If you’re booking a hotel for your next trip to Disneyland, there’s no better place to start than along Harbor Boulevard. And one of the first hotels you’ll spot—Tropicana Inn & Suites. Join us for a review of this steps-from-the-parks option—here’s what we thought of Tropicana Inn & Suites!
Tropicana Inn & Suites Location
Tropicana Inn & Suites is located on Harbor Boulevard, right across the street from Disneyland property. It’s near the Harbor Boulevard entrance to Disney property—from our room, it was a 2.5-minute walk to Disney property (including some time to cross the street) and we were through security and at the park gates in about 7 minutes with a short security wait. This gives it an arguably better location than at least two of Disney’s own hotels (Disneyland Hotel and Pixar Place Hotel).
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Booking
We typically prefer to book hotels direct these days. We’ll take a significantly better rate if it can be found (usually we’ll prefer Booking dot com). In this case, we were able to dust off our Citi Prestige and use the 4th Night Free benefit.
I’m pretty disappointed in myself for not recording how much prices in other places were, but we paid $1,009.38, or just over $252 per night. This was during a peak timeframe (just after Presidents Day). CitiTravel reports the 4th Night Free savings as $283.53, but that’s based on the price CitiTravel was offering. I’d guess we actually saved around $200 using 4th Night Free (i.e. the price on Booking or the direct price was around $1200, or $300 per night)—but again, I didn’t do my job and can’t confirm this with records.
Arrival, Check-In, Lobby, and Amenities
We arrived early on our check-in day, having spent the previous night at Del Sol Inn (just down the road). We’d been rained out of Joshua Tree National Park a night early, so driving to Anaheim allowed us a more complete day at Disneyland once we changed hotels and dropped off the rental car at the Pixar Place Hotel Enterprise location.
There was a room ready at 8AM, but if we wanted it we’d have to pay for $60 early check-in (check-in is technically 4PM). We decided against this, as the hotel had luggage storage and we were spending the day in the parks. Luggage storage and our second visit to the front desk in the evening both went very smoothly.
I haven’t encountered early check-in fees too often, but I don’t mind them. There are times when we’d absolutely give $60 for a room early in the morning (after an overnight flight, for example), and the $60 fee means that people who don’t need the room—like us this day—aren’t wasting the room.
The lobby was small, but not by “inn” standards. If you needed to wait for an Uber for a few minutes it would be more than adequate. It looked pretty recently redone and was in great shape.
Off to the side of the check-in desk was a small display on the history of the inn and Disneyland. It’s a really cool display and I just wish it were more prominent. A small sign tells the story of the inn’s founder—Ernest Badalian, an immigrant from Armenia who purchased what was then a 32-room motor lodge across from the new Disneyland park. The inn remains family-managed today.
There’s also a small charger rental kiosk.
We never made it to the pool, and I even only had a good chance to snag a photo at night. It’s a pretty standard pool, though, and I don’t think the photos on the official website mislead about that.
Attached to the hotel is The Cove on Harbor Market & Cafe. It’s a fine shop for all your essentials.
Parking costs $22.00 plus 17% tax, but we didn’t park since we returned our rental car.
Tropicana Inn & Suites is a Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotel, but that doesn’t come with any perks (they can help you buy theme park tickets, though). Keep in mind that Disney hotel guests at Disneyland don’t get any especially notable perks, either.
Tropicana Inn does not have a fitness center. You can easily run a 3-to-3.5 mile loop (depending on the exact loop) around the Disneyland property, which is what I did for my daily run. If you run closer to when the park opens, you’ll have to deal with crowds on Harbor.
Housekeeping for our four-night stay consisted of towel service only. Honestly—this is my jam. I love new towels (I’ll re-use when possible, but it’s not always possible), and I don’t really care for the rest of it. I usually tidy my room anytime I’m expecting room service, which maddens the more time-sensitive members of my family in the morning. (Per the hotel website, “Guests staying 6 nights or more will receive full housekeeping service after the 3rd night (on the 4th day) of their stay.”)
Our Room at Tropicana Inn & Suites
We had a 2X Queen room. The room is pretty straightforward in its design, with a compact, but adequate, console under the television, opposite the beds. I like the backdrop and the orange seat. Nice splashes of color.
There’s no desk, but the console offers a little more surface space than did the desk the previous night at Del Sol Inn. The surface space on the bathroom vanity is also pretty good.
The room is carpeted, which I’m obliged to both complain about and immediately let go. The console has a mini-fridge and a microwave, along with a safe. There’s a coffee machine, but it’s some sort of pot contraption we weren’t familiar with (this was Zoe’s 98th hotel—it’s not like we’re uninitiated to the hotel coffee pot world). Emily said she completely botched it the first time, but it was at least drinkable the second time.
The only bedside outlets were the four in between the beds. My kingdom for outlets on either side of the bed! The light switches in between the beds are a little grimy.
The bathroom felt pretty modern. I love the large, lit mirror, and the spacious vanity. The water closet was unremarkable. I didn’t have any problems with the shower, but the limescale on the shower head was a bit much.
As these are motel-style rooms, you can expect a bit of noise. We were on the first floor, so we weren’t surprised to experience a bit of passerby noise, but there was never anything notable.
Conclusions
Altogether, I was happy with our stay at Tropicana Inn & Suites. While the lobby and amenities met my expectations, for these short Disneyland trips we mostly care about the room itself.
Tropicana Inn’s rooms are modern. They feel quite fresh, and the fixtures throughout are in good condition. There’s little age or datedness here.
As far as design, I question only the relatively minimal use of space. I prefer a larger console, but it also should be said that a destination heavy on weekend visitors probably has a lot of guests living out of suitcases, and the lack of console space means more suitcase space.
Otherwise, the flaws were only on the small scale—the grime on the light switches, the limescale on the shower head, and a stray hair (not ours, spotted immediately on arrival) in the bathroom I didn’t mention above.
Big, clean designs get overlooked when flaws are present in the things that people actually use. I’m reminded of the old flat sinks at Disney World’s Contemporary Resort. Even when those (previous generation) rooms were at their finest, the flat sinks carried the conversation.
Unlike the flat sink, there small flaws I found in this room are not integral to the room itself. The effected items could just be cleaned a little extra.
And, most importantly, you can’t evaluate a Harbor Boulevard hotel in a vacuum. You’re talking about a bunch of mid-quality, high-priced hotels all walking distance to Disneyland.
While we lucked into a good rate at Del Sol Inn the night before this stay, the prices a Tropicana Inn seem generally similar to those at Del Sol Inn and my other long-time go-to, The Anaheim. While I love that The Anaheim has a fitness center, I find Tropicana Inn to be the best of these three options.
The rooms at those two hotels show more age than the newer rooms at Tropicana Inn. With its modern rooms, Tropicana Inn is a standout on Harbor Boulevard. If the price makes sense, it’s a great option.
All Your Other Disneyland Planning Questions Answered
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Just starting out? Check out our Disneyland Planning Guide. When it comes to hotels, we’ve got reviews of all three Disney hotels: Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and Disney’s Pixar Place Hotel. As for tickets, check out where to find discount Disneyland tickets.
Know what to ride with our: Disneyland Rides Guide and Disney California Adventure Rides Guide. And just as important, know how to get on the best rides without the wait with our Disneyland Lightning Lane Strategy! For the complete guides to a day at the park, we have a One Day Disneyland Itinerary and a One Day Disney California Adventure Itinerary.
We always recommend arriving at the parks early. You’ll need to know Rope Drop Strategy at Disneyland and Rope Drop Strategy at Disney California Adventure.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you’re interested in saving, there’s no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.