Please help us decide - Disneyland hotel or Grand Californian?

[kerickson]

Here are a few more photos from a stay in Dec...

 

[kikiq]

We stayed GCH concierage for my bday in January. We're DLR AP holders and live only 20 minutes from DLR. It was wonderful. Worth all the points we spent for that weekend. Looking back, I would have booked a DCA park view for a few more points. T'he concierage staff was fabulous. My DH worked in the lounge while I slept in, they made sure he had everything he needed. We originally had tickets to a local community theater but we were having so much fun enjoying the hotel that we gave up our tickets to the concierage desk to give to someone who might want them. We took the pilates class one morning and went on the DCA power walk the other.
We were the only 2 walkers that Sunday morning. My DH and the CM shared Disney info and sometimes left me "in the dust"<G> (My strides were a little shorter than theirs) We went to the lounge before dinner at Napa Rose, the CM remembered that I liked merlot and my dh liked his diet coke. If you decide to have dinner at Napa Rose, book the chef's counter. We plan to do that our next stay.

When I called MS, I mentioned ONCE that it was my bday weekend. I had balloons from mousekeeping AND the concierage staff...totally unexpected.
We are definitely adding on points at GCV.

 

[tink6137130]

Another vote for GC!

 

[dragonflymom]

I've used my DVC points to stay at the Grand four times now and plan to continue doing so! Despite the general opinion that using points outside of DVC villas is not good value, I truly think GC is an exception. The cash rates are outrageous and a points stay would include taxes and resorts fees. Just try to avoid a Friday or Saturday night stay.

If you're interested in using points for concierge, make plans as early as possible. I tried to book conciege for mid-June during mid-week and MS said concierge was not available for the three nights that I wanted. Same thing when I tried to book two nights mid-week for end of July. Since they don't use wait lists for DL hotels, I was encouraged to call back often and check if availability opens up. This did not surprise me as I had difficulty securing conciege for a February trip when I tried to book last November and only got one night out of four, which turned out to be a good arrangement as we concentrated on the parks and rides the first three days and were able to sit back and enjoy the hotel amenities and the food/drinks in Concierge Lounge the last 2 days. We requested to be in the same room as I did not want the hassle of checking out/ checking in because of the concierge privilege for the last night of our stay and the hotel accommodated our request.

Whether concierge is "worth it" is very subjective, but it's fun to do it at least once and doing it on points is much more affordable than paying $400 cash or more a night additional during peak periods!

 

[nunzia]

They do this a couple days of the week. I not sure which I forgot, sorry. But you meet at the gate around 7:20 and a CM will take you into the park and you get to power walk for about 1/2 hour while the park is empty. You get to see the staff coming in for the day setting up shop. It was great. There was only four of us tht showed up so pretty much we had the park to ourselves.

Very nice, I will certainly want to do this.
Thanks!

 

[tidefan]

Gosh, we are staying the the DLH for 4 nights in July. We thought that DD4 would like it better (plus we could get 4 nights for our 100 developers points) and the fact that we will be able to use points at GCV in the future led us to try DLH this time. After reading all of this, I almost feel like we are "slumming" it a bit. Please tell me that DLH is nice too!

 

[LIFERBABE]

I've used my DVC points to stay at the Grand four times now and plan to continue doing so! Despite the general opinion that using points outside of DVC villas is not good value, I truly think GC is an exception. The cash rates are outrageous and a points stay would include taxes and resorts fees. Just try to avoid a Friday or Saturday night stay.

If you're interested in using points for concierge, make plans as early as possible. I tried to book conciege for mid-June during mid-week and MS said concierge was not available for the three nights that I wanted. Same thing when I tried to book two nights mid-week for end of July. Since they don't use wait lists for DL hotels, I was encouraged to call back often and check if availability opens up. This did not surprise me as I had difficulty securing conciege for a February trip when I tried to book last November and only got one night out of four, which turned out to be a good arrangement as we concentrated on the parks and rides the first three days and were able to sit back and enjoy the hotel amenities and the food/drinks in Concierge Lounge the last 2 days. We requested to be in the same room as I did not want the hassle of checking out/ checking in because of the concierge privilege for the last night of our stay and the hotel accommodated our request.

Whether concierge is "worth it" is very subjective, but it's fun to do it at least once and doing it on points is much more affordable than paying $400 cash or more a night additional during peak periods!

So are you saying that you stayed in the same room but you added the Concierge access to the last 2 nights?

