Stressing over Good Neighbor Hotels

[happysummer]

Well a lot of them are dumpy. If you can lower your expectations it will not be so bad. People really get offended when you comment on the area around dl.
The hotels are not as bad as the area around dl.
If you pick a hotel just phone first and see how nice the front desk is, I found a lot of hotels around there lacking in friendly service.

 

[SugarQuill]

Not to sound daft, but which Howard Johnson location is everyone talking about?

 

[sonnyjane]

Not to sound daft, but which Howard Johnson location is everyone talking about?

http://www.hojoanaheim.com

 

[ronandannette]

Well a lot of them are dumpy. If you can lower your expectations it will not be so bad. People really get offended when you comment on the area around dl.
The hotels are not as bad as the area around dl.
If you pick a hotel just phone first and see how nice the front desk is, I found a lot of hotels around there lacking in friendly service.

If hospitable service is what you're after I can't recommend the Castle Inn highly enough! They blew us away this past weekend with how prompt, polite and accommodating they were to absolutely anything we needed. Extremely professional on every level - better than the last couple 4*'s we've stayed in elsewhere lately.

You won't love the rooms or the grounds (nothing wrong with them; just likely not up to the standards you've set) but that service would keep me coming back again.

P.S. We got this hotel as part of a "surprise package" via a local travel agent, booked last-minute for a non-Disney long weekend in SoCal. I wasn't thrilled when I found out. Any concerns I had were very happily unfounded.

 

[Malcon10t]

We are traveling to Disneyland in August for the first time. We have been to Disney World many times and love it. I am stressing and worrying over the Good Neighbor hotels in Disneyland. Why do they all look like such dumps? They all look old, out dated, and beat up. I have been reading reviews about many of the good neighbor hotels and some of them are just horrible. I have the Carousel booked for 4 nights, but am really second guessing my decision to stay there. When we travel to Disneyworld we usually stay at one of the deluxe resorts and love every minute. I do not have that kind of budget for Disneyland since I have to fly my family of 5 from PA to California, we usually drive to Florida when we go. The things that are important to us is space since we have 5 people, cleanliness, swimming pool, comfortable beds, location and cost. We do want to be able to walk to and from the park or take a shuttle if one is provided at no cost. Can anyone ease my mind about the Carousel or recommend a different hotel all together since the Disneyland Resorts are not an option this trip?

I have stayed at the Carousel numerous times, and out of all the hotels (including the 3 Disney hotels) they have the best beds. They are clean, comfy, and close. The only negative is the pool. Its nice, not great.

Hotel/motels I recommend on Harbor are (in no order) are Hojo's, Carousel, Fairfield, and Candy Cane. The others are below my standards.

 

[MichaelaF]

I tend to put at least a little bit of stock into online reviews, especially Trip Advisor. So given that, I would personally stay away from Carousel Inn, simply because I get wary of any properties that have less than around 75% thumbs-up ratings on there. We stayed at the Best Western Stovalls Inn last time for $83 a night (olotels.com) and we were very happy with it. We have also stayed at Deluxe Resorts at WDW (Poly, WL) but we weren't expecting the Poly at a Best Western. While expectations can't be the same, you SHOULD expect and pay for at lest clean rooms. Many of the recommendations here (Candy Cane, Tropicana, HoJos, etc) have very good ratings across the board in multiple places.

 

[bethy]

The only hotels that compare to WDW Deluxe resort hotels are the GCH and DLH. And even then you aren't going to get the extensive grounds of a WDW Deluxe.

You just aren't going to find anything that satisfies everything on your wishlist.

The Sheraton Park and the Orange County Hyatt are very nice but won't have that Disney feel of a WDW resort and aren't really within walking distance. Come to think of it, not many of the WDW resorts are within walking distance of parks either.

One perk that makes DLR special in comparison to WDW is being able to walk to everything - that is it's own special kind of Disney experience.

 

[sassydisneymomma]

Stayed at Carousel Inn last month... service was awful... room service was awful, if I didn't know better, I would have thought the maids opened the door, closed the door and marked their box as room clean. Valet scratched my new car... yea.. I won't stay there again and do NOT recommend them! Oh yes.... and don't forget that the showers flood the floor, every time the shower is ran.

 

[jenpace]

Stayed at Carousel Inn last month... service was awful... room service was awful, if I didn't know better, I would have thought the maids opened the door, closed the door and marked their box as room clean. Valet scratched my new car... yea.. I won't stay there again and do NOT recommend them! Oh yes.... and don't forget that the showers flood the floor, every time the shower is ran.

That sounds awful, sorry you had to deal with any of that on your vacation. I've considered trying Carousel Inn for it's proximity and discount rates but I'm glad that I've always stuck with the Hojo. Thanks for sharing your experience.

