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 

Thoughts on My First Mileage Run

First a little bit of back story....this weekend was my first mileage run, and it was AWESOME. I know it will not impress the veterans out there that do multiple segments all over the country, but I picked up BWI-LAX at $160 all in to get around 4,600 miles. I also got to spend a day at Disneyland, which was the first time I have ever been to a Disney property. It only took 24 years, but I had so so much fun! I'll have a full hotel review up in the coming days.

But...to the real point of my story. Today I came back to work after an awesome weekend and was talking about it with a few co-workers. Not one, not two, but four separate co-workers told me that they saw a story on tv or read a story on the internet about people that "do crazy things like fly just to get frequent flyer miles" and they immediately thought about me!

I told them that it was EXACTLY what I was doing this weekend, but I was no where near as awesome as those of you that go fly tens of thousands of miles in a weekend. They still looked at me like I was absolutely nuts and couldn't fathom why anyone would do that on purpose.

It really got me thinking how weird this hobby appears to those on the outside. I mean just a year ago I was in the same boat, I would have thought...why would anyone want to connect when they could fly direct? Why would you fly to just get the miles? What's the big deal about an airport lounge or a seat up front?

But this hobby really opened my eyes to the benefits of elite status and how it can be fun to just fly where the fare takes you! Without the idea of mileage running in my head I never would have found that great fare from The Flight Deal, which is now a site that I check furiously every day and can't wait to see a tweet from, I never would have been able to go on a trip with my gf and have one of the best days of my life running around Disneyland like a bunch of little kids and riding every ride in sight. This hobby isn't just something that gets us the seat up front, the free drink in the lounge or even the pajamas in first class. It's a hobby that allows the average Joe like me the opportunity to spend more time making memories with those that I love while exploring the world. Those extras....those are just the icing on the cake.

United Club LAX - Terminal 6

As previously mentioned I traveled to Los Angeles last week for a work trip and stayed downtown at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel and was less than impressed. So when I had the morning to kill before heading back to Washington, D.C. I didn't really feel like staying around so I left early and headed to LAX.

I must have missed the notoriously bad Los Angeles traffic because after about a 20 minute taxi ride I arrived to the United check-in area and was headed to security. After a just as long 20 minute wait in the security line I was through to Terminal 6 to wait for my flight. Even after burning time in the security line I still had over 3 hours before my flights so I decided to burn one of my two United Club Lounge Passes that comes with the United MileagePlus Explorer card.

I found the United Club Lounge in Terminal 6 right across from Gate 62 and right next to my departure gate so it was perfect!

I was buzzed in and handed off my pass to the desk attendant and she politely welcomed me to the United Club and asked how long it was until my flight. I told her just about three hours and she replied, "Oh good, you know some people come in with their passes and only have about 30 minutes before their flight. It's such a waste to stay for that short amount of time so I always tell them to hold onto it."

I thought this was a very nice gesture. The last time I used one of my lounge certificates the desk agent was very sour in her demeanor. She was clearly not pleased I had a lounge pass instead of a membership and when I asked her about my flight and to see if there were any aisle seats closer to the front of the plane available she just replied the flight was full without even knowing where I was going....so it was easy to say that this was a much better experience.

The only complaint I have about the lounge in Terminal 6 at LAX is that it is a bit small. The lounge is very long, but it is not very wide so the seating areas are quite small.

When you walk into the lounge there is a business center to your left and just behind the check-in desk there is a set of six or seven work stations with lights and power connections if you want to do some work. From there you turn left and head down the aisle and pass a few sitting areas on your right side with some pretty neat views of the United gates. It was great to watch a few of the big jets come and go as I was waiting. At the end of the lounge is the bar area with a few more chairs and about four or five bar tables to sit down at.

In the middle of the lounge is a little pantry which has the typical United Club offerings of crackers, salty mix, trail mix, a few pastries, soft drinks, water, assorted fruit and my favorite....the Tillimook cheese. After living in the Pacific Northwest for a few years with my parents and falling in love with Tillimook cheese I always have to grab it when I see it...and United Clubs are about the only place to find it outside of the Pacific Northwest. The only bad part is they are in the hardest to open plastic packages ever! I always spend ten minutes looking like an idiot trying to get them open. But it's always a welcome snack to take with you or eat in the club.

Next to the pantry area is a small TV area which is where I settled in for the three or so hours I had left before my flight. It was the day after the election and I had missed being in Washington for the election so I was feeling deprived of my full surround-sound political environment and the background noise of CNN was exactly what I needed to get me back on track. I booted up the work computer and knocked a few things off my to-do list and the three hours flew by and it was time to get on the flight home.

View from the TV Area 

There is nothing extra special about this lounge, but it has everything that I like about United Lounges: A quiet place to get some work done, good wifi, good drinks, outlets and Tilimook cheese so I was a happy camper and it was a great use of my lounge pass.

United Silver...What I didn't think was possible. Plus maximizing a mileage run and hotel promotions

Back when we started this blog I was just easing into the idea of trying for elite status on some airline next year, throwing this year out of the question because of time and work. But then I added a bit of work travel I was not expecting and an extra trip to the west coast and realized that I was only about 5,000 miles away from United Silver.

I know that some of the benefits can be obtained with the United Mileage Plus card, which I already have, but I was interested in some of the other possible benefits, including the possibility of upgrades (of course) though that is slim, priority screening and best of all the possibility of Economy Plus. 

My parents live in Seattle so at least a couple of times a year I make the trip from Seattle to DC and I always pay for Economy Plus to give me a little extra room on the ride over. If I could avoid paying those fees a couple of times a year it would really save me some money. 

So...for the past few weeks I have been looking for mileage runs to try to cross 25,000 miles on the year when The Flight Deal, which you have to follow on a regular basis for all things mileage run, posted a deal for BWI to LAX for $191 all in. I quickly booked two tickets for Kelsey and myself and now I when all of my travel is done I will be 500 miles short of 25,000 and will need one short run to help push me over. 

The best part is that while in LA Kelsey and I have each booked one night at the Radisson in Anaheim near Disney Land so that we can take advantage of the Radisson Stay One Get One promotion. We can use those earned free nights to book a night in December in New York City before we go to Europe and save another free night for another trip where a cheap hotel (read: free hotel) room is needed. 

The best way to get to your travel goals is to look at where you stand...what you want to do...and the best way to get there in as few steps as possible and for as little money as possible. :)