HOJO or Tropicana with an 8 year old?

[helenk]

I have booked the Tropicana for my trip with my grand-daughter this August. I like the idea of just walking across the street to get to the parks. Mousesavers has a discount code for the Howard Johnson and that looks pretty good and not much more than the Tropicana. Any thoughts? And if I do book Hojo what building would I select? The bookings available show Bldg 3-6 and then bldg 1 and then Bldg 2.

 

[ADLFAN]

We stayed at the Tropicana when we brought a handful of kids in the 7-10 year old age range and it was very nice to walk right across the intersection and be 'home'. Sometimes the walk from the front of the property to the back where our rooms were seemed super far to them after we'd run them around the parks all day!

The Hojo has a pretty fun water park area as well as their 'quiet' pool area, and while I haven't stayed there yet, I'm certainly tempted! If you guys are planning to take a break in the middle of the hot summer day to swim, I bet she'd really have fun in the water park with the other kids. But if you think swimming will be minimal, I would go for the Tropicana. The pool and hot tub there were perfectly fine for relaxing, just with no fancy features.

Have fun planning!

 

[helenk]

I guess I will just need to think about it a bit. I know that we will want to go back to swim in the afternoon or at least in the evening when we are done in the parks. I had good luck with her walking in the parks at WDW but the idea of just walking across the street seems perfect to me.

 

[GenGen22]

The beds at hojo are very comfortable which I require at the end of a long day. Also, there is a hot tub in the kids water park area where you can relax while watching your granddaughter play.

 

[bumbershoot]

Hojo isn't all that much further away than Tropicana.

IF you are willing to take advantage of the water play area and the pool (separate areas!) at HoJo, so there's a value in staying there, I'd stay there. If you are stay-at-the-park-all-day people and won't make time for the water, or if it's only going to be nighttime (not sure how late the water play area is open, or if it would be safe at night in terms of being lit up enough?), I wouldn't.

 

[kirstie101]

DD just turned 9 and she is a huge fan of the kidde pool area at Hojo! The distance between HOjo and Tropicana isn't much, a couple of minutes. I've never stayed at the Tropicana so I can't give you details for there. But I can agree that the beds at Hojo are heavenly and I love the keurig coffee makers in the room!

 

[ErinF]

We stayed at the Hojo last June and we loved it. My three kids ages 6, 9, and 11 at the time liked the splash area as well as the regular pool. We took a midday break every day for down time which included swimming. Rooms were reallly nice, staff was very friendly, and beds were super comfy. The walk was about 8 minutes and my crew handled it just fine, even at the end of a long day.