1 Night at Grand Californian Worth it on 4th of July?

[Corie Nicolay]

The only time we can fit Disneyland into our California trip this summer is to go July 4-6. We are traveling with our Airstream this summer so we had planned on just staying at an RV park on the ART route however I'm concerned that the 4th will be absolute madness and now I'm wondering about getting 1 night at GCH so we have a place to play at the pool, take the kiddos (9 & 5) for downtime that day. I called the hotel and they said we would have access to the pool both the day of check in & check out but the price is coming in at just over $700 for 1 night which seem insane. I'm hoping for advice both on the experience at GCH and how bad 4th of July is at the park. Thanks for any insight!

 

[FrequentlyAskedDB]

We stayed at the GCH during several days after New Years. We were not there for New years eve or New Years Day. The Parks go so busy(which is not typical for those days at all) that while we were enjoying our lunch in DL they closed the part to all incoming guests. No admittance. We we SO glad to bail from the park for a few hours, and head back to our theme park view room, and escape the madness. We went back into the park late that night when things had died down some. We don't normally stay at the GCH but I can't imagine what we would have done if the parks had been that busy and we had to decide to either go all way back to our hotel or stick it out in that mess.
If 4th of July can be busy. I've never actually set foot in the park on the 4th. Hopefully someone else can help with that. But most holidays are a mess. If the park is as busy as we experiences and I could afford it, I would for sure have that hotel escape ready and waiting.

If you do end up staying at the GCH make sure to go to guest services and ask for one of their theme park scavenger hunts. It was a blast. We did the Pirates of the Caribbean hunt and had so much fun. The prize was a great bonus.

 

[cruisehopeful]

The price is insane. It's up to you if you think it would be worth it. I ca't see paying $700. for a basic hotel room, but if it was a once in a lifetime thing, maybe I'd do it. Disneyland Hotel should be less expensive. There are also a couple hotels across the street that have small waterparks (Howard Johnson and Marriott Courtyard). They are less than a 10 minute walk to the main entrance of the parks. You may want to price those out, too. No doubt, Grand Californian is the most convenient for going to and from the parks multiple times in a day, though.

 

[Mommy to Kayla]

We will be there June 29-July 5 this year. The parks will be jam packed and will probably reach capacity. In fact, we are planning to reserve a cabana and hang out at the pool on the 4th.
One note, the lobby will be under refurbishment all summer.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Is there an opening at PPH or DLH? All the same benefits of easy park access, EMH, pools for just a bit more walking. And with the GCH Lobby under refurb I suspect a lot of that immersive, wow factor of GCH will be missing.

 

[amyg1975]

I would do Disneyland Hotel, their pool is awesome. Also, last summer I was able to book a room through Orbitz and I saved 15%.

 

[Angrose]

^^^ This is what I was going to suggest as well. Booking DLH thru Orbitz with a 15% promo code would save you almost $200. The current promo is EXPLOREMORE. Your kids will LOVE the pool and waterslides!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Another vote for Orbitz- or Cheaptickets, they usually run promo codes as well as they're the same company. Orbitz gives an additional 5% in rewards dollars to your next booking, cheap tickets can sometimes have a promo code a couple points above Orbitz but no rewards program. I used Orbitz for a GCH booking and had a good experience, only quirk was having to wait like a week for my reservation to hit the Disney system in order to make my room requests.

 

[Corie Nicolay]

Thank you so much for all the really great advice here! I love how close the Grand Californian is but with the renovations it doesn't make sense to splurge. I checked out Orbitz and with the 15% off plus I had a bunch of orbucks that I had forgotten about I got a great price for the Disneyland Hotel. Thanks again for helping us put together a much more cost effective plan!

 

[longboard55]

Rooms with the best views approach $1000 a night with taxes during the busy period. Can you see why DVC Grand California is such a hot seller

 

[StormyCA]

I vote for the Grand, any chance one gets!! But what RV park are you staying at? Anaheim Resort RV has a pool and Uber only costs $5.20 each way. That's cheaper than ART for a family. It would only take Uber 5 or 10 minutes to run you there and back. Add in 5 minutes for 'wait time' and it's not much longer than it takes to walk to the DLH or PP from the Esplanade.

To me, the main benefit of the Grand (or onsite anywhere) in your situation would be not only the closeness, but the fact that resort guests are on a higher 'tier' if the Parks start having capacity closures in case implementation started during a 'break'. I'm not sure if it's happened during a 4th of July yet, but it wouldn't surprise me if it happened in the future.