Good Neighbor Hotel Opinions

[PurpleKomodo]

Hello. I was looking in the review section and didn't see reviews for many of the good neighbor hotels we were looking at so I thought I would ask if anyone has stayed at any of these and what you thoughts were. Here they are:

Staybridge Suites
Doubletree Suites
Portofino Inn and Suites
Residence in at Maingate
Desert Palms Hotel and Suites

Any experience or opinions of these would be awesome! Or if you have any others I should look at. I am also looking at the Howard Johnson, but am concerned about the lack of a suite style option there.

 

[avalon451]

The "good neighbor hotel" designation at Disneyland has no significance at all. You don't get a price break or anything. Rather than limiting your research to what Disney designates as "good neighbor", your best bet is to go on Trip Advisor, or scroll through the many threads on here, to look for reviews of local hotels. The ones you named are all nice but not as close as they could be, especially for the price. Another good place to check is the sticky thread at the top of the forum here, which has a hotel review thread on it. You also might want to read Hydroguy's tips, especially his "Hydroguy Hotel Rule".

I'd also look at the map on TripAdvisor, which will show you exactly how close each hotel you're looking at really is to the parks. Be advised that they all advertise being "right across from the parks" or "one block from the parks"... but that means they may be one city block from the farthest corner of the park property, when in reality it's 1.5 miles to the entrance.

Hope that helps!

 

[Darkbeer1]

What is important to you?

Some have some sort of Kitchen Facilities in the room.

Free meals like Breakfast?

Do you care if it is an older building or fairly new construction.

Walking distance to the parks... What is near the Hotel

Price points, and do you need Wi-Fi and/or parking?

Have you checked out the new Courtyard by Marriott across the street from HoJo's? (same ownership)

They all have plusses and minuses. Also some of the ones you mentioned have multiple locations near the parks, so which specific properties are you looking at?

 

[PurpleKomodo]

The 2 most important things at his time are walking distance to the parks and suite style rooms (as in a bedroom with a door). I know some of the ones I listed are not walking distance to the park. Free parking at the hotel would be a plus since we will have 1 or 2 cars. Price is also important. If it wasn't I would stay at the Disneyland Hotel...

 

[Darkbeer1]

The 2 most important things at his time are walking distance to the parks and suite style rooms (as in a bedroom with a door). I know some of the ones I listed are not walking distance to the park. Free parking at the hotel would be a plus since we will have 1 or 2 cars. Price is also important. If it wasn't I would stay at the Disneyland Hotel...

OK, I like the Residence Inn Maingate on Clementine then. (Most rooms will have a bedroom door, but not all so check before you book)

A condo Style complex, and decent walking distance (and you have the Anaheim GardenWalk Shoppertainment Mall in-between).

Free parking, free breakfast in the morning, and occasionally and late afternoon light meal.

Well rated at TripAdvisor

https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_R..._Inn_Anaheim_Maingate-Anaheim_California.html

Staybridge is too far away and isolated.

Portofino is mostly a Motel with a couple of rooms called suites, I would pass.

Same issue with the Desert Palms, mostly a Motel with a couple of rooms that might be described as suites.

Some new, good choices are at Harbor and Katella, the Hyatt House, SpringHill Suites and another Residence Inn, though this time more of a High Rise version than an Apartment Complex feel.

Edit - The DoubleTree on Harbor is nice, but not truly "walking distance" to most folks.

 

[Imdboss]

We've stayed at DoubleTree twice and really like it there, we only stay at Hilton properties since DH is diamond with them. Our first time staying there we'd walk to the park and take ART back at night, afternoon breaks if we saw a shuttle we'd get on or just walk back. On our recent trip we would walk to the Toy Story lot to grab the shuttle and that worked really well, so easy and free! It'd take about 10 min, depending on traffic lights, to get from the hotel lobby all the way back to the shuttle line. Let me know if you have any other questions about the hotel!

 

[PurpleKomodo]

When I google mapped the Doubletree it looked like it was a 1.2 mile walk to the parks. How do you figure 10 minutes? Is that to a parking lot to catch a shuttle? Are the shuttles fairly stroller friendly?

 

[smartlabelprint]

You can also check the new homewood suites convention center. It's a shorter walk to the toy story lot.

 

[Kindermouse]

This site( http://www.disneytouristblog.com/disneyland-anaheim-hotels-reviews-rankings/ )has a lot of reviews that I agree with. I havent stayed at any of the ones you mentioned myself though

 

[Imdboss]

When I google mapped the Doubletree it looked like it was a 1.2 mile walk to the parks. How do you figure 10 minutes? Is that to a parking lot to catch a shuttle? Are the shuttles fairly stroller friendly?

Yes I said we'd walk to the Toy Story lot to catch the shuttle, that walk took about 10 minutes with our kids (7 &12 at the time). Lots of strollers but you do need to fold them up when you get on the shuttle.

 

[Scribble Kitty]

I've stayed at the Desert Palms and really liked it. I'm not sure why previous poster said it's more like a motel? It has an obvious hotel feel with inside cooridors and elevators. Free breakfast and wifi, can't recall if parking was free, but the parking garage is underground beneath the hotel. Breakfast is on the top floor and you can eat out on the rooftop with a view of the back side of Carsland.

The suite I stayed in was more like a regular room, but larger. 2 queen beds and a fold out sofa bed with a screen divider for a bit of privacy.

 

[minnieralyks]

We've stayed at Desert Palms and really enjoyed it! It's a little bit of a walk, but closer than some of the others you listed.

I wonder if @Darkbeer1 is confusing Desert Palms with the Desert Inn and Suites (which is a motel right across from Disneyland)? Desert Palms has inside corridors, an elevator, and is much nicer than many of the motels on Harbor. They have a full breakfast with eggs, sausage, biscuits, doughnuts, cereal, yogurt, waffles, etc. Overall a really nice hotel.

 

[casagray]

We stayed at Portofino as a family six years ago and it was not the best experience. We found it far to the park (it isn't that far but for mid-day going back and end of the day it seemed really really far); generally, the ART was better for getting back to the hotel than going to park as it stops right outside the hotel. Our room smelled horrible, like antiseptic, and they would not move unless we paid more for a different room; it did dissipate after the first night, but gave all of us headaches - this was the biggest issue we had and it soured our stay a lot. Smaller, but annoying things - while there was a "door", it is a sliding glass door that let every bit of noise through - you couldn't have the kids in the bunk beds sleeping while you were in the other part of room watching TV (the pics show this pretty well). While there was a fridge and microwave, there was no table or desk or anything you could use as one - we brought subway back one day, and had to move the side table by the couch over, with two people sitting on the couch and one using chair and one waiting/standing to eat. With no desk, there is no place to sit with your laptop and check things (flights, work, etc.) [and I had to bring my laptop in case an emergency came up at work, so this was important to me]. Had I known about this board, and more about the other hotels along Harbor, I think we could have found a much closer hotel with better options.