In your opinion which is the best Good Neighbor...

[Our 2 Princesses]

hotel in the economy series? We have been to WDW many times but are clueless as to DLR. We are thinking of a budget 2010 trip and were just trying to get ideas on where to stay. Also, is it difficult to get an ADR at the Ariel princess breakfast? Thank you!

 

[kiwitravel]

Camelot, Carousel, Tropicanna and BWPPI are the nearest "cheaper" hotels. They are infact the closest of all hotels except Grand Californian. Shop between them to get the best rate. The best value of all is HoJos on the entertainment rate though they a little further away.

 

[Husker Mickey]

We like the Fairfield Inn by Marriot. It may not be the cheapest, but compared to WDW, it's a bargain. We have stayed at the BWPPI a couple of times. It's okay, but we prefer the FFI. It is updated, clean and customer service was excellent. You might want to check into it also.

 

[2ndStar]

The Anaheim Plaza is just a few doors down from the hotels mentioned above and usually a lot cheaper. Expedia usually offers it cheaper than calling the hotel directly. The walk is about 5-7 minutes to the entry gates (they are VERY close), they have a great huge pool and attractive grounds, a wonderful gift shop and restaurant where I think the kids ate free. Howard Johnson's is also a great deal if you can get their entertainment card rate for your dates. The rooms at HoJo's are nicer, you can't beat HoJo's pools for the kids, but the AP is quieter and a tad closer (we're talking just a couple of minutes though). Those are my two choices for CLOSE and CHEAP while still getting a VERY good quality stay.

 

[Gisele]

Here is a good informative link that may be of interest to your needs.

 

[kc10family]

We love the Dessert Inn and Suites. When we go on long trips we get the parlor suite so we can relax in the one small "room" and the kids can sleep in the other. We find it cheap yet nice for a hotel so close.

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

Thank you all very much!! Is it safe to walk back to these hotels at night or should we drive if we were going to stay at the parks late?

 

[WendyLovesPeter]

I am also wondering if the above mentioned hotels are within safe walking distance.

I am also assuming they will not be similar to the WDW resorts as far as themes go. I can go without this but its so cool at WDW. We are wanting to go at spring break time and I just cant put out the cash for the Dis resorts - at least the prices I am finding. We are also trying to go budget.

 

[kc10family]

I took my girls alone this past summer and felt fine walking across the street and down a few hotels (like 2) to get to ours. I would not have done that if I had to walk much further.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Those above hotels are very safe to walk to at night. From the turnstiles of Disneyland to either the Tropicana, Best Western Park Place Inn or Carousel for example, you are looking at a walk not a whole lot further than from the MK turnstiles to the Pop Century bus stop. It may well be a bit shorter! Its well lit and well patroled so even though its a busy city intersection, you won't feel a bit unsafe.

Another place I recommend highly is the Howard Johnson's. Its a further walk maybe more like 10 minutes but its very nice. Unlike those above, the Hojo has grounds, a pool, a large pirate splash area and the rooms are much larger. To get there, think maybe going from the main area of CBR to the most outlying section. Ten minute walk. Now this is on a city street not through lush grounds but its not bad. There are several restaurants including a McDonald's you pass by which is covenient. I think most if not all the rooms at the Howard Johnson's have a balcony. So give it some consideration and check into getting an Entertainment Book. They give a special Entertainment Rate that can sometimes give you a huge savings and will typically save you money over the places right at the crosswalk.

The ones across the street are fine and very clean. But they feel more like motels. The Hojo has a more upscale feel an its the only one in walking distance that I think of as a hotel and its pool areas are so beyond any other places right there on Harbor. But it is a further walk. But if you are WDW regular, you are used to walking!

Oh, and Ariel's is not too tough to get into, just call at the 90 day mark and you will be fine. Its such a fun place for little princesses to go to! They do the princesses just like the place in Norway in Epcot but you won't have to eat cold scrambled eggs and strange food to enjoy the experience!

 

[Amy&Dan]

I am also wondering if the above mentioned hotels are within safe walking distance.

I am also assuming they will not be similar to the WDW resorts as far as themes go. I can go without this but its so cool at WDW. We are wanting to go at spring break time and I just cant put out the cash for the Dis resorts - at least the prices I am finding. We are also trying to go budget.

No those motels are NOTHING like any WDW resort. There is no theme, they are older motels but they have seen plenty of updates and refurbs since they are so popular. Square pools, with no slides, no onsite restaurants, outdoor hallways and no grounds. But so convenient! To walk less than five minutes from the turnstiles to your room is so nice. You don't get the theming but you won't be waiting for a bus, boat or monorail. At Disneyland I know that within 15 minutes of leaving the park, I am in my pj's or sitting in the hottub of my hotel, on or offsite. You just can't beat that.

