Hi there Liner friends!
After much time away, I’m so excited to be returning to my beloved Disneyland Resort in June. While I’ve been to Disneyland more times than I can count (born and raised in California, baby!), this trip will be unique as I’m vacationing with two of my dearest friends and all of our children, 7 teenagers in total.We are planning to visit from June 20-24 with 3 full park days, including hoppers and Genie+.
The first thing I’m trying to lock down is where we will stay. We will need three rooms (one per family) and GC and DH are definitely not in the budget, though we might be willing to splurge on PP. The problem I’m having with that at the moment is that with the exception of a nice pool and being “on property,” I don’t see any other benefit to paying at least $444/night to stay there. Any thoughts on this? Perhaps the perks on being on property will return in June? In the past I’ve stayed at the Best Western Plus and the Park Vue Inn and those are good options for location and breakfast, but I think my friends would prefer something a notch better in terms of quality and amenities. I know a nice pool area would be something we’d like and that’s proving to be a challenge to find. I looked at the Courtyard and it appears to have a good pool area, but that’s all I know. I thought the Fairfield looked ok, but not sure about the pool. The Howard Johnson’s has a great pool area, but it looks like that may be more for little kids, plus it’s a bit of a walk, right? Finally, Home2Suites looks lovely with spacious rooms and breakfast, but is there a pool? It’s also a bit of a walk. Ideally, I’d like within 1/2 mile or so away from the entrance. I know there’s a recent thread with hotel info so I’ll go back and look at that, but if anyone has any ideas based on my travel party and what I’ve noted above, I welcome your ideas.
Once I get the lodging figured out I’m sure I’ll be back here hitting you all up for more help and information specific to my larger group. TIA! So grateful for all the expertise and experience on this forum:)
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Personally I wouldn’t pay that much for Paradise Pier. Fairfield of Courtyard would be a better value and just as close. In the other thread you will find lots of good reviews for other hotels along Harbor, but I don’t personally have experience there so I’ll leave that to others.
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We’ve stayed at Fairfield and their pool is what the guide refers to as “puddle in the parking lot”. A lot of the hotels on Harbor right there across the street have pools that leave a lot to be desired. Fairfield’s was actually bigger than most on Harbor, but it was pretty busy, and all concrete with a very in the parking lot feeling. And was also right off the front entrance. It did the job for being a pool to splash in for my kids, but it wasn’t a nice pool by any stretch.
We haven’t ever stayed at Courtyard or HoJo’s (they are both a similar walk as they are right near each other) but one comment I hear about Courtyard’s is the pool are is awesome for the younger crowd, but their actual pool is actually very tiny in that and the slides and features are really geared towards younger kids (I think one review I read was that if your kids are older than 7-8, it got really boring really fast).
HoJo’s also has a kid water park area but last I checked also had a nice garden pool too. That is probably the best pool in the area, and if that aspect is important to your group, I would compare HoJo’s to some of the nicer hotels by the convention center that have nicer pools. We used to stay at the Sheraton a lot and their pool area is lovely and hardly ever seems to be used. The convention center area is a little farther out but doable with teens (and similar ish to HoJo’s).
The Anaheim hotel is a closer walk and has a giant Olympic size pool but isn’t probably as nice of accommodations as your friends want, but is a good compromise on distance, pool and price. Grand Legacy is a good close one was well that would be a compromise. Their their pool area was nice, but I don’t think their pool was a true pool, but more a kiddie area and I think the deepest the pool was was 3 ft. If there was a separate pool we didn’t see it (but we also didn’t look as we have lots of little kids and they loved the pool and splash of features next to it).
I wouldn’t splurge at the PPH for a trip when I could get 2-3 trips by staying at other off property hotels. But for a trip with friends, if they cared about amenities and pool, and if the prices to other hotels weren’t too much less, I would definitely consider PPH. The walk over to the parks is long as you have to go towards the back of the hotel, towards DLH, do security at the west end of DTD and then go the length of DTD to get back to the parks.
BUT on the way out of the park, cut through the GCH, walk out it’s front door and cross the street and you’re back at PPH. It’s a nice easy walk back, when it will matter most at the end of a long park day!
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We are getting there just as you are leaving. This particular trip will be two moms and four teenage man/boys. We were not sure if our boys were going to get a “grad night” and decided to create our own. We are staying at park Vue to give each boy their own bed. Which will work for our scenario, but doesn’t sound like it will for yours. I would recommend the courtyard theme park for your particular scenario. Upper scale hotel within walking distance. Further out and a bit more affordable is the Wyndham. I wouldn’t walk back late at night alone (again), but in a group that size I wouldn’t hesitate.
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Just stayed at HoJo (renovated building 2) and liked it. Easy walk to park. I’d have no problem staying again. Only knock is lack of breakfast. The themed water park is geared toward younger crowd, but there’s a separate garden pool right next to building 2 that seemed nice, though fairly small (didn’t use it). Note that, as things stand, they’re requiring reservations for pool use in 2-hour blocks, which you can make through their website up to 30 days in advance.
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