 

[dsny1mom]

We are traveling to Disneyland in August for the first time. We have been to Disney World many times and love it. I am stressing and worrying over the Good Neighbor hotels in Disneyland. Why do they all look like such dumps? They all look old, out dated, and beat up. I have been reading reviews about many of the good neighbor hotels and some of them are just horrible. I have the Carousel booked for 4 nights, but am really second guessing my decision to stay there. When we travel to Disneyworld we usually stay at one of the deluxe resorts and love every minute. I do not have that kind of budget for Disneyland since I have to fly my family of 5 from PA to California, we usually drive to Florida when we go. The things that are important to us is space since we have 5 people, cleanliness, swimming pool, comfortable beds, location and cost. We do want to be able to walk to and from the park or take a shuttle if one is provided at no cost. Can anyone ease my mind about the Carousel or recommend a different hotel all together since the Disneyland Resorts are not an option this trip?

The motels around DLR look like dumps compared to the onsite hotels at DL and DW to me too! They aren't really dumps just motels. We stayed in them many times back in the 1950's and 1960's when I was a child, and my parents refused to pay the high prices of DLH. Since I have been an adult I have only stayed on property at DLR. DLH is our usual choice but have stayed at PP a couple of times when their rates were just too good to pass up and we were there for a short stay of 5 days or less. Tried GC once when it first opened but it was so un Disney to us we moved to the DLH after one night. Our usual stays are 10+ days and we enjoy the resort feel we get at DLH.

If you are looking for a "Disney Bubble" experience you probably will only get that on site at DLH or GC. We don't feel the bubble at PP. Other do.

You also have to consider that the area the motels around DLR is in is peppered with panhandlers and time share salesmen. Not saying the area is unsafe just saying if you are use to staying on site at DW then the area around DLR might not be to your liking either.

If I were you I'd look into going to DL during Dapper Dan or Gay days when you can get a room at DLH for under $200 per night pre tax. If you can't go at that time then I'd wait and save enough to be able to stay at either DLH or GC.

I'd hate for you to go across the country only to be disappointed!

dsny1mom

 

[chrisaman]

The motels around DLR look like dumps compared to the onsite hotels at DL and DW to me too! They aren't really dumps just motels. We stayed in them many times back in the 1950's and 1960's when I was a child, and my parents refused to pay the high prices of DLH. Since I have been an adult I have only stayed on property at DLR. DLH is our usual choice but have stayed at PP a couple of times when their rates were just too good to pass up and we were there for a short stay of 5 days or less. Tried GC once when it first opened but it was so un Disney to us we moved to the DLH after one night. Our usual stays are 10+ days and we enjoy the resort feel we get at DLH. If you are looking for a "Disney Bubble" experience you probably will only get that on site at DLH or GC. We don't feel the bubble at PP. Other do. You also have to consider that the area the motels around DLR is in is peppered with panhandlers and time share salesmen. Not saying the area is unsafe just saying if you are use to staying on site at DW then the area around DLR might not be to your liking either. If I were you I'd look into going to DL during Dapper Dan or Gay days when you can get a room at DLH for under $200 per night pre tax. If you can't go at that time then I'd wait and save enough to be able to stay at either DLH or GC. I'd hate for you to go across the country only to be disappointed! dsny1mom

I agree that really the hotels right across the street aren't that nice but there are nice ones in the area. The HOJO is just as nice as anything and the hilton at the convention center is pretty nice as well. you can get into those for half the price of the disneyland hotel. I have the opposite opinion of this poster. I think you would have to be crazy to pay the kind of prices that the disney hotels ask for. I would rather save money and go more often/longer and stay offsite than spend all that money for a disney hotel.

 

[SugarQuill]

I just booked the Anaheim Plaza- has anyone stayed there before? The reviews seem mixed.

 

[dsny1mom]

I agree that really the hotels right across the street aren't that nice but there are nice ones in the area. The HOJO is just as nice as anything and the hilton at the convention center is pretty nice as well. you can get into those for half the price of the disneyland hotel. I have the opposite opinion of this poster. I think you would have to be crazy to pay the kind of prices that the disney hotels ask for. I would rather save money and go more often/longer and stay offsite than spend all that money for a disney hotel.

Yeah, I guess we are crazy, in that we are crazy about DLR! It's ok to have a different take on this. I grew up visiting DL and staying at HOJO, Candy Cane, Jolly Rodger, Travel Lodge, amongst many that are long gone like Farm Deville (this was near Knotts) Heidi and Little Boy Blue motels and all the time dreaming of what it was like to stay at DLH! After our first stay at DLH in 1987 the thought of staying at any of the motels in the area was not how we wanted to visit DLR!

I travel a lot in my career and stay at Hilton, Marriot and others often. To me staying at those hotels is nothing special and I want my Disney trips to be "very" special in all respects.

We approach DLR the way most approach DW. We want an all immersive stay at DLR. No outside influences no real world, just Disney!

