Pros and Cons of Disneyland hotels

[Lindseyloy]

We are planning a Disneyland/Aulani trip for June 2024. I’m trying to decide if the Disney hotels in California are far superior to the good neighbor hotels? Disney hotels seem extremely pricey and most of our money will be going towards Aulani. However, I don’t want to miss out on the “Disney experience”.

 

[OKW Lover]

We've been to DL several times and will be returning in a month. We are a bit spoiled and go for the nicer hotels. We decided to stay at the Grand Californian again. We do like the Disneyland hotel too. The GC has a direct entrance into DCA and a great restaurant in Napa Rose. The entire hotel is designed in the Craftsman Style and is visually impressive.

 

[irlandaise]

We are planning a Disneyland/Aulani trip for June 2024. I’m trying to decide if the Disney hotels in California are far superior to the good neighbor hotels? Disney hotels seem extremely pricey and most of our money will be going towards Aulani. However, I don’t want to miss out on the “Disney experience”.

How long will you be at the DLR? If it's for several days, maybe you could splurge on the GCH or DLH for a couple of nights and spend the rest of the time in a motel on Harbor Blvd.? I hear you about the expense, but they are nice hotels! Like OKW Lover, I'm a sucker for craftsman/arts-and-crafts architecture, so I love the GCH.

 

[Lindseyloy]

We will be there for 3 days before we head to Hawaii and then for 2 when we return. Thank you for the insight!

 

[Lindseyloy]

We've been to DL several times and will be returning in a month. We are a bit spoiled and go for the nicer hotels. We decided to stay at the Grand Californian again. We do like the Disneyland hotel too. The GC has a direct entrance into DCA and a great restaurant in Napa Rose. The entire hotel is designed in the Craftsman Style and is visually impressive.

Thank you!

 

[DisneylandFreak2013]

We love the on-site hotels, but honestly the good neighbor hotels are decent.

 

[DLgal]

I'd definitely recommend them. Since you will have days on the front and back end, I'd recommend trying both the DLH and the GCH. I'd do the GCH for the 3 night stint.

 

[maxbuffmelvin]

Since I am a WDW veteran, a big fan of the WDW resorts, and a major Disney bubble person, I must stay onsite at DL. I love WL at WDW; therefore, I purchased a minor GC contract since the resort theming is similar. The first couple of times I went to DL, I stayed offsite, and it felt like a little bit of a letdown compared to WDW trips. After visiting DLH and GC subsequently, it felt right on par with the WDW vacation.

The good neighbor hotels are cheaper and within walking distance of the parks. Good neighborhood hotels should be sufficient if you're a park person and don't care about resort theming.

 

[maxbuffmelvin]

We will be there for 3 days before we head to Hawaii and then for 2 when we return. Thank you for the insight!

Maybe offsite for the first three days is sufficient since you have Aulani to look forward to. I love Aulani. Still, I would do DLH or GC the final two days because it will be a big letdown to go from an paradise resort experience at Aulani to a boring offsite hotel in urban Anaheim.

 

[Lindseyloy]

Maybe offsite for the first three days is sufficient since you have Aulani to look forward to. I love Aulani. Still, I would do DLH or GC the final two days because it will be a big letdown to go from a paradise resort experience at Aulani to a boring offsite hotel in urban Anaheim.

Makes sense! Thanks!

 

[emmybee]

GCH or DLH whenever we can. If we are concerned about the price, we have been staying at the Westin. Easy walk through DTD, and we still get a beautiful, clean hotel. Since it opened, I have told my husband that I would rather stay there than Paradise (Pixar) Pier any day.

 

[Helene_C]

I’m a WDW vet too and for me the “bubble” means being as close to the parks as possible… which is why I love Disneyland so much, because there are so many affordable hotels within easy walking distance. I did stay at DLH on my first trips but I’m all about off-site now. The Disney experience I crave is the parks, so I’d rather save on hotels and be able to visit more often. And unlike at WDW, I can do that and still stay SO close!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Many of the non-Disney hotels are actually motels, and some are quite old and run down. If you choose a non-Disney hotel choose wisely so you get something nicer.

