I chose to stay at the Holiday Inn Mission Bay Sea World with my family for three nights in May 2004 because they have "kid's suites" that were appealing because we have a young son. I looked on expedia and thought the mid-week rate of $102 per night seemed like a fair deal. This was after I had spent alot of time looking for places to stay in desirable locations near Sea World. I had originally chosen Paradise Point Resort because it is on an island in the bay and was only about $35 more per night. As mentioned, because of the "kid's suite" I switched at the last minute to the Holiday Inn. The Holiday Inn is right next to the sports arena and about any retail venue you can imagine. The Vons behind was convenient and there's a very nice Chuck E. Cheese right up the street that we went to. That's about it for positives. The hotel offers no scenery although you are only about two miles from the bay and some of the most beautiful scenery imaginable. I would further describe the location as "surrounded by strip malls". On the second night our young son was walking barefoot in the room after having a bath. After some time my wife noticed that his feet were filthy with dirt! So, I cleaned them off and let him walk around on the floor again for a few minutes and sure enough they were filthy again. The next day we changed rooms and it was a slight improvement. By the way, the rooms we stayed in were very dark, you have to have the lights on during the day with the window open, it's like staying in a cave as my wife put it. The bathrooms are fairly small and I noticed that the closet/sink area are too narrow and cramped. The king size bed was very firm and gave my wife a stiff neck, however, I slept well with no such problem. The bunk beds and kids table were useful for our son and I agree the "kid's suite" idea is a good one. The room has a partition between the king bed and the bunk bed area, otherwise it seemed to be the same size as a typical hotel room so I think using the term suite is a stretch. The hotel has a baker's square on-site. I guess I had forgot that anyone who has been to a baker's square realizes it should actually be called "there's no bakers in this square franchise". In my opinion, making a decent cup of coffee is one of the most simple tasks in life, however it is not simple enough for this restaurant. The last day we asked the front desk if there was a good place for breakfast and after getting the standard plug for the powerful franchises we were given the name of "The Country Waffle" that is a couple of miles down the road, and it was an excellent breakfast and less money than "there's no bakers in this square franchise". To top this all off, on the last night I went for a drive and decided to drive into Paradise Point that is only a couple of miles down the road. The place looked awesome, they had torches lit. It was completely quiet and dark on its own island, as the title of this review states "should have picked my original choice". Oh and finally, in the new room we received, the bathroom fan from the room below us made our whole cave (room) vibrate when on. The point of my writing this is not so much to tell people how bad the Holiday Inn is, it's about what you'd expect for a place like that. However, if you can scrape up a few more dollars, my feeling is it will be well worth it to find a place to stay closer to the water. Have a good stay in San Diego.

Recommended: No