On our recent trip to Anaheim, we had the opportunity to stay at the Majestic Garden Hotel just North of Disneyland.
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On our most recent trip to Southern California, we had the opportunity to check out the Anaheim Majestic Garden Hotel for a week long stay. In this review, I’ll let you know about the things I loved, the things I didn’t love and whether or not we’d go back.
The hotel originally opened in 1969 and has had several names over the years. The current name was introduced in 2015. The hotel campus covers over 13 acres of land, has several restaurants, entertainment, and royalty. Most importantly, this hotel sits just a mile and a half from the Disneyland entrance!
When first pulling up to the Majestic, you might almost confuse it for an actual Disney hotel. There are security gates allowing you access into the grounds and the hotel is built with a castle type design!
Upon entering the building, there are several other castle and royalty themed decorations throughout the lobby, including information about the castle’s very own princess!
The hotel is built in a large square with a courtyard in the middle. Hallways down the middle, which take guests to the elevators, split the courtyard space into fourths each with different types of recreational enjoyment including a pool, coy fish pond, flower gardens and more.
The rooms themselves, even the most economical rooms, are very spacious. Ranging from 400-500 square feet, a family of 4 can easily move around the room at the same time without bumping into each other.
Most rooms have 2 large queen size beds, a TV with lots of storage space, a desk, microwave, coffee machine and a miniature refrigerator. There is also an ironing board, iron, hair dryer and safe available.
The hotel includes many different activities available for various age groups. The most important being the courtyard, highlighted by the jelly bean shaped pool. The pool area, which is located within a locked gate, includes a large pool that ranges from 3 feet deep to 9 feet deep, a hot tub, restrooms, and a pool bar. There’s also a couple of cabanas available on a first come basis.
Another portion of the courtyard is a beautiful flower garden. The flower gardens are well manicured and taken care of on a daily basis. They also have a family of ducks that enjoy hanging out in the garden, especially, but all over the courtyard. We caught them landing in the pool for a swim a couple times as well!
The third quadrant of the courtyard is a smaller area that joins up with the restaurant patio. This area also includes a small fountain and more flowers and plants and places for the ducks to hide out.
The fourth and final quadrant includes a koi pond and gazebo area for guests to relax and enjoy.
Here’s a quick little Walkthrough video of the courtyard minus the pool area:
In addition to the outdoor activities, there are several indoor activities as well. The arcade area is probably the most exciting part of the indoor activities, though all in all it’s not that exciting.
There are also a few seating areas, one with a fireplace and another with a TV, computer station, and fish tank. There’s also a gift shop in the lobby that includes lots of Disney themed souvenirs, personal items, as well as snacks.
On the weekends, the castle princess makes various appearances throughout the lobby area. On Friday and Saturday nights, she does a meet and greet and book reading with the kids, followed by a movie at the pool, however the princess needs her beauty sleep, so she ducks out before the movie is over.
If your child is unable to meet the princess, there’s a mailbox for the kids to drop the princess a note. If you include your home address, the princess will send a letter to your child a couple weeks after your visit!
On Saturday and Sunday morning, the princess stops by the dining room for a meet and greet at the breakfast buffet. The hotel does not have a free breakfast, so this is a good option on a non park day.
Speaking of dining, the hotel has 5 dining areas. The bistro dining room, where the breakfast buffet is located, is also available for lunch and dinner a few days during the week. A bar next to the restaurant is available in the evenings every night and includes dining options. The gift shop has a place to order food for takeout. This is the only place to order a hot breakfast when the buffet is not open.
You can also order hot food at the pool bar as well as regular snacks and drinks. The pool bar, which is only available during the summer months, regular bar and gift shop all utilize the same menu. I ordered several items and everything was well prepared, hot and delicious, regardless of where it was ordered.
The restaurant also includes a traditional authentic Japanese restaurant. The Hanagi Japanese Restaurant, run by Chef Hiro, offers several sushi tolls, fish options and a beef and chicken option. There is also a kid menu for the non adventurous children in your group! The dining area has several tables, but all are partitioned so it feels like you’re seated in your own private dining.
I am not a sushi person, so I had the Hibachi Beef, which is sliced New York Strip Steak stacked on top of potatoes and carrots and covered in a delicious wine sauce. This was definitely a great choice, everything about it left me wanting more.
Included in the folklore of the castle is the story of the princesses dragon. The full story is written on the walls and floors around the castle. See if you can unscramble the story!
Besides the lure of the hotel itself, the main draw to stay at the Majestic Garden Hotel is the proximity to Disneyland. When you’re ready to head to the parks, the hotel offers free transportation to the Disneyland bus drop off, located right outside the security area and main gates, and a short walk to downtown Disney. You could also walk to the Mickey parking garage and hop on the tram to downtown Disney for a different option.
