We review a stay at our least favourite hotel, Disney Newport Bay Club Hotel.
This is our review of our only stay at Disney Newport Bay Club Hotel. Disney Newport Bay Club is a 4-star Nautical-themed resort with 1920s nautical details, nestled on the shores of Lake Disney.
A pleasent nautical-themed hotel with many well-themed touches
Close distance to the parks
Unconvinced why this costs more than some other Disneyland hotels
Lacks any real "magic" or "atmosphere"
Off To A Rough Start (Room Change)
We checked in nice and early and left our bags at the hotel and headed into the parks for the day. At around 4pm, we got a text to say our room was ready. We were assigned room 1299. Bottom floor! We entered the rear of the hotel after leaving the parks and were told to head up to level 2. Level 2 is where the reception and shop are located. However, our room was down on level 1, so we had to go over to the lifts and then go down again at another location. That seemed a bit of a kerfuffle, but we continued. (If there was an easier way, it wasn't clearly signposted.) We headed down to Level 1 and started making our way through the corridors to find our room. On the way there (which was quite a walk) there were lots of people walking back and forth. I was confused as to why it was so busy! While my only focus was the numbers on the doors, when we got closer to the room I felt the corridor get quite a bit warmer. I know Disneyland Paris loves having their heating on full blast all the time, so I didn't give it much thought. We finally arrived at 1299 and went inside.
I wheeled my suitcase against the wall and lay on the bed giving my feet a little rest. As I lay there I felt myself get warmer and warmer. I got up and tried to turn on the air-conditioning to cool the room, but it was already at its lowest, 20 degrees. So I looked towards the window and there was no window to open! We were on the bottom floor. All there was to open was a door. If you open the door it opens into this small car park. However, we can't really leave this open to keep the room cool, someone could just walk in. I was baffled there was no window to open or functional air-conditioning.
While all this was going on, we could hear people constantly (and loudly) walking around outside. We were in the room for about half an hour and the noise was substantial and starting to get irritating. I stepped outside and looked down the hallway, and noticed our room was opposite the entrance to the pool. I looked further down this side and saw a whole corridor of rooms opposite the pool. Why are there rooms opposite the pool entrance? This explains the insane heat and the noise. I decided that I wasn't going to be able to cope with this and went to the reception to ask for a room change.
When I explained to the cast member all of the above, she went to her computer and asked me what the room number was, I told her, she typed it in, and then she smiled. She knew exactly what group of rooms I had been given. She went off to talk to her colleague to see what was available. She came back a couple of minutes later and said she could move me to a room on the 5th-floor main building. I went back to our old room, grabbed our stuff, and got the hell out of there.
The Rooms
After we got moved, we settled into our new room. This one didn't have any windows either, however, it had a door and a balcony, and if it warmed up, I could just open the door a little without the fear someone could just walk in during the night.
The rooms appear to be structurally the same as Disney Sequoia Lodge. As for the design, there are many nautical touches around the room. You'll notice the headboards, bedding, and wallpaper (that also have random characters). The dark furniture is starting to look a little tired but remember these rooms are themed around as "1920s nautical". So in that regard, it fits. The room has a small-ish TV, kettle with tea and coffee-making facilities, 2 bottles of water and plenty of storage room. In the corner of the room, there's a little desk with a mirror and chair.
(Click any of the images to zoom in and tap the left/right sides to tap through the photos)
The bathroom area was nice, clean, and spacious. There was a safe, iron, plenty of towels, and soaps. The hairdryer is one of those weak wall ones in all the Disneyland Paris hotels, so keep that in mind. Just like the 3-star Sequoia Lodge, there's no fridge here. Which is strange for a 4-star hotel. Our balcony looked over the front of the building with a nice view when the weather is nice.
The Resort
The reception area is inviting but feels a little bit claustrophobic as the ceiling seems to appear quite low. But, it wasn't very busy when we arrived so it felt very spacious in the other directions. Our wait was minimal to get checked in. I really loved the carpet design throughout the hallways, and they stretch through the whole resort. By the reception, there is also a little shop with a good selection of items, and a big Mickey similar to what you see on the Disney Cruise ships.
Characters (in their nautical outfits) do appear in the lobby from time to time. We always seemed to miss them and we couldn't find any posted times when they were there. The reception queue at the time was very large and we'd have to have waited a while to find out when the characters arrived. It would be much better to have a poster somewhere with times on (and if there was, we didn't see one).
The resort does have a full-service gym, pool, and sauna, but we did not have time to check these out. There are two on-site restaurants, "Yacht Club" and "Cape Cod". There's also a bar lounge area called "Captains Quarters Bar". The lounge is quite nice, although keep in mind if you don't like sitting next to heaters, ask for a table away from the windows.
Disney Newport Bay Club doesn't have a distinct smell or feel that I could put my finger on. In the evening, part of the reception and the exit door area to the parks does smell quite fishy when the restaurants are open. So if you don't like the smell of fish, you might want to avoid this hotel. Also, keep in mind it seems that Disney Newport Bay Club is the resort businesses usually send employees for corporate events. On our final day, we witnessed many signs appearing overnight and a lot of people walking with lanyards that looked like part of a big business group.
Summary
If you're not going to use the gym or sauna (which are the only reasons I can see this being a 4-star hotel instead of 3-star), I wouldn't recommend paying more for this hotel over Disney Sequoia Lodge. The rooms are almost identical (apart from the theming) and the service is the same. The distance difference to the parks is negligible as well. As I previously said, Disney Sequoia Lodge had a warm, cosy, relaxing feel to it, Disney Hotel New York - The Art Of Marvel has a bright, bold, modern feel to it, but I couldn't put my finger on the feel of Disney Newport Bay Club. Even though it is heavily themed (which I think does look fantastic in places) this hotel doesn't feel like Disney to me. Something is missing. The atmosphere. The ambience. It just doesn't have that. For me, it's not worth paying a premium for over Disney Sequoia Lodge or Disney Hotel Cheyenne.
If you or your family love the nautical theme, you'll probably like this resort. I love Disney Cruises but this resort doesn't capture the magic of that, but it's unclear if they're aiming to. I enjoyed the design and theming, but when the room differences between this and Disney Sequoia Lodge are minimal, the extra cost just isn't worth it to me unless you take advantage of what makes this a 4-star hotel, which is the gym and sauna. If there has to be a least favourite Disneyland Paris hotel for me, this would be it.
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