Eeyore's Wife
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Oct 14, 2007
- Messages
- 906
We spent seven great nights at the Howard Johnson in Anaheim, and I wanted to offer our findings for anyone in planning stages.
Our first night was in their least expensive room option, the entertainment room $59 per night. The following six nights were in a family suite at an entertainment rate of $99.
Our first night we were in one of their $59 entertainment rate rooms. I requested to be near Children's Pool, and Wow, was that request honored. We were in room 4103. It was the ground floor room directly next to the dump bucket in Pirate's Cove. There were beautiful bougainvillea plants next to the patio.
We had an amzing view of the Monorail and Matterhorn from the patio area. We also had a wet patio every few minutes when the bucket would dump as water often splashed onto patio area.
A room that close to the pool obviously was loud with kid noises of glee, shrieks, laughter, and general kid mayhem. In addition, every two minutes an astonishingly loud bell would clang announcing the imminent bucket dump. I am not sure that the bell can be heard in outer space, but I wouldn't be surprised.
After the kids play area shut down at 6 p.m. things got much quieter, but that room would be uninhabitable during warmer weather when the play area was open later if the room was occupied by anyone seeking a bed time before the pool area closed. The cove area was not overly large, but it was very well designed
and both the baby and the 13 year old enjoyed the space. The dump bucket was very powerful and could knock over a small youngster, so make sure you let you very young ones watch the dump a few times before they give it a try, and then hold onto their hands in case their feet get out from under them.
In addition, that night Harbor was repeatedly cruised by rescue/police vehicles with sirens blaring. I spent a lot of time awake that night.
The reason for the split stay is that we booked the six night stay first and then realized that while we were flying our college aged daughter in from Virginia to SNA on Sunday, it might be a good idea to plan to arrive on Saturday to ensure we were there on time to get her from the air port. I had visions of having a flat tire somewhere in Arizona and our daughter landing to NO ONE.
So, when I booked the extra night, they could not get us the family suite. I happily took the standard room because there would only be four of us that first night and the one bathroom should suffice.
Our hotel room, the first night, was an older room that has not been recently updated. The flooring and furniture showed gentle wear. The bathroom tile was very pink and its several repairs were visible. The room was Very clean, including the fan vent in the bathroom. The beds were wonderful and had obviously new matresses and bedding. They were heavenly.
The room had two full sized beds. In addition, we requested a crib, which was an actual crib, not a pack and play. It was slightly smaller than a standard crib, but easily fit my very tall almost one year old. I imagine it would work well for any baby until at least 18 months and most babies until two years old.
The room had a large closet which held a roll away bed. We were told that if the roll away were used, we would be charged an additional ten dollars per night. We did not use the roll away, but there would have been room for it, even with the crib in the room, but it would have been tight with the crib and extra bed.
I cannot comment on the comfort of the roll away bed since I did not open it, but it looked like it would have a bar smack in the middle of the user's back. I cannot imagine it would be comfortable for an average adult, but for a lighter weight child, it might be a great option.
Our move to the family suite was an easy one. We packed up the few things we had unpacked our first night there and my hubby grabbed a rolling cart to load up our things. We took them to the front desk and they held our bags, since the new room was not ready yet, and we drove to the airport to get out darling 19 year old daughter.
When we returned our room was ready and a bell man brought our bags to the new room. He also ensured we had a crib for the baby.
The family suite was PERFECT for our crew. The rooms were obviously brand spanking new. Everything was in perfect shape and quite lovely. I was a bit apprehensive of the color scheme from viewing it on you tube, but it was very pleasing to the eye and quite peaceful.
The twin beds were very comfortable and the king sized bed was even nicer than my very expensive bed at home. If I were redoing any bedrooms in our house, I would buy the system they have in place, it was amazing.
