks (water and soda bottles) and food (granola bars, chips, carrots, bananas etc) into the parks, the only things we ended up buying were dole whips. We would sometimes leave and eat at White Water snacks, I highly reco them, the kid meals were huge and really good.
*It is possible to do it on a budget and we did fairly well, we ate $5 subs at Subway, we ate Costco $10 pizza, we had the Pizza hut pasta and did Taco bell. We ate breakfast in the room, we had a big cooler that we kept in the room, the Hilton gave us a little fridge for no charge which was nice so we didn't have to keep filling the ice chest.
A few things I learned:
*The tiki bar (dole whips) does not take any AAA or AP discounts as of 2 weeks ago.
*The Disney outlet was amazing, I spent a few hours there looking at everything. We bought things there that were still for sale at Disneyland, a hat for $5.99 that was $22 at the parks. They had shirts, sweatshirts, hats, ears, toys, posters, jewelry, pins, books, etc.
*The parks were *dead* on Weds and Thurs, we were walking on a ton of rides. Friday and Sunday were busy, Friday night being the worst. We were lucky enough to ride Star Tours alone on Thursday night, a once in a lifetime thing for us.
*At Goofy's kitchen we saw Alladin, Mulan, Briar bear, Pluto, Chip, Dale and of course Goofy. We went for Saturday brunch and were there for almost 3 hours, we had asked how long we could stay and our server said they were dead so we could stay as long as we wanted. The characters kept coming back to our table, it was so much fun.
*We went to Huntington beach on Saturday, it was great, warm water, soft sand beaches...and the beach was clean!
*The Hilton was too big for us, I know I can't complain because of the price we paid, but it took forever to get an elevator, the pool was tiny, the parking garage would get busy and it was hard to get out of and the hotel is in the middle of a huge remodel. The night we arrived we had 3 girls who had to use the potty and we were informed that the water was off...until 5am...and they had a computer problem and made us change rooms the next day, to a room 5 doors down.
*The timon parking lot is still open!!! The tram runs whether or not it is open, so if you are staying at the Hilton, Jolly Roger, Sheraton Park or any hotel along there you can use the Timon tram to get into the parks quickly.
*We brought drinks (water and soda bottles) and food (granola bars, chips, carrots, bananas etc) into the parks, the only things we ended up buying were dole whips. We would sometimes leave and eat at White Water snacks, I highly reco them, the kid meals were huge and really good.
*It is possible to do it on a budget and we did fairly well, we ate $5 subs at Subway, we ate Costco $10 pizza, we had the Pizza hut pasta and did Taco bell. We ate breakfast in the room, we had a big cooler that we kept in the room, the Hilton gave us a little fridge for no charge which was nice so we didn't have to keep filling the ice chest.
... jc
DH and I split one the second time because they are so filling.
) Anyway, we are getting there Friday afternoon (around 1:30 pm). Do you think we can park in the parking garage and then walk to the tram without checking into our room yet? or will there be an issue with the time on the parking ticket being earlier than check in time?
