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[georgia98x]

does anyone have any information or pictures of the santa fe hotel? i'm staying there in January 2016 for my 18th birthday. do they do anything special for birthdays? what is the breakfast like? etc.
TIA

[Discovery_Mountain]

Give it a search on Trip Advisor, there will be loads of photos taken by guests so gives you a 'real' perspective.

I think you can go to City Hall and get a sticker/badge that says its your birthday, you can also buy Birthday cakes at several of the restaurants.

[bad-pink-tink]

I have stayed at Santa Fe Hotel and is themed in the CARS style. There is main building where the reception, breakfast room, shop and bar / restaurant located. This is a one story building. There is another one story building beside it which is the luggage store area. The rooms are located in a few different buildings behind the main building.

All the buildings are red brick, to fit in with the California dessert Cars theming. In the main building the bar / restaurant serves Mexican type food and drink. The Santa Fe is Disneys budget hotel, so the themeing and furniture reflect this.

The rooms are also CARS themed. There are CARS style bedspreads and decorations in the rooms. The room I had had 2 double beds and to me was alot nicer than normal budget hotels I have stayed at.

When you checkin you will be given breakfast timeslot coupons for each day of your stay. At breakfast time you come to the main building and go to the breakfast room and give your coupon to the CM. Breakfast is a continental buffet. This means you will have a selection of cold meats and cheese, croissants and bread for toast, cereal, fruit, tea, coffee, fruit juices. You get a tray, put your food items on your tray and then sit wherever you like. Breakfast can get a bit chaotic.

There is a merchandise shop beside the restaurant / breakfast room. This sells a small selection of Disney items as well as things like snacks and soft drinks.

There is also a small petrol station / garage at the top of the driveway of the hotel. This sells alcohol and a small selection of convenience foods and soft drinks.

[georgia98x]

I have stayed at Santa Fe Hotel and is themed in the CARS style. There is main building where the reception, breakfast room, shop and bar / restaurant located. This is a one story building. There is another one story building beside it which is the luggage store area. The rooms are located in a few different buildings behind the main building.

All the buildings are red brick, to fit in with the California dessert Cars theming. In the main building the bar / restaurant serves Mexican type food and drink. The Santa Fe is Disneys budget hotel, so the themeing and furniture reflect this.

The rooms are also CARS themed. There are CARS style bedspreads and decorations in the rooms. The room I had had 2 double beds and to me was alot nicer than normal budget hotels I have stayed at.

When you checkin you will be given breakfast timeslot coupons for each day of your stay. At breakfast time you come to the main building and go to the breakfast room and give your coupon to the CM. Breakfast is a continental buffet. This means you will have a selection of cold meats and cheese, croissants and bread for toast, cereal, fruit, tea, coffee, fruit juices. You get a tray, put your food items on your tray and then sit wherever you like. Breakfast can get a bit chaotic.

There is a merchandise shop beside the restaurant / breakfast room. This sells a small selection of Disney items as well as things like snacks and soft drinks.

There is also a small petrol station / garage at the top of the driveway of the hotel. This sells alcohol and a small selection of convenience foods and soft drinks.

This has Been really helpful, thank you so much! I've read quite a lot of bad reviews about this hotel so am starting to worry slightly 😳

[michaelj1973]

Don't worry. Have been multiple times to Santa Fe and the hotel does the job correctly.
You aren't staying the whole day in the hotel. It's just for sleeping and nothing more.
Breakfast in Santa Fe can be a bit crowdy but if you go early its not a big problem.

Greetings,

Michael Jansen

[ilovemainstxxx]

hi there...

we stayed at the santa fe last year and it was great ....really no need to worry !!
we prefer the cheyenne as it has always been a family favourite but we went with another family who's little boy is cars mad and was a nice change and they have never been before and thought it was great ...

just a few tips i have picked up over the years we have been going , try and get breakfast slot at 7 am as alot less busy then and you should be finished and at the park gates for EMH then

also the shuttle buses can be very packed and we much prefer to walk to and from the hotel along the river , 10 -15 mins but allot less stressful , and we think a nice way to start and finish your day...you can google earth santa fe hotel and and follow the path round across the bridge and through the village  so you can get your bearings before you go..

have you ever been before ?? , try going to the trip reports section and reading through some of these as they give you good ideas that you can then think , i would like to do this or that ...

hope some of this helps  x

[glenn]

Go online and type videos of hotel Santa Fe dlp,there are a few videos on there that
will give you some idea what the hotel is like.
I stayed there once the first time I went in 1994 and I rearlly liked it.

