Advantage to staying onsite?

[Jedi5]

Planning a trip to DL in the near future.
This is will be our first time at DL so we are trying to plan as best as we can.

Been to WDW a few times and also been to US/IoA.
Each time we stayed onsite and never thought twice about it.

For DL, a few of the hotels I've found offsite all say a 10-15 minute walk to DL.
That might not sound to bad but with small kids in tow after a day, those 10-15 minutes are going to seem like an hour walk. Not really found of waiting for the shuttle either. To many times as we drove by to attend a park, we'd see the family waiting for the bus in the heat looking miserable. I'll pass.

Now planning this trip, I see that there are many hotels what seems to be across the DL entrance. So my question is, what is the advantage to staying onsite at DL? You get the extra hour before it opens up but what else do you get?

Stay onsite or brave it and stay offsite?

 

[jonahsmommy]

We have stayed both off site (Hyatt of Orange County) and onsite (DLR) and for us, the advantages of staying onsite are worth the extra cost. Here are some of our reasons:

1. Time- time is money. You get an extra hour and it is worth it when you have little ones and you want to go on the rides at Fantasy Land or if you want to visit Carsland.

2. Time- again time is money. When our son was little and he took naps, waiting for the shuttle was time that was wasted. Remember waiting for the shuttle to go back to the hotel and then waiting for the shuttle to go back to the parks. Now, if anyone needs to take a break we can just walk back to the hotel, a lot easier. Don't forget if you stay in the parks late at night, anytime after the fireworks the shuttles are VERY packed and for us it's not the way we like to end our day.

3. Magic- All the extra little touches that make our stay magical.

I'm sure other people will have some other suggestions for you, but again for us it is worth it.

 

[Huff]

Theres several hotels directly across the street from the DL/DCA gates. Some are a shorter walk to the gates than from Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier. While many are nice, the Disneyland hotel or Paradise Pier are much nicer. They're similar to the upper end moderates and some of the deluxe resorts at WDW. Grand California is on par or perhaps above Grand Floridian.

Grand Californian if you can afford it is awesome! It has its own entrance directly into California Adventure and a couple minute walk to Disneyland gates. Downtown Disney is right next door as well.

Disneyland Hotel is very close to the Downtown Disney Monorail station. The monorail runs from there to inside Disneyland in Tomorrowland. Convenient unless there is a long wait to board in which case its faster to walk to the gates.

We always have a car and opt to stay at a resort a few miles away. The Mickey & Friends parking garage has a free shuttle tram to Downtown Disney and short walk from there to park gates. Toy Story parking lot has free shuttle buses to/from the gates.

If staying onsite or at a walking distance hotel you will not need a car. Both parks, downtown Disney and the 3 Disney hotels are all in walking distance from each other. No buses, boats etc!

 

[Jedi5]

I know you get the extra but I think we very seldom took advantage of it.
After the first day our kids were pooped out and just wanted to sleep in.
We all gung-ho at first about that extra hour we got but that wore off really fast.

At least at US-IoA, staying onsite you had the passes that always bumped to the head of line. That was nice and came in handy many of times.

I agree about waiting for the shuttle. If we stayed offsite even for that 10-15 minute walk, we probably rent a car. Yeah I know... I know...

Maybe because it our first time to DL, you stay onsite.
Then the 2nd time around... if there is a 2nd time around... we hopefully know more and can make a better call on staying on/offsite.

 

[scoker]

Like you our number one priority is proximity. The closest is the Grand Californian although since it is a sprawling complex you have to know where to ask for a room to have a short walk. If you go that way you can ask for advice on here and get all the good tips. If you don't want to pay for the GCH there are hotels right across the street on Harbor that are a shorter walk than the Disneyland Hotel and Paradise Pier. The Best Western Park Place Inn gets generally good reviews and is half the distance to the park entrances than the DLH. For some walking across the street and past the shuttle bus drop off ruins the magic. They would rather walk farther but do so through Downtown Disney. Totally understandable and it just depends on what is important to you. You have to trade atmosphere for distance and $$$.

I've done it both ways and it depends on what type of trip it is and what time of year. For a quick trip during cooler months off site works good for us. If we are there when it is pool time (and coming from Texas it needs to be really warm) and we have a longer trip where we can spend time enjoying the resort than the GCH is the ticket.

Good luck with your planning.

 

[coaches24]

We have stayed onsite once (last trip in May). Wish we could afford to do it every time as we really really loved it. We love the extra attention to detail as well as the little perks you get. We have a now 4 yo (was 3 in may) and our plan was to get up early and be at the parks as early as possible. The trade in was we never stayed very late. We did watch F! And WOC but immediately went back to the hotel and went to sleep when they were done and the last 2 days of the trip we went back early and were asleep by 8. But we much prefer the parks in the morning as that's when you can get the most rides done without waiting in much of a line. In our 4 day trip in may we rarely had a line of more than 10 minutes because we got most of our rides done in the morning and collected FP. Afternoons were for shows with some non busy rides mixed in. We also took some time to enjoy the scenery without feeling like we were waiting time.

The EMH was our best friend on that trip as we used 2 of them in our 4 days. We find when we stay offsite that we end up behind the 8 ball a bit on EMH days as plenty of guests get a head start and we don't get nearly as much done on those days and end up in more lines early on.

 

[specialks]

The funny thing is the paradise Pier and Disneyland Hotel are about the same walk distance as some of the across the street hotels. There is a great map here: http://www.accommodationsneardisney.com/Disneyland/default.asp
It shows clearly the pedestrian walk entrance so you can identify the hotels with the shortest walk.

A big advantage is the quality of accommodations at the Disney hotels vs the motels across the street. You have to move beyond quick walking distance to find non-motels. The HoJo is a favorite of many for the room cleanliness and interior corridors, but it's prob a 10-12 min walk for families.

You could be tempted to stay further away and drive or shuttle so you can get a better hotel, free breakfast, better rates...we did that twice and never will again. For us to take full advantage of our Disney trip, we don't like the wasted time driving or shuttling. Others might not feel the same, but it's my own opinion.

 

[specialks]

Here is another take on walking distances:
http://www.mouseplanet.com/7280/How_Far_Is_It

As others said, there is a "feel" and ambiance to walking to the parks that you have from the 3 Disney hotels and miss when you stay across the streets. But, you're headed into the parks, so you'll get lots of ambiance.