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disneygeek87
07-11-2003, 02:47 PM
I'm planning another family vacation to DLR and always stay at one of the 3 resort hotels. The time we are going, all the resort hotels are booked solid. Does anybody know of good hotels close by the have nice and fairly large rooms. I'd like to stay at a hotel with a nice pool and fairly new property as well. Thanks for the help!

Christiii
07-11-2003, 03:11 PM
you are going to get a lot of replies about how great the Howard Johnson Anaheim is...it is my home away from home now..the price is amazing and the rooms really look like the Disneyland Hotels rooms..nice and big like that. This site has a great hotel review page of all the hotels there..so you should check it out...I think the Hojo has the highest rating of all of them, but its good to read all the different opinions of the hotels to get a feel of them. Have a great trip!!

stinkerbell
07-11-2003, 03:36 PM
What Christiii said. :)

hmbldr
07-11-2003, 03:50 PM
When are you going? I was at DLR June 30 - July 3. I stayed 2 nights at HoJo and 2 nights at DLH. Loved them both, obviously for diferent reasons. For off property, close by, comfortable and reasonably priced - HoJo is a great chioce. Lots of restaurant choices along the way to DL. About 8 minute walk to DL entrance. Others on Harbor across from DLR entrance are Park Vue, Fairfield by Marriot, Carousel, Best Western.

I made my DLH reservations 2 weeks prior to arrival and had plenty of options at all 3 Hotels. Keep trying as there are cancelations all the time. HoJo's has a 48 hour cancelation policy, so if you get lucky with DLR res. you could always cancel with no penalty.

Good luck

dsnylndmom
07-11-2003, 03:58 PM
I stayed at the BW Park Place Inn in April and we really enjoyed it. We had a mini-suite and it was very spacious, the staff was great! and it's "the" closest Harbor Hotel to boot!;) The continental breakfast is very basic but still decent and there is a large fridge in the room and a microwave also.

We haven't stayed at the Hojo's yet, but I hear it's great. I know the Candy Cane, Carousal and Park Inn INternational get good reviews too.

If you don't mind taking the shuttle then I would recommend the Embassy Suites(the Garden Grove one)it's wonderful! It's beautiful, very very large rooms, wonderful full breakfast and a managers reception every evening~

Tina

DopeyWife
07-11-2003, 04:13 PM
disneygeek87, when are you planning on going that all 3 resort hotels are booked solid? I was trying to plan a stay at one of those hotels as well and hopefully, it won't be when all the rooms are already booked.

masilly1
07-11-2003, 04:38 PM
Just adding another thumbs up for Best Western Inn at the Park
I agree with everything already said about it. Our family likes to stay somewhere that serves the free breakfast. We are cheapskates and proud of it :p

disneygeek87
07-11-2003, 06:06 PM
DopeyWife, my faimly and I like to really plan our vacations in advance. We are going in March 2004 and I checked on websites like Expedia, CheapTickets, and Priceline, and all of the sites said that all three resort hotels were booked already. I tried for 3 different weeks in March and got the same results.

DopeyWife
07-11-2003, 06:31 PM
I wonder what's going on in March 2004 that all 3 hotels are booked already. Did you try calling the hotels directly?

MickeyandMe
07-11-2003, 07:37 PM
I think that it is possible those sites don't have their rooms allocated from Disney yet. That is a ways away, and a lot of the travel business doesn't have their 2004 product available yet. Have you tried calling the Disney hotels directly to see if they have availability? I would expect 2004 bookings to start becoming available in August or September - so don't give up yet!

Tyr
07-12-2003, 01:16 PM
Another thumbs up for the Embassy Suites South (Garden Grove resort area). We just stayed there June 24-29th and really loved it. The room was HUGE and it's nice to have a decent breakfast before you tour the parks. The manager's reception is nice drink-wise, but the food offering was just so-so. The pool is in the parking lot but it's decently sized and a nice place to cool down after a hot day at DL!

Cloudcroft
07-12-2003, 02:00 PM
My wife and I stayed at the Carousel Inn in December, 2002. We had a room with one queen-sized bed and a sofa/sleeper. Of course, they have rooms with 2 beds instead of the sofa. The pool was being refurbished while we were there, so I can't give a first-hand review of it.

The Carousel Inn is directly across Harbor Blvd from the pedestrian entrance to DLR. It was less than a 5 minute walk from our room the DL main gate.

They have a passable continental breakfast there, and it is within walking distance of restaurants.

Enjoy your vist.

BUSTER1530
07-12-2003, 05:56 PM
On our last trip we stayed at the Fairfield Inn, just over the road from DL and with room service Macdonalds. The rooms are fairly big, ours had 2 doubles and a sofa bed in it.

dsnylndmom
07-12-2003, 06:28 PM
Buster1530 when did you stay at the Fairfield? We stayed there in Nov. 2002 and had a horrible horrible stay(toliets not working, customer service bad, door locks not working, doors not working etc etc.

Just curious

Lani
07-12-2003, 11:54 PM
Originally posted by dsnylndmom
I stayed at the BW Park Place Inn in April and we really enjoyed it. We had a mini-suite and it was very spacious, the staff was great! and it's "the" closest Harbor Hotel to boot!;) The Best Western Park Place Inn is always our default accommodation when we are staying near the park. As dsnylndmom said, it is literally across the street from the pedestrian entrance to the park; it is actually closer to the entrance than the three official hotels!

