Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim is a relatively new resort near Disneyland, featuring a water park, restaurants, free breakfast, and more. It offers multi-room accommodations at cheap prices, while still being within walking distance of the theme parks, shopping, and more. This review features photos, thoughts on amenities, and pros & cons of booking at this versus nearby competitors in Southern California.
It’s tough to keep track of the ever-evolving Anaheim hotel scene, but this is one of the newer hotels on the outskirts of the Anaheim Resort Area that is near a decent amount of development. Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim is east of GardenWalk and Disneyland’s Toy Story Parking Lot, placing it near the JW Marriott and Hampton Inn & Suites.
This has been a big area of development, with many additions to the hotel slate in this area. If you want to know how the Cambria Anaheim compares to the competition in my opinion (which is based on the perspective of someone who has stayed in nearly 50 different hotels near Disneyland), check out our Disneyland Hotels Reviews & Rankings post. You can also read our overall comparison of the benefits of staying in Disney-owned hotels versus third party accommodations in Off-Site v. On-Site Disneyland Hotels: Where to Stay. Suffice to say, the calculus for the California resorts is nothing like at Walt Disney World.
Let’s start our overview of the Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim with its location. This hotel is about a 15 minute walk to the Disneyland Esplanade and less than 5 minutes to Anaheim GardenWalk, which is a shopping, dining, and entertainment district akin to Downtown Disney. A range of dining and convenience stores at the corner of Harbor and Katella are also a short walk away in the other direction.
This makes the Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim a relatively convenient option. It’s a longer of a walk than we’d like to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure by about 5 minutes, but the bulk of that is on Disney Way, which is a quieter back street. Consequently, the quality of the walk isn’t too bad even if duration is on the long side.
On a positive note, the Cambria is not on the other side of the busy Katella and Harbor intersection. It also doesn’t require crossing I-5, which is another big plus. Not having to cross Katella or I-5 is potentially a big deal for families, especially when returning from the parks at night.
We’d prefer to be right across the street from the Disneyland Esplanade on Harbor Boulevard, and this is ~10 minutes farther from the parks than many of those older motels. However, there’s upside to this spot–especially if you’re venturing beyond the parks. It offers convenient access to the 5, which shaves a few minutes off the commute to Los Angeles or the beach cities for non-Disney days. Critically, it’s also very convenient to the In-N-Out Burger on State College Boulevard. And can you really put a price on Double-Double convenience?!
If you don’t want to walk, there’s an ART shuttle stop adjacent to the Cambria, which provides transportation to and from Disneyland. Don’t tell “the man,” but we’d recommend walking ~5 minutes to the Toy Story parking lot, and taking a bus to the front entrance of the Esplanade. These are free shuttles, and make this hotel’s location more appealing.
The other potential downside of the Cambria’s location is that it’s adjacent to the freeway. There’s always the potential for noise with this, but we had zero issues. I’m not sure if this is a result of good soundproofing or us being particularly tired after long days in the parks. As such, your mileage may vary.
The biggest thing we really like about the Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim is the price. We’ve seen rates under $150 per night off-peak travel dates, making the Cambria incredibly competitive. During these same dates, many other ‘suite-centric’ hotels cost significantly more per night.
In spot-checking rates later this summer, I’m seeing prices that are always cheaper than the Residence Inn, SpringHill Suites, and other comparable hotels nearby. There are several dates when the Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim is under $150/night, which is an excellent rate for any of these new family suite hotels. With that said, prices can be considerably higher during peak seasons. As with all other hotels in Anaheim, prices fluctuate considerably, and you should always do comparison shopping with comparable hotels in the area before booking.
If you’re considering the Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim as part of a Disneyland vacation, you can book a hotel + ticket vacation package via Get Away Today to save money. In addition to the package discount, some hotels have ‘4th night free’ promos. In addition to their normal discounts and special packages, you can save an extra $10 by using code TOURIST at checkout. We also recommend Get Away Today in our Guide to Buying Discounted Disneyland Tickets—booking a vacation package makes an already great deal even better.
