My personal opinion is that unless you're staying at the Grand Californian (which is just a stunningly beautiful hotel, but very pricey as we all know), the one and only advantage of staying in the other two hotels are the MM hours. The theming of the rooms is pleasant, but IMO not worth a huge price differential between that and the Harbor/Katella hotels. And walking wise, there are several hotels that are either closer or just as close to the esplanade (between parks) than Paradise Pier and even the
Disneyland Hotel. Remember, the Disneyland Hotel was the only Disney property hotel up until 2001, and it wasn't even owned by Disney until the lat 80's. WDW was designed to be an immersive, all-inclusive resort and DLR wasn't. I think at WDW, staying off-property you might lose some of the "magic," but that's definitely not the case at DLR I don't think. I say, save yourself some money and get a nice, clean, walkable room. You won't spend much time there anyway

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And then there's the GCH *sigh of happiness*. That is truly an experience to behold. People think we're crazy, but we are actually considering spending a night or two there just for the experience, and we live 3 miles away!!!