With only three Disney-operated hotels, Disneyland Resort is not quite the vacation kingdom that Walt Disney World is. But the “Disney” name still carries a ton of weight, and if you want to stay inside the “bubble”, you’re going to pay for it. With their high prices, you’re naturally going to wonder whether the Disney hotels at Disneyland are worth it. Well, let’s dive into the perks these hotels offer. Read on to learn all about the perks of Disney’s hotels at Disneyland Resort!
Disney’s Three Hotels at Disneyland Resort
Let’s start with a quick look at which hotels we’re talking about. Disney operates only three hotels at Disneyland Resort. This compares with over 20 hotels at Walt Disney World Resort. While Disneyland only has three parks, as compared to Disney World’s four parks plus one-at-a-time-operational water park, they could probably easily justify building a few more hotels if they wanted, and the number of hotels in the area further supports this.
But the issue is space—Disneyland Resort doesn’t have a ton of it. And while Disney could buy any hotels in the area and build them up, the brand dictates they try and maintain their “bubble” as much as possible.
The upside for Disney is that with only three hotels, they’re compelled to charge a pretty hefty premium for them. Specific figures will vary by date, but I’ve stayed at hotels right across the street from Disneyland for $300 per night and hotels a small walk down the road for under $200 per night. These weren’t as good as the Disney hotels, but with Disney hotels routinely coming in at $600 per night, I’ve been very happy to try other hotels in the area on occasion.
I’ll have more to say about price below. With all that in mind, let’s quickly discuss the three Disney-operated hotels at Disneyland Resort before moving onto the perks.
Grand Californian Hotel and Spa
Grand Californian Hotel and Spa is the most expensive of the three Disneyland hotels. It is situated between Downtown Disney and Disney’s California Adventure, with entrances directly from the hotel into each of those. The craftsman / National Park lodge theming is reminiscent of Disney World’s Wilderness Lodge, albeit with a bit cleaner cuts.
Read our Review of Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa here.
Disneyland Hotel
Disneyland Hotel was the first of the hotels at Disneyland Resort. Nowadays, it’ll often be priced comparably with Pixar Place Hotel, below Grand Californian prices.
Disneyland Hotel is spread over four towers—Fantasy Tower, Adventure Tower, Frontier Tower, and the new Discovery Tower housing the DVC Villas. It’s located at the west end of Downtown Disney, about a 10-minute walk through Downtown Disney to the park gates.
Pixar Place Hotel
Pixar Place Hotel is a remodeling of the old Paradise Pier Hotel. We consider this remodel to have been extremely well done, and to a large extent you could say Pixar Place Hotel is the “newest” of the three hotels. The hotel sits basically five minutes walking south of Disneyland Hotel, making for a 15-minute walk to the park gates. But it does have access to its “own” (more later) entrance to Disney California Adventure, about 7 minutes walking from the hotel.
Reminder: These Are All Good Hotels
I want to emphasize that all three Disney hotels are good hotels. At the very least, they’re bumping up against “luxury” quality, which is befitting of their price. I honestly have no clear system for picking between my hotel options at Disneyland. For me, it’s mostly about this year’s budget—the cost of your Disneyland trip is going to depend greatly on how long your trip is and which hotel you pick.
As you’ll see in this post, the perks fall a little short. The perks do not alone cover the price difference between these hotels and the nearest competition. But some of that gap is covered by the overall high quality of the Disney hotels.
Splash Pad and Water Slide at Pixar Place Hotel
Here’s a quick look at some example nightly pricing:
Grand Californian - $808
Pixar Place Hotel - $619
Disneyland Hotel - $593
JW Marriott, Anaheim Resort - $390
Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites - $362
The Anaheim Hotel - $237
With the caveat that I’ve never stayed at the JW Marriott (my favorite chain), I think a ~$200 / 50% gap between the lowest-priced Disney option and the higher-priced non-Disney options is…at least in the ballpark of reasonable.
There are good hotels nearby, even great hotels nearby (not to mention Airbnb), but this isn’t a case—as it was with the old Paradise Pier Hotel, frankly—where Disney is charging an exorbitant amount just for you to stay on a hotel with the Disney name on it. I’d easily place these hotels in a price bracket above the nearest competition, even if there were no perks to speak of. But there are. So let’s speak of them…
Key Perks of the Disneyland Hotels
I’m going to cover five key perks in this post: dedicated park entrances, location, Early Entry access, preferred dining reservations, and seasonal offerings.
Two Disneyland Hotels Have Their Own Park Entrances
I’m going to talk more broadly about location next, but first I want to cover the specific issue of the dedicated park entrances. Both Disney California Adventure and Pixar Place Hotel have dedicated entrances to Disney California Adventure.
Disneyland Hotel does not have its own entrance to either park, and no hotel has a special entrance to Disneyland park. Guests from all three hotels can use the monorail from Downtown Disney to enter Disneyland, and this is more convenient for Disney hotel guests than other guests, but all guests are allowed to do it.
The Grand Californian entrance to Disney California Adventure is directly from the hotel into the park, in the Grizzly Peak land. It’s overall a great convenience, particularly midday and at the end of the day.
You’d think there’s a clear advantage when it comes to rope drop at California Adventure from inside the hotel, but on our few visits we’ve had a lot of issues with crowds. Unfortunately, we’ve also had issues with long lines to get from Grand Californian into Downtown Disney to start the day, so rope drop from that hotel is a rough situation overall.
