"Good Neighbor" hotel advice About This Page:

[Carousel96]

So I've determined that the theme park part of a DL trip won't take as much planning as a WDW visit. But this hotel thing is almost overwhelming!
It looks like the three Disney properties will cost more than we want to spend. We're really trying to do this trip on a budget. And since we use hotels for sleep and showers, it's not the place to spend extra dollars.
We've always done the Value Resorts at WDW and have been happy with them. We also stayed off site once to save money -- and regretted it. I wished I had brought my own sheets. Their were so rough I could barely sleep.
So, with that frame of reference, does anyone have any especially good (or bad) experiences to share? Which GN hotels do you recommend -- or recommend we avoid. We'd like to stay in the economy or moderate ranges. All things being equal, the Holiday Inn points would be nice. But we all know that things are rarely equal in the world of theme park hotels.

[Willowwind]

I really like the Candy Cane, always have. I understand that it's become more a boutique hotel since I've last been. I also liked the Marriott a lot the year we stayed there. I don't know that I've stayed at a bad hotel on the streets directly around Disneyland. GN hotels are just that, surrounding hotels that Disney doesn't mind passing a little business to. They're not going to send you to a real dive.

[HeatherD]

We've always stayed at the Best Western Park Place Inn, which is as close as you can get to the park. The breakfast they offer isn't great (at Capt. Kidd's next door), but there's an IHOP right on the other side of them and a fridge in your room. We simply ran to Albertsons (gotta love GPS) and got some breakfast provisions - fruit, donuts, cereal and milk. We like that they are mini-suites, with a couch and chairs. They run us about $120/night off-season (I think).

That said, this last time, I wasn't as thrilled with the room (older, not as clean as I would've liked). However, since it's the first time that's happened, I'm willing to give them another shot. Location takes priority for us. We've been staying there for years....

[crazydisney]

We and several family members and friends have stayed at the CCI and have been happy with the stay. IT is an older property but very clean. Some pluses to the CCI:
free property dedicated shuttle every half hour - loved it
free breakfast pastries, cereal, hot cereal, coffee, juice,tea, milk, hot chocoate, fruit etc. - saves time and money

Some minuses

rooms are on the smaller side and the pool is not huge.
breakfast room is small too, we took the trays from our room and brought breakfast up to our roon that worked better for us

[w-steele]

We always stay at one of the 'moderate' GN hotel/motels. First of all you want to stay at one that is walking distance away. Bret aka Disneylandguy has a web site with most of the GN hotel/motels listed. Go to this link.
Bret's Disneyland Lodging LinkMap
We have stayed at the Ramada Inn Maingate, Holiday Inn Anaheim, both Days Inn, the Alpine Motel, the Red Roof Inn (now called Motel 6) and both Super 8's We love the Super 8 on Katella Ave the best. One facter that effects the cost of the room rates is that the Anaheim Convention Center is across the street, south side, from DL and if a convention is in town when you go, the rates are going to be higher. If the dates you want to go to DL is flexable, I'd go onto the Convention Centers web site and see if there is a convention set up for that time. Their web site is at
Welcome to the Anaheim Convention Center
This is what we do and we only live about 100 miles south of there but we never go up for just a day, we plan on spending at least one night and return home the next afternoon. Good luck and hope you can get what you want.

[Cinderella_68]

Since you mentioned Holiday Inn, we really like the Holiday Inn and Suites on Walnut. It's a cozy place, with amenities of a large hotel. They have a small lounge, small restaurant, relaxing pool area with a spa, and a mini mart. We've always found the room service very reasonable, as well. We usually request a room closer to the pool, as there is an outlying building. Indoor room access, the staff has always been very helpful and friendly. Free abundant parking, ART line stop just outside the hotel. We've always found the best rates by searching the holidayinn.com site.
If you are feeling gutsy, try bidding Priceline for a 3* hotel in the Disneyland Area. (Check out biddingfortravel.com, first.) We've never been disappointed with the result and the bargain! Farthest away we have gotten through PL was Doubletree, but they had a dedicated hotel shuttle and a superb restaurant! Beware the beds, though! They were so comfortable, we never did make it to the parks at opening, as we'd planned! Good thing it was off-season!
Our favorite PL hotel is Anaheim Hilton. It is close and right on the ART, Starbucks in the lobby, great staff and large, remodeled rooms. The parking garage is a bit of a challenge at first, but navigable.

[disney777]

I've been staying at The Anaheim Desert Inn and Stes, right across from the DLR entrance plaza. It's one of the closest places to stay and we love it. Rooms are nothing fancy, but clean enough. Park Vue Inn is the closest, cross the street and you are right there. Look at Bret's map in a previous post. Depending on when you go, rates are around $69-109. They have some great family suites also. We got 4 qn beds, 2 each bathrooms, tv, microwave, refrigerator for $129 in early December.

[dizprincesslauren]

We're going in October and we won't have a car. Since we have a little child, we must have something within a short walk. Preferably no more than 5-7 minutes. We're willing to pay up to $100/might, and are going in the 'off' season. Any recommendations? (A good pool would be nice too, as long as I'm making a wish list!)

[HeatherD]

Does that 5-7 minutes include the walking from the street to the ticket plaza? Because that, in itself, is several minutes of walking (whether to Disneyland Hotel or the ones directly across the street on Harbor).

Anything on Harbor, between Katella and somewhere around the McDonald's will be good distance. If you keep an eye out for deals, you may be able to get DLH for a decent price. The Best Western Park Place Inn is at the crosswalk into Disneyland and the past few Decembers it's been costing around $120/night. We've already made our ressies for December 09 because the closer it is to that crosswalk, the quicker it will sell out.

[w-steele]

Ramada Inn-Maingate is another great motel.

[dizprincesslauren]

Does that 5-7 minutes include the walking from the street to the ticket plaza? Because that, in itself, is several minutes of walking (whether to Disneyland Hotel or the ones directly across the street on Harbor).
The only other time I've been there as an adult we stayed at Paradise Pier. That was a short walk through the GC's entrance. We're going to hold off making hotel reservations though, because last spring/early summer we got mailings for some great deals for the fall. But do they really fill up that quickly in October? We won't be there the week of Halloween.

[w-steele]

We live about 98 miles south of DLR and can tell you that even in these tight times the resort hotels are filling up. I do not know how many times we have attempted to get information about rooms at any of the three resort hotels only to find out they are full. Advice is to make reservations no less the 100 days in advance and then that may not be far enough out. I have been told by some CM's that have 'quizzed' the guests as to why they choose to stay on property. They seem to get nearly the same response. "The Disneyland experience would not be complete unless we stayed at one of the Disney hotels." Now then, for those of us who live so close and go as often as we do, we still like staying on property for special events, other wise, we always stay off property because it is so much cheaper.

[coffeechef]

We have stayed in the Tropicana, 5 -7 minute walk to Park and at the Howard johnsons about 12 -15 minute walk. Hojos has the nicer pool. But ask for a room not facing I-5 . What I found was either way it was shorter than any walk to the busses at DisneyWorld