Cabanas Disneyland Hotel

[CeCe0906]

On our arrival day, our plane lands at John Wayne Airport at 10:25 am. Looking at travel time online,it looks like about a 30 min drive, so figure to deplane, get bags, and then get a cab to hotel, we would be arriving ~11:30 to 11:45. Since obviously we can't check in that early, I thought it would be nice to rent a cabana for the afternoon, so we could relax, eat lunch, and do pool time, until we can get in the room. Plan to do try to make a reservation for Goofys kitchen for dinner to get in the Disney spirit for our first park day the next morning.
Would they let me reserve cabana, even though not really official guest until 3 pm check in? I assume they will let me keep luggage at bell services.
My granddaughter is 9, so while I'll be in the pool with her a lot, I'd like a good vantage point to keep an eye on her in the pool when I'm not, can you do that from the cabanas? Is there a specific # cabana I should request? Do the 1/2 day rentals start at a specific time?
First time at Disneyland for my granddaughter, and first time for me since I was younger than her! Never been to the Disneyland Hotel, so not sure of the layout. Looking at a map online, the pool area looks huge, like there are 3 pools? Is one just the splash down from the slides, and the rest where you swim. D ticket pool, e ticket pool ??

 

[whoever]

You should be able to reserve a Cabana prior to check-in (You'll still need you keys from the check-in process even if your room isn't ready). I did a DLH Cabana even when I was staying at the Grand.

They have the slides and splash pool. There's a smaller pool by the bridge, and then the largest pool over by the Fantasy tower. We typically do Cabana #2 (by the Splash pool), but if I were to do it now, I'd do the ones over by the Fantasy tower.

The half day rentals have either early or late start times. I can't speak to what they are this time of the year in the current COVID restricted conditions, but the half days are like 4 hours, and the full-day are 6 hours.

 

[dieumeye]

You can rent a cabana for the day you arrive.

Note that you can check in online early (up to 5 days in advance, I think). Make sure to check in online in advance because your room may be ready early. I stayed on property a couple times at the end of last year and both times my room was ready between 8 and 9am on my arrival day! I had also rented cabanas those days as well.

 

[Wilcojoe]

We’re considering doing the same thing when we arrive around 11am on Sunday March 6th. However I don’t want to spend money on a cabana if there will be plenty of lounge chairs. Anyone have any idea how crowded the pools would be on a Sunday in early March (I.e. before the spring break crowds)?

 

[CeCe0906]

If that timing is correct, I'll have to do full day, so we can relax and eat lunch when we get here. Good to know about checking in early. Our trip isn't until the first week of August, we will be arriving on a Monday. Plenty of time to plan, but I hope you come back and let us know how it worked out

 

[ktlm]

You can rent a cabana for the day you arrive.

Note that you can check in online early (up to 5 days in advance, I think). Make sure to check in online in advance because your room may be ready early. I stayed on property a couple times at the end of last year and both times my room was ready between 8 and 9am on my arrival day! I had also rented cabanas those days as well.

I would be careful about online check in if you are arriving early. Based on our experience in October, I would recommend the opposite. In October we got to DLH I think around 11:30. For the first time, I had done online check in ahead of time. We get to the front desk and everyone around us is checking in manually and getting rooms right then- same category type rooms. We are told our room isn't ready and that they will text us that afternoon when it is ready. I nicely ask why others are all getting rooms right then and we aren't and if we could get a room now like we were hearing all around us. I was told they were sorry, but because we had done online check in our room was assigned by the computer and they could not override it or get us a room right then even though they had rooms ready. We would have to wait until the room number assigned to us was cleaned. We sat out in the lobby to get sunscreen on before we checked bags with bell services and headed out to the parks, and the whole time we were down there (at least 15-20 minutes probably), people were getting rooms right and left and going up to them. It was so frustrating. We didn't get a text with our room assigned until after 4:00 p.m.

That said- don't assume your room won't be ready. We usually arrive around the same time as you are and sometimes we get a room right then and sometimes we don't. No matter what time you get there, you can check in-- you just may not get a room until the official check in time if none are ready. You can definitely use the pool and rent a cabana on your check in day. They will give you key cards when you check in at the front desk to show at the pool.

 

[dieumeye]

I would be careful about online check in if you are arriving early. Based on our experience in October, I would recommend the opposite. In October we got to DLH I think around 11:30. For the first time, I had done online check in ahead of time. We get to the front desk and everyone around us is checking in manually and getting rooms right then- same category type rooms. We are told our room isn't ready and that they will text us that afternoon when it is ready. I nicely ask why others are all getting rooms right then and we aren't and if we could get a room now like we were hearing all around us. I was told they were sorry, but because we had done online check in our room was assigned by the computer and they could not override it or get us a room right then even though they had rooms ready. We would have to wait until the room number assigned to us was cleaned. We sat out in the lobby to get sunscreen on before we checked bags with bell services and headed out to the parks, and the whole time we were down there (at least 15-20 minutes probably), people were getting rooms right and left and going up to them. It was so frustrating. We didn't get a text with our room assigned until after 4:00 p.m.

That said- don't assume your room won't be ready. We usually arrive around the same time as you are and sometimes we get a room right then and sometimes we don't. No matter what time you get there, you can check in-- you just may not get a room until the official check in time if none are ready. You can definitely use the pool and rent a cabana on your check in day. They will give you key cards when you check in at the front desk to show at the pool.

That wasn’t my experience at all. I stayed in October and November, both times did online check-in, and both times I got the text notification that my room was ready before I even arrived.

There’s an area on the online check-in where you can select your arrival time. Both times I said we’d be arriving by 9am, and both times our room was ready before we even got to the hotel. This was one stay at DLH, and one stay at GCH.

We had a cabana rented both times, so were prepared in case our room wasn't ready, but that was never the case.

 

[ktlm]

There’s an area on the online check-in where you can select your arrival time. Both times I said we’d be arriving by 9am, and both times our room was ready before we even got to the hotel. This was one stay at DLH, and one stay at GCH.

Yep- we had put our arrival time in for online check in which is why I was extremely surprised that people who were walking up with DLH having no idea what time of day they were arriving were being given rooms and we were not when they knew we would be arriving at that specific time. I would have expected that online check in with an arrival time would have given us a priority on rooms available at that time. I was also extremely surprised that they could not override the online check in system or pull us out of it to give us a room when they were admitting they had rooms ready in our category. Basically told us once you have used the online check in- your room number gets assigned by the computer system (can't remember if they said when it rolls over that morning or even earlier) and that they can't manually change it until after that assigned room is ready- which after that if you have trouble with that room or need to move for some reason they can do it at the front desk. I thought we might have a better chance of getting a room early if we used online check in since it asks your arrival time, but at least on that day I was very wrong. They admitted that if we had not used online check in, we would have gotten a room right then. It was not a good check in experience, but at least they were honest. Based on experience it was about a 50/50 chance as to whether a room would be ready for us so no big deal if no rooms were ready, but it was so irritating knowing that if we just had not used online check in we would have had a room immediately.