PassPorter.com
Award-winning travel guidebooks
  About Us  |  Customs Office   |   Register Books   |   Book Updates   |   Blogs   |  Newsletter  |   News Desk   |  Articles  |  Photos  |  
Archive | Disneyland Parkhopper | PassPorter Blogs

Disneyland: Resort Hotel or Good Neighbor (part 2)

Filed under Disneyland Parkhopper by Sarah Mudd on March 31, 2012 at 3:42 am {3 comments}

So, maybe the cost of the “on site” Disneyland hotels has got you a little more “budget conscious” or perhaps you aren’t all that concerned about being surrounded 24/7 by the Disney magic.  Never fear, as there’s a hotel option for you too!  Well . . . technically, there are at least 41 options for you!

The Disneyland Resort has partnered up with 41 neighboring hotel properties, called Good Neighbor Hotels.  Though there are (literally) hundreds of hotels in the immediate area surrounding the Disneyland Resort, Disney has chosen just these 41 to partner up with.  The majority of the Good Neighbor Hotels are located on Harbor Boulevard (the street that runs along the east side of Disneyland’s property) though there are a few hotels located on Katella Avenue (the street that runs along the south end of the property).  There are a couple of hotels that are on neighboring streets as well but all 41 are located within just around one mile of Disneyland property.  Through the Walt Disney Travel Company (booking through the Disneyland site or a travel agent) you can book vacation packages that include stays at the Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotels along with your Disneyland park admission, optional airfare, etc.  The Good Neighbor Hotels are grouped into 4 different categories:  Suites, Superior, Moderate and Value hotels.  Which category YOU choose depends entirely on your budget and/or preferences in a hotel.

Portofino Inn & Suites - a Good Neighbor "Suites" option

There are 11 options in the “Suites” category averaging around $125-130 per room per night (some more, some a little less).  Residence Inn Maingate, Anaheim Marriott Suites, Portofino Inn & Suites and Desert Palms Hotel & Suites, just to name a few.  Most of these hotels offer a complimentary breakfast, complimentary internet access and free parking for guests, though not every one of them does.  All of the hotels offer a microwave and refrigerator in their suites.  Of the eleven Suite Good Neighbor hotels, only ONE of them offers free transportation to and from Disneyland Resort property (Homewood Suites by Hilton) while the others offer (if needed) transportation to the Disneyland Resort “for a fee”, which usually means you can purchase passes for the Anaheim Resort Transit (ART) bus.

 

 

 

Hilton Anaheim - a Good Neighbor "Superior" option

In the “Superior” category, there are 7 options: Anaheim Marriott, Sheraton Anaheim and Hilton Anaheim are just a few of the options available.  (author’s note:  As a kid, we would always pass the Sheraton Anaheim anytime my family was traveling to or through Anaheim as it is right alongside Interstate 5.  I always remember the little castle turret on the front of the building and how it has always been decorated in that Tudor style on the outside.  I remember thinking that it looked kind of funny being decorated all “English-like” mixed in with all the California palms growing all around the property.  I always wanted to stay there when I was a kid.  I still never have.  One of these days, maybe I will remedy that.  Maybe.  But back to the Superior hotel options . . . )

The Superior hotels average between $90-165 per room per night.  All of the hotels offer a refrigerator in the room however only one (Anaheim Marriott Hotel) offers a microwave in-room.  None of the hotels offer a complimentary breakfast (well, the Sheraton Park Hotel does, but it is a concierge room perk) but all have restaurants where guests can have breakfast and most offer a “Kids Eat Free” type of program.  All of the Superior level hotels offer complimentary internet access to their guests.  Two of the seven offer complimentary transportation to the parks while the other 5 (if needed) offer transportation for a fee.

