Disneyland Hotels....advice please

[SandraC]

Hi ~ Can someone advise me about the Disneyland hotels?

* how far to walk to parks
* restaurants
* rooms
* pools

Thanks! Sandra

 

[bbangel]

Are you wanting info just on the three Disney owned hotels or on the "Good Neighbour" hotels as well?

Grand Californian has access right into California Adventure, but all the parks are a good walk from the main gates.

 

[Cruiser1969]

Hi ~ Can someone advise me about the Disneyland hotels?

* how far to walk to parks
* restaurants
* rooms
* pools

Thanks! Sandra

Here's a great interactive map to help you with some of what you're after:
http://www.geocities.com/ashpsyche/DisneylandLinkMap.html

 

[Camilo]

Sandra,
I went to DLR last year for a day in July (I drove from Las Vegas after winning a contest for 3 days in Vegas from 590 FAN radio station).

The 3 Disney hotels there are very nice, but you pay a (high) price for it. They are all considered luxury resorts.

Reality is that hotels such as "Carousel Inn and Resorts", "Park Vue", "Desert Inn" among others on the link posted by Cruiser1969 are actually CLOSER than the Disney ones (not to mention a lot cheaper).

From the DisneyLand gates to one of these hotels above (I went there to buy a phone card to call my wife back in Canada), it took me less than 7 minutes walking.

I'm planning to go to Disneyland next year and will likely stay "offsite" which has a different meaning compared to WDW.

BTW, I love WDW, it's WAY bigger, more parks, including water ones, but there's something about Disneyland that seems to me more Disney like than WDW. Maybe the fact that Walt Disney designed all that, made modifications in attractions himself, I don't know exactly what it is.

Hope that helps...

 

[twinmum]

Hello! We went to DL in December. We stayed at the Grand Californian. It was SO convenient to both parks and DTD. One day we forgot the sweatshirts we needed and my husband ran from the bag check to the room and back in < 15 minutes! We loved the convenience and the hotel was very lovely. It was pricey, though. I suggest you head over to the Disneyland boards - there is lots of info over there.

 

[c&m]

We stayed at the Paradise Pier once. We haven't gone back to a DL hotel since. Unlike WDW, it is not essential to stay "on-site" at DL. There are so many Good Neighbor hotels to choose from at a fraction of the cost. There's the Anabella, Candy Cane Inn, Hojo Anaheim...so many...

For us, we really like the hotels in Garden Grove. My fave is the Hyatt Orange County ($99). I've also found the Marriott Anaheim Suites ($99 on a AAA rate), the Hampton Inn ($108 which includes a breakfast), and the Crowne Plaza (gotten it on Priceline.com for $50). You can't really walk to DL from the Garden Grove hotels. You'd have to either drive, take the ART or take the hotel shuttle. The rooms in those hotels are really nice, clean, and perfect for a family of 4. And if you pick a suites hotel, you'd have a spacious room with separate living and sleeping areas.

In the Garden Grove area, there are so many restaurants to choose from: Red Robin, Crab Shack, Outback, Buca di Beppo. It's also quite close to the Block at Orange where there's an El Torito and other restaurants. More often than not, we go to Mimi's Cafe for a good inexpensive meal. There also Target in walking distance where you can buy your bottled water, snacks and cereals. Also, a Vons supermarket is really close by if you want to buy some other grocery items. Next door to the Target is this amazing dollar store where you can buy some really amazing Disney souvenirs for $1.

Good luck in picking your hotel. There really are so many to choose from.

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

Hi Sandra,
You're getting lots of great advice. I loved the DL board, there are nice people there who can answer ?'s and it's small and intimate like this board.

Hotels - have stayed at all 3 DLR hotels and my preference is DL Hotel or GCa. I love both equally. Both are gorgoeus, with outstanding pool areas.
Offsite, HoJo was perfect for me. Big NICE room w/ Disney view, had a $59 rate and loved it. You can call and talk directly to Lorealle to book.

Dining - #1 character meal for me was at the Paradise Pier Hotel, the breakfast. It was Asian themed food-wised and having lived in Japan for a few years, that was awesome for me. Plenty of 'regular' breakfast food too.
Superb almost cozy setting and lots of fun but not too loud.

Storyteller's Cafe at GCa was nice too. Very light and airy setting. Goofy's Kitchen at DL Hotel is a nice meal but it was so long ago I couldn't give particulars on the food.

I've got such a soft spot for DL, it's the park of my youth. Almost a kindler gentler Disney vacation for me. I don't know how else to describe it.

