I haven’t been to Disneyland for 12 or so years. None of my family has gone. We are planning to go next august for my sons 10th birthday. We go to WDW every year or every other year, usually stay deluxe (poly is out fav) This will most likely be our one and only trip to DL.
We are “on property” people for wdw. But I know DL is different. And most people are off site.
We are a group of six so will need 2 rooms or a suite.
A suite at the DL hotel would run me 10 grand or more so that’s out.
I’ve been doing a lot of research for offsite/walkable hotels. I think we’ve settled on “ the Anaheim hotel” as our off site pick. The dates I need aren’t out yet but basing off other dates I can get a 6 person suite for around 2500-3000 I think for next august. I am splitting the cost with my sister so my share will be 1500ish.
We are used to pristine Disney property at Disney world and I am scared to death my family will be underwhelmed staying off site. I’m not made of money but doing some math I think I could swing a dvc rental. My share would be $2800 so around 1300 more over off site.
In everyone’s opinion here, is staying on site worth 1300? I know the villas aren’t open yet but I’d need to put my 11 month out request in next week.
I’m also a bit scared as I’ve never done it before and I know you’re “locked in” once you book it.
The Anaheim Hotel, while a great budget option will not wow you. The lobby is cute & we love the Pizza Press (restaurant on-site adjacent to the lobby) but it is definitely a budget option. Our most recent stay (I think it was in February this year?), we noticed the wear in our room. It was safe & fine, but definitely tired and definitely a motel.
Can you not book 2 rooms and request connecting rooms? We are a family of 6 and usually we take that route. It’s a pain in the butt to do it yourself since Disney makes you put two different reservations in, but you should be able to link them fairly easily to one Disney account & be able to see them both (or call in & have them do it over the phone, or use a TA to arrange it all for you). That would be a definite cost saving over the 10K suites at DLH. Also, the Grand Californian should have 2 bedroom suites that sleep 9 that would work for your purposes. And I want to say that we once were upgraded to a Pixar Pier 1 bedroom suite that could easily fit 6 people (we were a family of 4 then and the room had 2 queens and a bath connected to a large living space with a giant sectional sofa that had a pullout bed somewhere, large -for a hotel- table & a 2nd full bathroom). It was an upgrade though as we had only booked a theme park view regular 2 queen room so I’m not sure what category it would be to book, but that room type does exist.
I would personally if it’s your one & only trip, go the onsite route. We’ve had the same concerns over the loss of flexibility to cancel a DVC rental so we’ve never done it, but I believe you can find reasonably-priced travel insurance to help cover the loss should anything come up outside of your control & would prevent the trip. But I would first look into 2 rooms at the DLH (or Grand Californian) and then if that option doesn’t work out, go the DVC rental route.
I booked a room at The Anaheim Hotel in 2019 and eventually cancelled it. After reading many reviews & watching YT videos showing the hotel I decided the savings weren’t worth it. Sometimes you have to invest a little to make sure you get quailty.
Check out The Anaheim Park Tourist on YT for reviews of A LOT of the area hotels…
A few other offsite options with suites in case the on-site option doesn’t work out for you.
Courtyard by Marriott Anaheim Theme Park Entrance, pricy especially considering it’s not in the deluxe range but room layouts are large & well appointed for families. Plus the hotel has one of the better kid fun pool areas with waterpark/splash pads (geared for 8 & under crowd more, but if your 10 year old doesn’t need many thrills he may enjoy it just as well as an 8 yr old). Would be a similar walk as The Anaheim Hotel & is nearby a Panera, McDonald’s & Mimi’s Cafe for some offsite food options. They also have (or at least had in the past, not sure if it’s still there) a Starbucks inside the hotel.
Park Vue Inn, our favorite offsite because of the proximity. The entrance to their parking lot is less than 20 paces from the pedestrian crosswalk where you would enter Disneyland property from Harbor Blvd. They are also pricy and their suites and 2 bunk bed rooms go really because they only have a few of each. They are also more motel than deluxe, but their customer service & location more than make up for the lack of wow in their amenities. Plus, they are really well maintained & in their latest room refurb really setup the rooms with some fantastic storage areas that I LOVE and make it a lot easier to juggle luggage for 6.