 

Inside of a standard room at Carousel Inn & Suites - a Good Neighbor "Moderate" option

The most “populated” Good Neighbor category is the “Moderate” hotels with 20 options to choose from.  You can choose from known national chains like Hampton Inn, Howard Johnson, Hilton Garden Inn, Courtyard by Marriott, Clarion, Fairfield Inn, Holiday Inn (there are two) and Best Western (there are FIVE Best Western options!).  There are also a bunch of locally owned hotels such as the Tropicana Inn & Suites, Hotel Ménage, Anabella and Carousel Inn & Suites (just to name a handful).  These hotels range in average price between $90-140.  About half offer a complimentary breakfast (usually continental).  All hotels offer refrigerators in-room and half of the hotels offer microwaves as well.  If you are in need of internet access during your stay in the area, almost all of the Moderate hotels offer complimentary internet access (the Camelot Inn & Suites and Tropicana Inn & Suites being the only hotels that do not offer internet free).  Sixteen of the hotels offer complimentary guest parking while the other four offer parking to guests for a fee.  (I usually stay at the Carousel Inn & Suites and they charge $9 per night for valet parking.  There is no option for self-parking.) Only the Candy Cane Inn offers complimentary transportation to the Disneyland parks (they have their own dedicated shuttle) while most of the others offer transportation for a fee.  However, for the majority of the Moderate hotels you really won’t need to use the transportation as it is just a quick walk from the hotels to the parks!

Jolly Roger Hotel - a Good Neighbor "Value" option

Finally, are the four  Good Neighbor “Value” (also known as “Economy”) hotels:  Jolly Roger Hotel, Motel 6 Anaheim Maingate, Quality Inn Anaheim Resort and Ramada Inn Maingate.  Room rates at these hotels range between about $55-100 per night per room.  All hotels offer in room refrigerators with only two of the four (Ramada Inn Maingate and Quality Inn) offering in room microwaves.  The Ramada Inn Maingate and the Quality Inn are also the only two of the four that offer a complimentary breakfast.  All but the Motel 6 offer guests complimentary internet access.  None of the hotels offer complimentary transportation to and from the parks.  However, if you have a car with you, all of these hotels offer guests complimentary parking.

 

 

 

Again, it all comes down to your needs/wants from a hotel.  When weighing your options, you have to ask yourself:  “How long am I really going to be in my room?”  “How important is being completely surrounded by the Disney magic all day and night to me?” (though, some of the Good Neighbor Hotels *do* have Disney touches in their rooms!  In fact, the Kids Suites at the Carousel Inn & Suites are totally decorated in Disney from the bedding to the television!) “How far from Disneyland do I want to stay?” and “Do I really want to have to haul on to a bus at the end of the night to get back to the hotel?”  Once you have a good idea of what your budget looks like and the type of amenities you need from a hotel, making a choice of the right Disneyland hotel for YOU is really pretty easy!

So, readers . . . which do YOU prefer:  A Disneyland Resort Hotel or a Good Neighbor Hotel?  Which hotel is your favorite and why?

 

Disneyland: Resort Hotel or Good Neighbor (part 1)

Filed under Disneyland Parkhopper, Fresh Picked Posts by Sarah Mudd on March 21, 2012 at 5:14 am {3 comments}

Hello, Disney friends!  Sorry it has taken a little while in between posts but my life over the past month has looked largely like this:

. . . I promise my daughter’s face isn’t really blurry like that in real life.  Just on the internet!  ;)

So, now that Girl Scout Cookie season has passed us by and I am free from that sugar stranglehold for another year, I am free to blog again!
When last we met, I mentioned that the next step to take after deciding on a time of year to travel was to decide where you’d prefer to stay! So, let’s do!

The decision of where to stay at the Disneyland Resort can be either very easy to make . . . or very difficult, depending on your wants/needs/desires from a hotel.  Disneyland offers two different “groups” of hotel choices:  Disneyland Resort Hotels (aka: “on property”) and Good Neighbor Hotels.  “What’s the difference?” you may ask?  Well, in this installment, let’s take a look at the options in the “easy” group: the Hotels of the Disneyland Resort.  (disclaimer:  I only call it the “easy’ group because it contains just three options.  (That’s easy, right?) ) These hotels aren’t technically broken down into categories like Walt Disney World’s, however they do have slightly different price points.

