So continuing with our own Jamie and Tara’s latest trip to Disneyland, this week we focus on the on-property hotels of the Disneyland Resort. There are three different hotels, Disney’s Grand Californian, the Disneyland Hotel, and Disney’s Paradise Pier. We take an in depth look at each while Jamie and Tara give us feedback on their own experiences.
Happy listening!
Have you ever wondered what your character dining options are at Disneyland in California? Wonder no longer as we walk you through all the delicious options that await on the west coast!
Happy listening!
While I was recently at the Disneyland Resort I had the opportunity to stay in all three of their onsite resorts. In this post, I’ll give you my thoughts on the Disneyland Hotel.
The Disneyland Hotel is the original Disney resort. Obviously, it’s had a few facelifts in 60 years, and I have to say I’m a huge fan of the look of this resort. It has a fun yet modern feel. If, like me, you’re a fan of Mary Blair’s art, you’re going to love it here.
The rooms were decently sized and quite clean and comfortable. I loved the overall feel of the rooms as well as that wooden carving above the bed! Just beautiful!
The bathroom is set up in an interesting way. The toilet is in its own little room within the bathroom, but the sink and bath areas are open. That probably works well for families, but for myself and my roommate, it was a little inconvenient.
My room was in the main tower, the Fantasy Tower. There are two other towers, Adventure and Frontier Towers. There are also Club Level accommodations here as well as a Club Level lounge that’s wonderful for watching fireworks at night.
You really can’t beat the location of this resort. It’s located right at the end of the Downtown Disney area and it takes maybe 5 minutes to walk from the hotel to the park gates. That’s so refreshing to this this girl who’s used to commute times at Walt Disney World!
The Disneyland hotel also has Trader Sam’s Grog Grotto, a fun cocktail bar located right outside the pool area. We stopped in for mojitos one night, and unfortunately the main bar was completely packed so we sat out on the patio. The drinks were great!
Also located at this resort is the Goofy’s Kitchen character meal as well as the famous Steakhouse 55.
Overall, this resort has a fun and laid back feel. This resort is great for families, couples, and anyone looking for that quintessential Disney feel. I really thought that Grand Californian was going to be my favorite of the three, but I was quite surprised to find that Disneyland Hotel was my preference! I really loved this resort and I can’t wait to stay here again with my family!
Our last full day at Disneyland started with an early breakfast at Storyteller’s Cafe in the Grand Californian Hotel. This breakfast is hosted by Chip and Dale and features all kinds of critters, in addition to the chipmunks we met Koda and Meeko.
The characters were fun and the food was incredible. It was a buffet with an omelet station and lots of boxed cereals we took for snacks for later.
Once we finished breakfast we headed to Disneyland. We had made a customized Touring Plan on the Lines App from http://www.touringplans.com. We had lots of things we wanted to do and with it being Easter week and high crowds we needed some guidance.
We started out with the Jungle Cruise. We had an excellent skipper and Anthony loved all of the surprises throughout the ride.
Next we headed to Tomorrowland and rode Buzz Lightyear. This is one of Anthony’s favorites and the one is Disneyland is better because you can remove the shooters from their perch.
Afterwards we trucked it over to Pirates of the Caribbean– in my opinion this one is superior to the one in Walt Disney World…. and it has a steeper drop– it wasn’t too steep as I’m a wimp about drops and found this one to be fine.
Our next stop was to go The Matterhorn Bobsleds. On our way we stopped at the grotto next to Sleeping Beauty’s castle. My sister could not believe that there was a Snow White scene next to Aurora’s castle. She was thinking the three fairies would be a better fit. 
The Matterhorn Bobsleds are a Disneyland icon and a unique attraction. My husband and sister rode this and I hung out with Anthony as he napped. They liked it, although it was a quick ride. My husband said it’s similar to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad in intensity level.
One of my main objectives of the day was to head over to Big Thunder Ranch. This is a covered hoedown area and it was hosting a Springtime Round-up featuring classic characters in their Easter outfits and popular Disney bunnies. Click here to see our review of this. This was one of our favorite places-not many people seemed to know about it and was the only place in the park without crowds. Afterwards we got to meet Jessie- she was a lot of fun!
After lunch and a few more rides we decided to head out of the park for an afternoon break. As we were walking by the castle, Alice and the Mad Hatter were walking by completely unattended (which would never happen at Disney World). Alice stopped at Anthony’s stroller and complimented his outfit and the Mad Hatter told him that he looks like a chimney sweep because he still had his Easter hat on. It was completely random magic–sometimes the best kind there is. 
We headed back to our hotel for a mid-day break, nap, and to start packing to fly home.
Dinner that evening was at Goofy’s Kitchen. I was really looking forward to this one as there is a huge variety of characters and heard good things about the food. The food was fine, but they charge this as a premium character meal. I do not think the buffet was worth the premium price tag.
There were lots of characters: Goofy greeted us at the door, we met Aladdin, Minnie, Chip, Dale, the Mad Hatter and a few more. We had the least amount of character interaction here. They seemed very rushed and sometimes skipped tables. I much prefer the other character meals we had.
We ended the night early since we were all exhausted from the long day!
This is part of my trip report on our April 2014 visit to Disneyland, Califorina. To read more posts about this trip, click here.
Dole Whipped 