Unlike you we would rather not go at all than have to stay off site. To us where we stay is part of the experience. We'd rather pay more and get the full Disney experience than pay half and get half the experience! So far we have not missed one year of visiting DLR in 26 years and staying on site. We visit often enough each year we have been annual pass holders since they began offering them, despite living in the Midwest! We are not wealthy, but have our priorities straight, for us, with DLR vacations at the top of the list!

dsny1mom

 

[DisneyAZfam]

Unfortunately our budget doesn't allow for resort hotels, so we have stayed at many in the surrounding area.
The Desert Palms is really nice with a breakfast and only a 10 minute walk to the park.
The Holiday Inn at Anaheim Resort is nice and very well priced but further away and requires the ART to get to parks. It also doesn't include breakfast but has a nice restaurant in the lobby.
The Desert Inn and Suites is literally right across the street from the main entrance. It has a breakfast and is reasonable priced. The rooms aren't fancy and are somewhat dated but only having to walk across the street (even shorter than to the DLH) with two kids in tow is worth it.
The Fairfield Inn is also across the street (about a 5 minute walk) and is really nice. No breakfast and a little higher price.

 

[chrisaman]

Yeah, I guess we are crazy, in that we are crazy about DLR! It's ok to have a different take on this. I grew up visiting DL and staying at HOJO, Candy Cane, Jolly Rodger, Travel Lodge, amongst many that are long gone like Farm Deville (this was near Knotts) Heidi and Little Boy Blue motels and all the time dreaming of what it was like to stay at DLH! After our first stay at DLH in 1987 the thought of staying at any of the motels in the area was not how we wanted to visit DLR!

I travel a lot in my career and stay at Hilton, Marriot and others often. To me staying at those hotels is nothing special and I want my Disney trips to be "very" special in all respects.

We approach DLR the way most approach DW. We want an all immersive stay at DLR. No outside influences no real world, just Disney!

Unlike you we would rather not go at all than have to stay off site. To us where we stay is part of the experience. We'd rather pay more and get the full Disney experience than pay half and get half the experience! So far we have not missed one year of visiting DLR in 26 years and staying on site. We visit often enough each year we have been annual pass holders since they began offering them, despite living in the Midwest! We are not wealthy, but have our priorities straight, for us, with DLR vacations at the top of the list!

dsny1mom

I do agree with you that on Dapper Days and Gay Days, it is so affordable I don't see why anyone wouldn't stay on site.

 

[crz4mm2]

I'm stressing too. We are not picky, but have to have clean.
We are booked at the Tropicana. Hoping we will be ok.

 

[KCmike]

We are traveling to Disneyland in August for the first time. We have been to Disney World many times and love it. I am stressing and worrying over the Good Neighbor hotels in Disneyland. Why do they all look like such dumps? They all look old, out dated, and beat up. I have been reading reviews about many of the good neighbor hotels and some of them are just horrible. I have the Carousel booked for 4 nights, but am really second guessing my decision to stay there. When we travel to Disneyworld we usually stay at one of the deluxe resorts and love every minute. I do not have that kind of budget for Disneyland since I have to fly my family of 5 from PA to California, we usually drive to Florida when we go. The things that are important to us is space since we have 5 people, cleanliness, swimming pool, comfortable beds, location and cost. We do want to be able to walk to and from the park or take a shuttle if one is provided at no cost. Can anyone ease my mind about the Carousel or recommend a different hotel all together since the Disneyland Resorts are not an option this trip?

Without a doubt if your staying outside the resort hotels then go to Fairfield Inn on Harbor Blvd.. Trust me on this one. I am WDW vet and have been converted to Disneyland. You'll like it and its close. Beds rock, good location, McDonalds in front of it and Pizza Hut Express in the building, ok pool, and very clean.

 

[gerilyne]

Without a doubt if your staying outside the resort hotels then go to Fairfield Inn on Harbor Blvd.. Trust me on this one. I am WDW vet and have been converted to Disneyland. You'll like it and its close. Beds rock, good location, McDonalds in front of it and Pizza Hut Express in the building, ok pool, and very clean.

I second the Fairfield....to be fair its the only Good Neighbor hotel we've stayed at but it was a really enjoyable stay. Clean and comfy and the walk was quite easy and quick.

 

[Georgieut]

We just stayed at Fairfield! Great staff, close walk but not comfy beds and no breakfast. We would stay there again though.

 

[ClaraOswald]

I just booked the Anaheim Plaza- has anyone stayed there before? The reviews seem mixed.

I've stayed there 4 or 5 times. It's definitely one of the older/less updated hotels as far as I can tell. I can't really compare it to other since the only one there I've stayed at besides it is the Anabella.

Maybe it's more updated now though, I don't know. I haven't been there since 2010. But it was super cheap when we stayed and really, you get what you pay for. We only sleep and shower there so we didn't really care about much else. The only stay I was not happy was the last one because our shower water would go from super hot to super cold over and over and it made it tough to shower.