 

[mkmommy]

We have stayed at the Residence Inn Garden Grove and also the Marriott Suites(girls loved watching the fireworks from their bed here), both nice hotels. Residence Inn is nice as we got a 2 bedroom suite and a kitchen so it was great when we were travelling with the in laws, and it is nice to be able to make some meals as the kids get tired of sitting in restaurants. Both hotels are about a 15 minute walk to the parks, but the trollery service was great.

Disneyland is a much different vacation then Disney World, you really need a car, as there is so much to do there besides the parks, but we did leave the car at the hotel and walked or took the trolley to the parks. Ilove how the 2 parks are so close and it is easy to head over to the DTD area also without having to take buses.

 

[mom_rules]

We stayed at the Paradise Pier once. We haven't gone back to a DL hotel since. Unlike WDW, it is not essential to stay "on-site" at DL. There are so many Good Neighbor hotels to choose from at a fraction of the cost. There's the Anabella, Candy Cane Inn, Hojo Anaheim...so many...

For us, we really like the hotels in Garden Grove. My fave is the Hyatt Orange County ($99). I've also found the Marriott Anaheim Suites ($99 on a AAA rate), the Hampton Inn ($108 which includes a breakfast), and the Crowne Plaza (gotten it on Priceline.com for $50). You can't really walk to DL from the Garden Grove hotels. You'd have to either drive, take the ART or take the hotel shuttle. The rooms in those hotels are really nice, clean, and perfect for a family of 4. And if you pick a suites hotel, you'd have a spacious room with separate living and sleeping areas.

In the Garden Grove area, there are so many restaurants to choose from: Red Robin, Crab Shack, Outback, Buca di Beppo. It's also quite close to the Block at Orange where there's an El Torito and other restaurants. More often than not, we go to Mimi's Cafe for a good inexpensive meal. There also Target in walking distance where you can buy your bottled water, snacks and cereals. Also, a Vons supermarket is really close by if you want to buy some other grocery items. Next door to the Target is this amazing dollar store where you can buy some really amazing Disney souvenirs for $1.

Good luck in picking your hotel. There really are so many to choose from.

I'd like to know more about the Hyatt-I don't see it on the map anywhere.
$99 great rate-was this a special or their normal rate?

 

[SandraC]

Thank you eveyone!

I had originally thought about staying at Best Western across from DLR, but after thinking a bit, I feel that staying at a Disneyland hotel would be extra special since we probably won't be going back after a one-time trip to California.

We are POOL people, so that's very important to us.

I like an easy walk to the parks too.

I'd like to experience at least one DLR character meal.

I think we'll be staying on-site for about 4 nights and do 3-4 days in the parks.

I still love your DLR reviews! Thanks! Sandra

 

[c&m]

mom_rules, I sent you a PM.

 

[michelle1]

We stayed at the Paradise Pier once. We haven't gone back to a DL hotel since. Unlike WDW, it is not essential to stay "on-site" at DL. There are so many Good Neighbor hotels to choose from at a fraction of the cost. There's the Anabella, Candy Cane Inn, Hojo Anaheim...so many...

For us, we really like the hotels in Garden Grove. My fave is the Hyatt Orange County ($99). I've also found the Marriott Anaheim Suites ($99 on a AAA rate), the Hampton Inn ($108 which includes a breakfast), and the Crowne Plaza (gotten it on Priceline.com for $50). You can't really walk to DL from the Garden Grove hotels. You'd have to either drive, take the ART or take the hotel shuttle. The rooms in those hotels are really nice, clean, and perfect for a family of 4. And if you pick a suites hotel, you'd have a spacious room with separate living and sleeping areas.

In the Garden Grove area, there are so many restaurants to choose from: Red Robin, Crab Shack, Outback, Buca di Beppo. It's also quite close to the Block at Orange where there's an El Torito and other restaurants. More often than not, we go to Mimi's Cafe for a good inexpensive meal. There also Target in walking distance where you can buy your bottled water, snacks and cereals. Also, a Vons supermarket is really close by if you want to buy some other grocery items. Next door to the Target is this amazing dollar store where you can buy some really amazing Disney souvenirs for $1.

Good luck in picking your hotel. There really are so many to choose from.

We have a booking for HoJos but the Garden Grove area sounds nice...how long would it take to DL if we drove?

 

[c&m]

About 5-10 min (depending on the traffic going down S. Harbor Blvd). But even with traffic, it flows very efficiently.

