Disneyland Resort finally debuted Pixar Place Hotel, a refurbishment of the old Paradise Pier Hotel, and we were very excited to check it out during our recent trip to the resort. In this post, we’ll cover our time at the hotel, including our room, the grounds, and the exclusive Pixar Place Hotel entrance to Disney California Adventure. Read on to learn all about Disneyland’s Pixar Place Hotel!
About Pixar Place Hotel
Pixar Place Hotel is one of three Disney-operated hotels at Disneyland Resort. The other two are Disneyland Hotel and Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa. Pixar Place Hotel is usually the least expensive of the three, but it doesn’t at all compare to Disney World’s value resorts when it comes to price. Looking at a random October stay, some nightly rates for comparable room types are:
Pixar Place Hotel Standard View - $530
Disneyland Hotel Standard View - $673
Grand Californian Standard View - $935
I don’t want to dig more into the rates, but in general it’s a bit surprising to see Pixar Place Hotel pretty significantly less expensive than Disneyland Hotel. As you’ll read, it’s a good hotel with easy access to California Adventure and a location that’s not significantly worse than Disneyland Hotel. Of course, it hasn’t yet built a new reputation.
Also notable is that not all the construction at the hotel is done. From the looks of it, there are a ton of rooms yet to be redone. Riding the elevator with an outside view we could see long stretches of rooms / hallways being worked on. That said, the ongoing construction didn’t impact us at all during our visit.
Pixar Place Hotel Location
Pixar Place Hotel is located in the southwest part of Disneyland Resort—just south of Disneyland Hotel. This means to get to Downtown Disney, you’ll have to walk about 5 minutes to the Disneyland Hotel entrance to Downtown Disney. From there, it’s 10 minutes walking to the main entrance of both parks (15 minutes total).
Pixar Place Hotel guests also have a dedicated entrance to Disney California Adventure, which we’ll discuss more later. This entrance is about six minutes from the hotel and puts you near the Golden Zephyr ride.
Pixar Place Hotel has a reputation as the “far” hotel from the parks. In truth, you’re only five minutes farther from the main entrances than Disneyland Hotel, and actually closer than Disneyland Hotel to Disney California Adventure when using the special entrance. In short, I don’t consider location a negative factor at all for Pixar Place Hotel.
Pixar Place Hotel Perks
As we just discussed, Pixar Place Hotel guests have their own dedicated entrance to Disney California Adventure that puts that park just six minutes away. Other than that, we can’t really call “location” a perk for either this hotel or Disneyland Hotel because several less expensive hotels along Harbor Blvd are actually closer to the main entrances for the parks. There is the related “perk” of being in the “Disney Bubble”. Harbor Blvd, however close it is to Disneyland, is not Disney.
The main perk for guests of all three Disney hotels at Disneyland is Early Entry. This perk grants you access every day to select rides at one of the two parks for 30 minutes before the park opens to the public. While I’m usually a big fan of early admission to theme parks, it can be a bit tough at Disneyland.
If park hours are 8AM to midnight, for example, you’re talking about waking up even earlier just to add 30 minutes to a 16-hour day. And if you closed a park at midnight the night before? Now you’re getting about 6 hours of sleep.
With some combination of Genie+, Lightning Lanes, and good rope drop strategy, you might find you’re better off just sleeping the extra 30 minutes and going to the other park rather than taking advantage of Early Entry.
There are other, ancillary perks, like preferred access to dining reservations, but we won’t be addressing those here. Disney discusses these a bit. Suffice to say that even with Early Entry, the perks do not justify the price here. That’s not to say the price is definitely unjustifiable, just that the value isn’t in the perks.
Booking Pixar Place Hotel
For our most recent stay at Pixar Place Hotel, we booked a Premium View - Club Level room for three nights for $954 per night. Unfortunately, the club lounge was not completed by the time of our stay, we were “downgraded” to a Premium View room at the rate of $747 per night. We booked through our go-to Travel Advisor, Lauren Quirk of Travel With Character LLC.
For 2024, Pixar Place Hotel rooms start around $500 after tax. Discounts from third-party sites (Expedia, Booking, etc.) are rare. Discounts are occasionally available for other groups, including DVC members and Disneyland Magic Key annual passholders.
Arrival and Check-In
We were coming to Pixar Place Hotel from Disneyland Hotel, where we’d spent two nights. I’m not sure if Disney transfers bags as part of a split stay at Disneyland, but we were more than happy to walk our bags the few minutes from bell services at Disneyland Hotel to our room at Pixar Place Hotel later in the day.