The exception to a plain motel is the Howard Johnson's. Its a bit further walk as I said above, but I never felt a bit unsafe walking there. Its always a well travelled street as its motel row and right across the street from Disneyland. I would stay there alone with my kids if dh couldn't go and not feel one bit worried. The Hojo is the only place there near Disneyland that has a themed pool. Check out pictures of it on Expedia or Tripadvisor. Its still not a Disney themed type place but its the closest thing you'll get staying offsite at Disneyland. And many of the rooms have theme park views. You are right there at the parks, you can even hear the Disneyland Railroad from some of the rooms and the monorail is whizzing by just across the street. So you are closer to DL than you can imagine. Only the Contemporary offers such a closeness to a park at WDW. So that suddenly turns an offsite motel into something much more special!

 

[HydroGuy]

You got lots of good feedback so far. Amy gave some really sound perspective as usual.

I was tempted to not respond at all but decided to reinforce a few points.

1. As Amy said, a number of the hotels on Harbor (across the street from DLR) are as close to the DLR gates as the bus stops are from the WDW park's gates. IMO that fact is underappreciated by WDW vets.

2. Harbor Blvd is safe. Mostly. I feel safer with the really close Harbor hotels like BWPPI which is right on the crosswalk. We let our kids walk back to the hotel throughout the day and evening all alone even at 10 years old. I would be a little less comfortable letting a child walk alone or my DW walk alone all the way down to say HoJo's or CCI later at night. Not a high concern, but some. Walking in groups seems entirely safe to me. My wife had a very scary experience with a homeless person (who had clearly lost some marbles) one night on Harbor even though the rest of us were with her.

3. The Disney theming at the Harbor Blvd hotels is weak but there is some. What you sacrifice in theming you gain in being so physically close to the parks. At WDW we enjoy the hotels more. At DLR we use them only for sleeping and a quick swim. The DLR parks are a much higher focus than the WDW parks for us. So if you go with the attitude that the hotels are for sleeping and the parks are paramount, it will make the situation more fun.

4. Like Amy, I have become absolutely sold on walking distance hotels at DLR. I summarize this and give some other links in this thread FYI: "HydroGuy's Hotel Rule" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1199862

 

[Amy&Dan]

Trey, I was just coming back to post your link. I had a "what was I thinking not doing that" moment and came back to put it on here but you beat me to it!

I agree that a lot of WDW vets don't appreciate the closeness factor. They get too hung up in my opinion on the "Disneyland is inside a big city" and the "offsite hotels are the same price as a value or mod but nowhere near as good". Both true points but only to a very small degree.

I will also add, that I LOVE the Best Western Park Place Inn mini suites. Perfect for families, spacious and very nice. The only thing that big in WDW is probably the Poly. So if you take the size of the rooms into factor, all of these motels are on par with a moderate or above. I have yet to stay in one with a room as small as a value room. And the BWPPI is the closest motel to DL. Again, if you are a WDW vet, picture the entrance to your room where the bus stop is at WDW! What is not great about that. I'll also chime in that the Tropicana is a great place to stay. It has a better pool than the BWPPI and also has some suites, but I haven't tried one. But we really like that one and the BWPPI when we want to stay at the crosswalk.

Another note, most of the motels on Harbor between the Hojo and on down for the most part have free continental breakfasts. The Hojo doesn't but it has a small store with a ton of very reasonably priced items. These are your typical freebie breakfasts but they help get your day going and they are free.

I haven't seen as much in the way of the homeless factor on Harbor the last couple of trips as I used to. Maybe I have been lucky or maybe Anaheim sort of clamped down on that. It was never bad or a big issue, but you would see some of that sort of thing. But I see that at WDW when I venture offsite to go to a grocery store so in any big city will have that.

I think its safe and for most of us with kids, we aren't venturing out that late anyway. Good rule of thumb, if you are going back late, as long as its following park closing you are fine. If you go to a late dinner on DTD and go back to your Harbor Blvd motel much after park closing, I might recommend taking a taxi from one of the onsite hotels for peace of mind. During off season during the week, the parks close at 8:00 but the restaurants don't. So if you were say going back at 10:00 two hours after DL had closed, then I might not want to be walking up Harbor. From DTD , you can easily hop into the Grand Californian and get a taxi for less than $5.

And you can also take the Art Shuttle to the Hojo right near the Disneyland gates to save you that walk up Harbor anytime of day and night.

By my signature you can see I have stayed at many places in WDW. But I have never found an offsite stay at Disneyland anything but a great experience. We love the proximity and prices of the offsite places we have tried. I love the onsite hotels at DL but won't pay those rates. I only stay at them when I have enough DVC points to cover that. Because I find the offsite places too good a value and location to pass up and the parks are not diminished one bit by staying offsite. At DL that is, I would never stay offsite at WDW because there are enough choices that I don't feel I have to save money.

