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When choosing where to stay on your Disneyland vacation, the first big decision you need to make is whether to stay in an official Disneyland hotel or one of the several hotels in the surrounding area.

Related: The best hotels near Disneyland: Where to stay on- and off-property

Disneyland has three on-site hotels: the Disneyland Hotel, Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, and the recently reimagined Pixar Place Hotel. When you choose one of these properties as your “home away from home” during your Disneyland vacation, you’ll get access to special benefits you won’t find anywhere else.

Disneyland Resort hotel basics

Before we get too far into the benefits, here’s a bit of information on each of Disneyland’s three hotels to help you choose which one is best for your vacation.

Disneyland Hotel

The Disneyland Hotel dates back to 1955 — the same year that Disneyland opened. Though the hotel feels sophisticated and modern, you’ll find design details around every corner that harken back to Disneyland’s past.

The main pool’s waterslide is modeled after a Monorail car, and the oversized chairs in the lobby resemble the Mad Tea Party teacups. Murals in the guest room towers depict classic Disneyland attractions.

The Villas at Disneyland Hotel, a new Disney Vacation Club tower, opened Sept. 28, 2023. The Villas at Disneyland Hotel come in various sizes, from studio rooms for up to two guests to three-bedroom villas that sleep up to 12.

Room rates at the Disneyland Hotel average around $600 per night.

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa blends traditional California Craftsman style with luxury lodge amenities such as a massive stone hearth fireplace, rustic furnishings and an outdoorsy color scheme.

This hotel is also the closest to Disneyland. It offers a private entrance to Disney California Adventure Park and a separate entrance to Downtown Disney (which you can use to access the Monorail to Disneyland Park).

Room rates at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa average around $700 per night.

Pixar Place Hotel

Pixar Place Hotel, formerly Paradise Pier Hotel, is the newest lodging option at Disneyland. It’s also the most affordable. At this hotel, you’ll find nods to each and every Pixar movie, including a meet-and-greet with Bing Bong from “Inside Out” and a “Finding Nemo”-themed waterslide and splash pad.

Pixar Place Hotel also has a private walkway and entrance into the Paradise Gardens area of Disney California Adventure Park. The rooftop pool deck is a prime fireworks viewing spot, too.

Room rates at Pixar Place Hotel average around $450 per night.

Early theme park entry

Guests at any of Disneyland’s three hotels can take advantage of 30-minute early entry to either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park (valid park admission required). This allows guests to get a head start on popular attractions before the park opens to regular daytime visitors.

Which park opens early varies per day, but the current schedule is as follows:

• Disneyland Park: Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays
• Disney California Adventure Park: Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays

Thirty minutes may not sound like much, but it could mean the difference between waiting only five minutes versus an hour to get on Space Mountain. At Disneyland, you can begin making Lightning Lane Multi Pass “skip the line” reservations earlier than other guests because Disneyland requires you to be inside the park before you begin making ride selections.

Convenient access to the parks

All three of Disneyland’s on-site hotels are within walking distance of the resort’s two theme parks. Thanks to its walkable footprint, you can reach the parks quickly in the morning or stroll back to your hotel for a midafternoon break.

Guests of the Disneyland Hotel can follow the walkway to the shops and eateries in Downtown Disney. You can either walk all the way through Downtown Disney to the esplanade between Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park or take a shorter walk to the Downtown Disney Monorail station for access to Disneyland Park.

If you’re staying at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, you can walk straight into Disney California Adventure Park through the hotel’s private theme park entrance. You’ll also enjoy a much shorter wait at security versus guests who use the main entrance. If you’d rather visit Downtown Disney or Disneyland, there is a separate walkway and entrance.

Last but certainly not least, Pixar Place Hotel guests can use a dedicated walkway across the street from the hotel to access Disney California Adventure Park or walk out of the hotel’s back entrance toward Downtown Disney.

Fireworks, characters and fun activities

When you stay at a Disneyland hotel, the fun doesn’t stop when you leave the parks each day.

