Homewood Suites?

[HollyB]

Has any one stayed at the Homewood Suites Anaheim Maingate (which I guess is technically in Garden Grove)? I realize that it's a couple miles from Disney, but we're only doing Disney a couple of days of the 6 we're staying and we thought it would be nice to have some room to spread out. We're 2 adults and 2 teens (both 15). We can get a pretty decent rate ($116/night) for a 1 bedroom suite (with a sitting room with a sofa bed). There is a $12 a day parking fee. Is that normal? How is the shuttle situation? Other thoughts?

This is in March, if that makes a difference. Thanks for any input.

[Lacy]

I stayed at the Homewood Suites last September when I ran the Disneyland Half Marathon. Usually I like to stay closer and be able to walk. But I wanted the Hilton bed with the race and wanted the extra space with a 2 year old. I generally love Homewood Suites so I expected it to be great.

It worked and was ok but not great. The rooms were smaller than other Homewood Suites that I stayed at and the transportation situation wasn't great. With the marathon I got a free ART pass so we used that instead of the Homewood Shuttle. I wouldn't really recommend the ART shuttle from this location. This is their longest route and only have one bus for it so it is always running late. After our ART passes expired we ended up just driving and paying to park because the shuttle wasn't very convenient from that far away. Plus we were already paying $12 a day for the car to park there so figured what's another $12 for the convenience. I forget what the rate for the Homewood shuttle was but we decided the marginal extra to park was worth it.

Overall though we were happy with the decision. Liked having a suite with a kitchen and the extra space.

Hope this helps. Have a great trip!

[meldan98]

I've never stayed there, however, I would agree with Lacy...I would highly recommend not using ART. They are never on time and if you should happen to be on an end of a route, it is possible that the bus could be filled and you would have to wait 20-50 minutes for the next bus.

[HollyB]

Thanks for the responses. So the Homewood has its own shuttle? Does that mean that it would be less crowded than the ART? We were thinking of not picking up the rental car until after we did the Disney portion because we'd save on parking at the hotel and we'd just drive from the hotel to DL's parking garage. It seemed kind of silly. Would a cab be a possibility as well or is that prohibitively expensive?

We booked a "larger suite", but I don't know what that will translate to in terms of room size. I just figured with b/g teenagers, the pull out sofa meant we didn't have to share a bed with the kids nor they with each other. Bonus!

As long as it's clean and the beds comfy, I'm good!

Thanks again for the help!

[Lacy]

It seemed that the Homewood Shuttle would be a better option. I wouldn't say that the ART shuttle was too crowded, just not reliably on a schedule. I think I read reviews that said most people were happy with the shuttle run by the hotel. And certainly cheaper than paying at the hotel and parking structure everyday!

A suite definitely sounds like a good option with teenagers!

[HollyB]

Thanks, Lacy. Presumably we can just make arrangements for the shuttle when we get there, right? Also, you wouldn't happen to know if there was a shuttle from the Homewood to the Santa Ana airport would you?

[Lacy]

Yes, you can arrange the shuttle at the front desk when you check in. Not sure about a shuttle from the airport. In the past I have used the Disneyland Express shuttle and it is okay but it will always stop at the Disney hotels before other so the trip can be kind of long.

[HollyB]

We just got back, so I thought I'd post about the hotel in this thread in case anyone else is checking it out. We had a "larger suite" (room 201), which was decent sized. The one room had the kitchenette and a pull out sofa. The bedroom had two queen beds. Both rooms had a TV. The view was of the parking lot.

The room was clean--sheets, blankets, etc. all looked good. No issues with bugs at any time. The shower was clean, but tiny and stained. Some previous occupant had pulled down the shower rod, cracking the tub surround (which had lost a big chunk), we reported this--although I assume they knew--because they just screwed the rod into the exposed drywall, which is likely to cause an eventual mold issue. The sink was outside of the toilet/shower room. The bedroom had two decent sized closets, but there was no in-room safe.

The breakfast was plentiful--waffles, and some sort of egg/potatoes most mornings, but it wasn't very varied. We stayed six nights and I was pretty tired of the choices after the 4th breakfast. Breakfast was 6-9 weekdays and 6:30 to 9:30 on the weekends.

There was a dinner buffet Su-Th, from 5 to 7, but we were never in the hotel at that time.

There was an outdoor pool, but it was too cold to swim. The only other hotel facility we used was the laundry room--3 washers, 3 dryers--$1.25 to wash/$1.00 to dry $1.50 to buy powdered soap. It took 2 cycles to dry jeans and heavier clothes.

The front desk was helpful, we did by the passes for the shuttle on the two days we went to Disney--$4 each day per adult (and the 15 year old kids counted as adults), but there was a deal for 3+ days. The first shuttle left 40 minutes before the park opened. on the :20 or the :50. The last shuttle back was an hour after the park closed. The shuttle left from the white zone at :00 and :30. There were too many people for one shuttle one morning, but the company sent another shuttle and we only waited an extra 5+ minutes. Going home one night, there were too many people, so they put a family on another shuttle. That was nice. It would have been possible to walk, but it's about 2.5 miles.

The area where the hotel was felt safe. There were several other hotels in the area and a few restaurants (Red Robin, a pizza place, etc.) in the parking lot across the street.

The hotel did charge for extras, which surprised us. We needed a toothbrush for my son, normally, Homewood will just hand over a cheap one. Here, we had to buy one from the pantry. They charge $12/day to park.

However, we had a $116/night (plus taxes and fees) rate, so overall I thought it was worth it to have more room to spread out, the sofa bed, the breakfast, and the fact that it was clean. For all that, I could live with the dated carpets/decor and the boring menu.

Bottomline: Needs an update, but clean, reasonably priced, basic lodging. I recommend it.

[tinkwest]

Thanks so much for reporting. I am sure it will be of help to someone in the future.