Fairfield Inn by Marriott Anaheim Resort Review
Fairfield Inn by Marriott Anaheim Resort is a hotel near Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. In this review, we’ll share room photos, info about amenities, and whether we recommend this hotel within walking distance of Disneyland Resort for those taking trips to Southern California.
As with many of the hotels on Harbor Boulevard, proximity to Disneyland is definitely the biggest selling point of this Marriott property. The Fairfield Inn Anaheim Resort is about a 5-10 minute walk to Disneyland’s Esplanade depending upon if you hit the crosswalk while the pedestrian light is green. It’s literally closer to the parks than Disneyland Hotel or Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel.
If you want to know how Fairfield Inn Anaheim Resort compares to other hotels within walking distance of the parks, check out our Disneyland Hotels Reviews & Rankings post. We’ve stayed at 50+ hotels near Disneyland in Anaheim and Garden Grove, and share our comprehensive breakdown there. You can also read our overall comparison of the benefits of staying off-site versus on-site in our Where to Stay at Disneyland post.
Price-wise, the Fairfield Inn Anaheim ranges in price from around $150 to $200 per night (sometimes it can be less or more during the off-season or peak tourist times), depending upon travel dates. This makes it a tad higher than other comparable hotels in the immediate area, but still competitive.
As always, we recommend pricing out a few hotels in the area for your travel dates. Prices can be all over the place for hotels near Disneyland, and you might find a great rate at the Fairfield Anaheim, or an oddly exorbitant one. You might be better off paying cash here, using points, or just booking a cheaper option down Harbor Boulevard.
To save the most money, check out discounted hotel + ticket vacation packages via Get Away Today. In addition to the package discount, some hotels have ‘4th night free’ promos. Additionally, you can save an extra $10 by using code TOURIST at checkout (valid on 2-night and longer stays). Additionally, parking fees (normally $20/night) are waived when booking with Get Away Today.
For Marriott Bonvoy loyalty program members, another alternative–and one that will make the Fairfield Anaheim more appealing–is booking it for 35,000 Marriott points. The ability to earn and redeem Marriott points is definitely one thing that makes the Fairfield Anaheim appealing.
If you are a Marriott Bonvoy member or serious travel hacker, we’d recommend also taking a hard look at the nearby Courtyard by Marriott Anaheim Theme Park Entrance.
While it’ll definitely cost you more (be it in points or dollars), the rooms are larger, much newer, and the pool area is basically a small water park (pictured above). As you can read in our full Courtyard by Marriott Anaheim Theme Park Entrance Review, this is one of our top hotels in all of Anaheim.
By contrast, the pool area at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott Anaheim Resort is pretty basic. It’s essentially just a small, boxy pool with a hot tub nearby and small bathrooms, all of which is gated off from the parking lot.
To be fair, this is very much par for the course among Anaheim’s Harbor Boulevard hotels. Nicer pools are very much the exception, not the rule.
As par for the course with Anaheim area hotels is the exterior hallways leading to guest rooms. The biggest differentiator here is that the lobby has elevators in it that lead directly up to the guest rooms. These same elevators also go up to the food court and fitness center.
It’s worth noting that these exterior hallways offer a great view of Disneyland’s fireworks. Since the hotel is set slightly to the north side of the park, it’s almost directly aligned with Sleeping Beauty Castle and the park’s northern pyro launch point, which makes for an ideal view.
In that aforementioned food court area, you’ll find a Pizza Hut Express, Seattle’s Best Coffee, and the Market. None of these looked particularly appetizing to us, but we did notice they were open early (pizza for breakfast!) and even after we got back from the parks several nights.
The downside to these restaurants on-site is that the Fairfield Inn Anaheim does not offer free continental breakfast. This is a standard amenity across the Fairfield Inn line of hotels, including at nicer properties. It’s a bit perplexing that it’s not offered here, especially as comparable nearby hotels (quality-wise) and even nicer new properties like the Hyatt House, Springhill Suites, and Residence Inn are offering it.
On the plus side, the hotel is also nestled directly between a McDonald’s and Panera Bread, which present inexpensive and quick options for breakfast or late night meals when leaving the parks. (Being close to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure isn’t the only “proximity” advantage the Fairfield Inn by Marriott Anaheim Resort has going for it!)
Standard guest rooms at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott Anaheim Resort are not particularly noteworthy. We’ve stayed at this hotel twice in the last ~7 years, including our most recent stay after the debut of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and our room was materially the same both times.
