Disneyland Hotels worth the price?

We visit Disneyland so often, and usually spend all day every day at the parks, so off-site works for us. Occasionally we will splurge for Disneyland Hotel if we can get a good discount and we are using points for a VGC stay this fall. I definitely would not do that every time, though, as we don't spend enough time in the hotels for it to be worth it and there are fewer perks.
 
To me, it’s totally worth it, especially if you don’t go that often. Unfortunately I’ve since out-familied the regular rooms (there’s 6 of us, and the max per room is 5 :’( ), so we’re forced to stay off property now.

My top choice is GCH with Downtown Disney View. Having the music drift up through your door at night added a lot to the magic (that’s a nother wonderful benefit; all rooms have a balcony) Woods view is much more quiet, and you should be able to see the Monorail go by if you’re in the right place.

The Disneyland Hotel, I’ve grown to love almost as much, mostly because the pools are just so great, and it feels more traditional Disney than GCH (rooms have mickey hands holding lamps and other decor). I also enjoy the cheaper rooms, where you get a view of the pool, far more than the DTD view, which I don’t like as much. Mostly because when you’re up too high, you see more city than Disney. So low levels viewing the interior/pool area are best for me at this hotel.

I went to Paradise Pier once. I didn’t really like too much about it, except the Goofy Statue in the lobby, and some of the views of CA are pretty neat. But if I had to choose between this hotel and non-disney hotel, I’d choose this one.
 


We stayed at the Marriott last summer and really liked it.
Not a long walk and we had a room overlooking the park so we watched the fireworks from there the night before we left so we didn't have to deal with crowds at closing time! Would definitely recommend it
 
Our mindset is that vacations are so few and far between for us that we refuse to scrimp when it comes to them. The DLR hotels are so great, why not make the most of a vacation. Never stayed at Paradise Pier, and based upon being in the lobby, I have no desire to. It's not a Disney hotel even if currently owned by Disney, so we will continue to stay at either the DLH or GCH&S. Love both, but our hearts lie with GC.
 


Onsite all the way!

I've stayed budget ($40 a night and driving 15 minutes in), $80 maingate and walking, at PPH for about $350, and I've also flown in for the day and not gotten a hotel.

Personally I think if your party has 2+ people, and you plan to visit for multiple days, staying onsite is 100% worth it. Not just because of magical mornings, or getting a fancy lanyard and pin set, but because it is so much easier to start and end the day if you don't have that far to go. You won't think it makes a difference. After day two, it makes a difference.

I haven't stayed at GC yet, but the difference between PPH and maingate - I wouldn't do maingate again unless I was very seriously on a budget. My favorite way to visit is to get the earliest flight, fly down from Northern California in the morning, Uber over, spend the day in DL, get picked up at the Disneyland Hotel by Uber, and fly back home. I save up my airline miles so my flight is basically free and I only pay for my Uber and my Disney ticket. It's about $350 for the total trip.

Yes, you do pay more to stay "onsite" but personally I think all the perks make it worth it.
 
We'll be staying at GCH during our upcoming trip and I'm excited to see the difference!

Though I don't think they do the fancy lanyard and pin set any longer :(
 
We'll be staying at GCH during our upcoming trip and I'm excited to see the difference!

Though I don't think they do the fancy lanyard and pin set any longer :(
They do! I don’t know if it’s only for packages, but we’ve gotten them twice in the last year we’ve been to on-site hotels. We didn’t know about them the first time so missed out. Both GCH and DLH.
 
They do! I don’t know if it’s only for packages, but we’ve gotten them twice in the last year we’ve been to on-site hotels. We didn’t know about them the first time so missed out. Both GCH and DLH.
That's awesome! We didn't get a package, but did you receive them from the hotel when you checked in?
 
My opinion as a DL local and passholder, 26-year DVC member and WDW passholder: The only DL resort that makes a real difference is the GC, and it’s way deeper in the bubble than any WDW resort. You’re truly IN the park and DTD, and steps away from DL. Some of the off-property hotels are closer to the parks than the DL and Paradise Pier hotels. That said, I only stay at the VGC when I can do so on DVC points; I would never pay the cash price for it or the other 2. I’ve had the most spectacular DCA views from the GC and have never been disturbed by noise. Bottom line: I’d stay off-site.
 
That's awesome! We didn't get a package, but did you receive them from the hotel when you checked in?
We got them from from one of the shops in California Adventure, next to the candy shop. They sent us a link to get the barcode about 5 days before check-in. There were like 3 places to get them, the Emporium in Disneyland, the one in California Adventure, then World of Disney in DtD if I'm recalling correctly.
 
NO!

Take a look at the signature. I've done my share of WDW and we always stay on property there. When we came over to the west side, we thought we have to do Disney property. So, we did Paradise Pier. Yawn. It's a Hilton with a Goofy statue, and it's a long walk to the parks. In fact, we started staying at the HoJo and would could park-view rooms, which were awesome. It's the same walking distance but much less money.

