Carousel vs. Hojo

[dmked]

I have stayed at Hojo and love it, but Carousel is much closer and only $10 more per night, is it worth it to be closer for $10/night or is Hojo a nicer hotel, anyone know?

 

[SeattleTink]

I have stayed at both....and liked them both.

Here is the low down:

Carousel: Closer, free breakfast (not fancy, but adequate), you pay $9.00 a night for parking, in room coffee ok, pool is tiny, beds are comfy.

HoJo's: Farther walk, no breakfast (but Mimi's is right there and yummy), no parking charge, in room coffee is Keurig and yummy, Pirate ship play area for kids and nice pool, beds/pillows are super comfy.

I would stay at both again, but honestly HoJo's is better in my opinion and worth the walk, especially if it is cheaper.

Good luck deciding.

 

[Goofy_Mom]

I have stayed at the carousel, not the HOJO. There's nothing special about the carouse. It might as well be a holiday or days inn. The rooms are clean and its a place to sleep and shower. The breakfast used to fairly good some years ago, but it's gone downhill. In fact, if your not there before 8 am, it's slim pickins.

If your looking for closeness, The Camelot is it's neighbor. You get a veiw of DL (Carousel's view is of DCA) so you can see the fireworks from most rooms or the roof top pool. Park Place Inn is right across the street from main entrance. The don't have a snack breakfast, but IHOP is right next door and does a tasty breakfast all day.

 

[kiwitravel]

HoJos - Free Parking, Better Pool

Carousel - Free Breakfast, Microwave every room, 10 minutes less walk

It will depend on what is important for your stay...

 

[GrandBob]

I've stayed in both, and IMHO, there's no comparison. HoJo all the way!

HoJo is modern, clean, has inside hallways, super customer service, and great pools.

Carousel is old - the rooms are up to date, but the hotel itself is out of date. Motel-style outside corridors. Breakfast not worth going to. So-so pool. Basically, an average (at best) motel.
Here's my review of our Carousel stay.

Personally, I'd pay at least $30 more for HoJo. Carousel's more? No way - stay at HoJo.

-Bob

 

[azdisneylover]

I don't know if you plan on using a pool or not, but the Carousel pool is closed for refurbishment. They are owned by the same company that owns the Tropicana. Have you thought about staying there? It is right next to the Carousel and BWPPI?
(I am crunching numbers so we can (crossing everything) go to DL in April.)
If you pay 21 days in advance, BWPPI prices may work for you.
Have a great trip!

 

[kiwitravel]

I don't know if you plan on using a pool or not, but the Carousel pool is closed for refurbishment. They are owned by the same company that owns the Tropicana. Have you thought about staying there? It is right next to the Carousel and BWPPI?
(I am crunching numbers so we can (crossing everything) go to DL in April.)
If you pay 21 days in advance, BWPPI prices may work for you.
Have a great trip!

Camelot and Tropicanna are owned by the same company... Carousel is owned by the same company that owns Annabella...

We have stayed at the Tropicanna, it has a better pool but smaller rooms...

Camelot is worth a try though, I have heard good things about it...

If you are considering having the longer walk to save money then I would recommend the Katella hotels, they tend to be nearly half the price of Carousel and are about the same walk as Hojos... We stayed at the Americas Best Value Inn on Katella last trip and save nearly $1000 on our 11 night stay...I just reminded myself everytime we did the walk and it was not an issue... In terms of value for money it was the best stay of our three trips by a lot...

 

[azdisneylover]

Camelot and Tropicanna are owned by the same company... Carousel is owned by the same company that owns Annabella...

We have stayed at the Tropicanna, it has a better pool but smaller rooms...

Camelot is worth a try though, I have heard good things about it...

Thank you, Kiwi, for catching my error. Tropicana and Camelot are owned by the same company; BEI Hotels.

Depending on how you feel at the end of a day at Disneyland, match that with; the walk back to the hotel, do you want to relax in a jacuzzi, do you want to go for a swim during your stay, are you interested in free breakfast.
Any way you look at it, you are going to have a great time! Happy planning!

