When it came to planning our California mini vacation I have to admit I was a bit stressed. I had bought and paid off the airline tickets a few months ago but kept stalling on booking a hotel. Actually I stalled on booking two hotels. We needed one for my cousin’s wedding and a second for when we headed to Anaheim. When it came to the wedding I knew we would be staying at the hotel hosting the wedding but had absolutely no idea where to stay in Anaheim. All I knew was my goal was to find something for less than $200 a night.
That ended up being a lot harder than I imagined when I started searching. I normally don’t look at hotels with less than three stars but based on my budget I had to let go of my prejudice and just kept searching. One hotel that kept popping up and had pretty good reviews was Quality Inn and Suites Anaheim. Reluctantly I booked my stay and put it out of my mind. The website photos looked nice and they offered free breakfast. Oh, and the site said it was walking distance to the Disney parks.
Now, if you know me then you know I don’t get stressed out a lot. When it came to this trip I was dealing with all types of stresses. My biggest stress was transportation. My cousin was getting married in Oxnard, CA which is about an hour to an hour and a half from LA. And Anaheim is at least two hours from Oxnard (okay one hour and forty-eight minutes – no traffic). Oh, and I don’t drive (in case you don’t know). Originally I had planned to have a ride to get around but life happens and plans change. Days out from the wedding I had no idea how I would be getting from point A to B to C back to A but even though I was stressed I kept praying and researching. The best I could come up with was taking airport shuttles back and forth from point A to B back to A then from point A to C and back. Yea, sure that sounds like fun to you too.
This seemed to be the most inexpensive route as anyone that has heard of California traffic can imagine how much a Lyft or Uber would have cost. Trying to figure out the shuttle plan I called over to the Quality Inn and Suites hoping they could recommend a good shuttle company. I swear God put an angel on the phone with me. Keneisha (might be spelling her name wrong because I didn’t get the chance to meet her and confirm) answered and dealt with me ranting about my traveling woes. She was so kind and pleasant over the phone. She gave me the shuttle info, pricing and told me she even uses the same company when she travels. Then she had an aha moment before we got off of the phone. She told me there was an Amtrak station in Oxnard and in Anaheim. This angel saved me over $100 and hours of worry with this tip. I was so sad we didn’t get to meet and thank her while there.
After a long day of traveling JustaBXgirl and I got to the property around 6:30p/7p on a Saturday. Anja was working the front desk and was so friendly. Now, I know that people working front desks are supposed to be friendly and helpful but the staff at the Quality Inn really seemed genuine. They were very open to being of assistance and just seemed to enjoy their jobs. That meant a lot to me. I love that even though they work with a park shuttle system Anja was very open about the park being walking distance and a Lyft only being about $4 if I didn’t want to walk.
The rooms were cute too. And I loved that even though it was only a two star property there was still a microwave, refrigerator and safe in the room. Yes, for many these are basics but again not all two star properties have them. They had two waffle makers for breakfast and the lines weren’t too bad and they had fruit available to grab and go. I always love being able to grab something from breakfast to take to the park. There were other things for breakfast but other than an english muffin and the waffles we only had the fruit.
The pool reminded me of a backyard pool but it was clean and JustaBXgirl had fun and made friends while going for a quick dip. It went from 4 feet I believe to 8 feet so if you have little littles make sure to bring them some type of floatation device. My absolute favorite part (other than the customer service) was that you could see the fireworks from the Disney parks a bit right from the hotel. We didn’t plan to watch them from there so I didn’t scout the best viewing location. We happened to be in the room and I heard them going off and figured we would see if we could see any. We saw a lot and it helped distract JustaBXgirl from a tantrum she was having.
I’m not sure how soon we will be back to Anaheim but if I’m on a budget when we return I would definitely consider staying here again. Next time though I will request being on the ground floor because they don’t have an elevator to get to the second story.
