Best Western Courtesy Inn Review
Best Western Courtesy Inn is a hotel near Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, located behind the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure. This review features photos of the hotel’s rooms, its pros & cons, plus thoughts about our experience of staying here.
The Best Western Courtesy Inn is located in a fairly hotel-dense area, but not in an area where we’ve commonly stayed. If you peruse our index of our other off-site Disneyland hotel reviews in our Disneyland Hotels Reviews & Rankings post, you’ll notice most of our recommended off-site hotels are on Harbor or Katella Boulevards. This hotel is on Ball Road, which under-the-radar as far as Disneyland area hotels go.
Regular readers of this blog will recall my harrowing brush with death instigated by devious Disneyland saboteur, Guy Selga, who booked a room for us at the Anaheim Maingate Inn. I mention this for two reasons: 1) never trust Guy Selga; 2) this hotel is right across the street from Anaheim Maingate Inn…
In that review, one of the things I lauded about the hotel was its “secret” location, which offered easy access to the Mickey & Friends Parking Structure and tram to Disneyland. Well, as of a couple weeks ago when we tried this access path, it had been closed off.
To be honest, I was surprised this shortcut existed in the first place as it took guests into a quasi-backstage area, but it’s a huge blow to the hotels located back here. In fact, with the path gone, I’m now hard-pressed to recommend any of these hotels. This is no longer what I’d call within walking distance of Disneyland (the route around is incredibly inconvenient), much less a ‘hidden gem’ thanks to that tram access.
This is all very unfortunate, as I would otherwise consider the Best Western Courtesy Inn to be a hidden gem among Disneyland area hotels.
Frankly, I was a bit astonished at just how nice it was for the price, especially considering the shortcut path that provided easy access to Disneyland. (Which was available when we stayed here, but is now gone.)
Before I get carried away here (terms like “hidden gem” and “astonished” will do that), this is still a standard looking hotel room. It has little character and looks very basic. This is pretty much how most of the less expensive hotels near Disneyland look, with varying degrees of quality.
I’d say among the ‘basic’ hotels in Anaheim, this stands out for being relatively fresh, well-maintained, and nice. There’s really nothing wrong with this “safe” look, and to the credit of the Best Western, the room is clean and relatively spacious.
Most importantly, the bed is incredibly comfortable as are the pillows. I’m not sure what type of mattress is used in the rooms, but it’s definitely a nicer quality one.
This bedding ranks among the best off-site hotels near Disneyland. For me, this was the highlight of the hotel, and it’s certainly better than what I’d expect for hotel of this caliber.
The desk, television, chair, etc. (everything in the above photo) are all pretty standard. Nothing special or disappointing here.
One thing that is atypical of these budget motels in Anaheim is the lack of noise. Our room was near the end, adjacent to Ball Road, and I could barely hear the traffic or footsteps of guests getting up in the morning. This isn’t to say the room was soundproof (not even close) but compared to the norm, it was solid.
The bathrooms are pretty basic. To save space, you’ll notice the microwave and mini-fridge are located over by the sink and air conditioner.
I actually like this arrangement, as it keeps all of this noise in one area, rather spreading out the racket out by the television. I wish actual dividers (even a curtain!) between the sinks and the sleeping area were used in rooms like this.
The shower/toilet room looks virtually identical to 90% of the motels near Disneyland. I should just stop taking photos of these and use stock images from my archives. You’d never know the difference.
The check-in area was relatively nice, with a computer for guest use, some couches, and small bar for continental breakfast.
The breakfast was basic, but offered a few hot items. As with most included hotel breakfasts in Anaheim, I’d recommend skipping it.
The pool and hot tub were likewise pretty standard. There are nominal efforts at seclusion, but you’re still going to see and hear traffic, and pedestrians passing by on the sidewalk outside. Maybe that’s your thing, I don’t know.
Overall, the Best Western Courtesy Inn is a very nice hotel, especially as compared to comparable motels in the area and given the price. Nothing too exciting, but strong value, nonetheless. Unfortunately…that was before Disneyland eliminated the shortcut. That does not change the character of the hotel itself, but you’re reading a Disneyland blog and are probably not just randomly looking for a place to stay during an Anaheim vacation. Without the convenient access, I have a much more difficult time recommending this hotel to Disneyland visitors. Even if prices were to drop by $20/night (something I suspect will happen over time as sites like TripAdvisor start to self-correct), it still wouldn’t be worth it to me. The one exception to that is potentially during a runDisney weekend, when Disneyland Drive should be closed and this hotel will still offer easy access. Otherwise, it’s a no go for us, unfortunately.
If you’re preparing for a Disneyland trip, check out our other planning posts, including how to save money on Disneyland tickets, our Disney packing tips, tips for booking a hotel (off-site or on-site), where to dine, and a number of other things, check out our comprehensive Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide!
Your Thoughts
Have you stayed at the Best Western Courtesy Inn? What did you think of your room, or the hotel’s amenities? Would you stay here even without the shortcut to Disneyland’s trams? Do you agree or disagree with our take on this hotel? Share any questions, tips, or additional thoughts you have in the comments!
Is there Rapid transportation from the hotel to Disneyland???
Does anyone know if the pathway to Mickey and Friends Tram is open again?
This is my 3rd time trying to leave a comment about this hotel. What’s up? Anyway, I liked this hotel. The staff was awesome.
I don’t see any comments caught in the spam filter for you, so…I’m not sure?
Tom, can’t you just walk down Disneyland Dr. to Mickey and Friends parking or is that not accessible from W. Ball Rd.? It seems like you could just walk around the corner to get to the parking structure without a sneaky path. No?
No. At least not to my knowledge. You could circle all the way around and go through the security checkout and then get on the tram, but that’s a ton of extra effort, and by that point, you might as well just walk along Disneyland Drive and walk into Downtown Disney directly.
From the Best Western, I’m guessing it would be about a 30 minute walk to the Esplanade, give or take.
Have to disagree with you on location of hotels along Ball Road. We stayed at the Holiday Inn on Ball Rd (also behind the parking structure) and the walk to downtown Disney and the parks took 10ish minutes and there wasn’t any shortcuts to take. We walked down Walnut St to the end of Downtown Disney and then walked to the parks from there. So convenient and a great, quiet location for us. We would easily stay at that hotel again because of the location and the pricing.
I assume you mean a 10 minute walk *to* Downtown Disney, right? Total, you’re looking at a ~25 minute walk (not counting security) to the Esplanade. I guess that’s not too bad, especially since most of that is a relatively pleasant walk through Downtown Disney. Still, I’d far prefer the 10-15 minute walks of the hotels across the street on Harbor.
It is such a bummer that they closed off access to Mickey and Friends. It really made the hotels in that area attractive. Now I suppose the only one worth even looking at is the Majestic Garden because of their shuttle. The “hidden gem” spots at this point seems to be further down Harbor between Convention and Orangewood across from the Toy Story lot.