We have stayed at all 3 on site DL hotels, Paradise Pier in 2017 before the refurb, twice at GC and twice at the DL hotel. I like the location of GC, but I like the rooms at DL. Much better lighting for reading at the DL hotel. We requested and stayed in the Fantasy Tower both times. We have never stayed off site.
For YouTube videos, I watch SoCal Disney Dad as well as Fresh Baked. I find those 2 the most informative. Provost Park Pass takes some getting used to, but some of his videos are good. Five Fires can be good, once you are beyond his intro. Also, Best Life and Beyond, Making Magical Adventures (I need to double check that name), and Magic Journeys.
I’m really into SoCalDad right now. I’ve been a Mr. Morrow fan for a long time too.
I like Anaheim Park tourist for all their hotel info. They’ve stayed in almost every hotel on Harbor Blvd.
Would you say they are comfortable? Clean, quiet, softer beds?? I’m willing to pay $$$ for the best room I can find. If it was just me, I’d stay at the Best Western or HOJO across the street as I’d play in the parks all day!
I’ve been looking at the menu & I’d love it. She’s not adventurous, so as long as she can get her filet or fish plain or the sauce on side she’ll be fine.
I’m looking at Morton’s Steakhouse. We’ve been to the one is Chicago and she liked it.
I will say you are spot on for wondering about street noise. I loved Castle Inn And Suites and would stay again. But every night we woke with sirens at least once. It wasn’t a problem for us. But I would think any street facing room would get splashed with that noise.
Not really… She’ll pose “with” me at one. However, I doubt going to see Mickey is going to be on her “must-do” list.
I’ll be doing that on the times I’m in the parks solo… We typically RD together, eat lunch then go to hotel where she’ll stay until after 5pm. If the parks are open until midnight she’ll be more inclined to go out later. She’s good for about 3 - 4 hours of walking / waiting in queues before she wants to stop.
We are usually the ones staying at the cheapest room that one can find because we, like you, are play in the parks all day. So our room only needs to be safe & moderately comfortable.
If your DW will want more of an oasis, then the DL Hotel and GCH are both lovely but their lighting wasn’t the most amazing. The colors of the DL hotel room are a little dark so maybe that impacted it. Maybe it was just the rooms we stayed in too because we’ve only been 1x in each. The Pixar Place hotel actually had the brightest/best lighting of the 3. But we also had an amazing upgraded 1 bedroom suite after booking a 2 Queen Theme Park View room.
If you want to venture offsite, the hotels near the convention center are a great start for finding nicer than motel accomodations. The Residence Inn on the corner of Harbor and Katella is the only one I personally know & would recommend & they have some layouts where there is a separate living/kitchen space and bedroom with a door. I believe the Springhill Suites is similar, but we’ve never stayed. And there are a couple of Hilton brand options around or across the street towards the Toy Story parking. We have also stayed at the Sheraton Hotel many times and while they were quite comfortable they were a little more dated and their lighting is definitely poor.
And then for a nice not theme park meal… There is a Morton’s and a Ruth’s Chris, both great steak houses. DH & I are partial to Ruth’s Chris & it’s usually the place where we go when we really want to treat ourselves but if you know you like Morton’s then they are very similar.
But there are also very lovely restaurants/lounges in DLR so I wouldn’t discount the Grand Californian’s restaurants nor the Downtown Disney restaurants. Also, Carthay Circle inside DCA has been a lovely experience both times we’ve done it. And Blue Bayou was a wonderful meal too this last trip that we tried it for just the 2nd time ever. So there are really nice meals to be had in the parks too.
I’ll look into the Residence Inn. A suite with a door is almost a “must-have” for us. Otherwise, I’ll have a demon growling intermittingly every night! (We sleep in different rooms at home. I’ll hear her on weekend mornings halfway across the house when it quiet! )
I’m wondering if you should rent points at either the Grand Californian Villas or the newer DL Villas. That way you get the onsite experience at DL and your wife has a lovely space to relax that is a suite. But I get that the price for that may be way out of budget (it is for us, because we just like to go more often). The Residence Inn and other Marriott & Hiltons around the convention center are a good starting place though. If the Residence Inn has their breakfast buffet back it is fantastic! Best hot breakfast in Anaheim! But that was pre-Covid. We didn’t see that it had come back the last time we looked at staying there (2021-22), but I think it is back now.