I knew that the family suites were on the "highway side" of building one and I was worried about noise, especially after the night before Harbor's road noise had kept me awake. We got the suite on the first floor and I will request it again in the future. We were in room 1102. It was on the corner of the first floor and we were steps away from the sundries store and had no neighbors on either side of us, though the elevators were next to the "kid room." We did not hear any noise from the elevators and one of our kids is a light sleeper. In addition, being on the first floor, the noise abatement wall on the HoJo property did a great job of shielding us from road noise.
When the sliding glass doors were open you could hear the interstate as a low hum of road noise, but when the doors were shut it was very quiet.
We kept the crib in the adults room and there was plenty of room. If someone needed to use a roll away bed in the kids room, there would have been plenty of space for it.
There was a small table and two chairs in the parent's side of the suite. If you need to sit and eat breakfast at a table, you will need to eat in shifts. Luckily our kids are happy to eat at the coffee table in the mornings.
Now for the few bad things.
The only corded internet access was in the parent's room on the far nightstand in the room. The cord was only about 15 inches long. So, when my college age daughter wanted to be electonically connected to her boyfriend, which you can intrepret as as often as humanly possible, she sat on the floor wedged between the nightstand and the closet. I fell asleep several nights to the sounds of her tapping away at the keyboard.
One night the older kids both came down with a stomach ailment. My son got "mess" all over the floor. I cleaned it up as best as I could with towels and water, but it needed to be disinfected. I made the night manager aware of this when we got directions for my hubby to to to the local Walgreens and acquired some additional towels to replace those which were covered in muck. I also made sure to call again in the morning and request a "deep clean" on the bathroom as well as new sheets for the bunk beds.
The cleaning crew showed up for the day but did a basic emptying of the trash cans and replacing our towels. I had to call the front desk again in the evening, and request again that the kids bathroom be disinfected and the sheets changed. This time they did send someone to clean the bathroom and change the sheets, but by this time the kids just wanted to go to sleep and had to lay in my room until their space was cleaned.
I would have happily disinfected the room myself, but I did not pack a toilet brush or mop with me in my suitcase.
So, all in all, it was a wonderful stay and for early to bed early to rise folks the family suite on the first floor was perfect.
Oh, the literature on HoJo listed that they provided two caffinated and two de-caffinated coffee tins per room per day, but we never got any decaffinated coffee in our room and the sundries shop sold them for a dollar a piece. So, if you want to pick up a Keurig tub or two to bring with you if you need caffine free coffee or tea, that would be a smart financial move to purchase those elsewhere.
Now, back to some more good stuff:
Our refrigerator was small but worked well and our microwave popped pop corn and reheated leftovers.
Mimi's across the street was a great place to eat and they happilyl honored the on-line coupon for a free dessert. We had a bread pudding which was divine. They also offer call ahead seating, which is great during the dinner rush.
We have a small hand held DVD player which my son likes to watch on car trips. We were able, through the cables that came with the player to hook it up to the television in the room, it was great to sit down and watch movies together when were were back in the room.
The couch in the kids side was small. It was a very lovey love seat. It almost seemed like a chair and a half. The bed it contains is only a twin. Given the large size of the room and available floor space I am surprised they didn't opt for a standard sized love seat with a full bed inside, or a couch with a queen sleeper.
The standard first room, with roll away slept five, but the suite, which was more than twice the size of the first room only officially slept five, including the pull out, and could only accomodate 6 legally when a roll away is ordered.
In all, it was a great value, especially when in the family suite. The two bathrooms, plenty of space, closets, nice televisions, and comfortable beds all made for a great stay. We had seven nights in a clean, comfortable, safe and disney ambiance filled space, including all taxes, for $750.95
I knew from the boards that there were other disers who were in the hotel while we were there, but I never saw any of them. We did not post a lime green mickey on our hotel door, but we had one on our baby stroller and on each person's backpack.
If anyone has any other questions I would be happy to answer them.
-Eeyore's Wife
Our first night was in their least expensive room option, the entertainment room $59 per night. The following six nights were in a family suite at an entertainment rate of $99.
