WWYD - Hojo's, Disneyland hotel or a Costco "Good Neighbor" hotels

[Misskitty3]

I am in the planning stages of a June 2013 trip for myself, DH and DS (10), DD (7).

We are planning on a 6 night hotel stay with 4 days in the park. Besides DL & CA, we want a relaxing pool day plus a beach day.

Two trips ago when the kids were younger, we stayed at Hojo's and they really enjoyed the water park. They have been asking to go back ever since. Of course, now they are older, I think they would have fun for an hour or two and that would be it.

Last trip, we stayed at BWPPI and the location could not be beat. Literally, steps away from the front gates! Loved it! However, this is not the place to stay if having a nice pool is a priority......

The Disney hotels have cornered the market on nice, resort type pools and DS really want to stay at the DLH for the pool. Unfortunately, I can't justify $400+ a night for a hotel room that we will only be sleeping in.

So, just thinking out loud, what if we stayed our first night at the DLH? We could do the pool that day and then benefit from the early hour the next morning to get into the parks (assuming I understand how the early hour works).

Then I am thinking of switching over to the BWPPI because of its location.

Does this plan make sense? I feel like I can justify the DLH price tag for one night if we can use the pool for one whole day and then get an "extra" early entry out of it too.

Thoughts?? Pros or cons?

 

[Love Tink]

This same question has been on my mind, so I have one thing for you to consider.

If you stay at a resort hotel, you get early entry on your check-in day and your check-out day.

So it might make sense for you to stay one night...but to make it a night in the middle, not the first night. It probably depends how much you hate moving hotels vs. how much you like early entry.

 

[Malcon10t]

The Hilton now has a nice pool area now.

 

[DharmaLou]

We considered that route, but the effort of unpacking, packing, moving & unpacking seemed like too much of a pain. It's something we may consider for our next trip, we haven't totally ruled it out.

 

[Zbugz]

Twice we have stayed off-site (Hojo & FFI) and then moved to PPH for the last part of our trip. My thoughts:

It is nice to be able to upgrade near the end.

If you check in on a Sunday - Thursday, it is a bit cheaper.

I like to use my parkhopper's magic morning before I transfer to PPH so that it doesn't accidentally get deleted from my ticket and cause a big ordeal to get it adjusted.

While we liked the PPH, both times I wished we had just stayed at the off-site hotel and used the extra $$ elsewhere.

Perhaps you could do a waterpark for a day instead of staying onsite?

 

[Misskitty3]

This same question has been on my mind, so I have one thing for you to consider.

If you stay at a resort hotel, you get early entry on your check-in day and your check-out day.

So it might make sense for you to stay one night...but to make it a night in the middle, not the first night. It probably depends how much you hate moving hotels vs. how much you like early entry.

Two early entries? We would have to check in pretty early!

The Hilton now has a nice pool area now.

I just googled the Hilton pool. It does look really nice but I didn't see any monorail water slides , which, of course, is what DS is interested in!

We considered that route, but the effort of unpacking, packing, moving & unpacking seemed like too much of a pain. It's something we may consider for our next trip, we haven't totally ruled it out.

I hear you about the packing and unpacking, definitely something to consider!

Twice we have stayed off-site (Hojo & FFI) and then moved to PPH for the last part of our trip. My thoughts:

It is nice to be able to upgrade near the end.

If you check in on a Sunday - Thursday, it is a bit cheaper.

I like to use my parkhopper's magic morning before I transfer to PPH so that it doesn't accidentally get deleted from my ticket and cause a big ordeal to get it adjusted.

While we liked the PPH, both times I wished we had just stayed at the off-site hotel and used the extra $$ elsewhere.

Perhaps you could do a waterpark for a day instead of staying onsite?

Good points! I hear you abut the extra money!

 

[Love Tink]

Two early entries? We would have to check in pretty early!

Yes. Probably about 8:00 in the morning.

 

[DisneyMomma81]

We've done split stays a few times, usually ending our trip on site but we have started our trip on site the past 2 times. It's easy enough and a nice way to stay onsite without spending a lot of money.