Review: Radisson Suites Buena Park, California

As I mentioned the other day this weekend was my first ever mileage run from Washington to Los Angeles. We decided that if we only had one day in southern California around the holidays we would do what any sensible person would and what every winning Superbowl MVP does....go to Disneyland.

With our final destination in mind we started to look for hotels in the Disney area that would be a good match. We booked out trip in October and at that time Club Carlson was offering a stay one night get one night promotion at Radisson's in the United States as long as you booked before October 31, 2012 and stayed before December 31, 2012. So my first choice for a hotel was obviously a Radisson close to Disney. In comes the Radisson Suites Buena Park. I was able to find the AAA rate at $98.00 for both nights and Kelsey and I both booked a night so we would get two free nights in return. We've already used one of those free nights to save us $350 on Christmas Eve in New York City (More on that later).

The hotel is situated just a 10 minute drive or so from Disneyland is also down the street from Knott's Berry Farms if you are interested in going to another theme park. The best part of the hotel is that they offer a free shuttle to Disneyland! That and, as the name would indicate, all of the rooms are suites so I was really excited to see the property.

We landed at around 8:30 pm and picked up our SuperShuttle to the hotel. We crammed in with 8 other people and a baby (Kind of a good sitcom name), which I have never seen before. Luckily we were the second group dropped off at the hotel at around 10:15 pm.

The hotel is a little dated on the outside, looks like a classic old "motel" that would have sprung up around the time that Disney became popular. But the inside is very new and updated with a classic kind of Spanish style of architecture. The assistant manager who was at the front desk quickly helped us and asked us what we were in town for and recognized our Club Carlson Gold Status and thanked us for our loyalty. This is the first time at a Club Carlson property that I have been thanked for loyalty and actually recognized as a member with status. I don't meant that as a "don't you know who I am" moment, just as a shocking thing as most other hotels go out of their way to mention it, but Club Carlson never had. This asst. manager was so awesome and told us about the property, scheduled us on the shuttle to Disneyland for 8:30 the next morning (Make sure you reserve your shuttle to and from the park the night before, you can always change it the next day, but they do fill up) and he said that he had upgraded us to a Business King Suite on the top floor. (Whoooooo).

The hotel is situated around an open air courtyard with a pool and small conference center/restaurant in the middle so we had to walk around to the backside of the hotel to get to our room on the fourth floor. Below there are a few pictures of the grounds I took the next morning

Corridor By Our Room 

Trees Around the Middle of the Hotel 

Conference Center/Restaurant 

The room was a big two-room suite with a front sitting room that featured a couch (which I suspect had a pull-out, but I did not look), a chair, a dining room table and a wet bar. Unfourtinately we were out so early the next day at Disney and didn't get back until past 11:00 pm that we didn't get to enjoy the sitting area.

TV In the Sitting Area 

Sitting Area

Wet Bar and Passage to the Bedroom

Table and chairs/Wet Bar

The bathroom was on the way to the bedroom in the back. It was a large sliding door, which I don't particularly like because it tends to be very loud and not provide much sound blocking if someone is in the bathroom, but not a huge deal. It had a simple shower, nothing special.

Bathroom

The bedroom had a nice king bed that was a SleepNumber bed which is a Radisson specialty. This may be great for some people, but I can never get over the feeling that I am sleeping on a giant air mattress when I sleep on these things! The bedroom had a closet and a nice sized TV as well.

King Bed

King Bed and Closet 

 The room was very nice and spacious, perfect for what we needed. The only complaint I have is the lighting system is based on a set of motion detectors through the suite. They are great to conserve energy and I am sure saves the hotel a boatload of money. But, they have one flaw, when you press the button to turn off the motion activated features for sleeping at night it also turns off the power to all of the outlets in the room. So our phones, which were plugged into the lamps at the bedside table, kept losing power in the middle of the night and didn't charge all the way. Would be great to see the plugs taken off the motion detection system if that is even possible.

After a good sleep we headed down to the restaurant for the free breakfast. I expected just a continental type breakfast but they actually had a really good spread! There was fresh fruit, yoghurt, cold cereal, oatmeal, scrambled eggs and potatoes. I heard someone say that at the grill in the back you could order an omelette and get assorted breakfast meats, but it would be extra, so I stuck to the free options which were very good for free. 

This property was very very nice. It had lots of personality and was in the perfect location for our Disney exploration. Also ever staff member we came into contact with went above and beyond to make sure we were having a good stay, giving us tips for Disney to beat the lines and making sure we didn't need anything. If you need a hotel for your Disney adventure.....use this one!

Lobby Decorated for the Holidays