Grand Californian and Disneyland were more recent, 2022 and 2023 and 2024. Rooms were quiet, clean, comfortable. I travel with a white noise machine to try to drown out DH’s snoring.
If you need a suite style room with a door for separate rooms, GCH and DLH are probably going to be very pricey even renting points. You could get a regular room or studio (DVC) much more reasonably, but only one space. That being said, the new tower at DLH is .
I have stayed at Desert Inn and Castle Inn in suite style rooms. They were serviceable but not necessarily a place your wife will want to spend a lot of time. I would go for something newer even if it’s farther away for her sake!
Someone on SoCalDad’s Live stream, last night, said that I should look at hotels a few miles away that aren’t near the freeway for quiet rooms…
I love when DW shares my trips as it gives us something to discuss and such as empty nesters. However, after a week of pre-planning I’m remembering why I travel solo often!!
My family, especially DW, is so “picky” about everything when we travel - rooms, food and breaks. This is my one time I’ll ever go to DLR and I’m already flustered about how difficult it is just getting an “appropriate” room. I have to do it though. She’s going to spend 18+ hours in that room sleeping & reading. I get so aggregated that she travels just to never leave the hotel. (just stay home & save $2K!!)
Sorry… I’m venting!!! I love her, but she just “expects” me to plan everything & the majority of the planning is to keep her as comfortable as possible at a place she doesn’t really want to go to… Sorry!!
Why does she want to go on this trip? Would she rather just stay home and save the money? This sounds like 2 competing trips you want to take. My DH doesn’t like Disney, so he never goes with us anymore. Instead we take couple trips to places he likes, like Mexico, Costa Rica and such. Maybe you and her could go on a trip somewhere like that of her choosing, so that you can have your Disney/UOR trips and she can have something she likes (a nice resort that she never needs to leave). Just a suggestion from someone who made her DH go to Disney/UOR a lot, and finally realized it was okay to not have the same interests.
One of the DLR onsite hotels would probably meet your needs best if she still wants to go. Other than that there are very few “nice” hotels around the parks. There are plenty of safe/clean/good for mostly sleeping and showering hotels, but she is not going to like those I would bet. Not places you want to hang around during the day, rooms are generally older and lack good lighting. The Courtyard by Marriott Theme Park entrance would be the only one on the few close blocks on Harbor (Katella on the South end and Manchester on the North end) that is quite nice, but guessing a suite there is $$$$$ (if they have them, I know they have rooms with bunkbeds and 2 Qs). I prefer not to stay further out than a few block walking distance, because I like to return to the room to put on more clothes for the evening. It gets chilly there when the sun goes down.
I was thinking the exact same thing as I read your conundrum on having her come with you and wanting nice space but you wanting to maximize your time seeing DLR. The convention center area that I suggested is the next best option especially if onsite prices are just not in the budget. It is fairly close but it won’t be the super convenience that either being onsite or right across the street from the DLR pedestrian walkway will be. That being said, we had relatives who are WDW die-hard regulars come out to DLR in 2017 and they were wanting a nicer place too and ended up at the Marriott Townplace Suites over by the Anaheim Angels stadium. There was an ART bus route that went right past the hotel so they bought an ART pass for the week and took the bus. They felt it was relatively convenient and because they are used to how WDW operates without anything being very easy/convenient to get to, they were happy as clams not being super conveniently located. And the couple of times when the schedule didn’t line up & they didn’t want to wait for the bus, we used our car to drive them, so you could always use a Lyft/Uber for those situations.
I guess the question you have to ask yourself is do you want to take advantage of the small footprint of DLR and have your accommodations lined up to be convenient to that to maximize your time? Or are you ok with it being more like WDW where there’s transportation involved in getting to/from the parks. I, and many DLR regulars, are so spoiled by how easy it is to be close at DLR so sometimes we balk at anything that would in WDW be a similar option that we’d be excited about. I am definitely guilty of it & will not stay very far away at DLR. Like, even The Anaheim Hotel/Castle Inn Suite are pushing it on how far away I want to be. So that’s why we stay Park Vue Inn most times.
Haha if it were Eden Walk or no DLR trip, I’m sure we’d figure out a way to survive. But man, all the complaining we’d do (adults or kids alike), might make us consider staying home. See? Spoiled!
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See? Spoiled!