Well, for one, hojo is NOT that far from the other hotels. It's MAYBE 4 extra minutes to the parking lot. The biggest part of the walk out of the parks is to get through the hordes of people leaving, getting out onto the walkway and dodging everyone, and crossing over Harbor at the
Disneyland entrance.
The crowds add time.
And that's the longest part, distance-wise, from my experience.
After you're across the street, it's about 4 minutes up to HoJo.
If you're staying at hojo and don't need/want to stop at any of the restaurants along the way (Millie's, Mimi's, Mcdonald's), you can skip those teeming hordes by not taking the walkway everyone is on, and especially with 3 kids and a stroller, that's nice! Once out of the esplanade and past the ticket booths, instead of following everyone to the right, you go over and around to the left, down a nice quiet shuttle arrival "island", go through the taxi waiting area, and then you're on the disneyland side of Harbor, where almost no one else is. You can look over and laugh at the people getting "flat tires" from the strollers behind them, having to be careful to not do the same to those in front of them, having to wait for cars (or delivery trucks in the morning!) to get in and out of the hotel driveways, etc. Then you cross over Harbor up at Manchester, sure, 4 minutes after you would have been at Desert Inn, but a lot HAPPIER.
I'm not sure if they are finished with their bed switchover, but they've been putting the same beds that Westin's Heavenly Beds are, and I know that they are COMFY. (experienced at Westin, not hojo yet, haven't stayed in a re-done room yet)
You have to take everything into account, not just sheer closeness, b/c a yuck Motel vs a nice Hotel can make up for that extra time. Now, a significant price difference can make up for it, see my recent trip for that!
I also wouldnl't give up on an entertainment rate, though it's quite possible that travel time won't get the rate. I once saw the rate pop up for my travel time in under 4 days to go! Alas I had booked the (icky) Carousel through Orbitz and it was too late per their policy to cancel so I coudln't take advantage and paid almost double what I could have paid with hojo ent rate.
Be sure to check out your travel plans for the whole year, and if you even think you might come back inside the 365 days from the start of your trip (start of this trip to end of other trip, that is) you might think about someone, or all, upgrading to an AP, b/c the AP discount is 20% instead of the Dis 15%.
Only reason we didn't stay at HoJo this time was b/c the AP rate at PPH was just about what hojo was offering when we booked, and by the time the ent rates started popping up, we had already made our plans (two MM days). And, of course, my book still has not arrived...shipped Nov 25, argh. And we didn't stay there the night before our PPH stay started b/c I got a smokin' deal through hotwire...about the same base rate as Motel 6, and ended up at the Hilton at the Convention Center...nice rate for 6 hours of sleep!
ETA: Sorry, when I referred to the others in my previous post, I meant the other motels in the area around the crosswalk.
