Cortona Inn and Suites

[NewDVCowner]

I was just down this last weekend to visit Disneyland and stayed at the Cortona Inn and Suites and thought I'd write a quick review for the boards on it.

The hotel was clean, fairly inexpensive and not TOO far from the parks. I'd stay here again if I needed to, though it wouldn't be my first choice.

The pluses. The room was large, though we were upgraded to a mini suite when we checked in - I suspect it's because it was the second time my sister had stayed here and they do cater to the business group as it is close to the convention center. We had two queen beds (as opposed to two double beds in the standard room) in the bedroom and then the front room had a pull out couch. There was a larger sized mini fridge, microwave and coffee maker. The only downside was that my sisters said that they thought when they were in the regular room on an earlier trip the vanitiy was outside of the bathroom, which would have been easier with four women trying to get readin in the morning. There was very much a lack of mirrors/counter space outside of the bathroom.

There was a decent free breakfast offered. On both Saturday and Sunday they had cinnamon rolls, cold cereal (Raisin Bran, Fruit Loops and something I couldn't identify) bread (with a toaster) coffee, tea and juice. There were also oranges and possibly apples (I ate an orange and don't remember if I saw apples or not). On Saturday there was also hard boiled eggs and biscuits and gravy. Sunday there was french toast and scrambled eggs (they were NOT pancakes, even though they looked like them, further confused by the syrup for the french toast sitting next to them. Do not make that mistake as someone in our group did.) All that being said, this is a hotel, not a restaurant, and that was very clear in the quality of the food.

Also, the hotel is set back from the road so there was very little street noise. There was a pool, but I didn't use it.

The cons. Even though they bill themselves as 'just one and a half blocks from the Disney entrance' these are LONG blocks and I wouldn't really consider it easy walking distance - especially after a long day at the parks. HOWEVER, the Toy Story parking lot is directly across the street. It would be an easy walk to go there, pick up the shuttle to the park and use it to come back. My family are annual pass holders so we decided to drive over there and park in the morning. The idea of even a little bit more of a walk at the end of the day was too much to think about. Since we didn't need to pay to park it made sense for us, however if we did need to pay the $15 we wouldn't have bothered.

There wasn't a huge amount of parking close to the hotel. Every time we drove back to the hotel we needed to park in the additional parking area. Not a big deal, but just something to be aware of. If you hope to be able to park close to your room, don't count on it.

My sister found this hotel as one of the 'secret' hotels on a website that she looked into. Not sure of the name of that website. It worked out for about $130 per night including taxes, fees, etc.

Again, over all, a good hotel. I really prefer to be able to walk from the hotel to the main gate of the parks and like staying closer, say at the Tropicana or the Desert Inn, however with the shuttle available at the Toy Story lot this is a good alternative, and less expensive. I appreciated that they had some form of protein available at breakfast, though it wasn't all that great of a meal - still it was better than donuts and coffee that places like the Tropicana offer.

[tinkwest]

Thanks for your review.