Leahkay1217
Family · December 20254/10
I had such high hopes. I love history and mid century design. When I saw that the Anaheim Hotel had both of those elements and that it was not a big hotel chain, I thought what a fun way to spend my ...I had such high hopes. I love history and mid century design. When I saw that the Anaheim Hotel had both of those elements and that it was not a big hotel chain, I thought what a fun way to spend my 20th anniversary trip to Disneyland.
Sadly that wish quickly disappeared. The hotel strategically shows only the parts that have been updated in its promo pictures on its website. Which is basically the lobby and what I assume are a handful of suites they’ve focused a full renovation on so that they can show pictures on their website of shiny new tubs. I’m guessing there are maybe three on the property.
We had booked an Executive double king room. The website pictures looked bright and modern. They show a very clever camera angle for the bathroom, but it doesn’t represent what you get. The first room we got was in the very back of the hotel property, past a series of equipment sheds and looked like a sad apartment complex. The room was dark, old, and smelled like mildew. The bathroom was easily 25 years with no update, multiple layers of paint trying to cover black mold, rust and mildew. There were hairs in corners, and what did it for me was the huge long black hair dangling from the tub faucet. The room was not clean, full stop.
I asked for a room with a possibly more updated (or even just cleaner) bathroom. The hotel manager stated, “we going to be doing a huge remodel on the bathrooms, but after Christmas.” Unfortunately this doesn’t help me at all, and how many times has this been said to guests I wonder.
The manager also said that if rooms didn’t meet our needs, she would refund us and we could go find another hotel. This felt a bit hasty. I said I really did want to stay there, but wanted more tolerable bathroom. I just flew five hours and wanted a decent room, not to search for a new hotel. I was given a room in the 200 Building, much closer to the lobby which was helpful. The room was slightly larger maybe by a few feet in width. This bathroom was the same tired bathroom with layers of paint trying to bring it back to life, but this one was slightly less peeling, less rust and mildew and a bit cleaner than the first. I figured this would be about as good as it would get and accepted it.
With the age of the property I’m sure the ventilation system is as it was decades ago, and it is struggling. Our entire visit our room was always teetering on damp. The first night our bed felt almost wet with how humid the room was. The room smelled like old basement air. The windows were welded shut, so even opening them a crack in as impossible. It may have helped.
Then, the bugs. Oh my the bugs. Our first night getting in from Disneyland, I thought we had somehow left our room door open too long with the amount of little fly/moths. I spent twenty minutes swatting about a dozen of them. I was certain I had gotten all of them, and then by morning, there were more, and they were clustering by the one window in the room and in the bathroom mirror area. I can’t prove it, but they had to have been already in the room somewhere or getting in through cracks. If you stay at this hotel and are squeamish around insects, this will be a problem. They were hiding under so many things. Lift my husband’s shoe off the floor, a silverfish falls out. Lift the hand towel off the counter, a moth was hiding under it. I didn’t complain because I knew they would have maintenance come spray bug killer and I didn’t want to breathe that. That was the suggested fix to the first moldy smelling room: “we have a spray for the smell.” I don’t want a moldy room smelling like flowers. I just want a dry room. I don’t think there was a small fix to the bugs, other than fumigation of the property, so I gave up and just did bug killer duty every time we got back to the room, for six days…sigh.
Pros: The staff was nice. Mike, one of the valets showed us to our new room and was very kind and helpful. We appreciated his attention to detail and genuine warmth. Thank you Mike!
The pool area is wonderful. A huge Olympic sized pool that looked very clean and well taken care of the whole six days we were there. Our bed was fine, comfortable.
Cons: The place is just a little bit broken everywhere. Toilet paper holder: busted on one side almost falling off the wall. Bath drain stopper: knob was broken and the stopper ended up sticking shut and my husband had to spend ten minutes prying it open. Water: cold by the end of my shower. Tiles: chipped and scratched bad. Counter: burned, melted marks. Carpet: old, tired, dirty. The one “retro” orange chair photographed on every picture on their website: dirty beyond belief. Brown instead of orange. Everything, literally everything felt slightly moist. I know the advice of management would have been “we’ll call maintenance” but there’s a certain point where, should I really have to? Shouldn’t some of this stuff be regularly addressed in between guests staying in the room?
If you’re going here because you want to feel like a fun retro resort vibe, this isn’t it. Covering everything in thick white paint, a few neon signs and some fun accent colors is doing a disservice to the potential of a true renovation of a historic property with some beautiful features (palms, atrium style trees down the corridors, good lines and angles). If you want to be close to the park, that’s why you stay here. Obviously the location is phenomenal. Thats the saving grace of it. But you’re basically staying at a Days Inn with some fun paint.
I’m not sure when they did the balloon surprise thing because I think those days are long over. Our 20th wedding anniversary triggered no attention whatsoever.
Until the cleanliness, bugs, moisture, and old broken rooms are addressed, I won’t be back.Show More
