DL first timer-list of walking distance hotels

You could look at the good neighbor hotels or just a map. Most of the hotels are along Harbor Blvd. I consider everything from the Four Points at the North end of the park all the way to the Double Tree near the convention center as walking distance. For people who care about being walking distance and don't need a fancy pool for children, I generally recommend the Fairfield. The Best Western across the street would be the closest walking distance wise besides the Grand Californian.
 

As far as suggestions, we just stayed at the Tropicana two weeks ago. We were a family of 5 also and it was very clean and one of the closest places to stay near the park entrance on the Harbor side. Literally took us 5 minutes to walk from the Tropicana, get through security and enter the Disneyland Esplanade. If you catch the traffic light on Harbor, add another minute or 2.

Very easy to walk back and forth to our room to drop off or pick up items throughout our days there.

Also doing a VERY detailed Trip report, as we also stayed for 3 nights and did both parks from park open to park closing. If interested, here's the link for that thread that I'm updating currently too...

https://www.disboards.com/threads/t...ing-disneyland-trip-report-7-28-8-05.3848213/
 
For Good Neighbor Hotels, these are across the street from DL.

Grand Legacy at the Park
Best Western Plus
Desert Inn & Suites
Park Vue Inn

I’ve stayed at Grand Legacy and liked it!
 
Are you going to spend any time in the room outside of sleeping? If so, I wouldn’t stay at any of the motels listed. I was interested in the Hyatt House but a regular around here reminded me why I never tried it. The walls in her room were paper thin.
For our next trip we’re considering residence inn, courtyard by Marriott theme park entrance, home2 suites. I’ve heard decent things about Fairfield but it has outdoor walkways like a motel.

Our absolute fave is homewood suites but it’s a 2 min walk with a heavy double stroller and we don’t want to do that this time. Prior to Covid we were still booked there and planned to Uber back and forth. But our adopted kids parents had another baby and we’re back to a double stroller.
 
I stayed at the Park Vue Inn last week and was very happy with it. It's a motel, but it was clean and the staff was very nice. I know you said you don't care about a pool, but the pool was nice. It's literally right across the street, very short walk.
 
Are you going to spend any time in the room outside of sleeping? If so, I wouldn’t stay at any of the motels listed. I was interested in the Hyatt House but a regular around here reminded me why I never tried it. The walls in her room were paper thin.
For our next trip we’re considering residence inn, courtyard by Marriott theme park entrance, home2 suites. I’ve heard decent things about Fairfield but it has outdoor walkways like a motel.

Our absolute fave is homewood suites but it’s a 2 min walk with a heavy double stroller and we don’t want to do that this time. Prior to Covid we were still booked there and planned to Uber back and forth. But our adopted kids parents had another baby and we’re back to a double stroller.

I wouldn't necessarily knock a place just because of outdoor walkways. The Sheraton Park Hotel would qualify as not a motel under your definition but it is the worst Sheraton I have ever stayed at anywhere in the world so I'd pick the Fairfield over it.

The Courtyard is decent but I find it hard to recommend to someone who doesn't have Marriott status or kids who will enjoy the water play area given the number of properties nearby that include free breakfast at a lower price. As someone with Marriott status, I find the Residence Inn poor value compared to the Marriott and the Courtyard near the convention center but not bad quality. It is a hotel I would recommend to someone if space and quality were more important than price. The Home2 Suites has freeway noise so I'd only pick it if I was looking specifically for a Hilton property and it was the cheapest one for some reason.

But I agree that in general, the hotels closest to the park are basically motels with slightly improved interiors. Hotels in the Disneyland area are just not very good given their prices.
 
Are you going to spend any time in the room outside of sleeping? If so, I wouldn’t stay at any of the motels listed. I was interested in the Hyatt House but a regular around here reminded me why I never tried it. The walls in her room were paper thin.
For our next trip we’re considering residence inn, courtyard by Marriott theme park entrance, home2 suites. I’ve heard decent things about Fairfield but it has outdoor walkways like a motel.

Our absolute fave is homewood suites but it’s a 2 min walk with a heavy double stroller and we don’t want to do that this time. Prior to Covid we were still booked there and planned to Uber back and forth. But our adopted kids parents had another baby and we’re back to a double stroller.
No, since its just a 3 day we will only be in the room to sleep..thanks will check those!
 
I wouldn't necessarily knock a place just because of outdoor walkways. The Sheraton Park Hotel would qualify as not a motel under your definition but it is the worst Sheraton I have ever stayed at anywhere in the world so I'd pick the Fairfield over it.

The Courtyard is decent but I find it hard to recommend to someone who doesn't have Marriott status or kids who will enjoy the water play area given the number of properties nearby that include free breakfast at a lower price. As someone with Marriott status, I find the Residence Inn poor value compared to the Marriott and the Courtyard near the convention center but not bad quality. It is a hotel I would recommend to someone if space and quality were more important than price. The Home2 Suites has freeway noise so I'd only pick it if I was looking specifically for a Hilton property and it was the cheapest one for some reason.

But I agree that in general, the hotels closest to the park are basically motels with slightly improved interiors. Hotels in the Disneyland area are just not very good given their prices.
We have kids with sensory processing disorder. We can’t stay anywhere with an outdoor walkway, or a place with thin walls, such as Hyatt House. I’m aware that not all hotels are automatically better than motels and I research and read first hand reviews while deciding. I wanted to know if they just needed a place to crash or if a potentially noisy motel is fine. When I was 20/30, without kids, we’d spend all day in the parks. My go to was Best Western Park Place Inn.
 
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