Did I Make a Mistake Staying at the Disneyland Hotel? I've…
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Did I Make a Mistake Staying at the Disneyland Hotel?
I've stayed on property multiple times, but always at the Grand Californian. I realize I probably spoiled myself because of these experiences.
I had a family trip I was invited to take and decided to book my stay at the Disneyland Hotel. I had never stayed there before and wanted to experience something new. And seeing as how the hotel was the first resort hotel in Disney history, I figured it would have some fancy stuff going for it. With close access to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar, which I had never been to!
I booked the deluxe studio villa in the discovery tower, which was not inexpensive, and now that the trip is over I feel sorely disappointed with my stay and experience. I tried really hard to be optimistic about the stay but I kept running into things that made me regret staying there at all.
1. The view. I know the view is always a toss up no matter which hotel you stay at, but I was surprised/disappointed to discover my room looked directly into the neighborhood behind the hotel. Normally I do not care about these things, but when I forked over 1800$ for an immersive hotel experience, seeing into someone else's backyard kind of makes it difficult to buy into that mindset.
2. The room quality. The 'deluxe villa studio,' did not exactly feel deluxe. I'd argue that you get more space with a standard room at the GC, but I digress, even without comparison it felt lack luster. We got the Sleeping Beauty themed room which was cute. The little fairies in the mirror and the paintings in the room were a nice touch. But the room felt small with little going for it outside of the pull out couch/bed and the kitchenette.
3. Sound/Noise level. Genuinely I was shocked to hear the people and children using the pool outside from the fifth floor. We did not have a balcony and had our windows completely closed (curtains pulled as well) but still heard yelling and screaming in our room as clear as day until the pool closed in the evening. To be clear, I'm not complaining about children making noise (it's a theme park for kids, and kids make noise! It's their job!) but I am upset that my 'deluxe villa' did not have better sound dampening walls or windows. And it was not just noise from the pool, we heard our neighbors and those walking/talking in the hallways. At night I was able to hear the people beneath us snoring and sawing logs in their room. There was stomping and yelling and screaming from the hallways, and a repetitive loud 'CLUNK,' that was either coming from one of our neighbors showers or maybe their conditioning units. It made sleep and relaxation difficult.
4. Proximity to Park. We were booked at the Discovery Tower which seems to be the furthest away from park access at the furthest corner on the hotel property. I may be picky, but before I made enough money to spend on things like this, I would stay multiple blocks away from the park and walk to and from in the mornings and evenings after a full day of park activities. I did my time walking! When I pay deluxe prices I would like for my stay to be closer, not further away.
5. The Little Things. Our room had some tiny details (or lack thereof) that irked me and kept piling up.
There was a bunch of glitter on the wall/floor of our entry way from previous guests. I did not notice until I had showered and walked barefoot into the room that evening and found glitter all over the bottoms of my feet.
There was rust and hard water stains on the overhead showerhead in between the spouts. Which was ironic, considering there was so much soft water conditioner in the tap I had a difficult time washing the soap off of my hands and out of my hair thoroughly.
There was a strange, sticky black substance on the ceiling of the bathroom entryway where our sliding door closed. I'm not sure if it was some sort of stain from the hardwood door, or something else. It appeared to be hard like sap but with an oily surface. Gross.
The black out curtains did not close all of the way. It was infuriating. The track they are hung on had an inch gap between the curtain and the wall. No matter how far over I pulled them, they would slide back and expose that inch gap to the sunlight. So at 5 am, my side of the bed would quickly start to illuminate since the gap shown directly onto the headboard of the bed. (I used spare pillows to stack against the curtain to try and keep them closed fully.) The curtains also had holes in the bottom of them, about a foot from the floor. I'm not sure if they were moth holes or some kiddo was tampering with them and maybe made an oopsie in the fabric. But those holes also let light into the room earlier in the AM.
