On our recent trip to Dinseyland, we HAD to stay at the NEW Marriott Courtyard Theme Park Entrance. My kids are all about the pools/waterparks at hotels. To them, that is all that matters. So they REALLY wanted to stay here and try the place out.
It met my criteria of being within walking distance of Disneyland entrance, and it is a nice looking hotel, which if you’ve seen some of hotels near Disneyland, you know they are not all very good on the “nice/clean/decent scale.”
Now, I am still going to highly recommend to HOJO Anaheim to people, but I have to say this is my new favorite hotel within walking distance of Disneyland. The rooms are AMAZING and large enough for a bigger family! SCORE! Not to mention the awesome waterpark – the kids favorite! It is bigger than the HOJO, and has larger slides for the big kids. It is missing the other pool that HOJO has though. (really, you can’t go wrong with either hotel!).
The biggest downside is having to pay for valet parking. Lame. At the Hojo, you get free parking, which I like much better! Other than that, the hotel amenities are similar.
The hotel rooms are amazing. They are large and easily accommodated our family. 2 Queen Beds, Bunk Beds, 1.5 bathrooms, a large table, refrigerator, microwave, desk. Having the 2 showers/bathroom areas was nice, however having a second toilet would have been nice to have as well. The shower was HUGE – seriously could easily fit our entire family. The bunk beds are fun for the kids. There is a table/eating area that is larger than I expected. You’ll also find the traditional refrigerator and microwave that is fairly standard in most hotel rooms now (I won’t stay in a hotel unless they have a refrigerator). There are lots of fine and nice touches that make you feel like you are staying in a nice hotel.
Whole family easily fit into the giant shower
The waterpark was great for the kids. The dump bucket play area has 3 waterslides for the little kids – a small side by side “racing” one, and then 2 separate enclosed ones. Plus lots of water guns, buckets, and water features for the kids to play with. There is a kiddie wading pool as well.
The larger waterslides have a 40″ height restriction. My 3 older kids really enjoyed them (kid #4 was barely tall enough, but chicken. He preferred the smaller ones). There is a lifeguard at the top to help with safety. There is also a lap type pool. It isn’t huge, but fun to play in as a family. There is a hot tub to soak away the sore feet and tiredness of the day. You will get bracelets for the waterpark when you check into your room. You can check in early and enjoy it before your room is ready and enjoy it until the end of the day that you checked out. We had nothing to do after checking out, until our late flight, so we just hung out and swam! Great way to spend time without spending more money or the kids getting bored.
You can also watch the fireworks from your room or out at the pool area. We were out swimming when the fireworks were going, and thoroughly enjoyed watching them out there while sitting the hot tub!
If you have a larger family, like us, or just want plenty of space to spread out in a NICE hotel, I highly recommend staying at the Marriott Courtyard Theme Park Entrance. We will be staying here again when the opportunity arises, as it will fit our family, is within walking distance, the rooms are amazing and nice, and the waterpark is AWESOME! Big hit with our family. Now if we just didn’t have to pay for parking there, I’d be perfect!
