We stayed at the Howard Johnson for 11 nights at the beginning of May 2008. There were 4 of us - my husband and I and our 5 year old and 1 year old. We requested a room with a microwave as I needed to be able to heat up food for our toddler. Our travel agent put in a request and I emailed the hotel before we left home but there wasn't one available when we arrived as they were pretty busy - there was a dental association conference on at the time we stayed. We asked again when we checked in and were told that they could move us to a Disney view room with a microwave after the third day which we accepted of course. The check in staff were very helpful and friendly.

Our first room was on the ground floor of building 1. It was a large room and a convenient location but not much natural light being on the ground floor. The beds were large and very comfortable though and it was very handy having the second basin outside the bathroom.

Our second room was much the same but on level 6 of the building and without the second hand basin. Very spacious though and definitely better light. Although we had a Disney view, the fireworks were only on Fri, Sat and Sun nights and the nights that we were not at the park it was clouded over so we did not get a good view from our balcony.

The rooms were in good clean condition. Nothing too fancy and decor a little dated but absolutely fine for a family holiday.

We made good use of the laundry - nothing worse than being on a family holdiay and having stacks of dirty laundry building up - especially since we were there for over a week. The laundry was in the basement of building 1 so very convenient for us. On a couple of occassions there was a bit of a backlog but generally no issues.

Location was great though. Definitely a comfortable walking distance to Disneyland. There were other hotels closer to Disney but the distance is not that great anyway. We did not bother waiting for the shuttles. Our 5 year old coped fine with the walk to the park and our 1 year old was fine of course in the stroller. Our 5 year old did struggle a bit with the walk back late at night (usually being the second trip as we would go back to the hotel mid to late afternoon for a rest before going back for the night shows) which was understandable. We either carried him part of the way or let him sit in the stroller and carried the 1 year old if she was not asleep.

We only got to use the pool once - it was adequate but a shame that the main pool was being upgraded at the time we stayed so was not available.

The little shop on site at the hotel had all the things that you would expect, so very handy, although as you can expect a bit more expensive. If you have a car, Target and other shopping places are close by and easy to get to to stock up on bottled water and snacks etc. Free parking at the hotel is a bonus - I understand other hotels charge for parking.

We ate either at Disneyland or Mimis Cafe just across the road from the hotel. They do take out as well. If the family was sleeping in I would go down and get a take out breakfast and take it back to the room for them to eat to save time. McDonalds is very close by as well and breakfast super cheap but you could probably only have that once or twice during your stay. There is a cheap all you can eat buffet directly opposite the main entrance to Disneyland. A variety of dishes to choose from, not particularly tasty, but okay if you just need to fill the gap.

Goofy's kitchen character breakfast is a good idea if you have kids. Pretty expensive but the food is what you would expect at a good standard hotel breakfast buffet, although being an all day menu, you can have pizza and an ice cream sundae for breakfast too if you want.

On our last day we had a late evening flight and asked for a late checkout. Our room was needed for another guest but they allowed us to transfer to another room to use up to 1pm which was all we really needed as we wanted to spend a last morning at Disneyland and have showers and change before we headed off to the airport.

Overall our stay at the Howard Johnson was great. Staff very friendly and helpful and we would probably stay again.

I just called to ask for a room near the pool and was told the main pool was closed. I wish i had known this before i booked it so that is why i am letting everyone else know. The pool that is closed is the main pool with the toddler pool attached to it (frog). The pool is closed until the end of July. There is the other pool but it is not a pool for toddlers. If i had known this before booking it I would not have stayed here again. Now if u could care less about a pool do stay here it is a great hotel but if your looking for a pool for toddlers this is not the hotel at least not until august 08. I would think that the winter months would have been the time to do construction on a pool but hey what do i know i am just a mom

We were here from May 12 to the 14th and booked in for $59.00 (using the Entertainment card rate). Wow, what a great price:)

We arrived early at about noon, one of the two rooms was ready so we threw all suitcases in that room and ran over to Disneyland. Going off season really has it's advantages as almost all rides were walk on right now! Finding Nemo was 30 mins posted and 30 mins it was but no worries. Splash Mountain has changed in the last two years, seem riding it the front will get you 100% soaking wet;) We had a wet and wild blast!!! Grizzly Mountain had us wringing out the clothes WOW we got SOAKED:):)

Room at Hojo's was large clean and comfy, beds were a little hard for me but DH loved it. As always we like building two, it is quiet and just right. Building one had the updates beds and such but I am told all the buildings will have such soon.

Laundry was cheap with many washers and dryers and we made use of it

Mimi's right next door proved to be the most amazing value as we remembered. OMG the breakfast's were HUGE and lovely :)YUM.

Andrew at front desk at Hojo's proved to be his weight in gold as DH and I both forgot our room key and Lorelle had our home address just a little wrong, he was torn to give us a new key (I had all my ID in the room and my DH hadn't had his name on the reservation thus his ID was useless). I was getting mad but Andrew realized a mistake had been made by Lorelle (no biggie) and gave us a new room key :)

Walk was quite easy and once again I would stay at this motel yet again.

Stayed 8 nights from 3 May 2008. Ground floor room at back of Building 1. Step out the back door into the smoking area and it's incredibly noisy with the freeway just over the wall, but we were amazed how quiet it was inside the room. Excellent spacious room, air con made a bit of a racket but wasn't really necessary at that time of year, additional basin just outside bathroom was useful. Hotel is clean, staff friendly, free internet, small gift / convenience store open late, short walk to Disney and many restaurants, we couldn't have asked for anything more. This hotel was recommended to us by a friend in Australia who had stayed there, we would highly recommend it too.