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The best Disneyland hotel is Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. Disney’s Grand Californian has the best location. It is most convenient to Disneyland, Disney California Adventure, and Downtown Disney. Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa also has the most intricate and best theming, as it was designed in the Arts and Crafts style of the early 20th century with elements from Western national park lodges. It is also the most luxurious, from its dining options to its full-scale spa. When weighing all possible factors of which Disneyland hotel to choose, Disney’s Grand Californian wins.
More About Grand Californian
Grand Californian Pricing
The main negative I’ve ever heard described about Grand Californian is the pricing. And I won’t mince words. The price of a stay at Grand Californian can give you sticker shock.
However, it doesn’t have to be that way. We have found ways to save hundreds (sometimes even four digits!) of dollars with these Grand Californian money saving hacks. Spoiler alert: the main money-saving hack is to rent a Disney Vacation Club room at the hotel. Non-members can still rent these rooms, and they can be far cheaper if you book them the way we tell you to in our money-saving guide.
Grand Californian Location
So when I said Grand Californian had a great location, I wasn’t kidding. There is literally an entrance to Disney California Adventure right in the lobby! Grand Californian also has direct entrance into Downtown Disney. In fact, when you are walking around Downtown Disney, you’ll see some of the rooms that have Downtown Disney views.
Downtown Disney is Disneyland’s shopping and dining district. Unlike Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, Downtown Disney is completely free to visit, so it is a great choice for visiting on say your first night of the trip (this is what my family did last time we visited Disneyland). It helps you save money on tickets.
And since the entrance of Disneyland is so close to Disney California Adventure and Disneyland, you are also a short walk to Disneyland.
Grand Californian Amenities & Recreational Activities
When you’re thinking about Grand Californian versus the other Disneyland hotel, a big plus is its spa. Because the other hotels just don’t have a full-service. Grand Californian’s full-service spa, Tenaya Stone Spa, offers guests a lot of great services. This includes premium body treatments, massages & salon service.
Grand Californian also has three different pools. The Redwood Pool is the most thrilling of the pools, with a wild, 90-foot-long waterslide that curves around the stump of a Redwood tree. For younger guests, there is a Mickey Mouse-shaped Children’s Pool nearby (and a whirlpool tub).
The Fountain Pool is a serene pool with a peaceful background of trees, rocky boulders, and stone walls.
The Mariposa Pool is named after the Spanish word for “butterfly” and has ornate butterflies and decorative lights in its pool deck area. It also has a whirlpool tub nearby.
Grand Californian Dining
Grand Californian has the most upscale dining of any of the Disneyland hotels.
This starts with Napa Rose, an upscale restaurant serving award-winning Californian cuisine and local and regional wines for dinner. At breakfast, guests can enjoy a 3-course breakfast at Disney Princess Breakfast Adventure, which is held at Napa Rose.
If you like that character experience, check out Storytellers Cafe. Storytellers Cafe serves a buffet-style breakfast and brunch. Disney characters like Mickey Mouse make an appearance at this restaurant, too.
Sit fireside at Hearthstone Lodge, which is good for a snack, cocktail, or a continental breakfast in the morning.
GCH Craftmans Grill offers entrees and grab ‘n’ go menu items for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and GCH Craftsmen Bar is a poolside lounge.
2nd Best Disneyland Hotel Option: Disneyland Hotel
While not as great as the Grand Californian Hotel, the Disneyland Hotel is still a wonderful choice for a hotel. It has nostalgic, retro theming that evokes the early years of Disneyland (so in that sense, for us Disney nuts, this does give the hotel an added perk Grand Californian does not have).
It has three different sections themed to different parts of the Disneyland theme park: the Fantasy Tower (like Fantasyland), Adventure Tower (like Adventureland), and Frontier Tower (like Frontierland).
If money is no option for you, you can even splurge for suites themed to rides like Pirates of the Caribbean and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. And while those suites are intricately designed, overall, the theming at Disneyland Hotel is not as intricate or immersive as the Grand Californian.
Disneyland Hotel Pricing
The Disneyland Hotel is not as expensive as Grand Californian, but at the same time, it is not cheap either. However, similar to the Grand Californian, there are money saving hacks you can use to save money at the Disneyland Hotel. And that is mainly by booking a Disney Vacation Club villa at the Disneyland Hotel.
Disneyland Hotel History
Another reason Disneyland Hotel is fun for Disney nuts is the history of the hotel. It first opened on October 5, 1955. Except then it was not owned by Disney. Walt Disney did not have the funds at the time to also open a hotel, so he made a deal with TV producer Jack Wrather to build and operate Disneyland Hotel. Disney finally bought the rights for the hotel in 1988. So Disneyland Hotel definitely has the best history of the three hotels.
Disneyland Hotel Location
It’s a pretty easy walk to and from Disneyland. You can also get to Disneyland via monorail. The walk to Disney California Adventure, however, is longer even than some offsite hotels. So this is a big reason is it comes in second and not first.
Disneyland Hotel Amenities & Recreational Activities
One area Disneyland Hotel really wins with me is the pool. And it is a hit for me the same reason I like the theming, and that is the nods to classic Disney and Disneyland. They have two retro-themed pools and two waterslides themed to the early years of Disneyland. The 4,800-square-foot E-Ticket Pool has decorative signs around it that look like early theme park tickets. The D-Ticket Pool is great for swimming laps.