 

[TheLyinKing]

Disneyland doesn't have a "Disney Bubble" like WDW since it's much smaller and surrounded by lots of shops, hotels, and restaurants (which is part of the reason they built WDW in FL in the first place). Its just very expensive to stay at the Disney hotels because there's so little of them. Grand Californian has the biggest perk being a direct entrance into California Adventure. But lots of nice 3rd party hotels (Marriot, Hilton, etc.) just a short ways away. We love the Westin (which is pretty new). Would definitely do your research as there are lots of old hotels/motels. Some of which were built back when Disneyland was still a new thing lol.

 

[PiratesMansion]

Keep in mind that really the only "perk" you get with your Disney hotel stay is...30 minutes of early entry. And you're paying a LOT to get that extra 30 minutes.

Remember also that there are SEVERAL hotels on Harbor Blvd. that are closer to the actual park gates than the Disneyland Hotel and PPH, available for a lot less money.

It also depends on how much time you realistically expect to spend in the room. If the room is just a place to sleep, staying on site is a waste of money IMO. If having the nicer amenities is important to you, and you WILL use them, that might make an on-site stay more appealing. Given that you only have three days, I imagine you'll want to spend as much time as possible in the park, which (when coupled with wanting to save money for Aulani) would push me towards recommending staying off site. Don't fixate on the 'Good Neighbor' label-it's purely for marketing and says nothing about the actual quality of the hotel, so there are perfectly nice hotels that aren't Good Neighbor hotels and mediocre or worse hotels that are good neighbor.

I don't feel like you'll miss anything by staying onsite. I've never stayed on property at Disneyland and have never felt like I got a lesser experience because of it.

 

[NVDISFamily]

There is nothing quite like the small intimate bubble experience of the Grand Cal even at WDW. And in a park hopper ticket and you have great access to two parks with minimal walking distance. Only the Contemporary/BLT or Beach Club/Board Walk at WDW compare.

If you do have to stay offsite another great option is to look at hotels within a short walking distance of the Toy Story parking lot so you can walk there and take the busses. We did that on a recent trip and it's not bad.

 

[buzzrelly]

We literally just did the same trip this May and stayed at the DLH before Aulani. I would stay at GCH if only to skip the horrible security at the Downtown Disney entrance coming from DLH. I also really missed having a balcony in the DLH since we are so used to having one when we stay Deluxe/DVC in WDW.

 

[crystal1313]

We literally just did the same trip this May and stayed at the DLH before Aulani. I would stay at GCH if only to skip the horrible security at the Downtown Disney entrance coming from DLH. I also really missed having a balcony in the DLH since we are so used to having one when we stay Deluxe/DVC in WDW.

Was the security lines long near DLH?

In my experience, the security near DLH is usually much faster to enter DTD compared to security at the GCH to enter DTD to get to the Disneyland gates. The DLH side has much more lanes. But I haven’t been there super early for the EE (I’m usually there well before 8am, but not before 7am typically) Maybe they don’t have all the lanes open at that time? The line at the grand can be crazy long to enter DTD and I always wonder why they don’t open the gate near world of Disney to accommodate more people to go through security faster.

 

[LKing]

I also think that the DLH -> DTD security is faster.

The security line from the GCH into DTD should have three people going through bags and two walk through machines. The far right side has two bag checkers and the left has just one, making it faster if you stay to the right. Sometimes, they only have two bag checkers (one on each side), and that slows things down significantly.

 

[RunnerMom71]

I feel this post - DL trip the first weekend in August. DL Hotel was sold out.. and the GCH was so overpriced for what it is I just couldn't. I've always stayed at the GCH w/ the occasional night at DL. and even when we went to Disneyland Paris last summer we stayed on property.

This trip we're staying at the JW Marriott. Kids are teenagers so walking isn't a problem. I just don't think 30 min early entry is worth it for almost $800 a night at the GCH. I love the hotel but not that much.

Big decision for us is what time to leave our hotel to get through security etc and line up for the rope drop