Escape the mouse madness at this Orange County suite hotel

This trip was sponsored by the Hyatt Regency Orange County in Anaheim, California, who generously covered our hotel room, meals, and parking.  Read our full review policy here.

I’ve been to Disneyland with my kids twice.  The first time, when they were an impressionable 3 and 6, we pulled out all the stops.  Personalized mouse ears, a 90-minute wait for the stupid Dumbo ride, a room at the Disneyland Hotel, and a wallet-busting character breakfast.

It was hectic, exhausting, and expensive.

The next time we visited, five years later, we got smart.  Or at least smarter.  We stayed off-property and used an amazing planning tool called RideMax.

I’ll tell you more about the amazing RideMax soon, but this post is about the advantages of choosing a Disney-free oasis when visiting Disneyland with kids.

Room to spread out

We stayed in a 700-square-foot VIP family suite at the lovely Hyatt Regency Orange County which sounds a lot more expensive than it is.   With two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a king for us and bunks for the kids, it truly was a home away from home.  The hotel completed a $25 million renovation earlier this year, and it shows.

Amenities include three flat screen TVs, a fridge, microwave, and coffeemaker.  Two bathrooms sounds a little silly, but it sure made bedtime faster and easier after our evening swim.  On our first day at Disneyland, my son actually turned to me after we rode the Pirates of the Caribbean and said, “When can we go back to our hotel room?”  Huh?

Good food and no creepy characters

The last time we went to Disneyland, friends pressured us to book a character breakfast.  Since we wanted to get to the park early, we scraped ourselves out of bed at 6:30, turned up at 7am to join the stressed-out fray of pushing parents.  Then we paid $100 for the experience of eating peanut butter and jelly pizza while chatting with a shirtless Aladdin.  Even the kids hated it.

At the Hyatt, we rolled downstairs a lot later, helped ourselves to a beautiful buffet, and caught the free shuttle to Disneyland, all in about a half an hour.  Dinners were equally relaxing with lots of healthy and kid-friendly options on the menus at both the Italian restaurant TusCA and the more casual OC Brewhouse.

A lobby that feels like your living room

With the exception of a television showing Disney in the lobby and a few Disney tchotchkes in the gift shop, you’d hardly know you were in Anaheim at all.  One afternoon we grabbed a table equipped with a TV in the OC Brewhouse and ordered cold beers and snacks while our kids drifted back and forth between the tense Giants-Braves playoff game and Finding Nemo.  I’ve never been so relaxed on a theme park vacation in my life.

A rooftop pool and more

We ended every day with a splash in the hotel’s cloud-shaped rooftop pool, which isn’t too big or deep and therefore perfect for parents, like me, who’d really rather collapse on a lounge chair than frolic with their offspring after a full day of Disney.   The whirlpool was a different story.

The roof also has a full-sized basketball and tennis court, but who has that kind of energy after a day at a themepark?  Not me.

Read our full review of the Hyatt Regency Orange County.

Like this?  Get our monthly email newsletter.

October 21st, 2010 | by Jamie Pearson 4 comments