Disneyland Hotel or Paradise Pier Hotel??

[DharmaLou]

I've stayed at both, and while DLH is great, for the price you pay I expected just a bit more. I enjoyed the stay at PPH. Not QUITE as immersed in Disney, but still a great stay.

 

[Iceman93]

In my experience, the grounds are better at DLH but the views and cast members are superior at PPH. Both rooms, while decorated completely different, are very nice. Good luck deciding!

Yup, agreed. Some have said the "Disney feel" is better at the DLH, but I disagree. My wife summed it up best after we stayed there--it feels like a Marriott with light-up headboards. At least the PPH has a theme which is executed from top to bottom; the DLH is just plain.

 

[dadofnicholas]

I think this is something people need to experience themselves to truly know what they will enjoy most. I had great perspectives prior to experiencing each hotel but for me, it wasn't until after I tried all three that I knew what I preferred.

I will begin by saying that all three are great hotels. But for me, third place goes to DLH because a cool headboard is not enough to make it Disney for me plus the walk is longer through our preferred route through DTD. Standard room felt small and a bit dark for me. Second place goes to GCH - love the short distance through DTD and the entrance to DCAP. Standard rooms also felt small and a bit dark. Most expensive. Our preference is PPH - bright, larger room, just across the street from GCH. It's also my son's favourite. We've never had problems with the elevator but we have a lot of patience especially at Disneyland.

In the end, I don't think you can lose whatever you choose. We arrive Sunday and that's when another question of mine will finally (hopefully) be laid to rest - will I miss staying at an onsite hotel??? After saying that, we look forward to staying at the Candy Cane Inn

 

[crystal1313]

dadofnicholas, I think you will enjoy CCI....as long as you go into knowing you can't really compare it to the PPH (which in reading your posts, I don't think you would try to compare). Our favorite onsite hotel is also the PPH, but we really enjoyed our stay at the CCI. The grounds are beautiful, the walk is quick and the breakfast has tons of options. We also had a very quiet room and there was plenty of parking. We would of course, love to be at the PPH but money wise we can't always swing it. Have a great trip!

 

[GatorChris]

We stayed at PPH last year. It was a good hotel, but just alright for the price. The rooms were spacious and my kids loved the waterslide. We had problems with the hot water in the showers the whole trip, and the elevators can be very slow. And you have to cross the street to get to the parks. Yes, you go through the GC and can enter DCA through the back entrance, but the magic sorta slipped. We stayed at the HoJo with park view - for $100/night less, I'll stay there over PPH.

I'll be staying at DLH in February, but only with a big discount. We'll see how it fares. I would imagine that not having to cross a street, all the Disney theming, and being close to the monorail and walking through Downtown Disney should kick the magic/escape feeling way up. I'd go with DLH.

 

[TheDoleWhipper]

How long is the walk from PPH to DL main
entrance?

It really depends what route you take. For exemple, if you go the normal route, all the way up the road and through downtown disney, it could be upwards of 15 minutes. But you can cut that time in half by cutting through the grand californian, in which case, the walk will probably be around 7 or 8 minutes. But to do that, it really helps to know all the entrances and exits of the grand californian. The GCH is a large hotel with a confusing lay-out, with very long corridors. Anyways, the walk from the PPH really isn't that long if you go the GCH route. Here is a video on youtube of the normal route from PPH to the parks...
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EyubLqKQhvQ

 

[Jenasweetemotion]

First I want to state that this is just my opinion and I am still sour over the DLH.

That being said I have stayed at PPH multiple times. I love this hotel it is the hotel that feels like home to me and although there is that "elevator issue" which I never had an issue with on all of are stays it has everything that I need. Of all the hotels (DLH or GCH) it has the closest standard parking. I know not everyone had a car but we love being able to go out the back of PPH and be at the parking garage as apposed to the GCH where you have to walk across the street or the DLH which is always a walk. It doesn't have that much in dinning options as the other two. The beds are comfy as are the linens.

The Grand Californian is an amazing hotel. I was fortunate to be able to stay here after the DLH issues which I will get into next so we only ended up paying what we were already paying at the DLH which was $263 with tax a night. I loved the balcony and rooms and never found it to be an issue to walk the halls to get to our room. I loved the balcony that over looks Paradise Pier in DCA. It was an added perk of being a GCH Guest that I didn't know was there and cried when I went out there at night and saw everything. The beds where great and I loved the shower head haha. The staff was really nice and the walk was great to and from the parks. If I had the money to stay here I would stay here again.

Now the DLH it left me so disappointed. I had wanted to stay here since I was a little girl and was so happy when my DH told me we were going to Disneyland and staying here. Upon check in we had a CM who was under the weather and the last thing he wanted to do was check us is so we had another CM take over. She upgraded our rooms to firework view and was so awesome. Sounds great right. We got to our room and the room next door was having a party (we checked in at night). I went downstairs and told them what was going on and they moved us to a new room. The second room was great for a minute and then the people next door starting being loud and the kids where as well. I said to my DH just turn on the TV and we probably won't hear it. Well the TV didn't work and this point the refrigerator started making an alarm noise. I was done at this point and went and asked to be moved to any other hotel. Which is how I ended up staying at the GCH. I have already written Disney about these great CM that helped us. My overview of the DLH is that it has really thin walls I am guessing since we could hear every word that was being spoken not even mumbles.

Anyway these are just my opinions I would say PPH is still my first choice.

 

[mfleeting]

$15.00 for self parking, $17.00 for valet!

When we went 3 weeks ago valet was $25 and self was $20 i think.

 

[mfleeting]

Help me decide which one to stay at...besides the price difference are there any pros/cons on both hotels??

We stayed at the DLH and loved it. Never stayed at any of the other hotels though. We enjoyed how close to Downtown Disney and the monorail we were. We also enjoyed the pools and the overall feel of Disney it had. We looked at PPH and just from pictures it didn't look as Disney to us so that's why we passed.

I will say that we booked our hotel through Orbitz and ended up getting our room at DLH for about the same price as a room at PPH.