Reviews of Disneyland Hotel
Reviewed by pluto12 Review Date: 02/28/2014
Rating: (8) Recommended
Stayed at Disneyland Hotel from 2/22/14-2/24/14. Booked Dapper Day rate, which was approximately half-price. The reduced rate was, fair for what you get, but I feel that paying more would have been too much.
We stayed in the Adventure Tower, which was really convenient for getting to/from the parks. You do have to walk through Downtown Disney to get to the entrance or the monorail, so that meant running the gauntlet of chain stores and restaurants that were BLASTING music at most times of the day. A minor quibble but it really did add to the stress of early/late/long days at the parks.
The room was tasteful, understated, and rather plain- which is not a complaint. The light-up headboard was just the right dose of pixie dust. The bathroom was not very nice at all, unfortunately, and the lighting in it was awful.
We tried to order room service on Sunday night, 2/23, but no one would pick up the phone after an hour (!!) on hold. We also tried the front desk- no one would pick up there, either! Thinking it might have been our room phones malfunctioning, I also tried the house phone- same result.
Dining options were limited and not very vegetarian-friendly (a surprise for a Disney property), especially when you took the room service menu out of the equation.
The absolute best part was Trader Sam's, the on-site tiki bar that we happened upon quite accidentally. It's everything you want from a tiki bar (i.e., dark, full of kitschy decor, outrageous drinks with little ceremonies, the staff and all the patrons in on the fun).
We were able to check-in early (1:30pm) but the process did take a long time. It seems that the front desk staff has no efficient and reliable way of ascertaining which rooms are vacant and clean. Hopefully Disney corrects this.
The hallways and rooms were fairly quiet, though we could hear something (plumbing??) running most of the night.
In all, I'd say this was on par with moderate resorts at WDW (though with interior corridors). I would try the Grand Californian next time for a little nicer experience.
Pros:
Disney-ness, proximity to parks, Trader Sam's, monorail waterslide, quiet public areasCons:
Chekin- took a long time, staff wouldn't pick up phone, limited dining options, poor bathroom lightingReviewed by FamilyOfSix Review Date: 07/12/2013
Rating: (7) Recommended
We stayed in the Disneyland Hotel in early June 2013. We were so excited to stay in this hotel, as we never spring for such an expensive place. We booked two rooms as we were traveling with my sister and her family, and each room was reserved for 5 people. The reservation process is lengthy, and you need to give the names and ages of each person staying in the rooms at the time of making the reservation. Having gone through that process, and being assured that we were going to have two rooms that would sleep 5 comfortably and be either adjoining or located very near each other, I was beyond dismayed when my sister checked in before we did and was told that we were getting one room for 4 people adjoining another room for 5 people. Totally unacceptable since we needed all the beds. My husband called to try to fix the reservation before we arrived, but was told that there were no other rooms on property for 5 people (right...) and that we didn't even make a reservation for 5... I had the printed up confirmation letters showing clearly rooms for 5 people. This agent was so incredibly rude to my husband, and not helpful, and really should not be working for Disney at all. I have had better service from people working at a La Quinta Inn.
Anyway, when we finally got to the Disneyland hotel, my husband showed the desk agent our paperwork, and "magically" they found a room for 5 people for us. Only problem-- it was 7 floors away from the other room. What a major pain to have our party split by 7 floors. I really wasn't happy with this situation, but was much more dismayed by the very rude treatment from the agent on the phone.
Now the hotel...
In the lobby, the teacup chairs are cute. Too bad several of them were ripped. Ripped vinyl chairs... Not exactly Deluxe...
The theming is subtle. Too subtle. I think they need more Mickey magic. I don't know why they advertise being greeted by Goofy at the Disneyland hotel, but I never saw him and I didn't see a poster announcing when he'd be in the lobby or anything. Maybe the greeting is at Goofy's Kitchen? Who knows.
The rooms are fine. I would try to get to the highest floor possible. One of our rooms was on the 10th floor of the Fantasy Tower. We could actually see the fireworks from the room. That was very cool. The 5-person rooms are large enough, comfortable, and the beds are all comfortable. The executive desk is a little bit cumbersome and maybe it would be better to have a small table or something that would be more useful to families. The bathroom was strange to me because the toilet was closed off from the bathroom, but was only accessed through the bathroom. So if someone was in the shower, they would need to leave the door unlocked for someone else to access the toilet in the toilet room. This was a problem for self-conscious teens... It would have made more sense to have the sink on the outside of the room at least.
The rooms were in decent shape. They didn't seem very new, but not too worn down. The headboard was cool, though.
The pools were really great. We were there on days that weren't so hot-- low 70s. It was so fun because the pools were heated to different temperatures. The cooler pool was the one my kids seemed to like the most, but I liked the middle pool which was pretty warm. There was another little pool where the water slides ended. The water slides were a little rough (hard on the shoulders) but the kids seemed to like them. I wouldn't recommend them for adults! The hot tub was nice too. All in all, the pool area was really great.
The best part of the hotel was its location. It was an easy walk to Disneyland or California Adventure-- taking only 10 minutes at most. Even for the early extra magic hours at 7 AM, we didn't need to leave the hotel until 6:45 AM and had plenty of time to make it to the front gate for the lineup for entering early. The parking at the Disneyland Hotel is not bad. I had read complaints about the parking being far away, but it wasn't at all. And we didn't need to use our car anyway being right there by Downtown Disney and all that good stuff.
Next time I will try a different hotel, though, due to the mixup at the start of the stay and the fact that we were given rooms so far apart. I didn't like the way they handled the whole situation at all. So we will try the Paradise Pier or the Grand Californian, but not Disneyland Hotel.
I give this hotel 7 stars in spite of that because of the location and the pool. I take away 2 stars for the check in problem, and 1 more for the price and lack of theming and sloppy appearance of the lobby area.
Pros:
Location, Pools, early entry to parksCons:
Reservation mix up, Lack of theming, No sign of Goofy, EXPENSIVEReviewed by Anonymous Review Date: 12/14/2020
Rating: (6) Not Recommended
If you remove the emotion and just look at the facility, the Disneyland Hotel is mediocre at best.