You may happen upon your favorite character without stepping foot inside a park. You can often find Bing Bong from “Inside Out” greeting guests outside of Pixar Place Hotel, and you can listen to the musical stylings of Joe Gardner from “Soul” playing piano inside the lobby.

Disneyland hotels offer character meals at Goofy’s Kitchen at the Disneyland Hotel, as well as at Storytellers Cafe and Napa Rose at the Grand Californian. You may be lucky enough to meet with characters in the Disneyland Hotel lobby, too.

There are no scheduled times for this surprise meet-and-greet, but your best bet is between mealtimes at Goofy’s Kitchen when the characters make their way to or from the restaurant.

If you love fireworks but your kids tire out before nighttime, there are several fireworks viewing options from Disneyland’s hotels. If you stay on the concierge level at the Disneyland Hotel, you can view Disneyland’s fireworks from the E-Ticket Club lounge. The lounge also serves complimentary food and beverages throughout the day.

Guests at the Grand Californian can access a viewing deck on the sixth floor that has spectacular views of the World of Color at Disney California Adventure Park. Those staying in a club-level room can get a partial view of Disneyland’s fireworks from the concierge lounge balcony.

As mentioned above, the Pixar Place Hotel’s rooftop pool deck is a great spot to watch the Disneyland fireworks. The property even pipes in music from the show to give you a closer experience to what you’d get inside the park.

Each hotel also offers a calendar of weekly activities, ranging from fitness classes to arts and crafts. A few of our favorites include an educational walking tour of the Disneyland Hotel, free drawing classes at Pixar Place Hotel and morning yoga overlooking Disney California Adventure Park at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.

You can view a full hotel activity schedule here.

It’s not as expensive as you might think

There are some handy ways to incorporate credit cards or rewards points into your Disneyland planning to pay less out of pocket for your Disneyland hotel stay. TPG has a full guide on the best credit cards for Disney, but below are a few of our best tips.

If you have a card that comes with access to the Citi travel portal — like the Citi Strata Premier℠ Card (see rates and fees) or a no-annual-fee option like the Citi Double Cash® Card (see rates and fees) or the Citi Rewards+® Card (see rates and fees) — you can often book Disneyland hotels that way. Your Citi ThankYou Rewards points are worth a flat 1 cent apiece when you redeem them for hotel stays through the portal.

Similarly, if you have a card like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card, or the Capital One VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, you can redeem Capital One miles at a rate of 1 cent each via the Capital One Travel portal for Disneyland hotel stays.

If you have a card that comes with an annual travel credit, you can apply it toward purchases that code as “travel.” For example, you can use the Chase Sapphire Reserve®‘s annual $300 travel credit on a Disneyland hotel if the charge codes as travel. To ensure it does, book your room or hotel-and-tickets package directly with Disney or via a travel agent, such as TPG’s partner Mouse Counselors.

The Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card has a similar $300 annual travel credit, but you can only use it toward bookings made through the Capital One Travel portal.

With the Disney® Premier Visa® Card and the Disney® Visa® Card, you can earn rewards dollars that you can then redeem for Disney hotel stays. One rewards dollar is worth $1 toward your bill.

In addition to various ways you can save using points, miles, and travel credits, Disneyland regularly offers discounts of 25% to 30% on hotel stays. You can view the latest offers here.

Bottom line

There’s no denying that Disneyland’s on-site hotel options are more expensive than most off-property hotels, but nothing can match the feeling of staying in the middle of the magic. The benefits of staying on property are clear, and with a bit of points and miles pixie dust, you can reduce the out-of-pocket cost of your Disneyland vacation.

Related reading:

• How Disneyland’s newest ride proves that ‘progress is impossible without change’
• Tips for visiting Disneyland: 17 ways to save money and have more fun
• The best restaurants at Disneyland
• These are the best times to visit Disneyland
• Close to Disneyland for half the price: My stay at the Hyatt Regency Orange County