The entrance from Pixar Place Hotel to Disney California Adventure is more complicated. To use this entrance you actually exit the hotel, cross the street, enter a door next to Grand Californian, and walk alongside Grand Californian (for about five minutes) until you get to this entrance in the Paradise Gardens Park area of the park. Theoretically, Grand Californian guests could use this entrance as well, something I might try next time I stay at that hotel.
Both of these entrances are a matter of convenience rather than powerful perks. They don’t give you a huge advantage at rope drop, and their “location” advantage isn’t big, either. Understanding why requires us to talk more about location, location, location.
Disneyland Hotel Locations
Let’s start with a simple map I’ve made to give you a sense of geography here. This isn’t perfectly to scale—I’ll note some specific walking times below.
You can see first here is that with its dedicated entrances to Disney California Adventure and Downtown Disney, Grand Californian is going to be the absolute closest hotel to both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. This is partly why it’s Disneyland’s most expensive hotel.
The situation with the other two hotels is murkier. I covered the Pixar Place Hotel entrance to Disney California Adventure above, so let’s focus on access to Disneyland.
From Disneyland hotel to the parks’ entrances is about a 10-minute walk. From Pixar Place Hotel it’s another five. The walk from Disneyland Hotel is through Downtown Disney, which is quite pleasant. And if you plan to spend significant time in Downtown Disney, then Disney’s hotels have a clear location advantage over other hotels.
The main “other” hotels you’ll consider are a batch of hotels just across Harbor Boulevard on the east side of Disneyland Resort. The Best Western Plus Park Place Inn - Mini Suites is directly across from the Harbor Boulevard entrance and about a six-minute walk to the park gates. This makes it closer than either Disneyland Hotel or Pixar Place Hotel.
Several other hotels nearby will also be closer. I’ve stayed at The Anaheim Hotel several times and never been bothered by its 10-minute walk. Are these walks as scenic as walking through Downtown Disney? No. But they’re also a fraction of the price, as discussed above.
Disney Hotel Guests Get Early Entry
Our longtime reader must have their jaw dropped right now seeing us ignore Early Entry until this late in the post. But the reason is simple—Early Entry is so different at Disneyland vs. Disney World that I sometimes prefer not to use it.
At Disneyland, Disney hotel guests have access to select attractions at one park each day for 30 minutes before the park opens to other guests. This is a huge contrast to Disney World, where every park participates in Early Entry every day.
The perk is basically not optional at Disney World. If you don’t use it, you’ll be behind the crowd at whatever park you go to. At Disneyland, you can simply opt to go to the park without Early Entry. With your hotel’s decent location, you’ll have a good chance at a successful rope drop.
On the day I write this, Disneyland opens at 8AM with an Early Entry of 7:30AM. I simply don’t need to be up 30 minutes early, particularly if I was up late last night—Disneyland didn’t close until midnight! These are long hours.
The stakes of Early Entry at Disneyland Resort are also notably lower than in Florida. Neither Radiator Springs Racers nor Rise of the Resistance is a part of Early Entry. You can use this time to get a bit ahead of the crowds going to these rides, sure, but it’s really dubious whether that’s worth 30 minutes (or more if the other park opens at a later time) of sleep.
Read our Guide to Disneyland Resort Early Entry for more information.
Preferred Access to Hotel Dining Reservations
Disney hotel guests get preferred access to a “select” number of reservations at Disneyland Resort hotel table service restaurants. Two important disclaimers here: First, I’ve never actually used this perk. Second, I’ve never actually had trouble booking dining reservations at Disneyland Resort. I’ve tried for dates with limited availability and used MouseDining successfully each time.
There are eight restaurants at the three Disney hotels that take reservations. Four of these are bars or lounges. The remaining four are Goofy’s Kitchen, Napa Rose, Storytellers Cafe, and Great Maple Modern American Eatery.
Frankly, this perk should be more straightforward, and I’d value it slightly more if it was. Guests at the Disney hotels should have either an advance booking window or, insofar as this is possible, a guarantee of some reservation access.
As it is, your Disneyland trip probably won’t be long enough to make a table service meal a “must do.” Our go-to is breakfast at Goofy’s Kitchen on departure day, but we’ve never had trouble getting that reservation.
Other Special and Seasonal Offerings
Finally, there are sometimes special and seasonal offerings available at the Disney hotels. You can see the current list here. These often come at an additional cost and you’ll have to decide whether they’re worth the time on what is usually a short trip.
On a longer trip, I think my attitude becomes that these offerings, along with the preferred dining reservations, might be enough to easily nudge you into a single night at one of these hotels. Spend less or no time in the parks for a day, instead treating yourself to a true “vacation” day, enjoying what the hotel has to offer.
All Your Other Disneyland Planning Questions Answered
Don’t be overwhelmed by Disneyland planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you’ll not only be an expert, but you’ll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Disneyland Planning Guide. When it comes to hotels, we’ve got reviews of all three Disney hotels: Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and Disney’s Pixar Place Hotel. As for tickets, check out where to find discount Disneyland tickets.
Know what to ride with our: Disneyland Rides Guide and Disney California Adventure Rides Guide. And just as important, know how to get on the best rides without the wait with our Disneyland Lightning Lane Strategy! For the complete guides to a day at the park, we have a One Day Disneyland Itinerary and a One Day Disney California Adventure Itinerary.
We always recommend arriving at the parks early. If you can get access to Early Entry at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, you’ll have the most time in the parks. Even without those bonus hours, you’ll need to know Rope Drop Strategy at Disneyland and Rope Drop Strategy at Disney California Adventure.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you’re interested in saving, there’s no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.