Review title
Ants in room and room key given to strangers
Review excerpt
If you're thinking the price point and location of this place seems too good to be true ... you're right!
I travel a lot. I've stayed in five-star resorts and budget motels. I'm not fussy. I just want a clean bed for the few hours that I will be outside the Disney parks. The bed was clean, but there were so many other issues that travelers should be aware of before reserving a room here.
First, when we arrived, we were given room 117. It looked as if the airconditioning unit was about to fall out of the wall. Black mold covered the ceiling. The TV still had antennae. The beds were barely upright, and the drawers on the dresser were wobbly and wouldn't close. Still, I figured I could make due for a few nights.
It was late, so my husband and I asked where we could eat. Basically, the only option was Denny's, and it was closed. There were no convenience stores nearby to get snacks, and the food in the vending machine appeared to have been leftover from the last millennium. Not to mention, you couldn't access the machine because a screen from a nearby window had fallen out and blocked the path. At the same time, ice poured from the ice machine to the ground at random intervals!
So, we decided to go for a bit of a walk to Downtown Disney to get a feel for the trek. According to most sites, it is a one block walk to all parts of Disney. Even taking a short cut through the Grand Californian Hotel, the walk was 15 to 20 minutes at best. To get to the parks, it was precisely 1 block to the crosswalk, 2 blocks to the Grand Californian, about 1 block to cut through the hotel, and then a long walk across the length of Downtown Disney. Now, I'm young and in good shape so I can handle the walk, but it wasn't what I was expecting based on what I had read about the hotel.
But, this is all superficial. I'll get to the real reason why I wouldn't stay here again. When we returned to the room--still hungry--I undressed and was getting ready to shower when the toilet wouldn't flush. We were about to let the front desk know that we would need assistance, when we discovered our bathtub had been infested with ants. We had to walk to the front desk to tell them because there were no labels on the phone to tell us how to get service. When we got there, they weren't sure if they could give us another room. Fortunately, they could.
The next room was much better. It was bigger, cleaner, and a touch more modern. Had we received this room originally, it would have gone a long way for first impressions. All was well... for a while.
The next afternoon, we took an uncharacteristic break from the parks. In the early afternoon, we came back to our room for a nap. We never do this, but fortunately, we did this time. As we lay there half asleep, we could hear what appeared to be our door opening. We rushed to answer, assuming it would be housekeeping, only to find two teenage boys with a key to our room. They had been assigned to our suite. Had we not been there, they could have taken anything. That night when we returned to the hotel, our key wouldn't work because it had been reprogrammed when the room was given to the boys. The staff did not ask for our I.D. Instead, they just gave us a new key, no questions asked. Again, we could have been anyone looking to steal from unsuspecting tourists.
The next day, we had asked for a 7 a.m. wakeup call. It never came. We missed the extra magic hour as a result. The staff was unsympathetic. Not a big deal, but it starts to add up after a while.
Finally, when I asked for help locating the Disneyland Hotel, the front desk person told me he had no knowledge of the Disney parks. Common hotel courtesy is to have at least a basic knowledge of the local attractions. The hotel was visible from the front desk--he just needed to point.
It wasn't the room so much as the service that turned me off of this place. Take my advice: Pay the extra $20 a night to stay some place else.