This is our go to hotel at DL. Stayed there for each DL trip… 5 times between 209-2015!
The link to the hotel map isn’t valid anymore. Anyone have one that shows the hotels on Harbor up to Katella? Thanks
The hilton convention center is really nice. also I have stayed at embassy orange. its a lot farther than i like to be but we love it!!
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Also the homewood suites is part of the hilton family. its close and very nice
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Any opinions on Best Western Stovall’s Inn?
Hi everyone. My wife will be attending the SWE convention at the convention center Nov 5-9. Her hotel choice for the convention is the Residence Inn Anaheim Resort / Convention Center for its convenience to the conference and to Disneyland. The kids and I will be joining her on the trip and will be concentrating on DL from Nov 2 - 5 before the conference starts. So our question is about where to stay in those few days before the conference starts.
We could stay 3 more nights at the Residence Inn AR/CC (I can’t find any mention of this place in this thread or anywhere on the forums).
Or we could stay 3 nights at Springhill Suites Maingate (highly recommended in this thread).
The prices are pretty much identical. The advantage of Springhill is we could do a Costco package and get the $145 Disney gift card and the Magical Extras Savings Card.
Of course the downside is having the hassle of packing up and moving on what would otherwise be a park day.
Thoughts on the hotels? Is it worth that amount of perqs to switch? How do the walks compare to the parks?
Thanks!
The walks are nearly identical with the Springhill Suites being over the CVS on the corner and the Residence Inn the next building over. The Residence Inn has a Pizza Hut express adjacent and from either lobby it’s a quick walk. There’s also a coffee/tea place adjacent to the Springhill suites.
We’ve never stayed at Springhill Suites, but have stayed at Residence Inn several times. We really like the room layouts at Residence Inn as they seem to offer some space & in some rooms a full kitchen (but possibly the Springhill Suites are comparable?). Also, Residence Inn has a free breakfast buffet that is the best breakfast we’ve had at a hotel in Anaheim. Very good spread, quality food & so much selection. The only negative about Residence Inn that I know of is I’ve had a friend stay there who had a piece of jewelry stolen from off the nightstand & the hotel took a very “Oh well your loss” stance on it. So she refuses to stay there again (I can’t say I blame her).
Thanks for the response! However I think you’re thinking of Springhill Suites Anaheim Resort Area / Convention Center. I was referring to the Maingate Springhill Suites. Do you know how that walk compares? You can see it’d be much more of an ordeal to schlep all of our stuff in the middle of the day under these circumstances instead of it being just one door down.
At the point we’re leaning toward staying at the Residence Inn the whole week, though your theft story is definitely eye opening and will be considered going forward. The layout of the room is definitely superior at the Residence Inn with a separate living room and kitchen from the bedroom. Thanks again.
Oh yes Maingate is a different one. My bad. The walk is much more of a schlep and less pedestrian friendly so we’ve never stayed in the area where Maingate is. We have many times stayed in the area where Residence Inn (include 2x at Residence Inn) since it’s just a straight shot up Harbor to reach the pedestrian walkway. And while it’s a little long at the end of the day, it’s not a bad walk overall.
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Hey DLR experts! Anyone have suggestions about the best Marriott properties within walking distance?
Cost isn’t a primary concern, because they’re all about the same for the dates I’m looking at. I’d like something kid-friendly, within easy walking distance for breaks, clean & on the quieter side (DS is a light sleeper), preferably with a nice pool/amenities.
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The only one I have stayed at is the older Courtyard down Harbor, and it is too far to walk in my opinion. The RI on the corner of Harbor is also too far, as is the Springhill Suites on Ball. So that leaves you with the Fairfield and the newest Courtyard Theme park entrance with the little kids waterpark. That’s the one you want- Fairfield is older and has external halls like a motel. Knowing your like of the deluxe hotels at WDW, you want the Courtyard theme park. The boys will love the waterpark and the hotel looks lovely. It is the most expensive of them though.
