How far is Hojo's really?

[RuthLS]

If it was me, I would never give up a room at the HOJO with an Entertainment rate. It's too good of a deal. I just wouldn't be able to get myself to give it up.

HOJO's other pool, the garden pool, will be open during your stay, and it's also a large pool in a pretty area of the property.....larger and prettier than the little pools at the BWPPI or Desert Inn.

If we're tired or our feet hurt, heck, we just drive over if we have a rental car. I think it's $12 per day for parking, but that beats paying $40-$50 more per night to switch to a closer motel that isn't as nice.

We have a Disney visa, so we've taken advantage of the 2 free stroller rentals per day deal, if our kids needed a break from walking while in the parks.

Okay, you guys have been great with all the responses but now I'm even more confused!!!

I now have ressies for BW, HOJO's, and Desert Inn.

I'm such an idiot that I didn't even think of parking. We will have a car. So how far is the walk from the parks to the lot b/c that can make a difference too. Those lots can be HUGE. edited to add per the dis map parking looks like it's far away and just as long of a walk as hojos..plus the website says they open 1 hr prior to park opening...we plan to do 2MM...so that wouldn't help us. And I guess we would take the tram into the parks?

No disney visa..though I was thinking of getting one just to get the free strollers. I'm such a cheapie. But it saves us $60 or $30 if we bring one stroller. DH says no..we don't need it. Thought we could use it to save up for the next trip I plan to spring on him. Is it worth it just for that?

I'm thinking we'll need at least one stroller outside of it all b/c we have to get to the airport on our way out at 4am..whatever was I thinking??

But I think I can get an umbrella in the $30-$50 range. And I didn't even think of the pick up the car and drive back thing. I guess if we had to we could do that.

So we are staying 4 nights...though not sure about the last night b/c our flight is at 11am and I'm not sure it's worth it to have to get up early and drive in traffic to LAX so we might stay in parks all day and then go to a hotel at LAX and sleep in in the am. Which is better do you think?

So here are the rates for 4 days not including tax.

Hojos $323 (1st and last night $59 rate)2 dbl bed room (not wild about that)
DI $556 parlor A suite, 2 room, 2 queen, pull out sofa
BW $563 2 queen and pull out sofa mini suite

Given all that....what are your thoughts? It's so hard to know the walk without having been before. If BW is 5 min and Hojos is only 7-10...it doesn't seem like much of a difference. But I'm hearing what you all say about wishing at night it was closer.

Oh the drama!! What would a dis trip be without it?

 

[disney-super-mom]

You take a tram from the parking lots to the front entrance of Disney, so the walks are pretty short. You only walk from your parking space to the tram pick-up/drop-off location, so maybe a minute or two, depending on where you park in the parking lot. Since you're going to a couple of Magical Mornings, you'll get to the parking lots early, so you'll most likely get a parking spot REALLY CLOSE to the tram pick-up/drop-off spot.

We actually did get the Disney visa ONLY for the free stroller rentals and a few other perks, and it's been very worth it for us, but we go to Disneyland often. We don't actually use the card or carry a balance on it though. We use our Alaska airline visa for that, so we can accumulate air miles.

 

[cccdisney]

I would stay with the HOJO's. We stayed there the first time in March and enjoyed it. For the amount of $$ you are saving I personally would walk the extra few minutes. If on those late nights as you start wishing you'd stayed closer - just remind yourself of all the $$ you saved!
Just my thoughts!
Have fun!

 

[RuthLS]

Thanks supermom and cccdisney..I'm leaning towards just staying. Even with stroller rentals, parking, etc. we still save money. And I guess we can suck it up. Maybe my kids will surprise us.

I think...well..I overthink...let's just leave it at that.

Thanks again for the help all. I envy you CA people. Dis, warm weather, wine, nat parks. Sigh.

The grass is always greener on the other side.

 

[bumbershoot]

At the end of the day, you'll wish you could just sleep wherever you are... No matter what hotel you're staying in it will still feel far away. Well, unless Grizzly River Run is the last ride of the evening and you're staying in the GCH room closest to the DCA/GCH entrance.

Almost no matter what, you won't want to drive in...honestly the walk through a disney lot to the tram then from the tram to security will possibly (or in my experience absolutely) be longer than even walking from HoJos. (and I don't feel that the walk is that long)

HJ doesn't charge for parking, and you can park there after check out...so if you were to go to LA the night before your flight, you could check out, leave your car parked, go to DL/DCA for as long as you liked, then go to your car and drive to the next hotel. For us, our trunk was so big that we fit everything in there (that trip we drove from WA and had our Beast aka the Grand Marquis), and we acted as though we were leaving, then parked again, so we felt comfy doing that...but of course you must decide if that feels OK to you. Other option within that option is to leave bags with the front desk and retrieve them when you leave (I did that at Carousel on my one-day trip).

Make sure you won't get charged extra for the parking lot at those other hotels (and those are actually motels, I believe, vs the hotel of HJ), and that you can leave your car there on check-out day.