We will be there in August and I am planning on staying Concierge for our first night which is a Thursday (48-54 points a night depending on view) and then Standard View for Friday and Saturday nights (48 points a night).

Will we have access to concierge lounge on our check out day from Concierge which would be Friday?

I would choose a garden view concierge and a garden view room if we did not have to move units.

I checked cash rates and it was well over $1500 for these 3 nights so we are using points. MS does have it available and I think it will be great before our cruise

No $95 fee either!

 

[La2kw]

Gosh, we are staying the the DLH for 4 nights in July. We thought that DD4 would like it better (plus we could get 4 nights for our 100 developers points) and the fact that we will be able to use points at GCV in the future led us to try DLH this time. After reading all of this, I almost feel like we are "slumming" it a bit. Please tell me that DLH is nice too!

Disneyland Hotel is very nice. It's just not themed like the GC. The Disneyland Hotel was the original hotel built by Mr. Wrather, a friend of Walt Disney. Walt suggested Mr. Wrather build the hotel across the street from Disneyland, and Walt eventually connected the monorail to it. The hotel opened in 1955, same year Disneyland opened. It started out as a low-rise hotel, and eventually three towers were built. I watched the towers being built throughout my younger years (they were built one at a time, a few years apart from each other). Disney eventually bought the hotel from Wrather Corp. in 1988 and the Downtown Disney expansion in 1999 wiped out the original hotel, but kept the three newer towers. Here's a link to some history about the original hotel. http://www.yesterland.com/dlhotel-the-end.html

We have stayed at the DH many times throughout the years, and have some wonderful memories of our kids growing up there. We miss parts of the hotel which were torn out for DD, but are very glad that Disneyland has expanded the way it has.

The hotel is filled with tons of concept art from Disneyland. It's fascinating to walk through the public areas and look at all the art from attractions that were never built and from attractions that have been remodeled from the original concept. The rooms at the DH are much larger than the GC rooms, and some look out over the Neverland Pool. Other rooms overlook Downtown Disney with the two parks in the distance. Still others look out over parking areas, Anaheim, and Los Angeles. On a clear day, you can see downtown L.A. from the north facing Marina Tower rooms (now called the Magic Tower, I think), and the Crystal Cathedral from the south facing Bonita Tower rooms (now called the Dreams Tower, I think). The main difference between the DH and the GC is that Disney built the GC and it's the most like the Florida resorts. Wrather built the DH, and Disney retrofitted it to make it more Disney. They could only do so much however, since it is basically standard high-rise hotel towers. We were ecstatic to get the GC, which is the first WDW-caliber resort at Disneyland. There will be more, but the DH will always be special to us.

FYI, there is supposed to be some major remodeling work being done to the towers starting this summer. Not sure how this would affect your stay.

 

[dragonflymom]

So are you saying that you stayed in the same room but you added the Concierge access to the last 2 nights?

Yes, I used points for a standard room for the first 3 nights and since Concierge was available on the last night, I "paid" points for a Concierge standard room. MS processed it as two separate reservations. Since the room category was the same, the hotel was able to accommodate my request to keep the same standard room without checking out and checking in to a different room. I still had to go through the formality of checking in to get my Concierge Lounge access key, but that can be done with the Concierge staff. Since Concierge access is through a separate card key (not your room key), your Concierge access time and day would be "programmed" into the Lounge access key, so you only have Concierge lounge access privilege that corresponds with your Concierge reservation dates.

I was able to squeeze in two Concierge Lounge breakfasts even though my Concierge reservation was for one night since I "checked in" really early in the morning (9 am) on check-in day for my second (Concierge) reservation, so I had access the rest of the day all the way through check-out time (11 am) the following day. Therefore, if you book Concierge at the front end of your stay, if you arrive before official check-in time (forgot whether it's 3 or 4 pm), you should get Concierge Lounge access and be able to grab some food and drink before heading to the Park.

I think having a split stay without having to move rooms in the middle of a stay (not guaranteed though) is a great way of doing Concierge without having to spend either too much cash or points compared to booking the entire stay on Concierge. You just have to decide whether to do it at the beginning or at the end. Again, keep in mind that the hotel cannot guarantee that you will be in the same room throughout though, they will try--after all, it's considered 2 separate reservations. I was able to be accommodated during one of their busiest weekends (President's Holiday) so I think they really do try and chances are better if you go for a standard room, since they have more rooms to work with, possibly upgrading to a better view if there's availability. Whereas if you specify a theme park view, for example, they have a smaller inventory to work with.

Hope this answers your question!