SpringHill Suites or Residence Inn by Marriott both near the Convention Center. These are both a little more of a walk than any of the other options but you can also make use of the Toy Story parking lot shuttles, especially for the evening. It’s across Harbor Blvd from the Convention Center hotels and a great way to come back after a long walk. The walk in the morning to the parks isn’t bad at all can be 7-15 minutes (7 if the lights are great and you are speed walking/never get caught behind slow groups on the busy walkway, 15 if you hit all the lights & stuck behind all the traffic). But the rooms in both of these have affordable suite options for a family and they sometimes include breakfast & if the Residence Inn has their full breakfast buffet that is my absolute favorite offsite breakfast in Anaheim. They do a good job!
These are the best options I’ve encountered for bigger rooms. Because we go more frequently we are perfectly happy with the more budget options like The Anaheim and Park Vue and usually only do the Marriott options if we can hit up a very distant family member for their Marriott discount (that we try not to do more than 1x year if that even).
2 rooms at DLH actually cost about the same if not more than one suite. We are technically 5 adults and one kid so the extra adult cost per room adds up. 2024 prices will be out tomorrow so I can finally do a real compare though. I’ve just been having to do random dates to get rough price ideas .
Park vue was actually my first pick for off site but my wife saw a lot of reviews how dirty the floors were. Turning people’s feet black. So that one kinda got side lined.
The theme park entrance marriot was riiiiight at the top until I found out you have to book in advance to use their pool. I know my son will wanna go back and swim but how in the world will I know when? That is so weird to me
Dvc is looking the best to me but my fears are so crazy. I could look into insurance that’s a good idea but then they also adds into the cost.
There was one room we had ever that had this issue and only in part of the room and was also 5 or 6 years ago. It was the very front room just past the gift shop and is a 1 queen, 1 bunk so only fits 4 people anyhow. And we’d stayed in the exact same just months before and it wasn’t an issue the first time.
But we stay at the Park Vue at least 3-5x/year and in the last year have had mostly 2 queen, 1 bunk bed and one time scored a suite and all of those were very well maintained. If anything, their customer service is fantastic so if there’s an issue with your room, they’re very happy to work with you on remedying it. We love their staff and out of all the hotels along Harbor feel that this is the only one that truly & warmly welcomes guests. The others are mostly fine but also give off the impression that you are slightly annoying them/their day if you arrive before 7am (which we do for rope drop) and have any question at all about anything while there.
Their pool is decent. It’s not large but it’s not the smallest among the ones in Harbor and it’s at least a step above (in the feel & visual appeal) of “puddle in the parking lot.” So nothing amazing, but we’ve always been happy to use it when we’ve felt like going for a swim. One of the nicest things about it is, because they are a smaller hotel and because it’s not an amazing pool, even on hot days during peak travel, it’s never been crowded/super busy. And there’s been a time or two when we were the only ones using it for all/most of our swim time.
That is definitely weird. I hadn’t heard of this but I just went to their website and their language says highly recommended for reservations and there seems to be zero penalty if you don’t come. So if it were me, I would just book one or two everyday to have. One more thing to do, but if you like the Courtyard Marriott & the waterpark reservations are what’s holding you back, that is an obstacle you could overcome.
It’s super weird. I called them and I also asked if I could book multiple and they said yes. The website wording is a bit weird as it shows “3 time slots” but you don’t book the full time slot you book a 2 hour section per time slot. I don’t understand why at all.
Those rooms ended up being 400ish a night.
In your opinion is it worth going farther “out” to get a nicer resort at a cheaper rate? I just watered a YouTube video on The Element. It’s 12-15 min walk down Disney drive. But a 2 bunk, 2 queen room is 250 a night. So I’d only need 1 room. Also has hot breakfast and no pool reservations haha.
Short answer no, but it’s a personal preference. We’ve gone out farther to save & driven in/using shuttles or trams or walked and walked and walked, but we just love the close convenience of the hotels along Harbor. Ultimately, we really only use the room as a place to shower & sleep so it doesn’t need to be much more than comfortable and safe & most on Harbor do that. However, for a once in a lifetime and first trip if you don’t anticipate coming back, I would almost definitely go with whatever onsite option you can finagle out of your available funds.
You’ve been super helpful. I agree with what you say. I don’t think the extra distance is worth it esp since I know my son willl want to go back during the day to swim . Just far enough to be annoying
You’ve got me really reconsidering park vue. It’s back in my rotation and I’m going to watch more videos. The price really can’t be beat. My share would only be 900.
