Staying on Property at Disneyland

Disneyland Hotel Pool area

​There are three resorts to choose from if you wish to stay on Disney property in California. We stayed at the Disneyland hotel in August 2018. We choose this hotel because it is the original on-site hotel and therefore, has extra-large hotel rooms with their magical singing headboards. We were also attracted to the two waterslides that look like monorails. But when we went to visit the Grand Californian hotel, its ambiance and luxury made us wish we had stayed there. It had the same kind of luxury feel as Animal Kingdom Lodge or Wilderness Lodge. The restaurants at the Grand Floridian are nicer and the pool area looked just as fun, plus you can walk from here right into the middle of the Boardwalk, putting you closer to the parks. (When you leave the Disneyland hotel, you are at the far end of Downtown Disney and have to walk about 10 minutes to get to the entrance of the parks). The Paradise Pier hotel lobby did not impress us; we think spending more to stay at either of the other two hotels would be worth it.

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Paradise Pier Hotel

Grand Californian Pool

Grand Californian Lobby

Of course, everything is better when you see it through your kids’ eyes, but we can’t deny there were hiccups and in-fighting. A long line seemed to bring out the worst in our crew. That is what made the short walk back to the hotel so exceptional. Perhaps the best thing about the entire experience was the ease with which we could walk everywhere. We explored all three resorts, shopped along the Downtown Disney area and park hopped many times over the four days. We loved that we didn’t need to worry about a shuttle bus, parking or rental car at all!​

Disneyland Hotel room

Disneyland Hotel Lobby

​Dining plan: One thing that might surprise those travelers familiar with the "World" in Orlando, is that Disneyland California does not offer a dining plan option. We would love to see Disney add this in future. We find the dining plan can help you budget and let pay for most of your meals before travelling. Because the dining plan wasn’t an option on this trip, we came away having spent significantly more on food than we expected. California’s “fast food” restaurants have delicious, fresh ingredients but the prices reflect that and it was hard to eat lunch anywhere for less than $40US.

Breakfast at the Plaza

Disneyland hotel pool

Lego store in Downtown Disney

One of the best things about staying on property is the many character interactions that happen in the resorts. We could almost always wander around the hotels and find a character or two to take a photo with. Our kids really enjoyed collecting signatures in their autograph book and almost filled it because there were so many characters to meet. Plus the character meals seemed to have more characters as well. This is so much better than standing in line to meet them, as you often have to do in the “World.” ​

Overall, we are very glad we stayed on property: the quick walk back to our room, the monorail ride from near our hotel to Tomorrowland and the excellent pool areas made this an extra special immersive experience. Check out our review of Disneyland's Parks and Rides.

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