This is an entry for the Disneyland Hotel in our Disneyland 101 Glossary: Disneyland Resort definitions in under 101 words, from Mouse Brief.
For additional information and commentary on the Disneyland Hotel, keep reading after the glossary entry.
There are three hotels owned by Disney located inside the Disneyland Resort: the oldest of these is the Disneyland Hotel. (The others are Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa and Pixar Place Hotel.) Guests of Disneyland Hotel can stay in traditional hotel rooms, suites, and Disney Vacation Club studios and villas. The hotel offers amenities that include heavily themed pool areas and several eateries. Traditionally, a changing slate of additional perks have also been offered to guests. Disneyland Hotel celebrates Disneyland history and nostalgia. Though the name may suggest otherwise, this is not the closest hotel to the theme parks.
Thanks for reading this entry in our Disneyland 101 Glossary. For other entries in alphabetical order, visit this page. For a chart comparing all three Disneyland Resort Hotels, click here. And for more than one-hundred words on Disneyland Hotel, keep reading…
Disneyland Hotel, Our Perspective
There really is something special about Disneyland Hotel. It’s not the fanciest or the closest hotel to the Disneyland Resort parks. And, it’s certainly not the cheapest, but the same special “magic” that puts Disney parks in a category all their own is in this hotel. Fantasy, nostalgia and fun get mixed-in with some thoughtful hotel design and excellent customer service. I dreamed about staying in Disneyland Hotel as a child, and I would love to stay there constantly as an adult, but it is expensive, so reality intercedes. In this addendum to our Disneyland 101 Glossary entry for Disneyland Hotel, we are offering insights to help you decide whether it is the right choice for your Disneyland visit.
A Disneyland Hotel Overview
Disneyland Hotel is located on the west side of the Disneyland Resort property. It is a Disneyland Resort Hotel with all the benefits that come along with that designation. (Those benefits are constantly changing, and we will cover more on that in a bit.) Disneyland Hotel is made up of four towers: Fantasy, Frontier and Adventure hold standard guests rooms, and Discovery is home to DVC Villas (also available for booking by non-DVC members). Between these towers you will find lush landscaping and our favorite pool area in the whole neighborhood.
Right beside the Disneyland Hotel pool is the popular Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar and its sister quick-service establishment called Tangaroa Terrace Tropical Bar and Grill. Other dining options are The Coffee House, Broken Spell Lounge and Goofy’s Kitchen, which is a popular character dining spot. The DVC Villas side of the Disneyland Hotel has another poolside restaurant called Palm Breeze Bar.
Other amenities include laundry facilities, room service, a fitness center, fitness classes, WiFi, paid parking, electric vehicle charging and two gift shops.
As for the rooms, the standard guest rooms can sleep up to five and there are various suites that can sleep anywhere from four to sixteen guests. Some of these suites have incredibly elaborate and unique theming. (These are so expensive that I am afraid we cannot afford to offer our perspective on them, but the photos sure do look incredible.) The pricing of the rooms is dependent on seasons and the view from the rooms. Disney also designates some rooms as “club level” with access to the High Key Lounge. DVC Villas are designed for longer stays and have amenities like kitchenettes.
Some Disneyland Hotel History
As we mentioned above, Disneyland Hotel is not the closest hotel to either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park, but it is—in our opinion—the most iconic. The hotel has existed in some form since the early days of Disneyland. We find it to be rich with Disney history and nostalgia.
The hotel is one of three Disney-owned and operated Disneyland Resort Hotels, and it is located on Disney property. However, it has not always been owned and operated by Disney. In the race to get Disneyland funded and completed, Walt Disney was not in a place to build his own hotel. So, he decided to ask Jack Wrather to build a hotel on Disney’s land just west of the park. The Walt Disney Company came to own the Disneyland Hotel when it bought the Wrather Corporation in 1988. (Source: Disney’s D23, Disney A to Z ).
The history of Disneyland Hotel is so intertwined with the history of everything Disney, that the company has chosen to honor that with the current design of the Disneyland Hotel. Just look at the new—and yet distinctly mid-century—Palm Breeze Bar right near the nostalgic Mark 1 Monorail waterslides. The Fantasy, Adventure and Frontier towers pay homage to their three namesake lands. We particularly love the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad model in the Frontier tower, and there are artifacts like that scattered throughout the grounds.
Opportunities to Explore Disney History
You can learn about the history of the hotel and company on the Disneyland Hotel Tour, which is complimentary for guests. If you are lucky enough to stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel, ask the cast member at check-in to register you for one of the tours. You can also find some fun historical photos here. (Incidentally, I have memories of staying at the Vacationland campground that was once associated with Disneyland Hotel. You can read about that here: Booyah! 5 Rad Childhood Memories from 1990s Disneyland.)
