Our stay at the Lemon Tree Hotel in Anaheim was without a doubt a positive experience. Our needs/wants were met with customer service of the highest level. We were given printouts of directions while and optimized travel routes while we ran up to our room. We were never met with a poor attitude and every single person we came into contact with was smiling, helpful and courteous.

We will definitely be staying at the Lemon Tree Hotel in Anaheim again.

After reading the widely-varying reviews on this hotel, my husband and I decided to give it a shot for a recent just-the-two-of-us escape to Disneyland. I'm going to report our experience here in the hopes that a more balanced review might be of use to others who are deciding whether or not to take a chance on this place.

The pros:

Very adorable. Yes, all the reviews that say the place is adorable are correct. It's obviously a 60's-era motel revamped, but the owners have used considerable ingenuity and taste in redecorating the place, and for the most part have done a beautiful job.

Our room was a hot-tub suite with a king-sized bed. The room is nice and large, very clean, with plenty of places to stow things. Does anyone really ever unpack suitcases into dressers unless they're staying awhile? I don't, but there is plenty of dresser space if you want it.

The bathroom countertop was very roomy. This might not seem like much, but I get tired of cosmetics falling into the sink or onto the floor when counter space is limited to a 36-inch area minus the sink.

There were plenty of towels (see cons below), and no, we didn't have an issue with lack of bathroom tissue. Then again, we were there only two nights. They used paper coffee cups instead of glass (which I prefer for cleanliness reasons... but again, see cons below).

Local calls are free. Wireless internet is free (see below).

The hotel is an easy drive to Disneyland, but it is a drive. The shuttles don't serve this area.

The price was good, the desk help was friendly and courteous.

The courtyard between buildings is beautifully landscaped. I'm a flower gardener, and it was nice to see the effect they created using simple plants and a goldfish pond.

All the ugly air-conditioning units--you've seen them in rows on these old-style buildings--were creatively camouflaged with rustic tables that fitted over them and hid them from view, flanked with chairs. Nice touch, that.

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The cons:

Noise. The hotel sits on a busy street, and isn't set far back from it. Our room was on the end nearest the street. The traffic noise was incessant. It didn't bother us much at night (we're both sound sleepers), and we were gone most of the time during the day. However, the second afternoon we decided to take a break, go back to the hotel and watch a video. The room has no DVD player (some places do, some don't, so no gripes here) so we watched on a laptop. Between the traffic noise, the noise of the water pipes in the building, and the noise of the air-conditioning unit (which was really only a little louder than average, but still...) we could hardly hear the video. Shoulda brought headphones. Oh well.

Insufficient parking. We had to park on the far end of the lot from our room both days. Not nice when you're trying to load or unload suitcases, etc.

No alarm clock in the room. This really wasn't a "con" for me--I always use my cell phone alarm anyway--but it might be for some.

No blow dryer in the room. Again, not a "con" for me--I usually bring my own anyway since I'm used to it--but it might be for others.

The lighting in the mirror area was laughably insufficient--quite dark and shadowy.

Aaugh... the bed sheets. The hotel uses flat sheets for both top and bottom, as most hotels do, just tucking the bottom sheet in securely under the mattress. The problem here is that their sheets weren't big enough to tuck around a king-sized mattress. So unless your sleep is absolutely motionless, you end up with the bottom sheet bunched up under you and pulled away from the edges of the bed. Very annoying.

The hot tub is billed as a "two-person" unit, and yes, two of my children would have fit therein while still in grade school. It was very shallow, and not at all comfortable, having straight sides and no contours at all. It was nice for soaking away the stiffness from walking all day, but it was simply a wider bathtub with jets. The jets were a bit noisy, and considering the noise we ourselves were dealing with, I decided not to use them. It was nice having two tubs in the morning--cut getting ready time in half--but if you're looking for a nice, relaxing soak with your sweetheart, this tub won't do it.

It is convention in hotels that if you want new towels, you leave the old ones on the floor. If you want to re-use them, you hang them up. We did some of each. However, the housekeeping staff simply re-hung the ones we had left on the floor. Ugh.

Housekeeping did not replace our obviously-used paper cups. Ugh again.

The wireless internet signal strength in our room was very weak. Our room was one of the farthest from the office. Perhaps closer rooms get better signal.

Saturday morning at 8 a.m., the gardeners decided to rev up a weed whacker. Perhaps to make up for the lack of alarm clocks.

Last but not least, the 10 a.m. checkout time. For a place that bills itself a quaint little getaway, noon would be more appropriate. The checkout time is not posted in the room, so be aware when you're planning.

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Overall, my opinion is that it's not a bad place to stay depending on what you want. When the kids were little, it would have been fine. They would have loved the flowers and the goldfish pond, and all the cons I listed wouldn't have meant a thing to them. Since it was just the hubby and I, I really wish we had chosen somewhere a bit more upscale.

Would we stay here again? Hmmmm... maybe, if we bring kids. It wasn't bad--it wasn't great. I'd probably look for something else for just the two of us.

We stayed her for 5 nights. At time of booking we were told our Garden suite would have a full sofa. We arrived and the room had a weird smell don't know what it is. There was no sofa. Housekeeping is terrible. Sheets were not changed once even after asking twice. They barely leave you any towels. Beautiful landscaping but overall money would of been better spent somewhere else.

Avoid room 127 if you stay here.

It was on the end of the cleaning rotation. Not once in 4 days did we get new towels or new cups.

The tissues and bathroom tissue were not replenished.

Parking is horrid on the east end of the property and wifi doesn't extend out of the main building.

That said, the rooms were otherwise cleaned, the beds were comfortable, the shower hot and staff was friendly.

The grounds are really pretty, loved the koi pond and all the flowering plants. Easy to find, within 15 minutes (driving) of Disney and just off Ca Hwy 91.

The rooms do not have alarm clocks, hair dryers, bags for dirty clothes or ice buckets. Pack what you'll need.

I don't think I'll come back here, but would try their other property.