Where to stay?

[Fintastic]

I haven't been to Disneyland in probably 15 years. When I went, I lived in California so I didn't have to worry about hotels or whatever. We're tentatively planning for Halloween. A few questions:

Do they do The Nightmare Before Christmas decorations every year? Do they do a Halloween party or trick-or-treating or anything special?

We went to WDW about 3½ years ago and we stayed at one of the Value resorts. We really liked being on property. Is it as big a deal at DLR? I know in a Disney hotel you can have your purchases sent to your room, which is nice, but other than that, are there any benefits to staying on property?

If we choose to stay on property, how much can we expect to spend? WDW hotels are nicely put into categories, but I can't find as much info about the DLR hotels.

If we stay off property, do they offer shuttles or anything to the park?

And...I'll probably come back later on with more questions! TIA!

 

[DizNee Luver]

I haven't been to Disneyland in probably 15 years. When I went, I lived in California so I didn't have to worry about hotels or whatever. We're tentatively planning for Halloween. A few questions:

Do they do The Nightmare Before Christmas decorations every year? Do they do a Halloween party or trick-or-treating or anything special?

We went to WDW about 3½ years ago and we stayed at one of the Value resorts. We really liked being on property. Is it as big a deal at DLR? I know in a Disney hotel you can have your purchases sent to your room, which is nice, but other than that, are there any benefits to staying on property?

If we choose to stay on property, how much can we expect to spend? WDW hotels are nicely put into categories, but I can't find as much info about the DLR hotels.

If we stay off property, do they offer shuttles or anything to the park?

And...I'll probably come back later on with more questions! TIA!

The Nightmare Before Christmas Haunted Mansion is again running this year. They do have a Halloween Party that requires a special ticket (as well as needing your PH ticket).

Staying on property is nice, packages sent to hotel, magic mornings on the days it's offered, a special entrance right into California Adventure park thru the GCH. That being said.......they are way more expensive than staying across the street from the park.

The PPH is the cheapest of the 3, DLH is next & the GCH is the most expensive.

We don't tend to spend very much time in our rooms, so saving money on the motel makes sense for us. We've stayed at the DLH & PPH once.....we loved it........but we can't afford to do so with our large family.

There is a Halloween Superthread to get all the info on Halloween time:
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2560082

Hope that gets you started!!

 

[skiingfast]

We went to WDW about 3½ years ago and we stayed at one of the Value resorts. We really liked being on property. Is it as big a deal at DLR? I know in a Disney hotel you can have your purchases sent to your room, which is nice, but other than that, are there any benefits to staying on property?

If we choose to stay on property, how much can we expect to spend? WDW hotels are nicely put into categories, but I can't find as much info about the DLR hotels.If we stay off property, do they offer shuttles or anything to the park?

Most of the offsite hotels are motel style like WDW Values, but not as nicely well kept and of course don't have Disney all over the place.

The Onsite hotels are kind of two tiered. The Grand Californian is like the Grand Floridian but better. It's very close to the gates too. The DisneylandHotel and Paradise Pier Hotel are sort of tower hotels with Moderate/Delux grounds and offerings. But those two hotels are further than many offsite hotels and start at about $200 a night.

Offsite you can find place starting around $75 up to $150 on peak days. They are very close. Because they are so close they are highly considered for stays. Unlike WDW where walking from room to bus and from bus to gates can take 10 minutes, and the bus ride 10-20 minutes, these motels are all withing a 10 minute walk. There are about 10 across Harbor Blvd from the parks. And while all old buildings, they tend to be clean and fine for sleeping in.

So offsite big perk is being close, cheap, and many offer breakfasts.

Onsite, you get a big perk, Magic Morning, avaliable Tue, Thur, Sat and Sun. You get to do this once offsite with a 3 day or longer ticket. You stay on property all the time, though Anaheim is way better than Kissamee.


From further away hotels there is a local shuttle that is cheap and resonable to use.

 

[Huff]

Disneyland only has 3 resorts all Deluxe in comparing to WDW. All are in walking distance to the parks and Downtown Disney.

Offsite the closest you'll find to a WDW Value would be Howard Johnsons (HOJO's) on Harbor. It is in walking distance but I believe they do have a shuttle.

There are numerous hotels from economy to resort in the Disneyland area. Almost all of them have their own shuttle or use Anaheim Transit hotel shuttles to the parks. For bargains I tend to use Hotwire or Priceline. Look at betterbidding or biddingfortravel websites for good info on those.

If you have a car your hotel choices are much larger as you can drive to the parks but you'll have to pay parking and ride the free tram or bus.

Our last trip we stayed at the Radisson near Knotts Berry Farm, 5 miles from Disneyland. They have a free shuttle bus to/from the parks and parking at the hotel was free. The room was a large suite and we had a free hot breakfast each morning. We did have a car and AP so we drove most days.

 

[DlandAmanda]

I feel like you can get more out of a shorter trip staying on site, you will pay about 3x the price to do so. We just stayed at Alpine Inn for 3 nights, we normally stay at Grand Californian but this was a cheap trip for us to get our Disneyland fix I feel like when we're at the GCH the walk is so short that when we take breaks we don't spend 30 mins just walking to and from the motel, plus you can take advantage of all MM while there. I know there are closer motels (Park Vue Inn, is right across the street), so that would lower you walking time. If the budget is there stay on site, hands down.

The Alpine Inn was great, comfortable, clean, CHEAP, and a 15-20 min walk to the front turnstiles. My Mom has stayed at Park Vue Inn and has enjoyed her stays. We spent very little time in our room since we were trying to get the most of our trip, we slept at night, and took about 2 hour nap breaks each day.

 

[Fintastic]

Sounds like staying off site is worth it when it comes to Disneyland. We'll have our own car so we can use that if we need to.

 

[skiingfast]

Sounds like staying off site is worth it when it comes to Disneyland. We'll have our own car so we can use that if we need to.

That is very correct. But be ware that if you stay somewhere and need to drive, that takes time. While the Toy Story lot south of the parks and harbor will only take about 10-15minutes the Mickey and Friends parking garage near the parks will take about 20-30 minutes from lot entrance to park gates. So compare that plus your drive time to walks of 5 to 10 minutes total.