We were not given a 'Do NOT Disturb,' placard to hang on the door handle. I thought this was fine, and opted to use the 'please reserve water,' notice placard they leave in the bathrooms to hang on the outside of our door instead. I figured housekeeping would see any placard on the handle and assume it was meant to be DND. I was wrong, housekeeping removed the placard and came in anyways. So I ended up using the notepad and writing, 'Do NOT Disturb, we were not given a sign to hang out on our. Sorry for the sign, thank you!' to tape to the reserve placard and hang that instead. After that, housekeeping ended up actually giving us a proper DND placard.
Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar. This is due to a lack of planning on my part, fully. But the biggest reason I opted to stay at the Disneyland Hotel over the Grand Californian was because I wanted to try Trader Sam's tiki bar. I had never been before, and each time I've attempted to go they had been booked in full. I'm a big Disney foodie and had spent the weeks leading up to this trip researching what foods I want to get at the parks! I did not think to check on Trader Sam's as I have researched the menu before.... The entire building is closed for refurbishment. And that is my fault for not double checking before booking. But since it was open at the time of my booking, I had assumed it would be when I arrived.
All this to say, am I expecting too much from the hotel? I had never run into these issues at the GC. The blackout curtains work, the rooms are always pristine, I've never had noise pollution from outside filter into the room no matter my proximity to the pool or parks. But then again, I may have spoiled myself with staying there first and assuming that the 'spare no expense,' with Disney Quality would transfer over to their oldest hotel as well. I had assumed the most expensive room available at the DLH would be comparable to a standard room at he GC. Both of which had a similar rate (deluxe villa was priced around 600$ a night at DLH, a standard room at GC is around 700-800$ a night in my experience)
Or am I doing something wrong with my stay? Is there a different room I should have booked at the Disneyland Hotel? Was I wrong for assuming the more expensive rooms would have the better benefits for relaxation and ease of access?
Would love to hear about anyone else's experiences at the Disneyland Hotel.
TLDR: I spent a lot of money for a deluxe villa studio at the Disneyland Hotel and was disappointed with the quality of the room compared to my stay in a standard room at the Grand Californian. Both of which have a similar cost.
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I've stayed on property multiple times, but always at the Grand Californian. I realize I probably spoiled myself because of these experiences.
I had a family trip I was invited to take and decided to book my stay at the Disneyland Hotel. I had never stayed there before and wanted to experience something new. And seeing as how the hotel was the first resort hotel in Disney history, I figured it would have some fancy stuff going for it. With close access to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar, which I had never been to!
I booked the deluxe studio villa in the discovery tower, which was not inexpensive, and now that the trip is over I feel sorely disappointed with my stay and experience. I tried really hard to be optimistic about the stay but I kept running into things that made me regret staying there at all.
1. The view. I know the view is always a toss up no matter which hotel you stay at, but I was surprised/disappointed to discover my room looked directly into the neighborhood behind the hotel. Normally I do not care about these things, but when I forked over 1800$ for an immersive hotel experience, seeing into someone else's backyard kind of makes it difficult to buy into that mindset.
2. The room quality. The 'deluxe villa studio,' did not exactly feel deluxe. I'd argue that you get more space with a standard room at the GC, but I digress, even without comparison it felt lack luster. We got the Sleeping Beauty themed room which was cute. The little fairies in the mirror and the paintings in the room were a nice touch. But the room felt small with little going for it outside of the pull out couch/bed and the kitchenette.
3. Sound/Noise level. Genuinely I was shocked to hear the people and children using the pool outside from the fifth floor. We did not have a balcony and had our windows completely closed (curtains pulled as well) but still heard yelling and screaming in our room as clear as day until the pool closed in the evening. To be clear, I'm not complaining about children making noise (it's a theme park for kids, and kids make noise! It's their job!) but I am upset that my 'deluxe villa' did not have better sound dampening walls or windows. And it was not just noise from the pool, we heard our neighbors and those walking/talking in the hallways. At night I was able to hear the people beneath us snoring and sawing logs in their room. There was stomping and yelling and screaming from the hallways, and a repetitive loud 'CLUNK,' that was either coming from one of our neighbors showers or maybe their conditioning units. It made sleep and relaxation difficult.