And then (my favorite part!) is the Monorail Waterslides! The waterslides are designed as replicas of the original Mark 1 Monorail trains. One of the waterslides is a 25-foot-high, 180-foot-long Orange Monorail slide and the other is the 13-foot-high, 80-foot-long Yellow Monorail slide.
I would probably rate the pools higher than Grand Californian, but the Grand Californian does have more pools and also has the on-site spa.
Disneyland Hotel Dining
Disneyland Hotel does not have the upscale dining options that Grand Californian does. But if you are not looking for that (or can live without it on your trip), there are some great options at the Disneyland Hotel that fit the theming of the three different sections. And don’t worry, this is Disney, so if you are looking to spend a lot on dining, you certainly can!
Disneyland Hotel has its own character dining experience, Goofy’s Kitchen, that is available for breakfast and dinner.
Tangaroa Terrace Tropical Bar & Grill is a quick-service restaurant serving American cuisine with a Polynesian twist.
There is more than one bar at the Disneyland Hotel. Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar is a Jungle Cruise-themed bar with exotic cocktails and menu items. At Palm Breeze Bar at the Villas at Disneyland, you are surrounded by Disney art like the It’s A Small World wall art.
In the morning, you can stop by The Coffee House located near Disneyland Hotel’s convention center. In addition to coffee, you can get breakfast items like bagels, muffins, and yogurt.
Worst Disneyland Hotel Option: Disney’s Pixar Place Hotel
Disney’s Pixar Place Hotel comes in third for us when comparing the three Disneyland hotels. Probably the best feature of the hotel is that it does have an exclusive entrance to Disney California Adventure. But it is a longer walk to Disneyland than some offsite hotels. And the theming compared to the Disneyland Hotel and Grand Californian is a very distant third. Not because Pixar is a bad theme but in that it is only lightly themed.
Pixar Place Hotel Pricing
The main advantage of Pixar Place, in theory, is that it can be more affordable than the other two Disneyland hotels. But here are two problems with this.
First of all, there are no Disney Vacation Club villas at Pixar Place Hotel. So if you get lucky renting a DVC room at Disneyland Hotel or Grand Californian, you could actually spend less than you would spend on the Pixar Place Hotel.
The other negative of booking of Pixar Place Hotel simply on price is that it is still very expensive. And there are other hotels within walking distance of Disneyland that are much more affordable.
But if you still want to stay at Pixar Place, you can find which website is giving the best rates for the hotel at any given time here.
Pixar Place Hotel History
Pixar Place Hotel is another hotel that was not originally owned by Disney. Disney bought Pan Pacific Hotel in 1995 and changed its name to the Disneyland Pacific Hotel. It was then renamed the Paradise Pier Hotel to reflect the Paradise Pier section of Disneyland. But when Paradise Pier was rebranded to Pixar Pier, the hotel was once again renamed, this time to Pixar Place Hotel.
With all these changes, it is no wonder the theming is light. Unlike with Grand Californian, it was not designed originally for its theme. So its theme is not going to be apparent in, say, the architecture.
Pixar Place Hotel Amenities & Recreational Activities
Pixar Place Hotel has a great pool complex, though I don’t think it quite lives up to the great theming and features of the pool at Disneyland Hotel. And of course, Pixar Place Hotel does not have three hotels like the Grand Californian does.
But the location of the pool is great. It is a rooftop pool on the third floor. You can get great views there, especially from the slide.
Another neat feature of the pool is that on select nights, you can actually watch the Disneyland Park fireworks from the third-floor pool deck. You even get to listen to a live synchronized broadcast of the fireworks soundtrack, which in my opinion really adds to the experience.
And I do like the Finding Nemo theming of the pool. The pool is also brightly colored and decorated. There’s a 186-foot-long Crush’s Surfin’ Slide and a splash pad for the youngest guests called Nemo’s Cove. So those are great features you aren’t going to find at standard budget hotels close to Disneyland. Other features of the hotel include Pixar Shorts Court, where you can play interactive inspired by Pixar movies. Which are neat features, though once again, there are more recreational activities and things to do at both the Grand Californian and Disneyland Hotel.
Pixar Place Hotel Dining
There are not nearly as many dining options at Pixar Place as there are at Grand Californian and Disneyland Hotel. Though you are within walking distance of other restaurants. But still, if you want onsite dining, the options are more limited.
But that’s not to stay there isn’t onsite dining. You can enjoy American comfort food for breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the Great Maple Modern American Eatery.
More themed to the hotel’s new persona is the quick service restaurant, Sketch Pad Cafe. it is decorated with sketches showing the development of Pixar characters during the artistic process.
Rounding out the dining options is the Pixar-themed quick-service restaurant on the pool deck called Small Bytes.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to which Disneyland hotel you should stay in, we think there is a pecking order. Grand Californian comes in first, while the Disneyland Hotel is a close second. Pixar Place Hotel is a distant third.
If you want to learn more about these hotels, we recommend the Unofficial Guide to Disneyland. We referenced it when writing this blog entry.