Anyone stayed at the Disneyland Hotel at DLP?

[madamy]

We'd like to go to DLP next year - probably in Feb to take advantage of current kids free and dine free offer. The DCs are 6, 4 and 2 so also want to go whilst ds is young enough for a cot as the family rooms are too expensive.

As it will be cold in Feb and the dcs are small we are wondering whether to blow the budget and stay in the Disneyland Hotel - easier to pop back to during the day.

Is it really alot nicer than the other hotels? The photos of the rooms in the cheaper ones look worse than a Travelodge! The free meals are also the premium vouchers so a much better choice of restaurant.

Have been before to the cheaper hotels, cheyenne mainly and off for the week tomorrow as well.

It is nicer than the other hotels but none of them are that bad really and i've never found them as bad as a travelodge!

All the vouchers can be put towards a meal in any restaurant so it doesn't have to be one of the listed restaurants. You do have to pay the difference though.

Would recommend looking at this website which i've found quite helpful.

Hi We have been to disney 3 times. Twice at the Dieneyland hotel ( first time was september over dd 3rd birthday) and second time was in June when dd was 4. The last time we went was last December 17,18th & 19th and we stayed at the SantaFe because everyone had said that it was a waste of £ staying at the Disneyland, and that the Santa Fe was just the same.
In truth it was a disaster, there were huge queues to check in, check out, we had to get busses, the breakfast was a cattle market, people screaming and even smacking their overtired children (sorry but that in itself put me off my breakfast!), all in all not nice. The room was smaller than the disnayland but with same layout of two double beds. The bathroom was not at all nice, and the carpets were filthy (I didn't want to walk bare feet) It was also very noisy. I would rate a travel lodge as FAR more comfortable, cleaner with far better service than the Santa Fe. We really wished we hadn't listened. After a busy day at the parks, you need a bit of luxury and we just didn't get that at the Santa fe.
The disneyland hotel is quiet, calm, spacious, inviting and clean. The check in is easy and the rooms are large bright and warm. We found it really easy to pop back to the hotel to change for dinner etc and to rest! (when my dd was 3 she also napped there in the afternoon - perfect!)The last thing you want to do after a whole days queuing is wait for a shuttle bus with other peoples screaming children. I have to say that The disneyland hotel is very expensive, but well worth every penny. The characters are there at breakfast, this can be a bit chaotic but still a wonderful experience)
We are going back in March this year (dd will be 6) and have booked the Disneyland hotel again.
I think it is well worth the extra just for the peace and quiet and feeling like you are getting a treat too!
Also would say that at the moment if you book the disneyland hotel you get free meals the disneyland hotel booking comes with free premium meals like the disney princess meal, the disneyland hotel character dinner buffet etc, so well worth doing!!!
Good Luck!

We recently stayed at the Newport Bay, it was O.K, but looking a bit tired, but to be honest we were only in it to sleep, so that was fine. We have also stayed in the New York which was fine.

People have told me that the Disneyland Hotel is probably not worth the money (it would have cost us an extra £500 when we went, just for 3 nights), but that it's worth doing at least once just for the experience. So my advice would be if you can afford it - go for it, if you would be struggling go for one of the others.

As pinkmouse says if you can get the 'free dining' offer, it means that every meal can be a character meal, which would be amazing for your children. Also I think that you can see the Wild West Show which would easily cost over £100 (maybe a lot more), so remember to take that into account if it's something you would like to see.

Also given the ages of your children, it would be useful not to have the walk through the village to get back to your hotel. My kids are older so it was not a problem, although one night my dh & dd got one of the shuttle buses, which we thought were free, but i think it cost 2 euro's each. So if you need to convince yourself that the Disneyland Hotel is worth it, work out how much you could spend on the shuttle bus over the duration of your visit.

I have only been to DLP once (treat from in-laws) and they booked us in to the Disneyland Hotel - it was fabulous, the food was excellent and the rooms were lovely. DS wet the bed the second night and the sheets etc were changed with not a murmer. Staff were fantastic and friendly and very geared up for the children. Disney characters attend breakfast and dinner so children can be photographed etc.

Really handy to be able to pop back during the day too as well as getting an extra 2 hours in the park at times and having a fastpass which avoided queues - having said that we went in school time so did not really have any queues to contend with.

If I can afford it in the future I'll go back and won't go anywhere other than the Disneyland Hotel.

Ye- forgot to say with Premium meal tickets you can swap one night's worth for the Buffalo Bill Wild West show which is excellent and comes with food and beer (or fruit juice for children).

We stayed at Newport Bay which is not that far from everything, and we loved it, we only ever ate breakfast there which was fine, it has a nice bar overlooking the lake (where they have firework displays on some evenings) and the characters are always there too, we went in january btw, hth.