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That waterpark does look pretty cool. They have bunkbeds in even the standard queen rooms! That might be the way to go. (Thanks for taking my love of the Disney deluxes into account 
). I checked out the DL resorts 
I can get a 900 sq ft suite at the Courtyard for half the cost of a standard room at Grand Californian!
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Fairfield & Courtyard Theme Park Entrance are the closest walking distance.
ETA: Below I said both are outdoor motel corridors and how wrong I was!! The Courtyard is all indoor corridors so that helps explain party why their price is higher. Also their Bistro serves Starbucks coffee so that’s a plus (at least for me it is). But I still would much rather book an on-site room at Paradise Pier and get the extra magic hour every morning and have a similar walk for near the same price. But to us the room is just a place to crash for a few hours each night/sometimes for a midday break (our 1 WDW trip we stayed ASMovies and were just happy as clams about it).
Courtyard is usually quite a bit more expensive but has a waterpark area as opposed to a pool and has much larger room layouts. We’ve never tried the Courtyard because prices seem to be near to on-site Disney prices but the most common feedback is that the large rooms are nice, the walk is similar to staying at the Disneyland Hotel on-site & the water park area is geared mainly for under 7 yrs with lack of a real pool (there is a tiny bit of a pool in there but it’s mostly splash pads and a toddler slide area and a slightly larger slide area for 5-7 yr olds with a dunk bucket in between).
Both hotels have outdoor motel corridors & similar amenities and are pretty much in the exact same location being next door & as such are close to a lot of off-site food options: Mimi’s Cafe (a sit-down restaurant), Panera Bread (has online ordering for easy meal pick-up on the way to the parks & has some great breakfast options but can’t use a gift card on it so that’s a downside), McDonald’s (has easy mobile ordering as well for all times of day but again no gift card option on mobile ordering). Also, not sure if the Courtyard has any food options on its premises but at the Fairfield, the 2nd floor has a Pizza Hut Express/cafeteria that does quick meal options along with a communal microwave and plenty of tables for eating in that area. There’s also a little arcade/game room right next to it.
Fairfield’s pool is just a fenced in area at the edge of the parking lot so not a nice pool by any means but our older kids (8 & 6 yrs old) loved the time they got to splash around in there & it isn’t as small as some others along Harbor that they have enjoyed playing in. There was no toddler area though so my 2 yr old spent more time out of the water at the chairs than in the water, even with me holding onto him & having a floaties on. He gets nervous in water though anytime the immediate step area isn’t below his waist so that was normal for him. Fairfield is a great location for the price so we’ve been staying there more often as of late. Also, it’s one of the more budget friendly ones for 3 sleeping surfaces as the 2 Queen rooms all also have a twin bed sleeper chair so with 3 kids it’s nice to give one kid their own bed and not squeeze the youngest with us or with them onto 1 Queen. All the rooms are recently redone with newer furniture and bathroom fixtures and no carpets. And should you want a touch of Disney they do have some preferred Disney themed rooms but I wouldn’t pay extra for them as it just one mural on the wall behind the beds and all of it is Disney World/Orlando sites, zero Anaheim related landmarks so it bugs me a bit.
If you’re willing to walk a little farther (10-15 instead of 7-10 minutes) there is a Residence Inn on Katella and while not technically Marriott, there is a Sheraton Park near it on Harbor (bought by Marriot so maybe it counts). While these are a little bit farther we love both of these because the amenities and rooms are just that much nicer. We haven’t ever used either of their pool areas but the Sheraton’s has some lovely grounds around it and never ever seems to be busy & the Residence Inn’s is a rooftop pool (not on the top floor but a lower floor) and while it does seem to be busier anytime I’ve spied it out our window, it seems like a fine enough option for getting a swim in. We stayed more at the Sheraton when we would use our SPG rewards but since Marriott bought them & merged the programs that isn’t as lucrative, but we used to use points to upgrade to club level and get free breakfast and snacks in the lounge from 5-7pm included. If Marriott does anything similar we loved the breakfast there & it was one of our favorites until we discovered the Residence Inn. They have a free breakfast buffet included and it is top-notch, has amazing selection and plenty of seating so even when busy (which it often is) there was no issue finding tables or getting food.
