We will be staying at Parafise Pier for the first time this summer. Tell me about any little know secrets. Thanks in advance!
Hmmmmm? Good question. It has been a few years, but we will be staying there this summer. By little known secrets, you are meaning tips? If that is the case…
You can no longer walk over to GC to cut into the parks/downtown Disney, you have to walk to right in front of DLH and go through security there. However you can return to the hotel by cutting through GC.
The elevators can be a bit slow during the morning when everyone is trying to leave for the parks. Take that into account when deciding what time to leave.
Rooms are roomier than the DLH.
You can watch the fireworks from the rooftop pool area and they pipe in the music. They set up chairs for you, but they are first come first serve.
They have a great character breakfast with lesser seen characters like stitch and Daisy. Also the only one with Mickey.
I think it is the only DLR hotel that still has an arcade.
After staying at the other two DLR hotels, still one of my family’s favorites. GC edges it out only because of the proximity to the parks, however most of the time staying at GC is cost prohibitive.
Let me know if you have any specific questions.
Very good rundown of all things Paradise Pier! The only thing I would add are:
Park view rooms are amazing, if you can spring for it! We took a bucket of popcorn from the parks up to the room and watched WOC in our pjs munching on popcorn (the tv has a channel for you to tune in to the music). Also my kids couldn’t get over how cool it was to wake up to seeing the inside of DCA so it was all worth it.
Use early entry! Especially to DCA where only the 3 onsite hotel guests have access to that extra hour. Also, when Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout was new they did keep it open to onsite guests only for an extra hour after park closing (something I’d never seen happen before), so watch the Disney Parks Blog for any similar type announcements that happen during your stay. Pixar Pier will be all new this summer so they may do something similar (possibly).
And just to end, I LOVE their character bfast because it’s a little less known/little more out of the way so is a lot more chill & the food is great as well, so make some time for it if you have an arrival or departure day or sleep in day where you won’t be heading right to the park 
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Good call on the WoC from your room. Years ago my sister upgraded our rooms to park view (as a surprise) and one night treated us to room service. We ate our late dinner while watching WoC from our room. It is one of those memories that my boys still talk about 7 years later!
Lola, how does the cost for a park view typically compare with a delux or standard room at DLH or GC? Dont go into any trouble looking, I could do that… I just shouldn’t spend more time on Disney right now. 
You just got me thinking. I’ve never really considered PP, but that sounds intriguing.
Looking at the hotels for this summer (when we are going next), PPH park view rooms are less than the standard rooms at DLH and GCH. My family actually likes the rooms at PPH better than DLH.
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When we did the PP park view room we used an AP discount & I believe it was about the same price as DLH standard, maybe a bit cheaper… I’m trying to find anything I have saved with the receipt & the rate (because I’m sure I did somewhere… and I know at one point I had us booked at both the Grand (DTD view) and DLH (standard view) & then looked at PP park view & that won out. My guess is that the price won out on everything for us.
I loved the room as well BUT and this is a big but, the walk having to go through the entirety of DTD was not our favorite. We stay a lot at the Sheraton that is actually about the same distance as that walk & much prefer walking along Harbor than going through all of DTD because DTD was just always so jam-packed everytime we went through it (it was a race weekend though so that had a lot to do with that). Not that Harbor doesn’t get jam-packed, but no one really lingers & creates traffic obstruction along Harbor, but there’s plenty of that in DTD as a it’s a great place to hang out too.
Anywho, I’d probably do a PP park view room again, but I’d prefer to go back to DLH for the feel or try out the awesome proximity of GCH.
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Excellent points (again, as always). Some tricks we use to navigate DTD when staying at PP or DLH:
*Take the monorail whenever possible
*Go early. It was wonderful walking through DTD with it nearly deserted
*Going back to hotel, use monorail or cut through GCH (you are not allowed to cut through on the way to the parks anymore, however you can on the way back).
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All brilliant tricks! I forget about the monorail all the time. The cutting back through GCH is so nice too & no one cares if you are going back to the PP that route. Going early is usually a great trick too, just for us it was a race weekend so it was actually jam-packed from 5am on. But that won’t be an issue for the next few years!
We loved our room there and it is bigger than other Disney Resorts. The only issue I remember is occasional long waits for elevators 
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I think the long walk would be the most difficult part. We often go back for naps, and that walk four times a day might be trying!! I feel like the next time we go will be after construction on the new hotel begins. We might try GC to avoid the construction. Although, if construction isn’t that obstructive, that might foil my plan 
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