Disney Land Hotel / Resort

We went to DL in January 2016 and stayed at a Residence Inn for the free breakfast and the in room kitchen. They have since built another one near Dl as well. Our room was very nice and reasonably priced. There is a bus system that has several routes anound the DL area and a bus loop similar to the one at MK in Florida. The busses ran about every 20 minutes like clockwork. They sold bus passes by the day and 3 and 7 days I think. We bought 3 day passes but my boys were being cute and the lady gave us 7 day. We found a nice family unloading their car when we were packing up and passed on the days that were left.

I just came back from Disneyland and their hotel it was nice but i stayed only one day at the Fantasy Tower. The walk to Downtown Disney was nice you can also take the Monorail to Disneyland. You can book reservations at any of the restaurants up to 60 days in advance prior to arrival.

Wahoo!!!!!!!! Alright, so I have tons of info! But I will try to keep it brief and you can ask more questions if need be! I say if you are planning to go just once to Disneyland, then by all means, stay on property!!!!!! As long as your budget allows it! If you plan to spend time at your hotel, I do recommend getting a view room of theme park or Downtown Disney. Otherwise you will literally only see a neighborhood or a parking lot. Paradise Pier is your cheapest. The pool is a rooftop pool with a view of California Adventure. I know they used to pipe in the fireworks music at the pool so if you didn’t want to fight the crowds on Main Street, you could see and hear it from there. I have stayed here on the 13th floor theme park view. It was a fantastic view of California Adventure, the Grand Californian and a bit of Disneyland (you could see the high landmarks only). I stayed at the Disneyland Hotel about 13 years ago, well before the update. This is an easy location that is right next to the security entrance to Downtown Disney. The rooms are huge here. The pool is monorail themed and pretty awesome looking! You can buy Dole Whips (sometimes with Rum) at their coffee shop near the Convention Center part of the hotel. I haven’t stayed at the Grand Californian strictly due to cost. For us, it’s not worth it. It will be themed similarly to the Wilderness Lodge but on a MUCH SMALLER scale. They just renovated all of the rooms though and they do look very nice! I had heard the rooms were getting pretty worn before the refurb. The pool looks pretty nice too! You do have direct access from the Grand right into California Adventure. Do know that you can use this access if you are staying at any of their 3 resorts. A heads up if you stay at the Grand and get a Downtown Disney view, I have heard that those rooms can be very noisy since Downtown is open late. I do believe that if you stay on property, you get their early entrance every day of your stay. They have designated early entry park days for each park. Otherwise, off property guests that purchase, I believe it’s a 3 day hopper or longer can get only 1 early entry day for their length of ticket.

If on property isn’t in the budget, we prefer to stay off of Katella. That’s the main road behind California Adventure. We stay at the Best Western Pavilions or the Best Western Stovall’s. Pavilions is a small property with only two floors and no elevator. They do not have breakfast. However, they give each room a voucher good for two breakfast meals at Denny’s in their parking lot. If you have more than 2 people with you will have to pay for them to eat. This hotel tends to run anywhere for $20-50/night cheaper than Stovall’s. It’s only about .15 miles farther of a walk. I believe they have a resort fee per night or day (as is typical of nearly all hotels in the area). Stovall’s is a much larger 3 story hotel with elevators. They do have a free hot breakfast served in their breakfast room. They usually have eggs, a breakfast meat, pastries, bagels, cereal, oatmeal, pancakes, waffles, yogurt, fruit, etc. There is a parking fee only. So if you don’t have a car, there is no extra fee. I think it’s around $8-10/day. Disney parking at their lots is around $20/day now. The rooms are pretty much identical between Stovall’s and Pavilions (just a different color scheme. Pavilions has brighter beachy feeling rooms. Stovall’s has darker tones to it). Stovall’s is right at the light and easy to cross the street. They are both just a 15-20 minute walk to the security check point at the top end of Downtown Disney. DO NOT take the ART shuttle for these hotels. You will be waiting longer for the shuttle than walking. We also really do enjoy walking thru Downtown Disney each day. If you use the ART transportation, you will be dropped off and picked up off of Harbor Rd and you wont’ see any of Downtown Disney that way. Depending on season, holidays, etc I can usually get Pavilion’s for 2 adults for $100-130/night in low season. Stovall’s would be around $120-150/night in low season. We have been staying at one of these two hotels for the past 5 years or so. We’ve never had a bad experience. I’ve stayed at both over race weekends as well. Pavilion’s, in general, tends to be a bit quieter due to size. Plus, it’s farther from the intersection so you don’t hear the traffic as much. Both are solid choices in my opinion. If you become a Best Western Rewards Member (it’s free), you can save a bit off of your room. I also like to call the hotel directly to book my room. The reason I do this is because they allow you to book it, just put a credit card hold, but you can pay at check-in. This really helped us when I had to book to different trips at the same time.

Don’t hesitate to reach out to @chelle to get you quotes on various resorts as well! There are numerous Good Neighbor Hotels that can be booked with her and are linked through Disney. I believe both of those Best Westerns are still Good Neighbor Hotels.

Disneyland is an entirely different beast than WDW for sure! You may even be shocked at how close all of the surrounding hotels are. If you look at other hotels in the area, do not be deceived by a hotel stating “Main Gate”! They will use this anytime they are on Harbor. It’s called Main Gate because that’s where the entrance to the original parking lot was. But these hotels will claim it and be 2 miles down the road. As far as walkability, you can easily walk if you stay on Harbor between Ball Road and up to the convention center (I wouldn’t look any more than 1/4 mile south of Katella if you plan to walk). I won’t stay on Ball Rd, it feels sketchy over there. However, that’s where the entrance to the Mickey and Pals Parking structure is if you end up driving. If you stay off of Katella, stay anywhere between the Garden Walk and Walnut Street and you can easily walk and feel safe. If you have any specific hotels you are eyeing, let me know and I can try to let you know what I think of that one!

@acamm You’re very welcome!!! I’ve been to DL at least 2 dozen times!!! So please shoot any questions at me!! Yes, decide if you want to spend extra on the hotel and stay on property. Or save the money and have more park spending money! I also think time of year plays a factor too! If you go in the warm months, the pools and nicer rooms may be more important to you. But if you just want to hit the parks hard, I would save the money. If you will have a car, there is a Target about 2 miles away if you want to pick up water and snacks too!

@10dedfish

bexruns wrote:

Also, and I cannot stress this enough because I’ve heard it from a ton of people who are WDW lifers and then come to DL….everything is smaller. It’s a lot of stuff crammed in a small place, but its still magical <3

That is very true, and that is very true. It’s amazing how close everything is and it’s also equally amazing knowing that Walt walked those streets. The apartment above the fire station alone..