How to Visit Grand Californian from Inside DCA?

[pokee99]

I've been to DCA half a dozen times in recent years, but never peeked inside the hotel.

Sorry if this is addressed elsewhere... but, can you go inside directly from the park? If so, how is this done (since normally there is a ticket turnstile and security to navigate).

 

[coasternut22]

The entrance to the hotel is right next to the entrance to Grizzly River Run.

 

[LKing]

The entrance is on the map - across the walkway from GRR.

There are turnstiles as you leave the park and enter the hotel.

When you leave the hotel, whether it is back into DCA or into DTD, you will need to go through security again.

 

[DLgal]

You just walk in. It's like exiting the park. You go through a turnstile, but anyone can go in. The security and park ticket scan is only on the way IN to DCA or when you exit GCH into Downtown Disney.

 

[ComeToSocialize]

They only really check if you're a hotel guest coming and going early in the morning. Not sure if it's right after park open (end of EE) or a little later, but by noon anyone can go in and out of the GCH exit.

 

[pokee99]

I see how to exit into the park into the hotel, but I didn't understand how we'd get back into DCA. It looks like we'd have to exit through the hotel's main entrance and then walk though downtown Disney to re-enter the park?

I was hoping it wasn't a one way portal... lol

 

[GoingSince1990]

I see how to exit into the park into the hotel, but I didn't understand how we'd get back into DCA. It looks like we'd have to exit through the hotel's main entrance and then walk though downtown Disney to re-enter the park?

I was hoping it wasn't a one way portal... lol

You will almost certainly be able to get back into DCA using the same entrance. We have never been asked to prove we are hotel guests at this entrance (admittedly we almost never are entering in the very early morning). In the unlikely event that you cannot, there is an exit from the hotel into Downtown Disney (not the hotel main entrance) and you would walk through Downtown Disney to the DCA main entrance.

 

[DLgal]

I see how to exit into the park into the hotel, but I didn't understand how we'd get back into DCA. It looks like we'd have to exit through the hotel's main entrance and then walk though downtown Disney to re-enter the park?

I was hoping it wasn't a one way portal... lol

It's both an entry into the hotel and an entry into the park. There are 2 turnstiles in each direction.

 

[LKing]

I see how to exit into the park into the hotel, but I didn't understand how we'd get back into DCA. It looks like we'd have to exit through the hotel's main entrance and then walk though downtown Disney to re-enter the park?

I was hoping it wasn't a one way portal... lol

We often eat at the restaurants in the hotel and have gone from DVA <-> GCH at all hours of the day. No one has ever asked us for proof that we are staying in the hotel.

 

[DLgal]

We often eat at the restaurants in the hotel and have gone from DVA <-> GCH at all hours of the day. No one has ever asked us for proof that we are staying in the hotel.

Same. We do it all the time.

 

[DTDkettleCORNfan]

We tried to re-enter DCA once before 10am and were denied because we weren't hotel guests. We'd left the park to get coffee at the hotel because the Starbucks line was super long. Prior to that we'd had no problems with re-entry, but always at lunch time or later.