Worth it to stay onsite at Disneyland?

[fromans]

Like most other people that have posted, I agree it's better to stay at a WDW resort but not at DLR. The value is just not the same! Our family always does the Good Neighbor hotels to save money. We're in the parks all day so the hotel is just a place to sleep.

 

[meggiebeth]

I would always try to stay onsite in WDW.
In Disneyland, I’d consider it, but it’s not the be all and end all for me.

We’ve stayed at the Disneyland Hotel and I loved it- the background of the hotel and its sentimental value really made it for me. The location is amazing- a leisurely walk through Downtown Disney each morning- and the extra magic hours are great too. At the DLH, the pool is superb- nothing I could find offsite compared. You do feel truly immersed in the Disney bubble.

That said, it’s expensive, and I find the DLR hotel theming (Grand Californian aside) to be quite a bit lower than WDW’s deluxe hotels, and even moderate hotels. They’re also not so much resorts in themselves- they have fewer facilities.

I’d say it really comes down to cost in our case and what kind of deal you can get at the time. Staying onsite is definitely worth quite a bit more- it just depends on what you want out of your hotel really.

 

[StarlitNight05]

It's all relative. I love staying onsite, it's very magical and feels special. But I also love staying across the street close to the gates. Sure, staying at the Grand or the Disneyland Hotel is awesome and is an add on, but my main objective is being in the parks. If I stay super close at a cheap motel, I'm happy. Either way, I'm at Walt's park and all other things do not matter. At that point, it's just pure magic.

 

[AdamEfimoff]

No its way over priced. But Anaheim is a dessert.

 

[nutshell]

I stayed onsite once and really enjoyed it, but ultimately don’t think it’s worth the price. Have fun!

 

[limace]

No its way over priced. But Anaheim is a dessert.

I love dessert!

 

[avalon451]

Stayed at the Grand Californian for our first trip, and loved it. But the price-- wow.

Since then we've stayed across the street on Harbor. All I need is a bed and a shower, and those do fine for usually 1/4 the price, and they're mostly closer than even the Disney properties.

I've heard many people say that the "Disney Bubble" isn't as bubble-like at DLR compared to WDW, even in the onsite hotels. It's just not as immersive.

The early entry perk would be nice, especially with California Adventure, but you can work around that if you have 3-day or more parkhoppers, which include one early entry to DL. Then you can just do the "oppposite of EE day" strategy at each park. Rope drop CA on a Magic Morning at DL, do one MM at DL to get your Fantasyland knocked off, and rope drop it another day when CA is doing EE.

But if I could afford it, I'd totally do Grand Californian again.

 

[MouseOfCards]

Love the Grand Californian. Have stayed there 3 times (on points) in the last year. Love the pools, the great restaurants (including the quick service one), and especially the quick entry into DCA (which is great for mid-day breaks for the kiddies and for the enjoying the pools). Of course, we'd skip it if we had to pay the rack rates. Would highly recommend renting points to try it out and save money.

Attached a photo of the view from our room during our most recent stay.

 

[tarheelalum]

Staying at the Disneyland Hotel is nicer but at an absurd price. For my money it's just not worth the tremendous added expense.

 

[Aimee_Jane83]

It's fun to stay onsite if you want the real "Disney" experience. I personally love the Disneyland hotel, however I mostly stay off site on Harbor Blvd. I really love the Tropicana and this upcoming trip we will be going to the Grand Legacy. I like to save as much money as I can per trip to put into other fun things like character dinners, day excursions to other theme parks and such. As for the Disneyland resort hotels even if you don't stay there you can still go into the hotels and tour them and make reservations at some of their restaurants etc.

 

[PinkHelloKitty]

I think if you have the funds, staying on site at DLR at least once would be amazing. But really most of the neighboring hotels are around 5-15 minute walking distance from the parks so we personally choose somewhere like the hilton or the sheraton.

 

[Lolly&Rue]

For us yes yes yes! We have young kids so we enjoy going back and taking a break. I love seeing Characters in the hotel. The pools are themed and just wonderful. We love the DLH because you walk from the hotel straight through downtown Disney and you have the Disney feeling the whole vacation.

 

[crostorfer]

No, its not even close to worth it. The hotels on Harbor are closer to the actual park entrance than Paradise Pier or the Disneyland Hotel are. As other people have said, outside of the actual park gates, there is not a "bubble" in Anaheim like there is at WDW. You are better off saving $300-$400 a night and staying across the street. Just as easy to take a swim/nap break. Everything at DLR is within walking distance. We stayed back on Katella, and had no problem walking back and forth multiple times a day.

 

[boscoj]

It still confuses me when in comparing resorts most tend to say that the Disney bubble is greater at WDW. When we stay there, we stay at the Boardwalk & granted going to Epcot or MGM you definitely feel it! However, when traveling to any of the other parks (water parks included), the only bubble I feel is the "bus bubble" which can take anywhere from 1/2 hr to 1 hr & during this time I observe traffic on the roads just like the real world. When we go to Disneyland we stay at the Grand & truly feel Imersed in the bubble although it is an expensive one at that !