One reason to use Get Away Today with the Cambria in particular is that you get free water park access and discounted parking at the Cambria when booking via Get Away Today. To my knowledge, you won’t get that when booking the Cambria via any other discount hotel engine.
The Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim follows a formula that is very common among new “big box” hotels in Anaheim. At this point, there are over a dozen such options that are all recently-built and have nearly interchangeable designs near Disneyland. That’s not necessarily a knock, as there’s a lot of appeal to this style.
Despite this, the Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim is actually unique and memorable in a few key regards. The first twist offered by the Cambria is that its grounds are surrounded by restaurants and retail. Options include Habit Burger Grill, California Fish Grill, Starbucks, Jersey Mike’s, Yogurtland, Ono Hawaiian BBQ, and Luna Grill. None of these were particularly busy during our stay, which was nice.
Breakfast is free, very good, and incredibly crowded–all three of these characteristics are becoming increasingly common among the recently-built family suites/extended stay category of hotels near Disneyland.
I appreciated the variety of the foods, in particular hot meats, DIY Mickey waffles, eggs, fruit, and so forth. Not to brag too much, but I actually turned the left plate above into a breakfast waffle sandwich “monstrosity” that tasted pretty good but I’m told “is going to kill you if you keep eating like that.” (I’m sure you are all very impressed.) There’s also an indoor-outdoor bar overlooking the water park area of the hotel, if you’re around later in the day and don’t stop on on snacks during the breakfast hour.
Speaking of which, the highlight of the Cambria’s amenities is the pool and hot tub area. This is pretty nice by Anaheim standards, and is secluded from passers-by (not that there are many) and the parking lot. It’s not a rooftop pool like some other new hotels in Anaheim, but it’s still far better than average.
The Cambria advertises this as a 30,000 square foot water park. That seems like a stretch, but it’s unquestionably bigger and better than 98% of the pool areas in Anaheim. Nevertheless, a lot of that square footage is devoted to seating and open outdoor areas (and although that large number might sound impressive, normal water parks are much larger than 30,000 square feet in size). It’s more like a glorified pool and water play area, but it’s still a nice perk that kids will enjoy.
There’s a lot more than just the “water park” in this outdoor area. In addition, there’s a wide variety of seating, plus fire pits, a basketball court, mini golf, yard games, and poolside projection wall with movies shown in the evenings. We enjoyed eating breakfast outside, which was a nice escape from the crowd inside and good way to enjoy sunny SoCal mornings.
The downstairs lobby is modern and sleek, with a wide variety of seating options. I don’t make a point of hanging out in hotel lobbies–especially when our room has separate sitting and sleeping rooms–but it would be a fine place to kill some time while waiting for your room to be ready.
Other amenities include a 24-hour fitness center, meeting rooms, lobby convenience store, outdoor fire pits, and more. On a negative note, there’s a $28 parking charge ($15 for those booking via Get Away Today), which stings a bit more than normal when the hotel is located among several empty lots.
This brings us to a couple of important points that are probably worth stressing. Normally, I’d overlook staffing shortages as par for the course in the current climate, but they were particularly pronounced here. We stayed 4 nights at the Cambria, with half of our stay being the off-season and the other half being a near-peak weekend.
It was very obvious when the hotel went from off-season to peak season. The parking lot was packed (with people waiting to park), the front desk was overwhelmed at check-in time, and housekeeping was limited. If you’re expecting attentive service or find yourself frequenting hotel front desks for whatever reason, you may want to book elsewhere during busier times of year (summer, holidays, and weekends).
With the common areas and service addressed, let’s turn to the guest rooms. There are a variety of options, from a standard room to 2-bedroom suites that can sleep up to 11. We booked the 1-Bedroom 2-Queen Suite, which seems to be the normal room type, and can sleep up to 6. This is definitely the way to go if the price difference is minimal (as is often the case in our price comparisons).