Our first night we were in one of their $59 entertainment rate rooms. I requested to be near Children's Pool, and Wow, was that request honored. We were in room 4103. It was the ground floor room directly next to the dump bucket in Pirate's Cove. There were beautiful bougainvillea plants next to the patio.
We had an amzing view of the Monorail and Matterhorn from the patio area. We also had a wet patio every few minutes when the bucket would dump as water often splashed onto patio area.
A room that close to the pool obviously was loud with kid noises of glee, shrieks, laughter, and general kid mayhem. In addition, every two minutes an astonishingly loud bell would clang announcing the imminent bucket dump. I am not sure that the bell can be heard in outer space, but I wouldn't be surprised.
After the kids play area shut down at 6 p.m. things got much quieter, but that room would be uninhabitable during warmer weather when the play area was open later if the room was occupied by anyone seeking a bed time before the pool area closed. The cove area was not overly large, but it was very well designed
and both the baby and the 13 year old enjoyed the space. The dump bucket was very powerful and could knock over a small youngster, so make sure you let you very young ones watch the dump a few times before they give it a try, and then hold onto their hands in case their feet get out from under them.In addition, that night Harbor was repeatedly cruised by rescue/police vehicles with sirens blaring. I spent a lot of time awake that night.
The reason for the split stay is that we booked the six night stay first and then realized that while we were flying our college aged daughter in from Virginia to SNA on Sunday, it might be a good idea to plan to arrive on Saturday to ensure we were there on time to get her from the air port. I had visions of having a flat tire somewhere in Arizona and our daughter landing to NO ONE.
So, when I booked the extra night, they could not get us the family suite. I happily took the standard room because there would only be four of us that first night and the one bathroom should suffice.
Our hotel room, the first night, was an older room that has not been recently updated. The flooring and furniture showed gentle wear. The bathroom tile was very pink and its several repairs were visible. The room was Very clean, including the fan vent in the bathroom. The beds were wonderful and had obviously new matresses and bedding. They were heavenly.
The room had two full sized beds. In addition, we requested a crib, which was an actual crib, not a pack and play. It was slightly smaller than a standard crib, but easily fit my very tall almost one year old. I imagine it would work well for any baby until at least 18 months and most babies until two years old.
The room had a large closet which held a roll away bed. We were told that if the roll away were used, we would be charged an additional ten dollars per night. We did not use the roll away, but there would have been room for it, even with the crib in the room, but it would have been tight with the crib and extra bed.
I cannot comment on the comfort of the roll away bed since I did not open it, but it looked like it would have a bar smack in the middle of the user's back. I cannot imagine it would be comfortable for an average adult, but for a lighter weight child, it might be a great option.
Our move to the family suite was an easy one. We packed up the few things we had unpacked our first night there and my hubby grabbed a rolling cart to load up our things. We took them to the front desk and they held our bags, since the new room was not ready yet, and we drove to the airport to get out darling 19 year old daughter.
When we returned our room was ready and a bell man brought our bags to the new room. He also ensured we had a crib for the baby.
The family suite was PERFECT for our crew. The rooms were obviously brand spanking new. Everything was in perfect shape and quite lovely. I was a bit apprehensive of the color scheme from viewing it on you tube, but it was very pleasing to the eye and quite peaceful.
The twin beds were very comfortable and the king sized bed was even nicer than my very expensive bed at home. If I were redoing any bedrooms in our house, I would buy the system they have in place, it was amazing.
I knew that the family suites were on the "highway side" of building one and I was worried about noise, especially after the night before Harbor's road noise had kept me awake. We got the suite on the first floor and I will request it again in the future. We were in room 1102. It was on the corner of the first floor and we were steps away from the sundries store and had no neighbors on either side of us, though the elevators were next to the "kid room." We did not hear any noise from the elevators and one of our kids is a light sleeper. In addition, being on the first floor, the noise abatement wall on the HoJo property did a great job of shielding us from road noise.