 

[mom2rtk]

We stay onsite because we come from the central time zone and I'm an early riser. We make full and complete use of that extra hour of park day every single day of our trip. Crowds continue to be an issue at DLR and I always feel better about our day if we at least start with lower crowds. I need that time in the park without a crush of humanity.

I will add that early entry at DL itself isn't always uncrowded, but if it is, we tend to use that time on whatever isn't crowded. Sometimes we just spend part of that time taking photos and chilling out walking around. I don't think I would be happy with my trip if it didn't include that.

 

[HydroGuy]

It still confuses me when in comparing resorts most tend to say that the Disney bubble is greater at WDW. When we stay there, we stay at the Boardwalk & granted going to Epcot or MGM you definitely feel it! However, when traveling to any of the other parks (water parks included), the only bubble I feel is the "bus bubble" which can take anywhere from 1/2 hr to 1 hr & during this time I observe traffic on the roads just like the real world. When we go to Disneyland we stay at the Grand & truly feel Imersed in the bubble although it is an expensive one at that !

I agree, with clarifications. I really can't recall anywhere in WDW where you can look out and see "reality". DL hides the fact pretty well that it is inside of a major metro area with the berm, DLRR and trees. DCA not so much, especially on California Screamin.

Regardless, at WDW when I am going up the EE ride and look all around, I see Disney stuff. Hotels, rides and lots of trees. That is part of the WDW bubble and I think it is real. However, the price you pay to stay in the bubble is lots of buses and boats and time lags to get places. Many WDW vets do not feel that price you pay because they are so accustomed to it. DLR vets feel it more intensely because they are used to walking to the parks and know what that is like.

 

[HydroGuy]

We stay onsite because we come from the central time zone and I'm an early riser. We make full and complete use of that extra hour of park day every single day of our trip. Crowds continue to be an issue at DLR and I always feel better about our day if we at least start with lower crowds. I need that time in the park with a crush of humanity.

I will add that early entry at DL itself isn't always uncrowded, but if it is, we tend to use that time on whatever isn't crowded. Sometimes we just spend part of that time taking photos and chilling out walking around. I don't think I would be happy with my trip if it didn't include that.

@mom2rtk apparently is able to make this work for her family. For us the cold, hard reality is we rarely can make this work. We live in the Mountain Time zone and almost always we visit during high season when EMH is at 7AM. Trying to get the whole crew up and out the door by 6:30AM is just really hard to do. So on a four day trip we are lucky to use EMH twice. That is only once more than if we stayed offsite and used our MM at DL one of the those days.

If we visited when the parks opened at 9 or 10AM I think we could make more EMH's.

Bottom line is how much the average person can use EMH depends a lot on your group/family and when you visit (what time EMH happens).

 

[mom2rtk]

@mom2rtk apparently is able to make this work for her family. For us the cold, hard reality is we rarely can make this work. We live in the Mountain Time zone and almost always we visit during high season when EMH is at 7AM. Trying to get the whole crew up and out the door by 6:30AM is just really hard to do. So on a four day trip we are lucky to use EMH twice. That is only once more than if we stayed offsite and used our MM at DL one of the those days.

If we visited when the parks opened at 9 or 10AM I think we could make more EMH's.

Bottom line is how much the average person can use EMH depends a lot on your group/family and when you visit (what time EMH happens).

I totally agree that this is very much a "YMMV" situation. I would still LOVE if we were there during 7 AM EMH. I'm just an early riser and am up anyway. I'd much rather be in the parks than pacing the room waiting for the parks to open.

But you have to understand that a 7 AM EMH to us is 9 AM. And often it's just me and my high school daughter who is used to classes starting at 7:20 Central time. So EMH every day isn't really even a struggle for us. It's a great fit.

I can definitely see how it's a completely different calculus for other groups, especially larger groups with younger kids.

I really just put my experience out there as an example of how different the decision making process can be for different travel groups. I look at offsite options all the time. Then I think of hanging out waiting for parks to open every day and just can't do it. Most days the parks opened at 9 AM when we were there, the equivalent of 11 AM to me. That always drives me back onsite.

I definitely agree that without the early entry it's hard to justify onsite. Heck, it's hard enough even WITH the early entry.

 

[goooof1]

And THAT is the beauty of the 7am EMH.....fewer people get to it! I drag myself out of bed, thinking that I will catch up on sleep later....when I'm home! hahaha

 

[MSH518]

For us, staying onsite is a special treat (we've only stayed at the DLH so far) or if we happen to come across a good deal. We'd rather save the money and stay on Harbor and use that money for additional trips - we go to DLR several times a year since it's just a 1 hour plane ride for us. We really only use the hotel as a place to sleep - we generally don't take mid-day breaks so we don't really have a need for a nice pool and other such amenities. We prefer to go to the park a little later in the morning and stay until closing, so EMH isn't a big deal to us either. When we go to WDW however, we're more likely to splurge on a deluxe resort. Just depends on your personal circumstances!