I really wish I wasn’t so nervous about attempting dvc because that’s about the range I could splurge
I’ve stayed at the Courtyard a few times now and it is now my go to. I feel comfortable in a Marriott since I almost always stay in Marriotts when I travel. My kids LOVED the splash pad / water slides. It was annoying to have to reserve, but it didn’t end up being an issue— we were able to work it into our schedule. We’re going again in October and staying there. Ultimately it is the water park that is winning me over.
I was highly tempted by the Element too! So much cheaper for more room … but the distance is a killer. It’s about a mile vs. half mile from the Courtyard.
The other thing I’ll say is that every time I walk back to the Courtyard, I always wish it was a little closer! The Park Vue is great in that regard. If you would prefer to have a shorter walk and are fine with an average pool, that might be the best option.
With regard to staying on-site, staying at GCH is an incredible experience and you wouldn’t regret it if it’s in the budget (it’s my favorite). DLH is just as far away as Park Vue, but it is very magical and has an amazing pool. The new tower DVC rooms look beautiful. Renting DVC points with two rooms or a suite would be great options depending on what is cheapest.
Thanks everyone for the advice
I he 2024 prices are out and they are even more rack rate than last year ha. Sigh
I’m gonna make a spreadsheet with all prices and distance and compare
My top off site are Anaheim Hotel, park vue and marriot theme park.
One more question , for park vue and marriot as the rooms look smaller than the Anaheim suite. As a family of 6 going for almost a week we’ll have a decent chunk of luggage. Will it be a tight with with 5-6 bags in one of those rooms?
At the Marriott, see if you can get a 2-bedroom suite. There is a master bedroom with a King and another room with 4 bunk beds in addition to a living room / kitchen. Plenty of space, but they don’t last long. It’s about $500-600 for one of those rooms if you time it right.
I’ve pretty much settled on an Anaheim hotel I think, but got to watching videos of the grand legacy. Their 3 bed room has 4 beds and 2 baths and their pool seems nice. I’ve heard it can be noisy in the suites though with the club/ restaurant.
Have you tried the grand legacy suite?
I know a lot of people love the Grand Legacy. I’m a local, so can’t speak well to hotels, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it from Liners.
About staying farther out: you are used to WDW where transportation is necessary for anything: hopping, going back to the room for swim or nap…so being farther out and using transportation may not be bad for you. One certainly gets more bang for their money, and if you’re going to used the hotel more, not just for sleeping and showering, it might be worth it. Just a thought
Our cousins that are WDW regulars had zero qualms with staying at a Marriott near the Angels stadium and taking the ART in. I can stay farther out at WDW bc you essentially have to, but at DL the farthest I enjoy staying is near Toy Story shuttle or convention center. I’m just too spoiled with so many stays across the street to want to be any more distance than that.
I’m late to this thread so I know OP has already decided, but for other readers I’m just going to say we stayed at Courtyard Anaheim TPE in May with 6 people (3 adults, 14, 10 and 6 yo) in a 2 Queen and bunk bed room. It was actually plenty of room for all of us. We even brought a small inflatable bed for our youngest and there was floor space for it at night, we just stood it up against the wall during the day. Our 10 and 14 year olds slept on the bunk beds with no problem. The pool reservation deal was annoying and seemed unnecessary as the pool was never very busy likely due to the cooler weather that week, but was not a problem, we just made maybe 3 reservations during the week, so had to plan our break times a bit ahead, and used two of them. The younger kids loved the water play areas and it seemed by far the best pool facilities around at least offsite and that close. The hotel wasn’t themed like a Disney deluxe of course, but overall it was very nice and we would absolutely stay there again. I did strongly consider switching to 2 rooms at the Fairfield Anaheim next door, but was glad we didn’t.
I ended up booking “ Camelot inn and suites”. I kept getting it mixed up with the other castely one and kept overlooking it. But it was renovated just a few years ago and the family suite looks great. It’s also two rooms which is nice if someone has to nap.
A big selling point was I was able to book it via disneyland.com and get tickets/hopper/genie all in one so I can start making payments. The Anaheim doesn’t offer the family suite on Disneyland.com so Camelot won over
It looks nicely updated and has an outdoor pool which was a requirement by my wife Anaheim Suites Near Disneyland | Hotels Anaheim CA