 

Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel


Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel is considered the “least expensive” resort hotel option as its room rates run between around $250-315 per night, depending on the season.  The Paradise Pier offers 460 guest rooms (approximately 364 sq. ft. in size) and nearly 30 suites (ranging in size from 792-1,245 sq. ft.).  The resort is decorated in a “seashore” theme with Surfer Goofy greeting you upon your entry to the hotel’s lobby.  Continuing the beachy theme, the kiddie “movie” area features a TV framed by a sand castle, the room numbers are printed on surfboards, there are beach ball pillows on the beds, lamps that look like lighthouses (with Mickey Mouse in a beach chair of course!), there is a rooftop pool with a slide that is supposed to resemble a wooden roller coaster and the Paradise Pier Hotel is home to the Surf’s Up with Mickey & Friends character breakfast!

 

 

Disneyland Hotel

The “mid-range” resort is the Disneyland Hotel where room rates average around $325-400 per night.  The Disneyland Hotel is the ORIGINAL hotel “on property” (even though none of the current buildings are the same that existed there in the 1950s).  It was opened as a smallish motel in October 1955 and at the time, the room rates were just $15 per night!  The Disneyland Hotel has been expanded and had buildings demolished, renamed and rethemed many times throughout the years but it remains the largest resort on property at 990 guest rooms and suites.  The rooms have all recently been refurbished and new eateries have been opened.  Another great Improvement is the complete retheming of the Never Land Pool area with the addition of monorail-themed slides which are topped with classic 1950’s/1960’s Disneyland signage!  Disneyland Hotel is home to Goofy’s Kitchen, which offers both a character breakfast and character dinner.  If you are hungry for a really good steak, you can make your way to Steakhouse 55 at the Disneyland Hotel or if you’d rather have something a little Polynesian inspired, try the new Tangaroa Terrace!

 

 

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa

The “high end” resort at Disneyland is Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa.  The rates for one of the nearly 750 guest rooms at this gorgeous “Arts & Crafts movement” inspired resort start right around $395 per night.  The Grand Californian also includes an additional 50 villas belonging to the Disney Vacation Club (Villas at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa).  Like the other “on property” resort hotels, “the Grand” hosts a character breakfast.  Folks can have a hearty breakfast with favorite Disney woodland creatures at Storyteller’s Café (which is open for lunch and dinner as well, without characters).  You can also grab a quick bite at White Water Snacks (located near the “resort guests only” entrance into Disney California Adventure park).  However, if you feel more in need of an absolutely indulgent meal, get thee to Napa Rose.  Napa Rose is “Napa wine country” themed and offers a range of award-winning “California cuisine” dishes.  The place is pricey but totally worth it for you foodies out there!  For the ultimate, relaxing date night, try an early dinner at Napa Rose and follow up with a Couples’ Massage at the Mandara Spa (they’re open until 8pm! *winkwink*)

 

Which of the three resort hotels would *I* choose?  Personally, even though I like the beachy theme of Paradise Pier and sure wouldn’t mind the luxury of the Grand Californian, my vote always goes to the Disneyland Hotel.  Even with the extensive changes, it always feels “classic” to me.  Well, that and I have very fond memories of pulling into the Disneyland parking lot in 1983 and parking directly under the monorail track with the nose of our car pointing directly at the Disneyland Hotel and saying, “You know what?  I’m going to stay there sometime when I’m older!”

Next post, we’ll take a look at the oodles of Good Neighbor choices!

 

Until next time, have a magical day!

 

So, you want to go to Disneyland?

Filed under Disneyland Parkhopper by Sarah Mudd on February 17, 2012 at 1:31 am {no comments}

Congratulations on making the decision to come to the “The Original” Magic Kingdom!  If you haven’t made “the decision” . . . well, what’s stopping you?

Those of you who are Walt Disney World veterans are probably accustomed to a certain way of planning and, if you’ve looked into any planning information for Disneyland (even just the official Disneyland website), you may have had the thought of “Oh my heck, what have I gotten myself into?”.  Planning for Disneyland is just a little bit different from Walt Disney World but it isn’t anything that should scare you off from making a trip out west!

