bumbershoot
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2007
In general, I wish people would stop trying to compare hotels outside reasonable walking distance with ones that are considered walkable. Let's face it, nobody is seeking out any of the close Harbor lodging options for their amenities. Far above all else, they are coveted due to their location and the only fair comparison is between each other, not some 4-star hotel near the convention center.
But, of course, once person's reasonable is another person's impossible. We stayed at Hilton Garden Inn and walked it all but one evening. It was slightly beyond reasonable, but it wasn't horrid at all. (we were following DH on a work trip and that was where he needed to be) We couldn't figure out the shuttle used by the hotel (3 different stories each time we asked) and had no interest in taking the Disneyland shuttle from the Disney parking lot when we weren't paying to park, so we walked.
Sometimes people are comparing hotels that they actually compare for trip purposes, not just trying to mess with ya.
True, no room service, but Mimi's does have take out, and is literally right across the street. Their menu is diverse, and the food is excellent. Also, reasonably priced. We tend to stop for McD's, or that new pizza place, as well, on harbor blvd. that used to be in the former Quiznos, to take food back to our room, after a day trip to Disneyland, and the convenience store has a lot of snacks to choose from. There are also a lot of places that will deliver food directly to your room, such as pizza, Chinese, etc.
Mmm, Pizza Press... There's also Millie's on the way back.
Of course, those places require that you walk on the hotel side of the street, which I personally dislike doing. But if you're hungry there definitely are plenty of places to stop into! Last time we stayed at HoJo's we stopped at Millie's and got a huge salad and order of mac and cheese to share, and it really hit the spot. (for whatever reason, Mimi's, doesn't really do it for us)
The only thing is now I am thinking I want to try the Grand Californian for proximity, and to try out a different type of Disney experience, so I am uncertain what we will do next time.
This was my experience with the Grand. Our room was just about the second furthest-away room you can get. I mapped it using mapmyrun, and to get from our room to the center of the esplanade was the same distance as going from the sidewalk outside HoJos to the same spot in the esplanade. It was MADDENING. It was a DTD view room and first we had to walk all the way back down the corridor parallel to DTD but going back towards DLH, then the elevators, then allll the way back, backtracking to what we had done upstairs. (to get to Disneyland...obviously if you're heading to the parts of DCA easily accessible by the entrance through the Grand you wouldn't follow these "directions") If we had been one wing over we could have at least gone down the stairs into DTD, but we were back one wing with no DTD exit.
Just want you to temper your thoughts on how close you could potentially be. Because, just like $99 makes HoJo super-worth it but $169 isn't a value, walking that distance from HoJo for $169 feels far more worth it than walking that distance paying $300+ a night at the Grand.
I liked hojos when I paid the entertainment rate years ago too. Last year I booked a room and double checked that it was two rooms, sleeps the 7 in our party. When I checked in it was a regular room with 2 beds. I went back to the lobby and the only thing the girl in the front offered to do was bring in a roll away bed. She said the people answering the phones don't always have the right details. There was no way I was squeezing 4 adults and 3 kids in one room and so we ended up booking another night at the desert inn and we lost hours worth of time in the process.
With HoJo if you're calling the hotel you have to call the Anaheim hotel directly, and during Pacific coast business hours. (don't forget their lunch break) If you booked through the 800 number or checked through that, or called during a time that you would be shunted to the 800 number (and some years back I had an 800# person lie to me and maintain the lie that she was at the hotel until I spelled out my question "are you sitting in the hotel in Anaheim?" and she couldn't figure out how to lie to that one). And no, the 800# people don't truly know the hotel.
But it's odd that you booked something that you thought was 2 rooms and would accommodate 7 (you put 7 into the form?), but it was just a 2-doubles room.
Now to answer some of my thin skinned critics. ...
Sorry I opened this can of worms but it is my opinion and I just wanted to let people now not everyone loves "hoho's"
It was just a rhetorical comment. I wasn't really expecting anyone to carry me out and burn me at the stake. These boards are very friendly and very very helpful. I have received many helpful hints and answers to many annoying questions. I just know how loved that hotel is on these boards and I thought another viewpoint might be nice.
You apologized and this isn't an angry reply but... The first post of a thread sets the tone. If you start a thread saying "don't flame me", it changes the whole tone of it. It makes any normal disagreement or other opinion FEEL like some might take it as a flame. When a normal disagreement or other opinion isn't a flame at all.
Like the other poster said, a flame involves name-calling, and no one here did that but you.
My mom used to say "words are things", and so if you use words that feel like you're anticipating a flaming, it really does change things. If you didn't mean it, no point in using the words, IMO.
I personally like Anabella FAR more than HoJo. And while you don't get the Disney music you can hear while walking along the park side of Harbor, visually the walk between PPH and the Grand is far more pleasant.
But...some people (especially when put in the far back building) have had negative experiences there!