I checked in via the app and swung by the desk, but ultimately didn’t wind up getting a room assigned until about 2:45PM (check-in is 3PM, so no complaints!). For what it’s worth, despite being marked “Pixar Hotel Guests Only”, there’s no restrictions on who can exit through the exclusive Disney California Adventure entrance, and I was able to use the key the hotel gave me before a room was assigned to get back into the park through the exclusive entrance.
Our Premium View Room at Pixar Place Hotel
We were booked in a Premium View room with two queen beds and one day bed. I’ll use galleries throughout this section (use the arrows to click through for more):
I really loved these rooms. I thought the theming and color scheme were great. I would have liked a touch more surface space, but the prevalence of outlets—including between and on the outsides of each bed—made it easier to find good charging spots for our many devices.
Our original plan was to use the day bed for Zoe, but Pixar Place Hotel does not have bed rails. We opted to put Zoe in one of the queen beds, tucking the round pillows into the sheets as bed rails.
Besides some typical hotel details, there was a white noise machine. I assume this was because of the ongoing construction, but with World of Color, Disney California Adventure rides/crowds, and the fireworks also somewhat audible, I hope these are just a longterm feature of rooms with a view of the park. For what it’s worth, no sounds ever bothered us or Zoe.
There’s also an “Art of Pixar” book in the room for browsing. It’s a nice touch. The safe was a bit hidden in a fake drawer in the desk.
These rooms had a Keurig, which in my opinion should be standard in every single Disney hotel room. There were enough pods and to-go cups for us.
The bathroom was a single room setup. This isn’t my favorite, especially for a room that could theoretically fit five people. I’m also not in love with the push toward shared toiletries making its way to pump hand soap now. Those minor (and just inescapable, nowadays) gripes aside, it was a lovely bathroom.
And of course, the view. This was a Premium View room. Here’s the daytime view:
A nighttime view:
And us watching World of Color (the logo on the top right is a reflection from the TV playing the music):
We’ve had theme park views from all around the Walt Disney World monorail and at Tokyo Disney Resort, but I don’t think anything quite compares to this view. You’re not just looking into a theme park, you’re getting a wide view packed with rides and people. One of the most heartbreaking things about the old Paradise Pier Hotel was how much these views were wasted on a bad hotel. It’s refreshing to see the hotel brought up the standard with the views it offers.
Overall I was very happy with these rooms. I definitely prefer them to the old rooms at Disneyland Hotel (but the new DVC rooms there are good), and maybe even to the Grand Californian rooms. A quick look at pricing indicates the Premium View costs about $110 more than Standard View. If these rooms were generally in the $200-$300 range maybe that would be worth a second thought, but once you’re in the $500+ range I can’t imagine opting for a standard view instead of the premium view.
But—and it’s maybe a big “but”—the Premium View category technically calls for a room with “Views of Resort or Theme Park.” I find this to be pretty ridiculous. Maybe “Resort” refers to “Disneyland Resort” and some views just have the park a little less centered? Certainly a view of just some part of Pixar Place Hotel should not be grouped with views of the theme park. This might be something worth digging more into, maybe with the help of a travel advisor.
Pixar Place Hotel Grounds
The shared spaces of Pixar Place Hotel cover three floors. The first floor has the lobby, restaurants, and stores. The second has additional amenities, including the fitness center. The third floor is the outdoor space, including the pool and activity patio. Let’s walk through these in some more detail.
The entrance to the hotel doesn’t hide the ball—welcome to Pixar Place Hotel:
The iconic ball and lamp greet you as soon as you enter, with some artsy renditions of characters hanging overhead.
Heading left upon entering, you’ll come to the lobby. The front desk area is pretty spacious and lined with characters. I was helped by a Cast Member on a tablet in a nearby seating area, so I actually never had reason to approach the desks.
There are also small displays with casts of Pixar characters. Here are some Finding Nemo ones:
Around the area you’ll also find seating, along with a piano where Joe Gardner can occasionally be found performing (use the arrows to click through the gallery):
This side also has this fun creative tile space for kids to play at:
Zoe had a lot of fun here, but it was (totally coincidentally) right next to the DVC office. So if you spend time around the table, be prepared to hear a pitch or two…or three…or…
Heading right from the entrance, you’ll have the STOR-E, the hotel store. While I still wish there was more casual gear at most Disney hotels, I did like and purchase the tshirt here:
The main restaurant at the hotel is Great Maple Modern American Eatery. We didn’t visit this restaurant. There were some Pixar images along some of the walls, and the aesthetic wasn’t totally off base, but the vibes seemed more “California hotel restaurant” than “Disney restaurant.”
You’re only a short walk away from Disneyland Hotel’s Goofy’s Kitchen, and Grand Californian’s Storyteller Cafe and Napa Cafe if you’re looking for character dining options. We did Goofy’s Kitchen on checkout day and loved it.