Disneyland Hotel Perks Today
In any case, that campground is now gone and the Disneyland Hotel is now firmly part of the Walt Disney Company. Disneyland Hotel is an official Disneyland Resort Hotel, so when you stay there, you get certain perks. These perks are constantly in flux, but currently they include things like the ability to make charges to your room, something Disney calls “preferred access to hotel dining reservations,” and special activities and entertainment for hotel guests. Examples of those activities would be things like the walking tour we mentioned in the last section and outdoor movies. These activities are always changing and are often linked to the seasons: we have also met characters poolside and taken ukulele lessons.
Traditionally the biggest perk has been extra hours in the parks for Disneyland Resort Hotels guests, aka Extra Magic Hours, Early Entry, etc. (Actually, I even remember a time when you could get this benefit my buying a multi-day ticket.) But starting January 5, 2026, there will be no extra hours. At the time of writing, Disney is replacing this benefit with the perk of one Lightning Lane for each guest with a Disneyland Resort Hotel stay. This pass allows each person on a Disneyland Resort Hotel reservation to enter one attraction from the Lightning Lane Multi Pass list using the accelerated Lightning Lane entry. This will only happen once per visit (not once per day). The guest will also need valid admission to the park where they plan to use the pass.
Proximity Perks
As another perk, Disney also advertises “convenient access” to the theme parks for Disneyland Resort Hotel guests. However, it is worth pointing out that several third-party hotels offer shorter walks to the parks than the Disneyland Hotel. One thing the Disneyland Hotel does have is a nearby monorail station: you can board the monorail here and ride right into Tomorrowland. Just keep in mind that the monorail is not always operating during park hours.
Still, even if there is a bit of a walk from the Disneyland Hotel to the parks, we think it is really quite pleasant and a true perk of staying there. Disneyland Hotel is on Disneyland Resort property, so the walk is entirely through Disneyland Resort itself. This means lovely music, landscaping and all those other little Disney touches. (Also crowds, but that’s Disneyland today.) We also appreciate that this walk does not take you across any busy or loud streets, something we have come to appreciate when traveling with young kids.
This proximity perk falls into the extra Disney “stuff” that cannot really be explained on a bullet-pointed list of Disneyland Resort Hotel perks. Disney may very well be the all-time expert at placemaking, and being able to stay in that place for the entirety of your visit is a benefit that is hard to quantify. (Though, again, you will pay a premium for it.)
Magic Stuff
So all of that gives you a flying-carpet level perspective on Disneyland Hotel, but should you book it? Like everything else on this site, that really depends on you or your family. This is an expensive hotel, and if staying here means we spend less days at the Disney parks, well, we pick the Disney parks over a Disneyland Hotel stay. If money were no object, we would stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel every time.
The Disney rooms are so thoughtfully designed for families, the service from the cast members is beautiful and all the little extra touches really do make for a transportive hotel experience. We love the pools at Disneyland Hotel, both on the DVC and traditional side (you get to use both as a guest), and the lush grounds provide a lovely counter to the high energy of the parks. There’s just something special about the experience that is hard to represent in a simple pros and cons list, but you can read about our favorite parts of the Disneyland Hotel here: 5 Things We Love About Disneyland Hotel, and we also have a post dedicated to the pool here: A Deep Dive Into the Disneyland Hotel Pools.
Should You Stay at the Disneyland Hotel?
If you know you will be able to spend some time really enjoying the amenities during your visit, or if this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip, the Disneyland Hotel might be a good choice for you. For help making that decision, be sure to check-out Staying Near Disneyland: Book the Best Hotel for You. And, if you do decide to stay, make the most of it with 5 Ways to Get the Best Value From Your Disneyland Resort Hotel.
We recommend pricing out a Disneyland Hotel stay versus other good options nearby and then considering what else you could do with the money you save. Perhaps you will decide that money could be better used on Lightning Lane passes for the family. Or maybe you can just make better use of it at home. For us, staying in budget hotels means we can travel more often… but we also treasure certain stays in memorable accommodations.
Now, if you decide to pass on the Disneyland Hotel this time around, remember that you still have opportunities to enjoy some of the hotel amenities, namely the restaurants. You can dine at any one of Disneyland Hotel’s restaurants without being a hotel guest and without purchasing a ticket. If you are looking for a little magic outside the theme parks, consider booking a character meal at Goofy’s Kitchen or booking Trader Sam’s Enchanted Tiki Bar for some Jungle Cruise-style humor. In heading to these restaurants, you can also enjoy some of the vibrant landscaping of the Disneyland Hotel grounds. For more ideas like this, see Terrific Ways to Have Fun at Disneyland Without a Ticket.
Whatever your decision, we would love to help you have a memorable Disneyland visit, so be sure to make use of our free and complete Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep, and please consider signing up for our newsletter below. Thanks for reading!