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Wow, thanks for the useful info! I was strongly considering the Residence Inn on Katella based on the reviews and the fact that all the suites have kitchens. The breakfast buffet is a strong swaying factor too!
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Their room suites are VERY nice, especially having a full kitchen. The buffet is seriously amazing especially the fact that it’s included. And even though the walk is a little long (even when we hustle from there it’s a 10 min walk) there’s a 7-11 and a CVS at the corner of Harbor/Katella which is always very convenient for getting snacks/drinks/water for the room & right on your way back from the parks. There is also a Pizza Hut Express at the Residence Inn for quick, easy food.
Parking is really steep here ( I think somewhere upwards of $24) but IIRC the Fairfield and Courtyard were the same/similar priced. At the Residence Inn though, there is an actual parking garage which is nicely lit & makes parking a breeze compared to the lots of the Fairfield and Courtyard that are very limited and often need to circle a few times or pay a little more for the valet. So a better value for your money on multiple counts.
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These are really insightful tips. Thank you so much to both you and @Wahoohokie for the great tips! I actually reserved both the Courtyard and RI since there’s no cost up front to book. Now to make the final decision!
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@Wahoohokie has invaluable advice when it comes to comparing the 2 as she is THE bi-coastal Disney expert!! And I’m really happy to help enable… I mean provide insights to make a more informed decision about Disneyland accommodations.
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That’s why I come here!
Your mention of Paradise Pier got me really thinking though. I loved the Magic Morning hour I got with the 3-day ticket last time I was there. Pretty much did all of FL twice in that hour. I’d love to have the EMH every day with the onsite stay. Do you know of any way to save on the on site properties. (Like at WDW I’ve been using MVT for agency exclusives… anything like that at DLR?)
The awesome thing about EMH everyday means that you can get into DCA at all for EMH which has SO many awesome headliners that are all open for the extra hour giving you a lot of extra time later in the day to re-ride or hop to DL or just kick back & relax.
Nothing like an MVT for the west coast unfortunately. 
A few years ago there used to be a pretty good block of discounted rooms available on Orbitz and you could then stack their 15% off code on top of that which was the best savings I ever saw for on-site but I haven’t seen anything amazing since 2016 (the first time we stayed on-site was with this Orbitz stacking) and around that time it was rumored that Orbitz was only able to get a fraction of the block of rooms it used to so any discounts they get are quickly gone.
Another option is if you travel Mon-Thur during off-seasons Disney often does its own discounts that can be pretty sizable (up to 25% off) and may come with some extras like a $20 dining voucher or an anytime FP for everyone in the room or something similar. This was how we got a 2nd on-site stay at a reasonable price & while it was still way higher than what we would pay off-site, for what we got (we paid for theme park view of DCA and were upgraded to a 1-bedroom suite on a high floor and also had an anytime FP for each person) I felt like it was totally worth it.
I am not very good at checking for these discounts on-site religiously or even frequently so it may still be possible to get a good rate by watching for when discounts come out (mousesavers.com keeps very good track of past discount announcements to get you started & may have some newer options that I haven’t yet discovered). We are fortunate to be able to go multiple times a year and we know we spend way too little time in the room to justify the cost of on-site so we’d rather get 4 trips off-site staying as cheaply as comfortably possible than 1 trip on-site (but our 2 on-site trips have been for very special occasions and are full of very fond memories of the extra Disney magic that comes with EMH/on-site).
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It’s funny that WDW has so many ways to find discounted rooms, and DLR has almost none. That was the sense I got from a cursory google search about DLR resorts. I will definitely monitor mousesavers for discounts. Thanks again1
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