I cancelled Grand Californian because I thought it was very expensive for what you got.
Good thinking! Exactly how I feel. Small rooms, dark hallways that go on forever. We happened to be put in a room that was almost as far away from the elevators as you can be, which caused us to have to backtrack (which drives me batty...I will plan my errands in a circle around town so I don't have to backtrack) every time we went to or from the parks.
For me, the good parts of the hotel are the public parts (as long as it's not during xmas time, because that tree destroys the lobby for me, as it makes it very dark...ever since Lasik I haven't done well in dim rooms, and at xmastime I might as well close my eyes while walking through that lobby).
I do not feel that you get what you pay for at the Grand, and when we stayed it was prepaid b/c we used DVC points (at the end of the time when you could use points to stay in the *hotel* part of the place) so we didn't really *pay* for the room at all...
I mapped out the path we took from the room to the center of the esplanade (getting to DCA's special entrance is obviously shorter, but then if you're not wanting to go to THAT part of the park, it's not..if you're starting your morning at the bakery and heading to Monsters, or TOT, you might just hit the esplanade and have the same approx distance), and it was almost exactly the same distance as from the sidewalk outside HoJo to the same spot.
Our room was across from, augh, can't remember, but we were rather far "down" in DTD when looking over the balcony...we had to walk ALL the way back, turn a corner, walk to the elevator area (think of it as the center of that part of the building), go down, then basically walk under quite a bit of the distance we'd just walked, to exit further "up" in DTD than our room was. As we walked along DTD to the esplanade, we would wave to our room and wish for a really good trampoline to just get up to our balcony. Highly frustrating.
Sorry, I always go ON, but it just BUGS me that one's experience in that hotel is SO weighted on what exact room you get! If we'd been one wing further into DTD, there's an exit down a stairwell that gets you right near La Brea (very close to the bag check area to the esplanade to get you to DL or the main gates of DCA). Of course going back you can't take that locked door, but it would have been nice for the mornings!
HoJo is good.
However, you mentioned PPH concierge...PPH is our fave hotel now. We've stayed there a few times, and the rooms are big and bright and cheerful and airy, the lobby is bright (even when there's a tree in there), and I've heard their concierge is on the same level of the Grand's concierge. Of course concierge is only worth it if you'll be there to partake...bottled water, coffee, tea, appetizers, beer/wine later on, desserts after that...
I'd go with PPH, concierge or not, personally.
Plus, you get to walk through the worth-it-to-Molly parts of the Grand to get to DL and DCA! A win-win situation.
But make sure you still have time to cancel hojo, OK? Don't want to get hit with a cancellation fee.
(and I doubt this is ONCE in a lifetime...if you were truly planning on it once, your kidlets would be older! I'm sure you'll be back.
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