4. Proximity to Park. We were booked at the Discovery Tower which seems to be the furthest away from park access at the furthest corner on the hotel property. I may be picky, but before I made enough money to spend on things like this, I would stay multiple blocks away from the park and walk to and from in the mornings and evenings after a full day of park activities. I did my time walking! When I pay deluxe prices I would like for my stay to be closer, not further away.
5. The Little Things. Our room had some tiny details (or lack thereof) that irked me and kept piling up.
There was a bunch of glitter on the wall/floor of our entry way from previous guests. I did not notice until I had showered and walked barefoot into the room that evening and found glitter all over the bottoms of my feet.
There was rust and hard water stains on the overhead showerhead in between the spouts. Which was ironic, considering there was so much soft water conditioner in the tap I had a difficult time washing the soap off of my hands and out of my hair thoroughly.
There was a strange, sticky black substance on the ceiling of the bathroom entryway where our sliding door closed. I'm not sure if it was some sort of stain from the hardwood door, or something else. It appeared to be hard like sap but with an oily surface. Gross.
The black out curtains did not close all of the way. It was infuriating. The track they are hung on had an inch gap between the curtain and the wall. No matter how far over I pulled them, they would slide back and expose that inch gap to the sunlight. So at 5 am, my side of the bed would quickly start to illuminate since the gap shown directly onto the headboard of the bed. (I used spare pillows to stack against the curtain to try and keep them closed fully.) The curtains also had holes in the bottom of them, about a foot from the floor. I'm not sure if they were moth holes or some kiddo was tampering with them and maybe made an oopsie in the fabric. But those holes also let light into the room earlier in the AM.
We were not given a 'Do NOT Disturb,' placard to hang on the door handle. I thought this was fine, and opted to use the 'please reserve water,' notice placard they leave in the bathrooms to hang on the outside of our door instead. I figured housekeeping would see any placard on the handle and assume it was meant to be DND. I was wrong, housekeeping removed the placard and came in anyways. So I ended up using the notepad and writing, 'Do NOT Disturb, we were not given a sign to hang out on our. Sorry for the sign, thank you!' to tape to the reserve placard and hang that instead. After that, housekeeping ended up actually giving us a proper DND placard.
Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar. This is due to a lack of planning on my part, fully. But the biggest reason I opted to stay at the Disneyland Hotel over the Grand Californian was because I wanted to try Trader Sam's tiki bar. I had never been before, and each time I've attempted to go they had been booked in full. I'm a big Disney foodie and had spent the weeks leading up to this trip researching what foods I want to get at the parks! I did not think to check on Trader Sam's as I have researched the menu before.... The entire building is closed for refurbishment. And that is my fault for not double checking before booking. But since it was open at the time of my booking, I had assumed it would be when I arrived.
All this to say, am I expecting too much from the hotel? I had never run into these issues at the GC. The blackout curtains work, the rooms are always pristine, I've never had noise pollution from outside filter into the room no matter my proximity to the pool or parks. But then again, I may have spoiled myself with staying there first and assuming that the 'spare no expense,' with Disney Quality would transfer over to their oldest hotel as well. I had assumed the most expensive room available at the DLH would be comparable to a standard room at he GC. Both of which had a similar rate (deluxe villa was priced around 600$ a night at DLH, a standard room at GC is around 700-800$ a night in my experience)
Or am I doing something wrong with my stay? Is there a different room I should have booked at the Disneyland Hotel? Was I wrong for assuming the more expensive rooms would have the better benefits for relaxation and ease of access?
Would love to hear about anyone else's experiences at the Disneyland Hotel.
TLDR: I spent a lot of money for a deluxe villa studio at the Disneyland Hotel and was disappointed with the quality of the room compared to my stay in a standard room at the Grand Californian. Both of which have a similar cost.
#video #movies
source
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