Bus transportation from the hotel starts a little before 7am and runs on about a 20-30 minute schedule most of the day, however, the drivers take lunch breaks around noon, so might take a bit longer during that time. Being a mile and a half from the entrance, it does take about 10-15 minutes with traffic and stoplights. The one day we did an actual rope drop, we lined up at the bus pickup area in front of the hotel between 6:40-6:45 and the bus arrived between 6:45-6:50. The line wasn’t very long and they had a large school bus, so everyone waiting was able to board. The driver wasn’t messing around either, as soon as everyone waiting was on, he took off, even leaving a couple of people standing around talking.
The hotel buses have a dedicated drop off at the transportation drop off outside Disneyland security along Harbor Drive. You’ll be dropped off and picked up at the Number 13 zone, which is the furthest back on the second bus zone area, so a bit of a walk, but not terrible. Note that 3 hotels use this spot, so be sure you get on the Majestic bus. We arrived at the park at 7am and as we were getting off the bus, we saw they were just opening security. The line to security, that day anyway, was very short. In the past I would see that line going all the way to the street, but on the day was only back to bus drop off 2 or 3. Throughout the day, and even at park closing, it was usually easy to get on the bus. Only rarely was it full and we had to wait for the next one to arrive. There’s a few benches and it is a covered area, so not terrible, but after a long day, you’d rather be on that first bus you see and get back to your room.
One other great thing about the hotel being so close to Disneyland is the nightly fireworks! Well during the summer anyway. If you’re on a non park day, you can watch the fireworks show from the south parking lot. Also, if you have a room on the south side, like we did, you can watch from your room, though most rooms don’t have a great view.
If you’re on the second floor, you probably would have the least obstruction. We were on the third floor and there is this weird overhang that covered half the window on the outside, so it was hard to see the fireworks that went way up in the air. The first floor looked like it might have trees and other shrubbery blocking the view as well. But on a nice evening, go sit on the curb and enjoy the show outside!
This hotel also does a decent job for anyone with ADA needs. My mother in law joined us for the trip. She had just recently recovered from a broken leg, but we figured she’d get around better with a scooter. The scooter company was able to drop off the scooter at the hotel before we arrived. She was able to take it on the elevator and ride it to the room.
The elevator was a bit small for the scooter, but the hallways are very wide, so you can leave it out in the hall without worrying about being in the way. The rooms are also big enough to bring the scooter in to charge and there’s plenty of room to get around it. If you have someone in a wheelchair, there’s enough room between the bed and outside wall to get someone moved from the chair to the bed as well.
The hotel also has a wheelchair lift on at least one bus, however, you do need to call ahead and let them know you’ll need it. They will let you know when it’ll be ready. You’ll need to call whether you’re at the hotel or the park. If you call from your cell phone from the hotel, they might assume you’re at the park, so be sure to specify your location when you call.
However, I think an area she has trouble with was getting the scooter to the courtyard area. If I remember correctly, the doors didn’t have an automatic open button, so an extra set of hands to open the door may be needed for some. Also, the regular room that we were in would have been difficult to get a wheelchair into the restroom. Wheelchair accessible rooms are also available, so be sure to book one if needed.
Other amenities to look for include a laundry area. This is outside next to the pool, so inconvenient if the weather is bad. The machines are both coin operated and app operated, meaning you can use a smart phone app to pay and start the machine. The app can notify you when the load completes, so you can swap it out right away. Also, most floors have a pop machine and ice machine available.
There are a few negatives about the hotel. The building and rooms are a bit dated. Not really a big deal, just some things look old and worn out. Early check in does cost $50 plus tax and check in is at 4pm. Most hotels do not charge for early check in. Parking is $26 per night, though most hotels in the area will charge for parking. There is no free breakfast, which I mentioned earlier. A lot of the hotels in the area do have free breakfast.
Other than those few negatives, we really enjoyed our stay at the Majestic Garden Hotel. My wife said it’s her new favorite hotel in the Disneyland area, mostly due to never having to worry about transportation to the parks. We’ve stayed at some really close hotels that make walking easy and stayed a bit further where we can walk, but the city bus would be easier if it were more convenient. The Majestic takes care of that convenience, so with a good room discount, which they’re always offering just sign up for their email at the bottom of the hotel main website, it’s really a great option when visiting the Anaheim area. Whether we were going to the parks or staying in for a relaxing day, we had a rather enjoyable experience.
Have you stayed at the Majestic Garden Hotel? What did you think of your stay? Are you planning a trip to Anaheim? Will you consider the Majestic for your next stay? Comment below to let us know!
If you’re ready to start exploring a Walt Disney World or Disneyland family vacation, I recommend checking out Undercover Tourist for your ticket options. I’ve already used them twice, once at Disneyland and once at Disney World and will plan to continue comparing their prices with other sites, however I usually come back to UT because they have the best deals and their instructions make it easy to add your tickets to the Disney apps.
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