never booked at DL please help!!!!!

[TEXASPRINCESSES]

My DH, DD and I have been to WDW 4 times in the past 6 years and we are even DVC owners. We have, however, decided to change it up this year and want to go Disneyland this summer. However, wow the point conversion stinks and the out of pocket rate is scary--anyone out there stayed in any of the DL hotels and can you convenince me to spend the moola or can you recommend an offsite hotel? (We are spoiled as we have always stayed in deluxes at wdw..)

thanks in advance for your help.....

 

[disneedee]

dl hotel rates are definitely higher than wdw
don't have an great money saving ideas. if you are used to deluxes you might try priceline but will have to rent a car or shuttle to dl. if you need to stay at a dl property it will cost you more than you think it should but it is much closer to the entertainment than at wdw. there are some moderate hotels across the street from dl that are reasonable but no 4 stars

 

[Chicago526]

DL is definatly a differant creature than WDW! If you're looking for that "WDW resort feel", the only way to get it is to stay at one of the three resort hotels (DL Hotel, Paradise Pier, or Grand Californian). Of the three, PP is the least expensive, DLH is in the middle, and GC is the most expensive. But even so, DL is MUCH smaller than WDW. Imagine driving down the street of a large suburb. Look over to the right, and there's Disneyland! Nothing like the 48 square miles of Flordia swamp land, let me tell you!

But, because of that, you don't really need to stay on property to have a great time and a "Disney" experiance. You can stay at one of the hotels across the street and just walk 5 minutes to the turnstiles of the parks. Because of this, if you're goal is to spend most of your time in the parks or DTD, then you don't need to stay at a Disney resort, you should save your money (or your points) for other things.

But, if you'll be spending a good deal of time at your hotel and enjoying the facilities, then you may want to consider one of the DL hotels. Their facilities are top notch, just like in WDW and you're still very close to the parks. For a comparable 4 or 5 star hotel off-site, you'll need to either rent a car or rely on shuttles, as far as I know all the nicer hotels are further away from DL. The Mousesavers.com site recomends the Anaheim Hilton, it' can often be had for less than $200 a night and from the pictures I've seen, looks VERY nice.

Personally, for my upcomming trip, I'm staying across the street (literaly) from DL and paying $59 a night at the Desert Inn and Suites. Very basic accomodations, but we'll only be in the room to sleep, shower, change, and to store our stuff!

 

[hlbtimes2]

Yep, what Chicago said.

We stayed on site for our last trip, in Oct. We stayed at PP, conc. level with a park view. It was a great trip- however, we didnt really spend enough time in our hotel to make it worth the extra expense. We are going again in March. We will be staying at the candy cane inn. We are saving about $1000 for the same length of trip. With the kids fly free special from Seattle, we have 4 nights at the CCI, which includes breakfast and a private suttle for $1400. Its a bargin!

Give us a little more about your needs- do you need a super nice hotel and great pool or a place to sleep? Do you want to rent a car or would you like to use shuttles? etc, etc.

 

[momsgoofy]

We are DVC members also and decided to head west this summer. We are using our points to stay at the Grand Californian, standard view, which will cost us 29pts. per night. I know it's kinda high points wise, but we banked some from this use year and don't think we're going to get to use them any other time of our use year. The Disneyland Hotel standard view would only be 23pts. per night, which is really pretty cheap from what I've read on the DVC threads. I've been told the GC is a wonderful property...4 star according to guidebooks I've read and completely non-smoking (Yeah from an asthma sufferer!) We just decided to use the points since we had them and the closeness can't be beaten. I know there are many hotels near DL that are super close, but we just want to stay at a Disney property...we've really come to like the quality and service. If you have any DVC specific questions you can ask them on the DVC Planning board...I got some great info there.

 

[hlbtimes2]

The other two hotels will be going smoke free start in March.

 

[Disneymooners93]

Do you realize the points have been lowered relatively recently? It's still not great but they did go down, about 25% I believe, for DLH and GC. Depends on how you value your points. I am planning a trip on points as I find the point value is good compared to the cash rates I could get at DLH and GC as well as the off-site hotels for the time I am going.

As far as whether to stay on or off it depends, as always. For the Disney vacation we took to Disneyland, we stayed at DLH and it was fabulous. When we moved close to DL and took several trips a year we went with the area hotels for the savings. They were fine for frequent trips but the on-site hotels have the Disney Magic we look for out of vacations.

 

[MrShiny]

My favorite off site motels are Candy Cane Inn and the Del Sol. Both within walking distance (in fact, closer to the gates of DL than the Disney hotels). That being said, a stay at the Disney hotels isn't bad - especiall the GC 9the only one similar to a WDW deluxe).

 

[stampinshauna]

If you want accomodations similar to DVC (with kitchen) you may want to consider a Marriott Residence Inn. There are a couple that aren't too far (but you may not want to walk to & from the parks).

We stayed at the Fairfield across the street once and at the HOJO. Both were okay, but not as nice as a Disney hotel (but worth it for the price).

We just need to get some DVC villas at Disneyland!!!