To their credit, the rooms aren’t tired, worn, or dated. They’re just fine.
These rooms feature either one king bed and a full size sofa bed (sleeping up to 4), or two queen beds and a chair that doubles as a single-sized sofa bed (sleeping up to 5).
We found the pillow-top mattress, fluffy pillows, bedding to be reasonably comfortable; better than most hotels in the area.
All of the guest rooms also include refrigerators, desks, and–most notably–55″ Smart TVs that allow you to connect to YouTube, Netflix and Hulu.
This is a big plus, and another advantage the Fairfield Inn by Marriott Anaheim Resort has over other hotels in the area.
Bathrooms are basic, but that’s to be expected from a hotel like this on Harbor Boulevard. No one is choosing one of these hotels over another for their beautiful bathrooms. They’re all pretty much interchangeable.
Overall, the Fairfield Inn by Marriott Anaheim Resort is a solid hotel. There’s nothing really that sets it apart (unless you’re a Marriott Bonvoy member) from the nearby competition, but it also doesn’t have any notable faults, either. “Getting the fundamentals right without making unforced errors” is arguably an accomplishment among many of Anaheim’s hotels. This might make for a fairly dull review, but basically, this Fairfield is good utilitarian option that will check the right boxes for many families traveling to Disneyland and wanting safe, solid accommodations on a modest budget.
If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site oron-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Have you stayed at the Fairfield Inn by Marriott Anaheim Resort? What did you think of the location, rooms, and amenities? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment of this hotel? Any questions? Hearing feedback about your experiences is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts or questions below in the comments!
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I’ve stayed at the Fairfield Anaheim a couple of times over the last few years. It’s a great option for us as a family because it is walking distance to the park even for our 4-year-old (meaning that we could easily return to the hotel for a rest each afternoon), is clean, safe, and has a well-maintained swimming pool. When we go to Anaheim we aren’t looking for the bells and whistles of a fancy hotel – we are there for the park and other attractions. This ticks all the boxes and I’m sure we’ll end up staying here again.
We were pretty happy with having breakfast at Panera each morning too – lots of healthy options.
Thanks so much for sharing this 🙂
We recently stayed at the Fairfield Anaheim.
It can be pricey in $ or points because it is a higher category than most other Fairfields would normally be. But if you are trying to get to the park very early-we went at about 6:30 am-it is extremely convenient We chose it because we wanted to be there early-6:30 am
Pros-Location Location Location!
We definitely paid a little more this trip to be closer at this location.
Easy to get to walk to park and to run back later for jackets, etc and we did that
If you have little kids, grandparents who want to go back to the room-want to change clothes, send dad back for jackets you can’t beat that benefit
-We liked the newly renovated room!
-lots of pedestrian traffic so felt safe but there were panhandlers at times
-washer and dryer on each floor pay to use
Cons-primarily price
-It bugs me that it’s a Fairfield that doesn’t include breakfast-every other one on the planet probably does serve breakfast-my take on that is they are being cheap-I don’t get how they can do that if they carry the Fairfield Brand
-they will charge you $60 if you want early check in, even if you are top of the line Marriott reward member and standard check in is like 4 pm.
People were paying the $60 but I refuse!
We are top tier Marriott elite and our room was not ready at 3 pm when we arrived so I camped out in the lobby to wait with our luggage.
*Misc notes-did not eat in the market-no prices on cereal, milk, pop tarts etc. to me that is a red flag.
We ate breakfast at Panera. I think they opened at 5:30 am or so. And it is easy to grab a bagel and eat it walking to the park, or just carry it in for later. They probably support online ordering too. It probably takes a good 5 min to get out from the hotel down to the restaurant and you could save yourself some time that way and hopefully avoid the lines. Or send dad down to get breakfast while everyone else is getting ready. LOL
-it is a motel style-doors on the exterior-walkway. You can hear the noise/booms from the fireworks, but if you go out on the walkway you can see some too.
-they do charge for parking and most hotels do.
-you are spot on with pool assessment-it is VERY basic-but some kids were down there splashing around and having a picnic lunch. Note IT IS SMALL but they were the only family there and loving it.
By the way-had a lovely breakfast at the new Hampton Inn and Suites this spring-but it is probably about 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 Miles walk -took almost 1/2 hour and didn’t like walking back that way at night. The hotel was lovely and the rate was cheap, at least when they first opened. But you will pay for it another way in distance-time or Uber.