[Zee79]

We absolutely love the Santa Fe. We alternate between here & The Cheyenne. When we stay in the Cheyenne we always have at least one evening meal here because we have always enjoyed our time here.

[bad-pink-tink]

This has Been really helpful, thank you so much! I've read quite a lot of bad reviews about this hotel so am starting to worry slightly 😳

You are welcome. I would stay away from those trip advisor reviews and like @ilovemainstxxx  said go to the trip report section on here instead.

I think many people give a bad review as what they experience at Santa Fe is very different to what they expect. Its an American MOTEL style of hotel, so therefore the bedrooms are located in different buildings and you have to walk outside to the main building/ reception / restaurant bar.

The breakfast can get rowdy and chaotic as unlike the other hotels you are not given a table by a CM, you find your own after you get your food. This can make breakfast a bit of a free for all, especially if there are alot of families / groups staying. People also dont research before their trip to find out what is served at breakfast.

The Santa Fe is the furtherest from the Disney village and parks. The buses can get very crowded both at the hotel and at the park pick up area. People don't realise the distance and don't expect the buses to be as crowded.

People don't take the time to research the restaurant and bar menus before their trip to know that its Tex Mex style food and drink at Santa Fe and they expect more traditional food.

You will find reading the trip reports on THIS website, from actual proper reviewers, that most people enjoy their stay at Santa Fe.

[georgia98x]

This has Been really helpful, thank you so much! I've read quite a lot of bad reviews about this hotel so am starting to worry slightly 😳

You are welcome. I would stay away from those trip advisor reviews and like @ilovemainstxxx  said go to the trip report section on here instead.

I think many people give a bad review as what they experience at Santa Fe is very different to what they expect. Its an American MOTEL style of hotel, so therefore the bedrooms are located in different buildings and you have to walk outside to the main building/ reception / restaurant bar.

The breakfast can get rowdy and chaotic as unlike the other hotels you are not given a table by a CM, you find your own after you get your food. This can make breakfast a bit of a free for all, especially if there are alot of families / groups staying. People also dont research before their trip to find out what is served at breakfast.

The Santa Fe is the furtherest from the Disney village and parks. The buses can get very crowded both at the hotel and at the park pick up area. People don't realise the distance and don't expect the buses to be as crowded.

People don't take the time to research the restaurant and bar menus before their trip to know that its Tex Mex style food and drink at Santa Fe and they expect more traditional food.

You will find reading the trip reports on THIS website, from actual proper reviewers, that most people enjoy their stay at Santa Fe.

I've seen some pictures on the Internet and it all seems fine actually, I like the theming and for a budget hotel all seems fine and well. I will only be using it as a base so as long as it's clean and tidy that is fine by me.

As its for a birthday I was just wondering if you know if they do any glowtini's?

[Ohana]

I read so many tripadvisor reviews when trying to decide which hotel to book, and there were people who wrote bad reviews about all of them, finding problems with the pool in SL, the decor in DLH and the location of SF and Cheyenne to name a few. It's a platform for people to be extremely harsh and critical in their reviews, and their high standards make you think they stay at the Shangri-La every weekend.

I booked SF for November despite reading bad reviews, because the way I see it is you get out what you put in, I'm expecting it'll be absolutely amazing because I'll be in Disneyland! Sure it won't be as upmarket as the higher cost hotels but that reigns true with all hotels everywhere across the planet. It seems cheap, cheerful and fun and I'm sure you, nor I would regret staying there. 

[samuelvictor]

We stayed in the Santa Fe for our first two trips, once before the refurb and once after. Both times we loved the hotel and had no complaints. In our opinion, you'll be the most comfortable if you go to breakfast directly at 7am, and you walk rather than using the shuttle bus, as otherwise stuff can get noisy and busy, and TBH its quite a nice (flat, easy) walk, and you want as long in the parks as possible with EMH anyway so getting up early isn't a problem for us.

We would happily have stayed at the Santa Fe once again, appart from the fact that our two kids got older, and it made more sense for them to have a bunk each in the Cheyenne rather than share a double in the Santa Fe. It's a great hotel and as long as you aren't expecting 5 star luxury and don't care about a pool, you should be perfectly happy. 

[AlmostThere...]

Hi like others have said read trip reports on here.  How I discovered this site is by searching for Disneyland photos...this site has a ton of photos in the photosmagiques section so have a look there.  I wanted Davy Crockett as we had booked there and there were lots so it was really useful.

Like others have said, reviews have their place but just go with a positive attitude and have fun.  I did read trip advisor for davy crockett (mostly good) and it was useful to help me discover that there are no toasters in the cabins as info on the accommodation elsewhere was limited .