Just got home and I knew I had to write a trip report since I relied on mouseplanet so heavily while I planned.
Travel dates: April 14, 2008 - april 19th
Travel method: Car -- we live in the Bay Area
Resort: Homewood Suites in Garden Grove
Accommodations: 1 room suite
Ages Represented in Group: parents (thirty-something) and 2 boys, ages 4 and 7
Disney Resort Experience Represented in Group: All of us have been a few times, me the most....

Hotel: That's what the sad face is for, we had a really bad experience. I'd asked to be on a lower level, and while they coudln't accomodate us the first night, she promised she'd get me on the first floor the 2nd night (and they'd move all our things for us), when we got back from DL it turns out they put us on the 2nd floor, which was a bummer -- but tolerable (frankly, I would've rather just stayed in my other room if I couldn't be on the first floor). UNTIL we slowly realized the room had no AC (by this time the kids were asleep and we'd unpacked everything -- it stayed about 80 degrees all night long), but the straw the broke our back was when my husband found a 2 inch cockroach crawling up his leg at about 2 am.... I am SO not a bug person so this gave me the heebie jeebies all night long, and I was hardly able to rest. I made my husband call the front desk (after I also made him search the room for the bug he'd flipped off our bed) and they said they'd switch us the next day. They did switch us, and I did talk to the manager who assured us that this was very unusual for their hotel and he apologized, giving us that night credited. I was OK with this response until I was walking out to breakfast the next am when I heard one of the managers saying "I don't get it, when I left they KNEW those rooms had no A/C but they sitill put guests in it." I was really bothered by the fact they'd intentionally made our stay bad. I mean, I was paying 150 dollars/night to stay in a motel 6, at least that's how I felt. I had booked my room through getawaytoday and the manager said he'd speak with them to have it credited, but he never did. Finally today, they got a hold of him and they provided us with the credit (btw, Getawaytoday was great through all of this, they called him and left several messages asking him to call them, but he never did). Anyway, I did call coporate and complain that the error was intentional and I wouldn't be staying at Hilton resort any time son. I will say that the breakfasts were OK, I would've liked more fresh fruit, but they had quite a few offerings, and the dinners were a big help, we really enjoyed not having to eat out the 3 nights they provided it. We had Pizza (with salad), Sloppy joes (with salad), and Burgers (with chips and salad -- but the salad's good, a few offerings at a "salad bar" -- tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, I appreciated that it wasn't just the bagged salad). Breakfast is from 6-9 (later on the weekends) and the dinner is from 5-7 Mon-Thur.

Disneyland: OMG, it was so great. The lines were not bad AT all! I think our longest wait was for Nemo -- and it was only 1/2 an hour (although we did see it stretching to an hour several times while we were there). My husband even got on the top 10 at Buzz Lightyear on our last day -- you'd think he won the olympics. We had a 5 day park hopper (pay for 3, get five) -- and honestly, five days at DL is a REALLY LONG time with a 7 year old and a 4 year old -- they loved it, couldn't get enough of it and I wanted to unscrew my feet and throw them away. :) I wish we'd only gone for 4, but when you have 5, you kinda feel like you need to use them. :) We saw the parade in DL one night, and it was great (but we saw the same one when we were there 2 years ago, which is mildly annoying -- kids loved it though) and we decided to watch the Electrical Parade on Friday night since that was a favorite memory of mine as a child. The Electircal parade was a great way to top-off our visit and we didn't have to get there early at all -- lots of seating available. My main beef was there were VERY FEW characters out. I mean, for the first day we didn't see a single one (granted, we didn't get into the park til' around 3pm, but still). It a made me a little sad, but I felt better since I wasn't waiting in line forever.

Oh, we also ate at the Blue Bayou, that sandwich is everything I'd ever heard about -- and the kids were so happy to be there. I think I'll try a character meal next time, but it was sure fun (and SUPER yummy).

I am sorry to hear about your experience at homewood. We have stayed there a couple of time and both times were great. I am so not a bug person also :eek: and that would freak me out at any hotel! I am glad they at least got around to giving you a nights credit.

At least the parks weren't too crazy busy. I can't wait to see the electrical parade on our trip, I've missed it. Glad you and your boys had a great time!

Oh heck no! I would have freaked too! I can handle a lot of things but creepy crawlies are something that I don't deal with! I am glad to hear that Getaway Today was great but what a butthead manager. I would follow up with a letter to corporate too.

I'm really sorry you had such a bad experience at the Homewood Suites. We have stayed there three times over the past five years and have had nothing but top notch service on all three occasions. That being said, two of the trips had minor incidents that were attended to promptly. Even so, we'd stay there again for sure.

The friends we stayed with last August had a flood in their room (the sink plug had been left in by the maid) and they were moved promptly. The heater-a/c in our room in March wasn't working, but a repair man was sent out right away to fix it. I don't think these are anything out of the ordinary for a large hotel (what hotel doesn't have occasional problems?), and I think the management did their best to rectify the problems in a timely manner.

I'm really glad the rest of your trip went well. :)

We were just at DL(not at this hotel) and all I caould think about before going to bed is your story of the cockroach. I couldn't sleep at all. I told DH about your story he was grossed out to but had no problem sleeping. I was so gald to be back in my bed.

I am sorry to hear that you had a bad experience with Homewood. We stayed there last summer and loved it. We had one minor issue in our room and it was fixed within 15 minutes.

We will be there in less than 4 weeks and hope not to find any bugs in our bed!

I'm sorry to hear about your Homewood experience. We just returned last night from 3 days there and our experience wasn't stellar either.
I'm soooo glad though that I didn't read about your cockroach experience beforehand, otherwise I would have cancelled! We are RI regulars, but Homewood always has cheaper rates and I wanted to check it out, and now I see why!
We arrived to find just one chair at the kitchen table and having 4 of us, requested 2 more chairs, and they were so quickly delivered, I barely had time to get to the door. My request to stay in the back of the hotel was accommodated, but only to be put right over the pool and to have screaming kids until 10pm.
The worst was yet to come, with our toilet being stopped up, not unusual for a hotel I guess, but to not have maintenance come until almost 3 hours later and in the morning was really more than we could take and having one potty training child with us.
Also, the room cleanliness was enough to just about send me over the edge. We noticed that just 2 hours into our stay, that the bottoms of all our feet were blackened with dirt from the carpet. Yuk!
I have to mention the breakfast too, which is the deal breaker for us. It's 1/3 of what RI has, and the only fruit we saw for 3 mornings was apples and bananas. That just doesn't cut it for us with kids. And only white bread for toast, no wheat. The same lemon poppyseed muffins 3 mornings in a row too. The "dinners" were pretty bad too. The pizza was individual pizzas that were hardly edible, rather cardboard tasting, but the salad bar was ok, in that it wasn't the bagged salad like you mentioned, but had a few toppings and I gave the kids some cucumbers with dressing for dip and tomatoes.

Try RI next time, we're sticking with them!