There’s also a similar king version of this room that adds a bunk bed in place of the other queen bed and has the ability to accommodate 7 guests…but probably fewer adults.
I was reasonably impressed with the 2-queen suite. It follows the same formula as the big box hotels, but has its own unique twists. In particular, I really liked the oceanic accent wall and indirect under-bed lighting. This gave the room a sense of SoCal serenity and calming quality, plus more personality than you’d normally see in this style of new room.
It gave the Cambria a higher-end quality, which is atypical of this type of hotel–these are usually cookie-cutter designs. (I actually took all of my room photos at night to highlight this…but probably should’ve captured some of the natural light during the daytime. Suffice to say, the room looks nice and presents better in person throughout the day.)
In addition to the style, we found the pillows and beds to be incredibly comfortable, with average plush and firmness.
Weather was all over the place during our visit, so we put the in-room heater and A/C unit through its paces–it performed well. (To each their own, but we prefer this type of unit as it provides white noise to drown out external sound.)
There’s also sufficient space for luggage and hanging clothes. Perhaps not enough if we were a party of 6, but it was just the two of us.
Same goes for outlets to charge our devices. Plenty of USB and traditional plugs for powering phones, backup batteries, watches, cameras, and so forth.
In a rare turn of events, the bathrooms at the Cambria are actually noteworthy.
This is rarely the case among Anaheim hotels outside the luxury tier (e.g. the Westin and JW Marriott). The photo above looks pretty ordinary, but wait for it…
See that? It’s a second shower! If we were a bit more clickbaity, perhaps this post would be titled, “You’ll Never Believe Where We Found A Secret Shower By Disneyland!” Joking aside, I was mildly surprised when I opened the bathroom door and saw that ‘secret’ shower.
There are a couple other hotels in Anaheim that offer similar configurations, but I’m blanking as to which ones. Or maybe I want to keep those secrets to myself. In any case, this is a seemingly small feature that’s a huge asset–especially if you’re a larger party or in a hurry to get ready and rope drop Disneyland.
Turning to the living area, the kitchen is serviceable. It’s on the smaller side, which is fine with us since we only tend to do breakfast and late night meals in the room.
Having two areas is nice for spreading out, especially as I tend to get up earlier and like to turn on the television while I work to have background noise.
The kitchen is equipped with full size refrigerator, microwave, and Keurig coffee maker.
This is quite nice for those who want to do a little food prep, but actually not the nicest kitchen among the big box hotels–some also have stoves and/or dishwashers. The Cambria is missing those features.
The living room features a full-sized sofa bed, chair, television, and coffee table.
I really like the layout and use of space in the suite. Again, these aren’t the largest accommodations we’ve booked in Anaheim, but the Cambria uses every square foot of this suite really well–unlike other hotels, there’s no wasted space.
Overall, whether the Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim is a good option likely comes down to your priorities. Pretty much like any hotel near Disneyland, so that’s hardly a profound or unique thought. The Cambria is potentially great if you’ll be exploring Southern California beyond Disneyland, and want a convenient base for accessing the beach, Los Angeles, Universal Studios Hollywood, and so forth. If you want larger accommodations or a nice pool (sorry, “water park”), those are more points in the Cambria’s favor.
Conversely, if you’re doing a quick trip that’s singularly focused on Disneyland and you plan on doing opening until closing in the park, or you want the ability to take midday breaks without losing much time, the Cambria isn’t such a great option. Ditto that if you don’t need larger accommodations or care about having a larger pool. All in all, the Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim could be a top 5 pick for some, and a total non-starter for others. Although it follows a familiar formula in some ways, it’s an interesting option with unique selling points. Hopefully this hotel review helped you determine whether it’s for you!
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
Your Thoughts
Have you stayed at the Cambria Hotel & Suites Anaheim? What did you think of the room layout? Does the full kitchen, living room, or separate bedroom space appeal to you? Thoughts on the breakfast? What about the “water park” or other amenities at the Cambria? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
