Disneyland Hotel vs Paradise Pier?

[basketballmom]

I've stayed in both with rooms that fit 5 and didn't have a special view. DLH is the winner hands down. That said, it's a lot more money each night. PPH is not as Disney as DLH, but it still feels Disney. Just not as Disney as a WDW resort would. It is further from the parks a little, but it was kinda nice walking through GCH in the mornings and evenings. It was like we were staying there without $taying there. Plus it has a great character breakfast if you're into those things.

So there are rooms at the DLH that sleep 5? On the website, the room choices say 4. We usually stay at PP, and there is a couch. Is DLH the same?

 

[GatorChris]

So there are rooms at the DLH that sleep 5? On the website, the room choices say 4. We usually stay at PP, and there is a couch. Is DLH the same?

Yes, they have couch/beds that sit on the wall. Perfect for one of the kids. Now I'm not sure about GCH, if they have any rooms that fit 5. Someone else will have to chime in.

 

[nana50]

Cmy thought out of the three, since your from the world. PPH is like POR, with conceirrge. You get a nice room, but nothing special, although let me rephrase that a bit since we are comparing dlh, you get a very large room but nothing all that special in amenities. Plus the conceirrge is very basic and scaled back IMHO, and opens and closes early. DLH, well you get the original, the most Disney feel, large rooms with lots of space, I think about the same size as PPH. I would compare it to say the wilderness lodge, not in architectural but in if you compare WDW hotels., conceirrge is a step up from PPH. The views are a lot better. The rooms seem a lot darker and mistreious to me, the ones at PPH are bright and airy feel. The pool is much nicer. I have had much better service at dlh than at PPH. The walk to me seems closer, although people say no, and I do know it depends on where your room is. When ever we have stayed at pph, something has been broken down and to our advantage usually, once it was the pool so we got to use dlr pool, once it was laundry not so cool to have to walk it to dlr, but I got free coffee while doing it, once it was the parking lot so we got free valet parking. Then you have the grand, that in WDW terms is like gf. But unlike WDW were the more you pay the bigger the room, at dlr the more you pay the smaller the room. Personally, the views are not so great, we can not due to ptsd stay DTD view so I can not say how that is, but we have stayed, court yard and theme park and pool view. Court yard was not all that thrilling, might as well have been standard. Theme park, we saw nothing but six foot trees, blocking any and all views of the theme park, and pool view, we saw a sliver of a pool but that was it from the angle we had. So if you stay there don't, pay for a view. Concierge is the best here. But you pay the most.

Now that all said, my favorite is the grand, I love the lobby and we have almost always got it for just pennies over dlh. I think last year the price was $100 for 6 nights total difference. I like it for the theme park right there. Second would be PPH, I like the large open airy feeling. Yet, if my kids were going I would not go to PPH, other than airy rooms the amenities suck. My least favorite is dlh, but really that is only because of the difference in rooms, if your stuck way out in one building you go forever. I hear although never happened to us, that you can get a building that is not concierge and then it is a pain in the butt to get to. If you do go this way, get the building near the hat, it is our favorite and houses conceirrge.

Hope that helps. And it is only imho, others may totally disagree.

With the Grand you can be stuck way in the way back and have to walk really far just to get to the lobby. Then you have a ton of halls and corridors to walk through to get to the entrance to CA. I'll take the DLH.

 

[disneyfirsttimer18]

At the DLH they have a couch that the back folds down and reveals a bed. Our family of 5 was very comfortable in our room there.

 

[carisa81]

The views from the PP are amazing at night. If you get the Premium View.

 

[planningjollyholiday]

Just to clarify, the DLH and GC both have rooms with couches to sleep 5. However, not all rooms have couches. You can request these rooms, but there is no guarantee you will get it.
As for the original question i would choose the DLH. Since you say you won't be back again for a long time, then you should splurge and go for the DLH. It has such great history, wonderful rooms and theming, and overall more magical.

 

[l4dyj8]

In the olden days, Paradise Pier had its own back door entrance to DCA, entering somewhere around Toy Story. Supposedly it was closed because it wasn't used much? Anyway, that was a big perk to Paradise that is not part of the equation anymore.

Ah interesting! Thanks!

 

[Aust]

I prefer PPH for the value and closer proximity to the parks. Also we found the room quite large and bright. I loved having a reason to walk through the GCH lobby each day to get to the parks as that's my favourite part of all the DLR hotels. Agree DLH has a better overall 'resort' feel, but we felt like we were walking forever to get back to the room at the end of the day, and for the extra money we felt it wasn't worth it.

 

[Malcon10t]

The GCH has 39 rooms out of 900 that have a couch. ABout 2/3s of the rooms at the DLH have the sofa bed. I think all the rooms at PPH have them. When we stay at GCH, we usually pack an air mattress along in case we don't get a room with the couch.

 

[cinderkelly]

I have thought about doing a split stay and 1 or 2 nights at PPH or DLH so I am keeping an eye on this thread.

We are doing this next month. I had a hard time deciding between a park view room at PP for 4 nights or a regular room at the DLH. We did the math and it was less expensive for us to do 2 nights at PP in a regular room ( sat. And sun. nights) and then move over to the DLH for the other two nights ( Monday and Tuesday) that way we get to see both hotels, hope it's not a huge big pain to switch. Guess we will just leave our luggage at DLH when we check in there to take advantage of EMH that morning.

 

[Iceman93]

If you gave me the choice of a free suite at the DLH or paying $500 a night for a regular room at the PPH, I'd stay at the PPH. I have stayed many, many times on property, but only three times at the DLH. All three were disappointing, even though once we did actually get upgraded to a suite. The theming that some posters brag about is skin-deep at best; to me it feels like any run-of-the-mill Hilton or Marriott with a light-up headboard and Mickeys on the faucet handles. And the CMs there are, for whatever reason, the worst of the bunch and just seem lackluster overall. The pool is nice to look at but poorly designed for actual swimming. And we enjoy Steakhouse 55 and Trader Sam's, but you can enjoy those just as easily when not a guest at the hotel itself.

The PPH hotel, on the other hand, actually has a cohesive theme. Strangely enough, we have found the CMs there to be the happiest and most magical of all three hotels. The underrated pool area is tons of fun, the views on the theme park side are unbeatable, and we have never experienced the elevator issues that some folks complain about.

Long story short, OP, there is no way in heck I'd pay $500 more to stay in a non-concierge room at the DLH over a club room at the PPH.

 

[EllinK]

We stayed at PPH theme-park view and enjoyed it very much. The pool,however, is awful. I wouldn't stay there during the summer.

 

[Disney Lvr of Old]

http://www.yesterland.com/hotelgate.html

I know this is an old post- but thank you for the walk through yesterland- I remember using that entrance on 3 separate visits!!