Late Check in at Grand Californian vs 1st night at Good Neighbor Hotel

[ProudMommyof2]

My husband and I are traveling to Disneyland over Veterans Day Weekend for a conference. I can get a conference rate of $364 at the Grand Californian. We are leaving Boston on Wed, 11/9 at 9pm and landing at LAX at 12:19am (leaving Sun 11/13 at 9:10pm). We are planning on taking an Uber to the Disney resort area at that time. I am trying to decide between two options.

1. Check in to Grand Californian at like 1:30am at night and stay for 4 nights
or
2. Stay at a good neighbor hotel (walkable to Grand Californian) for the first night and then check in first thing in the am at GC before going to a park.

I know there is a cost difference but not sure if a late check in at the Grand will mean we get a less desirable room for our stay and if we are better off waiting until the next day. Hoping to get a King room.

Thanks for any insight on late check in for the Grand Californian. Also, if you recommend Good Neighbor Hotel for the 1st night- which one?

 

[katyringo]

Are you planning to go to the parks the first day? Because if so early entry could be back and by checking in the night before you would have your key and all that for early entry. I would personally just stay at the grand and save the hassle.

 

[sophy1996]

No hotels on the Harbor side are really walkable to the Grand Californian with luggage, because you would have to go through security.

You might do better with a 4-night as opposed to a 3-night stay. There might be a bit more selection if you're getting there before other conference attendees arrive. And you could go to the desk and ask to be moved if you really hate the room you're first assigned.

Personally I hate moving hotels and hate the feeling of having nowhere to go for the hours between checkout and checkin. We like to take a midday break and that's hard to do with switching hotels.

 

[Pluto468]

I would do 4 nights at the Grand so you don't need to worry about switching hotels. Plus that's a great rate! And it will be way nicer than anything you could get on Harbor. I think they assign your room early in the day, so arriving late probably won't make a difference. When I stayed at Disneyland Hotel last time I got a text that my room was ready at around 1:30.

If you're already at Grand Californian you could sleep in a little more , which you might want with the jet lag. (I'm from New England and have taken that BOS-LAX flight alot. It's SO long lol)

 

[GoingSince1990]

GC. You had me at “$364”.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

VGC and sleep in in the morning, and then wander into DCA at your leisure. No question about it.

 

[ProudMommyof2]

Thanks everyone! 4 nights it is!

 

[StormyCA]

We've always balanced cost with time. I don't want to pay the Grand's prices on arrival day just for a bed to sleep in. Even at $364 I'd still hesitate when I can get a room for a lot less elsewhere.

We drive down and get to the area in the afternoon. Arrival day is never a park day as we're tired out from the drive and we just want to have dinner and fall into bed. So we stay at the Motel6 (very basic, but always clean and quiet) the night of our arrival and then head to the Grand around 6 am to check in and hit the parks. We drive over, but you can catch an Uber and go directly to the Grand, avoiding any kind of bag check. I don't even know if they let people with big suitcases through bag check, but what a nightmare if they do.

 

[StormyCA]

Thanks everyone! 4 nights it is!

Cross posted. Have a great time!

 

[tweetykl]

For that price, stay at GC the whole time.

 

[Malcon10t]

Also please be aware that of 900+ rooms at the Grand, there are fewer than 50 king rooms.

 

[StarlitNight05]

Also please be aware that of 900+ rooms at the Grand, there are fewer than 50 king rooms.

Great point. We used to prioritize a request for a king bed until we received one of the few remaining bathtub rooms. My DH has a bad knee and we quickly realized a walk in shower (even though extremely common at GCH) was a much more important request.

 

[smartlabelprint]

If the price is too high you could try the Westin. It’s on Katella, fairly close to GC.

 

[mynameislogan]

We've always balanced cost with time. I don't want to pay the Grand's prices on arrival day just for a bed to sleep in. Even at $364 I'd still hesitate when I can get a room for a lot less elsewhere.

We drive down and get to the area in the afternoon. Arrival day is never a park day as we're tired out from the drive and we just want to have dinner and fall into bed. So we stay at the Motel6 (very basic, but always clean and quiet) the night of our arrival and then head to the Grand around 6 am to check in and hit the parks. We drive over, but you can catch an Uber and go directly to the Grand, avoiding any kind of bag check. I don't even know if they let people with big suitcases through bag check, but what a nightmare if they do.

This is what we’re going to do. We arrive on a non park planned day and will be checking into a neighborhood hotel. We’re hang out at the hotel pool, maybe hit up the Garden Walk for a bite, and likely tuck in early (long drive for us too). Then plan on driving over to the Grand at about 6am the next morning to check in and hit the parks in time for rope drop.

 

[FeistyDisneyMom]

If I had the budget, I would stay at the Grand the first night and save the hassle of checking out/checking in the morning of a park day. It is a good cost saving method to do a good neighbor instead though, so either way there is the usual tradeoff: time vs money!