When the sliding glass doors were open you could hear the interstate as a low hum of road noise, but when the doors were shut it was very quiet.
We kept the crib in the adults room and there was plenty of room. If someone needed to use a roll away bed in the kids room, there would have been plenty of space for it.
There was a small table and two chairs in the parent's side of the suite. If you need to sit and eat breakfast at a table, you will need to eat in shifts. Luckily our kids are happy to eat at the coffee table in the mornings.
Now for the few bad things.
The only corded internet access was in the parent's room on the far nightstand in the room. The cord was only about 15 inches long. So, when my college age daughter wanted to be electonically connected to her boyfriend, which you can intrepret as as often as humanly possible, she sat on the floor wedged between the nightstand and the closet. I fell asleep several nights to the sounds of her tapping away at the keyboard.
One night the older kids both came down with a stomach ailment. My son got "mess" all over the floor. I cleaned it up as best as I could with towels and water, but it needed to be disinfected. I made the night manager aware of this when we got directions for my hubby to to to the local Walgreens and acquired some additional towels to replace those which were covered in muck. I also made sure to call again in the morning and request a "deep clean" on the bathroom as well as new sheets for the bunk beds.
The cleaning crew showed up for the day but did a basic emptying of the trash cans and replacing our towels. I had to call the front desk again in the evening, and request again that the kids bathroom be disinfected and the sheets changed. This time they did send someone to clean the bathroom and change the sheets, but by this time the kids just wanted to go to sleep and had to lay in my room until their space was cleaned.
I would have happily disinfected the room myself, but I did not pack a toilet brush or mop with me in my suitcase.
So, all in all, it was a wonderful stay and for early to bed early to rise folks the family suite on the first floor was perfect.
Oh, the literature on HoJo listed that they provided two caffinated and two de-caffinated coffee tins per room per day, but we never got any decaffinated coffee in our room and the sundries shop sold them for a dollar a piece. So, if you want to pick up a Keurig tub or two to bring with you if you need caffine free coffee or tea, that would be a smart financial move to purchase those elsewhere.
Now, back to some more good stuff:
Our refrigerator was small but worked well and our microwave popped pop corn and reheated leftovers.
Mimi's across the street was a great place to eat and they happilyl honored the on-line coupon for a free dessert. We had a bread pudding which was divine. They also offer call ahead seating, which is great during the dinner rush.
We have a small hand held DVD player which my son likes to watch on car trips. We were able, through the cables that came with the player to hook it up to the television in the room, it was great to sit down and watch movies together when were were back in the room.
The couch in the kids side was small. It was a very lovey love seat. It almost seemed like a chair and a half. The bed it contains is only a twin. Given the large size of the room and available floor space I am surprised they didn't opt for a standard sized love seat with a full bed inside, or a couch with a queen sleeper.
The standard first room, with roll away slept five, but the suite, which was more than twice the size of the first room only officially slept five, including the pull out, and could only accomodate 6 legally when a roll away is ordered.
In all, it was a great value, especially when in the family suite. The two bathrooms, plenty of space, closets, nice televisions, and comfortable beds all made for a great stay. We had seven nights in a clean, comfortable, safe and disney ambiance filled space, including all taxes, for $750.95
I knew from the boards that there were other disers who were in the hotel while we were there, but I never saw any of them. We did not post a lime green mickey on our hotel door, but we had one on our baby stroller and on each person's backpack.
If anyone has any other questions I would be happy to answer them.
-Eeyore's Wife
The beds are such a treat, it is so easy to fall asleep in them because they are so comfortable, and best of all, no aching backs in the morning since the bed offers excellent support. The linens are very crisp and clean; housekeeping does an excellent job on laundering them. The pillows are also very nice, there seems to be a selection of different levels of firmness.
I guess though, decaff does still have a little bit of caffeine, it's decaffeinated, not caffeine free. No wonder it was so good. 