I think that both disney-super-mom and I are on the same page of keeping HJ b/c that's what we would do. But likes and dislikes are hard to figure out for others! What you'll find after this trip is that, in all likelihood, the choice of hotel won't make or break your entire stay (there are, of course, exceptions to this), and DLR will be there for a long time to come, meaning you can try other hotels.

We've stayed at Paradise Pier, HoJo, and Anabella, and I've stayed at Carousel, all since mid-September, and I like HJ (at Ent Rate) the best (though if our room this month has the updated mattresses it will likely go to the top of the list regardless of price), then Anabella, then PP, then Carousel (well, the closeness of Carousel causes it to win over PP, but PP's smoke detector wasn't so strong it went off with a steamy shower like at Carousel, nor did the shower at PP flood the bathroom and vanity area! they both have good and bad).

But I only know that b/c we've stayed at various places.

And we've stayed at various places b/c first I had PP booked with a package, then switched it to Carousel, then went to PP with 2 extra nights at HJ. The other two trips were done b/c we got APs. And we're going back to HJ on the 25th!

 

[RuthLS]

Thanks again bumbershoot. I need to put the whole thing in perspective. We can get a lot of tigger tails for the $200 or so we may save.

I have to say, based on room reviews I'm all about Hojo's. The reviews for BW and DI are much more mixed.

We've had to carry the boys before hiking. And I'll need to work off all those treats. It's only 3 days and not the end of the world.

So yeah...convincing myself Hojo's it is.

Now trying to figure out if we should stay that last night or stay at LAX.

Has anyone driven on a weekday morning around 8 from dis to LAX? Our flight is at 11am and we'll have to drop off the rental car. I think we'll need to be there around 9 right? I was told an hour drive...but I'm thinking with traffic...could it be as bad as 2? Leaving around 8 is good. Leaving at 7 is pushing it.

 

[jenjersnap]

We've had to carry the boys before hiking. And I'll need to work off all those treats. It's only 3 days and not the end of the world.

I am taking our ergo carrier fully knowing I may even have to carry the 4-year-old in it (though, hopefully, usually the youngest). I fully plan on giving myself Mickey bars rewards!

 

[DangerMouse]

I slept on one of HoJo's new pillow-top beds last weekend. It was WONDERFUL! I really, really loved that bed.

I love all the upgrades they are doing (beds, micros, pools), and yet still keeping that wonderful ent. rate. I'm one of their biggest cheerleaders! GO HOJO!

 

[mareed]

We've stayed at HoJo several times and have always been happy there. We stayed at BWPPI last New Years and did not care for it as much. The big difference for us was all the outside noise because of the exterior corridor. We were unlucky and ended up on the first floor and the noise outside was really bad. We stayed there because the price was the almost the same as HoJo and we wanted to try staying closer for once. Well, we'll go back to our nice, quiet interior corridors at HoJo next time and probably all future trips too! With HoJo being cheaper, it would definitely be our choice (although I've never stayed in the buildings with the double beds - only the other 2 that have queens).

 

[brenda1966]

I just have to second this: leave the car at the hotel! The hassle of driving to DL and parking and taking the tram is a huge hassle and time consuming task. Several years ago we drove our car (from Hojo's) to DL on our last day because we had to leave midday to go to the airport. What a mistake. What was I thinking?!?! We should have just left the car at Hojo's and walked over and back.

If I was saving $200, I'd stay at Hojos.

 

[twinspluscade]

We are booked at Hojo's for end of May. I have a 3.5 yr old and 5 yr old..both boys. I have the ent rate for 2 nights. But keep in mind the big pool is down. And the pool was one of the reasons we chose Hojos as the other hotels have small pools.

I'm wondering how far it is really...in miles, steps, minutes.

And what hotel really is the closest?

How far is Best Western?? And is it that much closer than Hojo's?

I'm just thinking end of day with no or maybe 1 umbrella stroller might take it's toll on us. Also, Dis is at the end of an 8 day trip..so we may be tired by then.

TIA!
Ruth

I could've written your post! . I'm also currently booked at HoJo, and thinking about switching to Tropicana. The ONLY thing I have reservations about at HOJO is the distance, otherwise it sounds very nice. I just know with my Dh and kids, they will be whining at the end of the day when we have to walk past the other (closer) hotels to the 1/2 mile away HoJo. I just priced both the HoJo and Tropicana on-line, and it would only be $68 more TOTAL to switch to Tropicana....so I think we probably will. For us, the extra $68 is worth being closer, even if the hotel is crappy!

 

[julieannbabe]

for me - i was on my own - 5 minute walk to the traffic lights - then a 5-10 minute walk to bag search - then the ticket turnstiles (depending on the amount of people there).

 

[mommy2allyandaveri]

Okay, you guys have been great with all the responses but now I'm even more confused!!!

I now have ressies for BW, HOJO's, and Desert Inn.

I'm such an idiot that I didn't even think of parking. We will have a car. So how far is the walk from the parks to the lot b/c that can make a difference too. Those lots can be HUGE. edited to add per the dis map parking looks like it's far away and just as long of a walk as hojos..plus the website says they open 1 hr prior to park opening...we plan to do 2MM...so that wouldn't help us. And I guess we would take the tram into the parks?