We stayed at Disneyland Hotel for 3 nights once. It was very cool. The kids loved the slides, and we can do a family of 5 in them. Not a bad walk to the parks. But we did it because we got a killer rate: $200/night (Dapper Days back in 2015). But I'd never pay rack rate for that place. Ever.

And the Grand Cali. Looks amazing. Right there at the parks. But families of 5 don't fit into the rooms. And the price is absolutely ridiculous. The fact that people pay that is just insane.

All that, and I've never felt the bubble at DL like I do at WDW. Not once.

Instead, we stay across the street on Harbor Blvd. Plenty of Hotel/Motel rooms for a decent price and a short walk.
 
No, there is a certain charm to walking up Harbor with all the other families excited to go to Disneyland as well. They are closer and I actually stayed on a Harbor hotel when I had a newborn as it was much easier to go back for naps and grab stuff I forgot.

Yes, walk into Frontier tower and see the Big Thunder Railroad diorama that gets you pumped up for that ride later that day is priceless. Walking into DCA from the exclusive entrance and going straight to Soarin within a minute, that's just a huge time saver. Fireworks (I think its not currently available) from the PP pool, absolute magic.

I don't stay on site every time (for DL and WDW), it depends on budget and who I am going with. Walking through Downtown Disney on the way to and from the parks beats the bus and monorail (and gondolas) every time. Money saved from Harbor hotels and used for more souvenirs? Yes please. You really can't make a bad choice!
 
Even though this is a zombie thread, I'm going to respond to the most recent posts.

First, this is like asking if having kids is worth it. A resounding yes for many, a resounding no for many others, and a not really sure for some. If you've never had kids, how can someone else give you an answer that fits you?

For me, staying on site is my go-to. I dislike Harbor because I dislike being out of the resort. For me, it's worth it. But that's just me and many others disagree. We're all correct but we can't really guess what anyone else will think--that's up to them to determine.

FYI, we stayed as a family of 5 for many years at GCH. We started at DLH but as the girls got older, we moved to GCH.
 
We're going in July and it will be our third trip since 2019, but it will be our first time staying on property (at DLH). I love saving money, so it hurt my heart (and wallet) to make the reservation, but the biggest motivating factor for us is early entry. We were going to do PP since it's the cheapest option of the three, but b/c of the current lack of dining options, the wife and kids lobbied for DLH. We always rope drop, but having an extra 30 minutes in the parks with even smaller crowd levels (although limited attractions) is something we definitely want to try. My fear is that we'll be spoiled and won't want to stay off property ever again.
 
We're going in July and it will be our third trip since 2019, but it will be our first time staying on property (at DLH). I love saving money, so it hurt my heart (and wallet) to make the reservation, but the biggest motivating factor for us is early entry. We were going to do PP since it's the cheapest option of the three, but b/c of the current lack of dining options, the wife and kids lobbied for DLH. We always rope drop, but having an extra 30 minutes in the parks with even smaller crowd levels (although limited attractions) is something we definitely want to try. My fear is that we'll be spoiled and won't want to stay off property ever again.
Don't worry! You may feel spoiled, but that gets tempered by what you can afford and then you have to make decisions. For instance, is it better to be able to go more often if we stay offsite? Should we occasionally splurge on DLR hotel but generally stay off site, or reverse that to sometimes stay off site but usually on property (that's my choice)? Could we justify it by cutting back on something else? All of those things figure into the decisions. I'm usually going by myself now (kids are grown) but meeting friends, or going with my sister or my adult kid(s). That means I'm not solely responsible, usually, for the hotel bill. It gives me a cost advantage over many others here for staying on site.

When it was dh, me, and the kids, we sometimes stayed off site but usually at one of the resort hotels. We went once a year and felt it was worth it. At that time, all other options in walking distance were motels. We felt the extra cost was worth it for our family of 5.
 
We were slightly spoiled after staying at PPH. I'd stayed at Ramada Maingate and didn't like the crowds coming and going on Harbor. Now we either stay onsite or we day trip.

That being said, I've never actually attempted sleeping in cheaper state and flying into SNA because we're in CA already.

If I lived outside CA I might do something like stay in Vegas (points), fly for an hour into SNA (miles + security frees) and go to DL for the day. Then I'd come back, see the shows in Vegas and fly home.

If we're going to spend money, we're going to stay onsite, otherwise we're gonna do something crazy and do it for free with points and miles.
 
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Don't worry! You may feel spoiled, but that gets tempered by what you can afford and then you have to make decisions. For instance, is it better to be able to go more often if we stay offsite? Should we occasionally splurge on DLR hotel but generally stay off site, or reverse that to sometimes stay off site but usually on property (that's my choice)? Could we justify it by cutting back on something else?
We live in Northern California but would still only go once a year at most. Given that, we're fortunate that we can afford to stay on-property -it just feels overpriced. But as I mentioned, the main draw is early entry. If they still had magic mornings w/ 3-day tickets, we would most likely stay off property. Although, I'm excited to see what PPH looks like after their renovations are done. We're big Pixar fans, so it might be fun to stay there in the future.
 

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