hi everyone. I just wanted to be honest with my view on HOJO on the freeway side. The kids didn't mind it, but we did notice. We slept ok because we were pretty exhausted every night, but if I had the choice again I personally wouldn't book that room. Sometimes the windows would actually rattle due to the traffic and especially semi-trailers. You can hear them pretty clearly from the room. And the air-con is really really loud. We couldn't sleep with it on.
That being said, it depends on each individual. HOJO is great for families. The gift shop is so handy, it is super well stocked and the ladies in there are fantastic. The pools are great, the kids really loved the pirates pool play area, really alot of fun. But if I was to stay there again I would book two queen rooms at the $59 entertainment rate. which makes it virtually the same price as the king suite. The suite is large, having two bathrooms and a seperate door is great, I only wish they had built them away from the freeway. It doesn't make sense to me that you would make the family suites the ones next to the freeway??
If anyone has any questions about anything, fire away, I am not sure when I will get any type of trip report done.
Other than goofy's kitchen, we found the food fantastic almost everywhere we ate, and very good value, we have nothing in Australia that competes for the quality of food we ate in general in the US. ANd the shopping value was ridiculous. We didn't plan to buy that much as we had been to the USA last year, but how can you resist Calvin Klein jeans for $20?? We got Addidas runners for my son, get this, the price ended up being $2.50!
And we are talking really nice addidas boots, not 5yr old design. We also brought back more than a suitcase of food, cereals, candy, chocolate, twinkies, steak rubs etc etc. I will post the photo of it all in the next few days.
Hope all your planning is going well.