 

 

The first difference is, obviously, the overall size of the Disneyland Resort.  It is a bit more intimate than Walt Disney World, to say the least.  There are just three Disney owned resort hotels and two theme parks that make up the Disneyland Resort.  Everything is within walking distance around “Disney property” so, with the exception of the tram that shuttles day guests to and from the parking garage and satellite lots, there is no need for Disney transportation.  The monorail only has two stops:  Downtown Disney and Tomorrowland.  You can walk, turnstile-to-turnstile, from one park to the other in two minutes or less (though I wouldn’t suggest running from park to park as the bricks are a little uneven in spots and have been known to bring down grown women when just walking normally on them.  I swear I don’t know anyone that has ever happened to . . . . *whistle* )

I promise, though, once you get over the size, it really is an easy to plan vacation!  First thing you need to do once you’ve made the decision to visit is play around with some dates.  Unlike WDW, Disneyland doesn’t have eight or nine different price “seasons”.  Price-wise, they pretty much operate on a two “season” schedule: Peak and Not-Peak.  The busiest times of the year to visit are June through Labor Day, Christmas time and Spring Break.  Though they are usually in the lower priced “off-season”, President’s Day week and Halloween time can see increased crowds as well.  Weekends throughout the year can see crowd increases due to the locals and Annual Passholders in the area visiting.  If you’d like to visit when the weather is nicest, April and May would be your best bet, in my opinion. Crowds will be low on weekdays and the weather should be agreeable!

 

 

So, once you have decided on some dates to look at, your next logical step would be to pick a hotel.  With three Disney resort hotels and over 40 Disney Good Neighbor hotels, this will probably be the hardest part to decide on.  In my next installment, we’ll take a look at hotel options in and around the Disneyland Resort!

Until next time, have a magical Disney day!

Welcome to Disneyland Parkhopper!

Filed under Disneyland Parkhopper by Sarah Mudd on February 8, 2012 at 5:03 am {6 comments}

Hello, my name is Sarah and I am a Disneyland fanatic.  <Disney friends say “Hello, Sarah!”>

I would like to welcome you all to the Disneyland Parkhopper blog here on PassPorter!  It is my absolute pleasure to introduce those of you who are new to Disneyland to Disney magic, West Coast style (and remind those of you who aren’t new just how great Disneyland is)!  I will be covering everything from starting to plan your Disneyland trip, where to stay, where to hang out with your favorite characters . . . heck, I may even get into some other Southern California attractions every once in a while.  Do you have specific questions about the Disneyland Resort (or other things “Southern California”)?  I would be happy to answer your questions as well!

To give you a little background on me:  Though the Navy took me to the east coast for 15 years of my life, I am a West Coast girl, through and through. I was born in San Diego, California in the mid 70′s, from 1988 I spent 7 years living near Eugene, Oregon (where my parents still live) and since 2010, we’ve been stationed north of Seattle, Washington.  I was raised on Disneyland.  It was the first Disney park I ever laid my little eyes on and it has had a huge place in my heart ever since.  I have very specific memories of the Disneyland parking lot, losing hats over London on Peter Pan’s Flight and fits over powder blue latex Mickey balloons.  One of my favorite things, quite honestly, is helping someone plan their first (and subsequent!) trips to Disneyland and I often wish I could tag along just to see their faces light up when they first experience that “original” Disney magic and make Disneyland memories of their own.

It goes without saying that I have “converted” my family into Disney-holics as well.  My two kids (ages 3 and nearly 11) were exposed to Disney everything from the moments they were born and each are veterans of several Walt Disney World and Disneyland trips.  My husband, a Chief in the United States Navy, was a bit harder of a nut to crack, but I got him too!  With any luck, I will have you all converted to Disneyland lovers soon as well!

So, stay tuned for my first post on planning your dream Disneyland vacation and, again, I welcome you all to MY happy place . . . the Disneyland Parkhopper blog!

Disneyland - Let the memories (and Magic) begin!