Tropicana Inn and Suites

Updated March 9, 2024

This stay occurred in the month of January 2024. Our stay was a total of 3 nights with check in on Saturday and check out on Tuesday. There were 4 adults in the room. We had a car to park on the premises.

Location is by far the best selling feature of this hotel. Located just steps from the crosswalk to Disneyland Park, you’ll be out your door and enjoying the parks in minutes. After a long day of fun, that quick walk back can’t be beat!

According to the lovely gentleman behind the front desk at check out, the Tropicana was built around the same time as Disneyland itself. The latest refurbishment of the rooms occurred just before the Covid shutdown. So we were pleasantly surprised when we entered the room that it did indeed match the pictures we saw on the Tropicana’s website.

There are 3 parking spots front and center when you pull in designated for Registration. We parked and entered the Lobby. The gal checking us in remarked on what a good rate we had snagged for our stay. (So keep checking if you don’t find a rate you like. She confirmed that the rates are changing constantly.) Before leaving with our room key, we had to sign a notice stating the full housekeeping only comes at the end of the stay. Trash pickup occurs every day between 9am and 3pm. If you don’t need trash pickup, you can hang your Do Not Disturb sign on the door. If you need extra towels, shampoo, etc., you can contact the front desk. This suited us just fine.

As we were leaving with our keys, we asked about parking. The parking lot is divided almost in half. Half is self-parking for hotel guests. The other half is valet parking which can include non-guests paying for day-parking ($42 day as of this writing). If the self-park half of the lot is full, valet is included in the price of your room and you may utilize it at no extra cost. There is ample handicap parking as well. Not knowing whether we’d be able to park ourselves or have to valet made parking seem difficult, but by the end of our stay it was no big deal.

On to the room! Since this is an old motor-inn-style hotel and has rooms facing the parking area, I feared that the room would be noisy (as has happened to us at other hotels of this style). Thankfully, our room was one of a few that face an interior hallway. But even as we walked through the parking area at night, it was pleasantly peaceful (aside from when the fireworks went off).

As stated earlier, this hotel is as old as Disneyland itself. Despite refurbishments, you can still tell it is an aging building. It is clean, though, and for us, that is more important than age. The room is cute with a blue and white palm tree mural on the wall. The bathroom is small but functional. We liked having both a mini fridge and microwave. The drawback, though, was there was no freezer portion in the mini fridge. No frozen treats or refreezing ice packs to put in the lunch bag.

We did have 4 adults in this room, so it got a bit crowded at times. There was definitely not enough space to hang up towels, clothes, wet swimsuits, etc., even if you count the closet area. You saw that right in the video: there were only 2 drawers. So no one was unpacking their suitcase. Maybe that works for you. But also, if you like to get your luggage off the floor of your room, there wasn’t enough space for all 4 of us to that either – or even alternate places to sit, besides the bed! Be aware of these drawbacks when planning how many will stay in your room.

The water pressure in our room was awful. But we were so busy during the day that no one remembered to ask if anything could be done about that. Our room had only a walk-in shower. We neglected to check if tubs were available in other rooms. If you have kids and this is a concern for you, we advise letting them know at booking and check in that you need a tub. There were no extra pillows or blankets in the room, but we were able to pick some up from the front desk.

A note for families with special needs: There are 2 elevators in the building, but they are located only in the section of the building with 3 stories. Know that if you need the elevator and your room is located on the other side, you’ll have to walk around.

We did not avail ourselves of the pool on this trip, but we did take a quick dip in the hot tub. It was nice and warm, and empty! We only saw one other family in the pool area the whole trip, though there was ample evidence of pool-goers in all the dirty pool towels left by the gate.

If you’d like to request a room facing the interior hallway, those rooms are numbered 235 – 256. There are a handful of rooms that have a private balcony and face the interior hallway. They are numbered 257 – 264. All of these rooms are located on the second floor; no first or third floor rooms.

Some amenities offered onsite that we didn’t take advantage of: There is a coin laundry onsite. They sell Disneyland tickets, if you haven’t bought yours ahead of time (but please do!). There is convenience-type market onsite called The Cove. They have coffee for purchase, wine, beer, hard seltzers, sundries, souvenirs, fruits, cereal, snacks, candies, and ice cream. There is also an ATM located inside the market and a pressed penny machine!

Final thoughts: We enjoyed our stay and would stay again, IF we found the right price and did not fill the room to capacity. If location is paramount for you, Tropicana can hardly be beat – even by Disney!

For pictures and our video room tour, click here to find us on Instagram!

Have you stayed here? What did you think of the property? Let us know in the comments.