Pixar Place Hotel also has a cafe, The Sketch Pad Cafe.
During our stay, Sketch Pad was open from 6AM to 5PM. I’m never happy to be left without a quick service option after 5PM, though in this case being a short walk from Downtown Disney and the parks makes that a bit more tolerable.
For the record, there’s also a third restaurant—Small Bytes—located on the third floor outdoor patio, but it wasn’t open yet. Presumably once this opens it’ll be a good quick service option after 5PM.
The second floor of the hotel has a laundry room, the yet-unopened Creator’s Club lounge, and the fitness center, which I had the pleasure of using for an afternoon run:
I’m always weary about a fitness center with only two treadmills. Vacations don’t tend to be times when you can be flexible if both are taken. I did have a good outdoor run one day of this trip, though. You can run the wide perimeter of Disneyland resort—Walnut, Katella, Habor, Ball—for a 3.6 mile loop.
The third floor is where you’ll find the pool, water slide, and outdoor space. There is plenty of seating and activity space outside the pool. Bing Bong was even greeting one afternoon:
Unfortunately, this incredibly spacious patio is contrasted with the relatively small pool (I couldn’t get a non-awkward pool picture, so thanks Zoe for standing in the sun for this one).
The pool got crowded, but not too crowded. I’d imagine there would be times when it would be a bit much for some guests. Behind the pool are a splash pad and water slide (which Zoe loved):
There were cabanas, day beds, and “pods” available for rental. You can get a peek at the later two a few images up, but here’s a good look into a cabana:
Overall I found Pixar Place Hotel to be wonderfully built. My review of the old Paradise Pier Hotel that Pixar Place replaced said this:
We really don’t have much positive to say about Paradise Pier as far as grounds and theming. There’s nothing wrong with it, but you really can tell this is a Disney overlay on a much older hotel.
While I think a trained eye would latch onto the small pool or dated, plain exterior architecture as signs that the building was not a Disney design, I think this transformation really makes the hotel worthy of the “Disney” name.
The Pixar Place Hotel Entrance to Disney California Adventure
As noted a few times above, Pixar Place Hotel guests get their own entrance to Disney California Adventure. To get to the entrance, you’ll exit the front of Pixar Place Hotel (nb: usually to get to Downtown Disney and the main entrances to the parks, it’s about 20 steps faster to just go out the back of the hotel). Go left, to the intersection where you can cross the street to Grand Californian:
Walk straight toward Grand Californian, along the left side of that sign, and before you get to the hotel parking booths you’ll see this door on the right:
Tap your room key to open the door, and after about three minutes of walking alongside the Grand Californian, you’ll reach security and the gate:
It spits you out between Seaside Souvenirs and Corn Dog Castle, opposite the Golden Zephyr:
You can also just do this in reverse to get out of the park. Here’s the exit from inside the park:
With a toddler who just hit 40 inches and loved riding Silly Symphony Swings (along with basically everything else in this part of the park), we really enjoyed having this entrance to go to/from the park.
I can’t speak much to how it works for rope drop. We used it once in the morning for Early Entry, arriving right at 7:31AM for a 7:30AM Early Entry. We walked right in (no line), and made our way to the queue for Radiator Springs Racers by 7:36AM. The ride started running early that day and we were on it by 7:47AM. Ultimately, the feasibility of this entrance to start a given morning will also depend on trip length, Genie+ and Lightning Lane Strategy, and what you need to get out of rope drop.
Conclusions
I was cautiously optimistic when I heard Paradise Pier Hotel was getting a major transformation into Pixar Place Hotel. I was optimistic because the hotel really couldn’t get much worse. But I was cautious because Disney had already had a chance to redo this hotel once (when they acquired it back in the day) and didn’t exactly work wonders.
Well, the optimism turned out to be well-founded. Sure—you can’t escape some major structural issues, like the small pool. And I have my standard complaint about a lack of quick service food. But the rooms are fantastic, and the hotel finally has a Disney feel that brings it into line with modern Disney hotels.
The downside is, of course, the cost. In this case, you’re paying at least $200 more per night than you’d pay at some pretty decent hotels over on Harbor Boulevard to be farther from Disneyland park and to have a perk that is only useful if you want to wake up extra early.
But while there might be some decent hotels over there, I’m not sure any has as good rooms as these new rooms at Pixar Place Hotel. They’re worth a bump in price over anything on Harbor Boulevard. Add in the access to Disney California Adventure and the high price starts to make sense.
Some things are inevitable, though. You’re paying some premium just for “the Disney difference.”