Others have mentioned other hotels nearby, but many of them are "short" if you are willing to do some walking. For example, I've stayed in Howard Johnson. Not bad, and the price was good, but it felt too far to walk back and forth all the time, so we ended up using the shuttle... and that ended up adding a lot of commute time that we wouldn't have needed had we stayed at the Best Western.

We've stayed all up and down Harbor Boulevard. For proximity, the Best Western Park Place Inn beats the rest hands-down.

Keep in mind Best Western has five motels around the Disneyland Resort perimeter. The Park Place Inn is the closest, and the one you want for proximity. :)

stinkerbell
07-13-2003, 09:26 AM
I, too, have stayed at both the Park Place Inn and HoJo. I liked Park Place Inn. I really liked it. But I loved the HoJo. It was a little farther away, but not much. In the grand scheme of things, you're walking so much anyway, what's another block? We walked back and forth everyday with three kids, some days more than once. It's quiet, the grounds and pool are gorgeous, and the staff was incredible. Kids eat free at Millies, so we ate there quite a bit on our way back and forth from the room. And HoJo cost me half as much ($45/nt) as the Park Place Inn, ($99)literally, and the rooms I saw (I saw mine, my mom's and a friend's) were much larger than the Park Place Inn.

I've also stayed at the Desert Inn, which is also very close and while my room was very, very nice, the hotel overall was not nearly as nice as others on Harbor.

For a family trip, I'd recommed HoJo. The kids can wander the grounds and not be in a parking lot. The pool is beautiful and the property is quiet. You can watch the fireworks show from the balcony of your room (you can ask at the desk for a room with a fireworks view) and at night the trees are lit with white lights. It's very serene--you have a feeling that you're still somewhere special, but without the Disney crowds. We loved it!

SoCalSnowWhite
07-13-2003, 12:29 PM
We have been at the parks the past 2 weekends

Weekend #1, we stayed at the Desert Inn & Suites. We had a very large 2 room suite. The rooms were clean, although they smelled of very strong BO when we walked in. The bathrooms also smelled a little mildewy. It had a fridge and microwave. It was very quiet. This was my second stay there and I would book it again.

Weekend #2, we stayed at the HoJo. I found a cheap rate on Expedia for $59 for a King Size bed. I booked it figuring we were only going to sleep there so I'd get the cheapest they had. Plus, I had heard a lot of good things about it from MP (mainly Stinkerbell, who I think should be paid for her endorsements). The check-in was very easy and we went up to our room. It was VERY small. It wasn't a big deal since it was just me, my husband and our son. It was also right next to the freeway. The room seemed a little old, more so in the bathroom.I turned on the air conditioner so the room would be cool when we got back.
Well, when we got back to the room that night, it was not cool at all. The AC was a little hard for us to figure out, it's much easier at other hotels. We tried to go to sleep, but the room was warm and the freeway traffic was loud. I was really disappointed with our stay here. :(

My choice for a good hotel nearby would be the Best Western Park Place Inn. It was quiet, clean and very close. We stayed there in January for $56 and would have stayed again last weekend, but the HoJO was cheaper. We got a choice of a continental breakfast (ok) or a pancake breakfast, both at the little restaurant next door.

dsnylndmom
07-13-2003, 01:05 PM
Like Stink, I do recommend Millie's for eating. Whenever we've gone the food is filling and good the service is great and like STink said kids eat FREE!!! LOL

Mimi's Cafe get's good reviews too, but when we've eaten there we had really crummy service so we head back to Millies.

Like Lani we've stayed at alot of Harbor Hotels and so far we've like the BW Park Place the best.

We've had horrible stays at both Castle and Fairfield and refuse to stay at Saga Maingate(we were going to stay there once but met up with a lady leaving because the floors in three of the rooms were soaked and the other two were filthy)

Hojoanaheim
07-13-2003, 01:10 PM
SoCalSnowWhite-

I'm very sorry that you did not have an enjoyable stay at our Hotel. Yes, the King rooms are a bit small, especially compared to our Queen/Queen rooms. And the central-type air conditioner in the Tower building is a bit tricky. Our non-freeway-facing rooms are considred very large and quiet. It is best to contact us in advance so that we can make prior room assignment arrangements, as we like to take extra special care of our hardcore Disneyland fans on these discussion boards.

julia
07-13-2003, 02:40 PM
Hello,

I always hear good things about the Candy Cane Inn and they always sell out quickly and the parking lot is crowded! These are all good signs for a restaurant, a hotel, etc. There is also a new Hilton Garden Inn close to Disneyland, too. The Anaheim Marriott, the Hilton Anaheim, and the Anaheim Residence Inn always have taken good care of people.
You might compare the prices of the Good Neighbor moderate resorts vs the prices of the Good Neighbor superior hotels - the prices often aren't very different at all. The differences in ratings are NOT for price, the difference in ratings is for QUALITY and AMENITIES!

Compare! Compare! Compare! :) You might be able to afford more of a hotel than you thought....

Have a magical day!