The first Pixar themed hotel in the United States is now open! The Pixar Place Hotel opened in January 2024 with a lot of characters and fanfare. We think the celebration was well deserved: we love this hotel. Though construction on the hotel has been ongoing through 2024, you can absolutely book a room now without worrying about the noise. Here are our top 5 tips to make the most of your stay at the Pixar Place Hotel in Disneyland Resort!
Visit the Pixar Shorts Court and Pool Deck
We think the third floor Pixar Shorts Court is worth a visit for Pixar fans, Imagineering aficionados and families looking to have some unstructured fun time. We wrote a whole article about why we love the Pixar Shorts Court here.
Similarly, we think the excellent pools are the best reason to stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel, so be sure to visit Nemo and his friends at this one. We have a “deep dive” into the Pixar Place Hotel pool here.
Please check-out those two articles for detailed looks at these areas, but we also have a bit of quick advice we will share here. First, these areas are not available 24 hours a day, so be sure to check the hours. Also, because of their locations, these areas are heavily shaded during the morning and in full sun in the afternoon, so plan accordingly. Finally, remember that if the pool or even just the slide is unexpectedly closed, you may ask a cast member for access to the pool area at Disneyland Hotel.
Ask for a Room With No Connecting Doors
We recommend requesting a room at Pixar Place Hotel with no connecting doors to other rooms.
Some online reviews for the Pixar Place Hotel list noise from adjoining guest rooms as a major complaint. We have had no trouble with noise from other guests. This might be because we make a point to always request guest rooms with no connecting doors. We think noise from neighbors can travel more easily through doors than walls.
Of course, if you are renting two rooms, go ahead and get those rooms connected. Either way, we recommend calling Pixar Place Hotel (714-999-0990) and politely requesting that the cast member add a note to your reservation about your preference. Disney does not guarantee any requests, but we think it is worth a try. And please, remember to thank helpful cast members with cast compliments.
Use the Special Guest Entrance to Disney California Adventure Park (Maybe)
With your Pixar Place Hotel room key, you can also gain access to a special entrance to Disney California Adventure Park just across Disneyland Drive. Ask a cast member at Pixar Place Hotel for a map and directions. They will also be able to tell you the best route to the (only) entrance to Disneyland Park.
The special hotel guest gate into Disney California Adventure Park opens into Paradise Gardens Park. The walk to this entrance is certainly shorter than the trek to the main gate, but you will need to decide which option fits well with your itinerary.
Let us look at an example to illustrate what we mean by this. We like to get to Disney California Adventure Park before it opens. Once the park does open, we like to start our day in Avengers Campus and Cars Land. These areas are on the opposite side of the park from the special entrance, so we would need to cross the park and walk past the main entrance just to get to them. We would rather spend this time walking BEFORE the park opens rather than hurrying across the park during valuable opening minutes. For this reason, we choose to use the main entrance for park opening. Your considerations will of course be different based on your target attractions and time of day.
Schedule Time Just to Explore Pixar Place Hotel
We have already shared that we love the pool and Pixar Shorts Court, but there are many other great areas of the Pixar Place Hotel to explore. Did you know that Bing Bong from Inside Out and Joe Gardner from Soul regularly make appearances at Pixar Place Hotel? Joe has his own piano in the lobby!
There is also artwork from the Pixar Animation Studios all over the hotel. Each floor of the guest rooms tower has a unique mural just outside the elevator doors: we love the Nemo mural on the pool’s floor and the gorgeous Brave mural. Heimlich the caterpillar is masquerading as a bench in the hotel lobby, and the lobby’s walls and even pillars show Pixar characters at all stages of their creative development. One of our favorite subtle details is the sign for the guest laundry room: it shows the little lost sock that caused so much trouble with the CDA in Monsters Inc.
We are big advocates of taking a rest day during Disneyland visits, and think those in-between non-ticket days are a great time to explore the hotel. If that does not fit your itinerary, try to make time on your arrival or departure day. Remember, you have access to the amenities outside of your guest room at Pixar Place Hotel for your entire check-in day and your entire check-out day. Making full use of those amenities is one of our favorite tips for staying at Pixar Place Hotel or any Disneyland Resort Hotel.
View a Nighttime Spectacular from the Roof or Your Room at Pixar Place Hotel
Speaking of non-ticket “rest” days… as a guest at Pixar Place Hotel, you can actually still enjoy the parks nighttime spectaculars without a ticket!
When Disneyland Park has fireworks scheduled for the evening, you can watch them from the third floor roof deck. Even better, you can actually hear the show too! Pixar Place Hotel pipes in the soundtrack for the show. You will miss the projections happening in the park, but this is great way to experience the show without a ticket and without the dense crowds.
You have a chance to watch a nighttime spectacular in an even more intimate setting if you are lucky enough to have a theme park view room. During the day, your room has a dynamic view of Disney California Adventure Park, but at night, you can watch World of Color from your room. This time, you can hear the soundtrack by tuning your television to a specific channel.
Being able to view both of these nighttime spectaculars from our own hotel is a surprisingly valuable perk for us. We like being able to view the shows in a relaxed setting and then in a more dynamic way at the parks the next day. We especially loved watching World of Color in our pajamas. This was a nice way to help our kids transition to bedtime before an early day in the parks.
One Bonus Tip on How to Use the Elevators at Pixar Place Hotel
Those are our top five tips for having your best stay at Pixar Place Hotel, but we have a final bonus tip. Leave your room early if you need to be somewhere at a certain time.
The elevators at Pixar Place Hotel are notoriously tricky. They use a special touch-pad control panel. When you approach the elevator bank, you will select your desired floor on the touch pad and the screen will show you your assigned elevator. Once you are inside the correct elevator, you do not need to press any other buttons. The elevator will automatically stop at your desired floor.
This system was put in place during the Pixar reimagining to make the elevators more efficient. Unfortunately, the elevators still seem to have trouble handling the guest load at the hotel. In our experience, the worst time of day for the elevators is check-in time. Surprisingly, we have not had trouble at park opening and closing and short waits leaving the roof deck after fireworks viewing.
Aside from the lobby stairs between the first and second floors, the stairs are closed to guest expect in an emergency. This means you are stuck taking the elevators whether you like it or not. We recommend leaving early if you need to be somewhere at a certain time, especially if it is during the mid to late afternoon.
Thank you for reading our tips on staying at the Pixar Place Hotel in Disneyland Resort.
We hope you have found this post helpful; we love the Pixar Place Hotel and have several posts about it: 5 Awesome Elements of Pixar Place Hotel at Disneyland, 5 Reasons We Will Return to the Pixar Shorts Court, 5 Reasons We Love the Pixar Place Hotel Guest Rooms and A Deep Dive Into the Pixar Place Hotel Pool. We love sharing tips about Pixar Place Hotel and all of Disneyland Resort. For a general guide to your Disneyland visit, we have Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep
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