I just got back Sunday. We were there Sat 7/27 to 8/3 (but took Red Eye flight and got home Sunday 8/4). We took Disneyland Resort Express Bus to/from hotel and didn't rent a car. We stayed one night at the Disneyland Hotel to take advantage of swimming area and early entry to California Adventure. We thought it was a long walk to the main security entrance when we walked thru Downtown Disney. it was me, dh, dd9 and dd13.
The next day we switched to Desert Palms. We stayed in the Sahara Suite which was a room (with doors that fully closed) with two queen beds, a living room with a full size sofa bed, and a kitchen with full size fridge, oven, stove top, microwave, sink, dishes, pans etc. We had Vons food delivered and it was all put away waiting in the room. The room was clean. My pet peeve is booking a hotel room for 4 and only getting towels for 2 to 3 people. We had towels for 6. We got a towel animal a few days.
The hotel breakfast had scrambled eggs, toast, make your own waffles, oatmeal, two flavors of cold cereal, some fruit, and a few things that varied each day like potatoes, sausage, Danish, muffins etc. We never had problems getting a table. The pool was a basic hotel pool but my kids enjoyed it and the hot tub was your basic hot tub - good enough for us. Food was replenished regularly.
I wanted to print something out and at Disneyland hotel they wanted to charge for internet time and $1.00 per page to print. At Desert Palms they had free use of a computer with internet and printing. There was free water in the lobby all day. They also had a small kids registration area where the girls were given tattoos and small erasers. After check out they will let you use the pool until you leave that day but we didn't use it. We never heard any street noise from our room. We did hear the fireworks but they are not visible from the hotel.
In terms of distance it says 1/2 mile. Other than crossing the bus driveway at Disney drive there are no streets to cross and the entire way was lit at night. I only walked twice once with dd13 and once with dd9 - both times after a full park day. It took about 10 minutes. The hotel is next door to 7-11 on Katella Ave which is at the corner of Katella and Harbor. The ART 9 stops in front of 7-11 or you can cross over to Harbor and take any bus that stops - the next stop is Disney. Door to Door never took us over 15 minutes in either direction (from Disney bus stop to/from Hotel Lobby). Across the street on Harbor is a Subway, pizza place, burger place, Mexican Food place, etc. ABC Market is next to 7-11.
We would not hesitate to stay at Desert Palms again.