 

[WendyLovesPeter]

another question...

being used to WDW I love the great upkeep and cleanliness of those resorts. I am just wondering if these good neighbor hotels try to keep somewhere within that part of the Disney reputation.

I am just not looking for a room that is an "amusement park room." I have a stereotype in mind of some of the motels around Cedar Point and Kings Island (both Ohio). These are the kind of places I am paranoid of having anying on the floor and things are just looking worn and run down. I really sound like a hotel snob - - funny as I live on a farm - this is not the way I want to come across.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Most of the motels there on Harbor don't have landscaping. But they keep the parking lots and walkways clean, you won't see full trashcans, dirty sidewalks or that sort of thing. And all of them have very pretty lobbies. The Tropicana has some nice landscaping touches, some small beds of flowers and lots of potted plants and trees. The pool area is pretty. I was impressed with that one because they were always out hosing things down, cleaning the windows etc. Again, its an older property with the rooms situated around a parking lot. But it was nice. BWPPI has no landscaping but the rooms are nice. And again a pretty lobby.

The Hojo is the one with the nice grounds. They have white twinkling lights in the trees at night, some very pretty landscaping and two pool areas. It really is a nice property. It has multiple buildings. It would be the one I would give the grade of "nearest to a Disney resort" as far as grounds and pools.

The rooms at all of these properties are older, but that makes them more spacious. And the ones I have stayed at (Camelot, Hojo, Tropicana, Best Western Park Place Inn) have all seen their share of updates through the years.

I will also add the employees of these places have all been very nice. They are friendly, they smile when you leave your room and tell you have to fun at the parks. The Camelot and the Tropicana both had gift shops that had Disney themed items for far cheaper than the stuff in the parks. For that matter so did the Hojo and BWPPI. I just didn't go in those as much. But I do remember they were nice. We've had those employees help us with getting taxi's, directions to other places in the area and that sort of thing. I have never had a bad experience with any of them.

I believe there is a picture thread on this board. Or go onto www.Tripadvisor.com and put any of these properties on the search and look at the photos. You will find links to Expedia's professional photos and then photos posted by regular people.

For our first few Disney trips we stayed at the DLH and I love it. But then we decided we needed to try something more affordable. I was a nervous wreck! But then I walked in to that first room (which was the Hojo) and breathed a big sigh of relief. Since then we have done several offsite stays and will do a couple of nights offsite before moving over to the DLH in October. Its hard to venture away from a Disney owned and managed property on a Disney trip. But it has its perks too!

 

[Our 2 Princesses]

Amy&Dan - you have really sold me on Hojo!! Thank you...

 

[disneyfaninaz]

I didn't see the Candy Cane Inn listed. It is a very quaint and very clean motel on Harbor Blvd. just down the street from DL. It has beautiful landscaping. It offers free breakfast and an exclusive shuttle to the parks. It is about the same distance walking to the parks as if you stayed at HOJOs, except you don't have to cross Harbor.

 

[HydroGuy]

Amy&Dan - you have really sold me on Hojo!! Thank you...

I like HoJo's and agree with everything Amy said. A slight word of caution. The one time we stayed there we walked to the parks. It is not that far. In the morning. But at night after being on our feet all day it felt like 10 miles! Along the way we walked past 6-8 hotels with envy for all the people with shorter walks. In reality it is probably an extra five minutes from the closest of the close - BWPPI, Park Vue and Tropicana. Especially when you add in the larger size of HoJo's and the time it takes to get from your room out onto the street.

This subject of extra walk from HoJo's vs. extra niceness of HoJo's never fails to generate debate. Once you stay there you can decide for yourself. There is no "one size fits all" answer.

 

[kiwitravel]

.

This subject of extra walk from HoJo's vs. extra niceness of HoJo's never fails to generate debate. Once you stay there you can decide for yourself. There is no "one size fits all" answer.

I agree, I got flamed on this board once for daring to suggest CCI was further than a 10 minute walk. The simple reality is that checking on Google earth the walk to both CCI and Hojos is is well over half a mile and both have crosswalks so it all comes down to your walking speed and wait times at the crosswalk... I would stay at Hojos but only if I could get the Entertainment rate. I would be reluctant to walk down to CCI late at night as that section of Harbor is not so busy.

 

[HydroGuy]

I agree, I got flamed on this board once for daring to suggest CCI was further than a 10 minute walk. The simple reality is that checking on Google earth the walk to both CCI and Hojos is is well over half a mile and both have crosswalks so it all comes down to your walking speed and wait times at the crosswalk... I would stay at Hojos but only if I could get the Entertainment rate. I would be reluctant to walk down to CCI late at night as that section of Harbor is not so busy.

HoJo's and CCI have zealous followers around here as you found out.