No disney visa..though I was thinking of getting one just to get the free strollers. I'm such a cheapie. But it saves us $60 or $30 if we bring one stroller. DH says no..we don't need it. Thought we could use it to save up for the next trip I plan to spring on him. Is it worth it just for that?

I'm thinking we'll need at least one stroller outside of it all b/c we have to get to the airport on our way out at 4am..whatever was I thinking??

But I think I can get an umbrella in the $30-$50 range. And I didn't even think of the pick up the car and drive back thing. I guess if we had to we could do that.

So we are staying 4 nights...though not sure about the last night b/c our flight is at 11am and I'm not sure it's worth it to have to get up early and drive in traffic to LAX so we might stay in parks all day and then go to a hotel at LAX and sleep in in the am. Which is better do you think?

So here are the rates for 4 days not including tax.

Hojos $323 (1st and last night $59 rate)2 dbl bed room (not wild about that)
DI $556 parlor A suite, 2 room, 2 queen, pull out sofa
BW $563 2 queen and pull out sofa mini suite

Given all that....what are your thoughts? It's so hard to know the walk without having been before. If BW is 5 min and Hojos is only 7-10...it doesn't seem like much of a difference. But I'm hearing what you all say about wishing at night it was closer.

Oh the drama!! What would a dis trip be without it?

Don't feel bad, I have the exact same decision making issues that you do. I think I am literally driving my husband insane. I also have resies at HOJO and Desert Inn. We have stayed at the Desert Inn and BW but not hojo. If it were between the DI and the BW I would say pick the DI any day. I am looking at the HOJO this time because it has an awesome kids pool (or at least it will by the time we go) and it seems to have more upgrades like premium sheets and such.

The walk does worry me a bit but we plan to use the shortcut so hopefully that will help. The DI is certainly one of the closest!

Stroller issue. We have 2 little ones as well, they will be 2 and 5. We are buying a new stroller this weekend. The Joovy Caboose Ultralight. It is a sit and stand. We only ever bring one stroller, for the little one and last time we had to carry my older dd back to the hotel at night, not fun! So the 5 year old will be able to sit on the back while walking too and from the park. We do plan to rent a stroller while in the park for the 5 year old. We do have the DV card so we will get free stollers, that alone will save us $50 (we will be in the park 5 days).

There are many advantages to having the Disney Visa. This is pretty much the only card we use and we pay it off every month. I use it for as much as I can. As soon as I make a purchase I come home and send in a payment, free online. The points really rack up! Sometimes they even do bonus months where on things like gas and groceries you get 5% back instead of 1% back. We go every year and every year we have at least $300 points to take with us. This pays for most of our food on our trip. There is also no annual fee for this card. And you can get a free 5x7 pic every day of your trip. Plus 10% discounts at some of the resturants.

 

[RuthLS]

for me - i was on my own - 5 minute walk to the traffic lights - then a 5-10 minute walk to bag search - then the ticket turnstiles (depending on the amount of people there).

Ummm...sooo are you saying 15 min walk?

Is it a 10 min walk just to the gate and than a further walk to actually get IN the park?

I need to stop cking this site.

I know...how many minutes in a walk from HOJO's to Desert Inn or Best Western Park Place?

Thanks all for the other responses!

 

[pixiewings71]

It's a 7-10 minute walk for my family of four, from getting off the elevator (we don't count leaving our room because you have to wait for elevators and other people) and getting to security. I don't count the time we wait at the crosswalks and I stop counting when we hit the security gates because IMO you are there when you pass thru the security areas. 10 min is if we are dawdling and taking our time, 7 if we are walking our normal rate. Maybe my family walks faster than the rest of you guys....lol

 

[DangerMouse]

Pixie and I must walk at about the same rate. It's hard to walk slow when you know you're going to Disneyland! It may take a minute or two longer on the way back when our legs feel about ten pounds heavier.

 

[jemilah]

After staying last trip at the crappy Desert Palms , a slightly longer walk to a nicer room with a nice bed is so worth it for us! On trips we have parked the walk to the tram and through the garage felt like a million miles. To have plenty of energy we will eat lots of yummy DL snacks!

 

[pixiewings71]

Pixie and I must walk at about the same rate. It's hard to walk slow when you know you're going to Disneyland! It may take a minute or two longer on the way back when our legs feel about ten pounds heavier.

Exactly!! But we still get back in under 15 minutes with NO problems.

 

[BillyFan]

And the beds are fantastic! So worth it.

 

[disney-super-mom]

It's a 10 minute walk from the HOJO to the security bag check for us (DH, myself, DS 8, and DS 4).

Seriously though, I know the HOJO can seems like a long ways, but in reality, it's only about 6 minutes extra walking compared to the hotels located at the crosswalk. Are you willing to spend $40-$60 more per day at a lesser hotel just to save yourself a total of 12 minutes of walking?