Sheraton Park at Anaheim Resort Hotel Review

Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort is a Disneyland Good Neighbor Hotel within walking distance of the parks and Convention Center. In addition to being convenient to Disney California Adventure and Disneyland, it’s also an okay place to stay for SPG Members looking to stay on or earn points during their visit to Orange County. This review features photos of the hotel, plus thoughts about our experience of staying here.

Let’s start with distance to the parks. The Sheraton Park Hotel is located just past Katella, near Convention Center Way, but still on Harbor Boulevard. It’s less than a 15 minute walk to the parks, and maybe a 5 minute walk to the Anaheim Convention Center. Its location really makes it an ideal candidate for those splitting time between a convention and the parks, and I’d hazard a guess that it’s a pretty popular option during the D23 Expo.

Given its location and status as a business chained-brand hotel, it probably makes sense to compare it to the other hotels near the Convention Center. Unfortunately for Sheraton Park, it would not fare so well in any such comparison, except in terms of price. Relative to the other business-tier hotels in the area, the Sheraton is dated and in need of a refurbishment. Let’s take a look…

First up is the guest rooms. These reminded me a lot of the Marriott at the Convention Center, except minus updates and upkeep.

At first blush, the guest room don’t look overly worn or super-dated, but that’s probably thanks to a pretty nondescript style that is designed to age well.

On the plus side, the bedding is fairly nice and the mattress strikes a good balance between firm and soft.

Upon closer inspection of the furniture, carpet, and walls, you can see a decent amount of wear.

Another thing that is worth noting is that the guest rooms here are huge, but the room is so poorly laid out that there’s little advantage in the larger size.

I’d hazard a guess that this room is as large as (or perhaps larger) than the two new Hyatt hotels on Harbor, but of which have room for a separate lounging area with a sectional couch. I’d love to see a wholesale room redo with a similar layout here.

The bathroom here is pitiful. It’s exactly what you’d expect from one of the motels on Harbor Boulevard both in size and style, which is exactly what you would not expect from a major name among business hotels.

One positive about the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort’s rooms is its large balconies. Our view was of the Anaheim Convention Center expansion construction and Tower of Terror covered with a paper bag, so I didn’t think to photograph it.

(Another thing: expect to wait for the elevator. It’s pretty inefficient, particularly during peak hours. We ended up just using the stairs.)

Now let’s take a look at the common areas and some of the features of this hotel. Of course, there’s a lounge, meeting spaces, and reception areas. I’m guessing the latter elements don’t matter to you if you’re reading a Disneyland vacation planning site. (Unless you hold a lot of meetings on your Disney vacations…)

The lobby is perfectly fine, and probably has been remodeled more recently than the guest rooms. It’s still bland, but it doesn’t feel cheap.

The Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort’s biggest strength is its lush grounds. Between the lobby and the main tower of the hotel (they aren’t the same building), there is a garden area with the pool in the middle.

Not only is the pool area sizable and secluded, but this whole area has something of a resort vibe to it.

Another plus is the convenience store in the lobby, which has a wide selection of items without much of a mark-up. The cafe inside also serves Starbucks coffee.

Prices at the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort range from a modest $125/night to an upwards of $250/night, but most nights seem to fall into the middle of this range. (If you can book this hotel at the lower end of that spectrum, it nullifies almost all of our concerns in this review.) That makes it cheaper than its Convention Center counterparts, but still absurdly priced relative to hotels near Disneyland of comparable quality.

Oh, and that’s before you get to the fees! They charge $18/day for parking and $10/day for internet. Charging for parking is becoming the norm for Anaheim hotels as the area becomes more developed, but $18 is still at the high end of the spectrum. If there was just a parking fee, we could get past that, but the fee for internet is ludicrous.

We realize that some business chained-brand hotels still charge for internet with the assumption that those “paying” for it are using an expense account and not their own money (and thus, do not care), but this is not a business-caliber hotel. (And even if it were, such a fee is ridiculous nowadays.)

This review has hardly been a ringing endorsement, but it’s worth noting that this hotel is not terrible. It just doesn’t live up to the reputation of the Sheraton name, nor is it in the same league as the other chained-brand hotels near the Anaheim Convention Center at which we’ve stayed.

In our Disneyland Area Hotels Rankings & Reviews, this hotel comes in a notch above Paradise Pier Hotel (a similar story of dashed expectations), and isn’t in the top half of hotels. However, those are relative ratings, with value for money considered. In absolute terms, the Sheraton Park Hotel is in the top half. (In other words, it’s not sketchy.) If you’re looking for more planning resources, you can find them in our comprehensive Disneyland Trip Planning Guide!

Overall, the only people who should stay at the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort are those who are fiercely loyal SPG members. Even then, it’s hotels like this that make you question the very concept of brand loyalty. (Most people are better off redeeming SPG points elsewhere, or paying less and forgoing the points they would’ve earned by staying here.) Unfortunately, the mix of price, distance from the parks, and quality make it very difficult for me to recommend this to anyone else. It’s not that the Sheraton Park is scary or even bad (we’ve stayed in far, far worse in Anaheim), it’s just that you can do a lot better for the price. There should be a pretty clear difference in quality between the mom & pop motels on Harbor and a major-label offering. Yet, I could point to more than a few motels near Disneyland that are better than this. I feel like this hotel is coasting on the reputation of the name on its marquee–a name for which you’re paying a premium–without justification given this hotel’s quality. If you’ve stayed at the Sheraton Park Hotel, what did you think?