One of my favorite things when traveling to Disneyland Resort in California is to stay in one of the three Disney properties- The Disneyland Hotel, The Grand Californian, or Paradise Pier. That being said, there are times when it is simply more cost effective to stay at a Good Neighbor property. For example, when my family and I priced out our most recent trip to Disneyland, staying at the Hilton Anaheim saved us $2000! That paid for our airline and several meals at the parks! So, in this case, we chose to stay at the Hilton Anaheim. I highly recommend this Good Neighbor Hotel. Here is why:
1. Location and convenience to the park- the Hilton Anaheim is 0.9 miles away from the front gate at Disneyland. It is an easy walk and we did walk it, but since we log plenty of steps while at the two theme parks, we chose to purchase tickets to the busses run by Anaheim Transit. These shuttles run every 20 minutes and were safe and easy to use. While we weren’t at a Disneyland Resort hotel, we were close and had easy access to the parks.
2. Amenities in the hotel- we arrived at the hotel around 2pm on our first day. We hadn’t had lunch yet and went to see what there was to eat in the hotel. We found a Food Court with a sandwich shop, an Italian restaurant, and a Mexican choice. This was perfect fare for a late lunch since we had an early dinner scheduled elsewhere. There was also a full service restaurant where we had a great breakfast buffet on the morning of our departure. There were two gift shops with great selections. There was an Enterprise car rental desk, a Disneyland Tickets desk (which you wouldn’t need if you’d booked with me, but still!), and a Super Shuttle desk. There was also in room dining available.
3. Comfortable rooms- the rooms were fresh and clean and beautifully decorated. There were plenty of towels for our family of five to use along with great amenities like flat screen TV’s and high quality soaps and shampoos. The queen size beds were comfortable and plenty of pillows were available including the foam pillows my husband insists on using. The showers were equipped with new showerheads.
4. Starbucks Coffee- Most everyone I know loves Starbucks and the Hilton Anaheim has their own Starbucks Coffee Shop. Whether you love a great cup of dark roast in the morning or one of their fluffier drinks, you can get it at the shop in the Hilton. They even had a stand in the lobby with a limited menu that was right on the way out of the hotel when we were on our way to the shuttle bus. It was very convenient!
5. The Service- I believe the service is the best reason I can think of to stay at any hotel. If it’s a small, clean motel with great customer service I’d be willing to stay there. The Hilton Anaheim is no small motel. And the service is definitely five stars. When we arrived, my reservation was mistakenly marked as two rooms- one with a king, one with two queens. What we really needed was two rooms both with two queens, connecting if possible. Keep in mind it was Christmas time and the hotel was close to sold out. The front desk agent was friendly and glad to accommodate us. We walked away with exactly what we needed including the connecting rooms. That was only the first example of great service. Another was on our last morning there; we went to the breakfast buffet. We had a great conversation with the omelet server and also our table server. In fact, our table server ended up bringing us a complimentary piece of cake. Yes, we had dessert with breakfast, but in our defense, it was Christmas Eve! The people were happy to be working there. Isn’t that the kind of place you want to stay? I do!
So, I’ll end up by saying that sometimes the lesser expensive of two options CAN be the better choice. Especially if that lesser expensive option is the Hilton Anaheim!
Let me know when I can price a trip to the Disneyland Resort for you and your family and help you choose the best alternative for you!
Jeri@TravelwiththeMagic.com
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