 

[disney-super-mom]

I don't know if you plan on using a pool or not, but the Carousel pool is closed for refurbishment.

The Carousel pool will be re-opening in 3 weeks.

 

[Piglet99645]

Park Place Inn is right across the street from main entrance. The don't have a snack breakfast, but IHOP is right next door and does a tasty breakfast all day.

I am booked at the Park Place Inn for June and my reservation says all rooms come with a continental breakfast.

Off topic, but wanted to clarify since you mentioned it.

P.

 

[bumbershoot]

Hojo is inside corridors, which feels safer to me. I stayed at Carousel on a solo trip, and pretty much felt like I was sleeping outside b/c I just felt so vulnerable with the outside corridors.

I've timed the walk from hojo on both the hotel side and the Disney side of Harbor, even with some very painful blistery feet (never EVER wear "cute" shoes when walking a long distance right before your trip STARTS!) and going very slowly, and it's about 3 minutes from the parking lot of hojo to Carousel. Unless you get in the middle of crowds and delivery trucks trying to get into or out of driveways to the hotels... But at hojo you just cross Harbor right near the hotel, and you avoid the crowds and almost all driveways.

 

[dptabrown]

I'm just curious if any of you have stayed at the Carousel in the last month or two since they finished their $3mil remodel? I found kind of a "secret deal" when booking online at the Carousel. If you choose in the drop down box on the booking page you can select the 20% off for staying 4 nights or more. I was able to reserve a concierge club level room for the same price as I would've paid right now at HOJO. Not sure if you saw this or not?
And I really AM curious if anyone has been to Carousel since the remodel has recently been finished? I've been wanting to post and ask! And yes, the pool will be remodeled by the time we go in June so I'm glad about that too!
Picking a hotel is such a hard decision to me!

 

[dmked]

Sounds like I'll be sticking with Hojo then I am just really crossing my fingers that the Annual Pass rate will become available, right now I have my trip booked with 30% off, but even that is stretching it for me. I stayed at Anaheim Plaza last time and I swore I'd never stay in a place like that again.

 

[kiwitravel]

I've timed the walk from hojo on both the hotel side and the Disney side of Harbor, even with some very painful blistery feet (never EVER wear "cute" shoes when walking a long distance right before your trip STARTS!) and going very slowly, and it's about 3 minutes from the parking lot of hojo to Carousel. Unless you get in the middle of crowds and delivery trucks trying to get into or out of driveways to the hotels... But at hojo you just cross Harbor right near the hotel, and you avoid the crowds and almost all driveways.

Measuring the time from HoJos as being from the carpark is not really an indication of the distance as the carpark is huge and with all of the rooms on the other side... Its all subjective in my opinion as it depends on where your room is in the hotel as well, the same goes for CCI and Carousel though they do at least have some rooms at the front, these are long narrow hotels... Typically door to security check and including crosswalk waits HoJos is going be 12 - 15 minutes while Carousel is going to be 3 to 7 minutes...

After being told last year that CCI was only a 5 minute walk to the check (and because we had to walk past it every day) I timed it from the pavement outside the hotel (and having no wait at the crosswalk) to the security at a brisk walk at 9 minutes, couple in a probable crosswalk (less busy than crossing Harbor though)wait and where your room might be in the hotel then CCI is going to be 10 to 13 minutes...

Where we were staying was another 2 to 4 minutes further so a walk comparable to HoJos and for the savings we made I absolutely had no issue with it, I would think very differently if I had younger children though...

 

[LuLusApple]

We are finally going back in March Woooo Our December trip fell through, bummer. So it will be a year in March! The horror but I was just checking out both HoJo (my fav) and Carousel, have not stayed there in a million years. The costco package for carousel right now is cheaper than the HoJo individual by about 150$. No ent. dates avail either. So I am thinking about taking the plunge for the carousel Plus I like the pacage perks hehe