We love being “mouseguests” at the Disney-owned hotels in California. Whether it is the playful Pixar Place Hotel, nostalgic Disneyland Hotel or luxurious Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, the hotels of Disneyland Resort are spectacular. They are also generally more expensive than other hotels in the area! If you have the opportunity to stay in a Disneyland Resort Hotel, we want to help you make the most of it. Here are our top five tips for getting the best value from your stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel:
Arrive Early and Leave Late
To get the best value out of your Disneyland Resort Hotel stay, arrive early and leave late: go swimming on your check-in day and stick around for an afternoon tour on your check-out day. Guest rooms at all three hotels are available after 3:00pm (Villas after 4:00pm) on check-in day, and check-out time is 11:00am. We are not suggesting that you try to stay in your guest room outside of these times. What we are suggesting is that you make the most of other amenities at your hotel. As a Disneyland Resort Hotel guest, you are able to use the common area facilities and perks from 6:00am on check-in day until midnight on check-out day!
This is not some kind of sneaky loophole, multiple hotel cast members have been eager to share this information with us. We have been happy to arrive early, leave our luggage with bell services, and explore the hotel common areas until our room was ready! On check-out day, we have enjoyed the pool late into the day and used the bathrooms on the pool deck to change.
Extra tip: We recommend packing pool gear, a change of clothes and simple toiletries in a designated beach bag or carry-on. When you check-in or out of your Disney hotel, leave all of your luggage with bell services except for this bag. This way you can enjoy the recreation areas and their adjoining restrooms before catching your flight (or dinner in Downtown Disney District). Not sure what to put in the bag? We have a post on what to bring to a Disneyland Resort Hotel pool here.
Schedule Disneyland Resort Hotel Time
When we are paying a premium for a Disney hotel, we schedule time just to enjoy our accommodations. We follow that first tip we shared and get good value out of our check-in and check-out days. We also take rest days in between our park visits just to enjoy our Disneyland Resort Hotel. (You can read our advice about rest days at Maximize Value: Take a Rest Day at Disneyland.)
If we know we will not have time to spend at the hotel itself, we prefer to book one of the cheaper off-property hotels nearby. That way, we save our money and put it towards a future visit when we are better able to savor our time at a Disney hotel.
So what do we do during our hotel time? We luxuriate in the cleverly designed guests rooms, we play in the recreation areas (like the Pixar Shorts Court) and we spend lots and lots of time at the pool. Then we explore the common areas, which are full of delightful surprises. On any given visit, we might come across a scale model of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, a seasonal gingerbread house or maquettes from the latest Pixar film.
Some perks of the Disneyland Resort Hotels are only offered at specific times. That is one of the reasons we recommend scheduling for some daylight and nighttime hours at your hotel, so you can…
Take Classes and Tours (and View Fireworks)
Disneyland Resort Hotels have their very own scheduled entertainment and classes! During our recent stay we greeted Bing Bong and listened to Joe Gardner playing piano. Later, we made some music ourselves when we learned to play a song on the ukulele. We also made character bracelets and watched fireworks from our hotel pool deck (with the soundtrack)! These were just a few of the special offering during our visit: there were also outdoor movies, learn-to-draw classes, hotel tours and fitness classes.
All of this was happening over just a few days at the Disneyland Resort Hotels! Even if you do an online check-in, be sure to accept an entertainment guide and schedule from a cast member at your hotel’s front desk. This cast member should also be able to assist you with any questions about the offerings. If you see something you like, register for it by calling or visiting the front desk. Be aware that some offerings, like the drawing classes, do fill-up!
Extra Tip: Sometimes these offerings are posted on the Disneyland website calendar. You can always check there. However, we have found that Disney Resort Hotel cast members may know about future offerings that have not been posted. We have called the hotel before our visit and found out about classes that were not posted to the website. This allowed us to schedule our time around what we wanted to do most.
Look at a Map
Guests of Disneyland Resort Hotels have a guest exclusive entrance to Disney California Adventure Park. Ask a cast member at your hotel for a map and directions. The route to the entrance may not be immediately obvious. Cast members can also help you with the best shortcuts to reach Disneyland Park or paths to the wonderful dining. Note that—at the time of writing—there is a second special entrance to Disney California Adventure Park just across the street from Pixar Place Hotel. However, that entrance is set to close in early 2026.
Extra Tip: Connect with the cast members. A Pixar Place Hotel cast member gave us a custom map with information about the newly reimagined hotel and hand drawn directions to the parks. This was so helpful as we navigated this new space! The sub-tip for this tip (and many of the other ones) is to ask cast members for assistance. These Disney employees are quite knowledgeable, and we like being able to connect with people who are passionate about helping others. If you have a good interaction with a cast member, remember that you can give them a cast compliment.
Use Those Slides and Pools!
Disneyland Resort Hotels have some truly extraordinary pool areas. Pixar Place Hotel has a newly opened recreation deck with a Finding Nemo themed pool area and the one-of-a-kind Pixar Shorts Court. At Disneyland Hotel, we love the charming nostalgia of the pool deck, and our kids love the Steamboat Willie splash area and monorail-themed slides. Visiting Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel and Spa feels like being suddenly transported to a redwood forest (with a great slide).
Do not miss spending time at these gorgeously imaginative pool decks. You can even enjoy the theming without getting wet. Each pool area offers food and drinks, and lounge chairs abound. Some guests also rent cabanas, pods and daybeds (we are always too busy splashing around to use these).
A note on pool and slide closures.
If the pools or slides at your Disneyland Resort Hotel are closed, you can use the pool area at another Disneyland Resort Hotel.
On our recent visit, Crush’s Surfin’ Slide at Pixar Place Hotel was unexpectedly closed on our arrival day. Fortunately, a helpful cast member directed us to Disneyland Hotel. There, we were kindly welcomed by the pool concierge. We were then able to use the monorail-themed waterslides and the entire pool area. The next day, Crush was surfing and sliding again, so we rode the waves with him at Pixar Place Hotel.
Whatever the circumstances may be during your visit, we encourage you to speak with cast members when you have questions. They will help you make the most of the magical pool areas.
We hope that you have a chance to stay at a Disneyland Resort Hotel very soon, and we hope that you enjoy every minute of your visit.
Thank you for reading this post on getting the best value out of your Disneyland Resort Hotels stay. Convinced you want to stay at a Disney hotel but not sure which to choose? Check here for a comparison chart of the three hotels, and for help choosing between the three, click here. For general help with booking a hotel, we have this page. It is part of our free and complete Step-by-Step Disneyland Prep. Finally, please consider subscribing to our newsletter below, and get the latest posts in your inbox.