We like the Garden Grove hotels because most are newer or recently renovated. We just got a room at the Hampton Inn Garden Grove (currently under renos until June 2008) for $108 per night, includes free parking and a free hot breakfast. We got it through getawaytoday.com.

Forgot to also mention that the Doubletree Guest Suites is also very very nice. But they do charge for parking.

I don't know what you are paying at the HOJOs but if you got their Entertainment rate, you can't really beat that!!!

 

[amw]

We have a booking for HoJos but the Garden Grove area sounds nice...how long would it take to DL if we drove?

We stayed at the Hyatt Orange County on points. We had a kidsuite which had a separate room with bunks, and then a main bedroom with a King. They had a free shuttle which they shared with one other hotel. It ran regularly throughout the day. A Target was directly across the street for groceries, and there were plenty of nice family restaurants including Red Robin.

It's less than a 10-minute drive to the parks ... but not sure how long to the parking lots. They're further away and then you have to tram it in.

Back to SandraC ... although we had a free room at the hotel, and I've never stayed on Disney property before, I did regret not staying on property at DLR. This is because the parks are in the middle of the city, I kind of felt the "escapism" or resort feel wasn't there on our trip -- you enter off a busy street with hotels and fast food. But, we did do a character meal on our last day, and from that side of the park, I could feel how you could lose yourself if you only stayed on that Disney side. Not sure if that makes sense.

The Grand Floridian is the closest hotel and most expensive ... it has a Wilderness Lodge kind of feel. There is a Chip and Dale Storyteller character breakfast (unless the stars have changed since last year). You literally have your own entrance into DCA and some rooms are directly over Downtown Disney stores. 3-5 minute walk to gates.

The Disneyland Hotel would have been the one I wanted, because it has a Neverland-themed pool area which my Tinkerbell DD would have loved. It's the oldest building, and has the Goofy character meal similar to Chef Mickey's in loudness/activity. It's just on the other side of Downtown Disney. There is a monorail that can take you to the park (wasn't working last year) but is only maybe a 10-minute walk through Downtown Disney.

The Paradise Pier hotel is the one furthest away and least expensive (although still pushing $300/night). It's maybe another few minutes past the Disneyland Hotel. A comfortable 15-minute walk. We visited this hotel for the Lilo & Stitch breakfast. The hotel itself is not very Disney (it used to be owned by someone else), and is a very standard looking hotel. The breakfast was disappointing for us. It was on a Saturday morning, and there was literally only 5 families there. Yes, we got lots of time with the characters, but there was no energy. Maybe it was just a down day.

Anyhoo, there are plenty of options at DLR. Like a previous poster mentioned, the cheap, offsite hotels across the street are actually closer to the gates than the onsite ones and often come with continental breakfast. Nicer "moderate" hotels are available down the street but you would have to shuttle. One thing to mention too is that large, themed pools are not very common in CA ... only the Disney ones seemed to have them. The Hyatt's was just a plain rectangular one.

 

[SandraC]

I think I'm leaning towards the Disneyland Hotel for the pool, monorail and Disney atmosphere. As for the GC resort, I'm not the biggest WL "feel" because I live in Ontario and the WL "feel" is all around me all the time....heeheehee.

Thanks all! Sandra

 

[dsneygirl]

I agree with the others that it is not essential to stay at a Disney hotel. We have stayed at the GC/DL and offsite twice. I prefer the GC. It is similar to WL but very different. I am in love with the California Craftsman architecture.

DL was nice, but nothing particularly interesting except for themed bedding etc.

Can't comment on pools since we didn't use them at either hotel. We were at the DL Hotel in March and needed our fleece jackets, hats and mitts every day. Something to think about in your planning. We also had miserable weather in CA in June. Later found out they called it the "June Gloom" and the best weather was October.

 

[DearDaisyinDurham]

I think I'm leaning towards the Disneyland Hotel for the pool, monorail and Disney atmosphere. As for the GC resort, I'm not the biggest WL "feel" because I live in Ontario and the WL "feel" is all around me all the time....heeheehee.

Thanks all! Sandra

You will love it DLH, Sandra, you will be right by the Downtown Disney area which has so much to do, the main pool is fun there and I loved the rooms. Pretty but not stuffy, to me it was a Mary Poppins'ish feel.

One really great thing at DLR is that it is so close to walk everywhere! It is amazing to stand on the 'plaza' between both parks, like being on the 50 yard line of a football field with a park at each goal post!!

xoxoxoxxoxo