Close hotel or bite the bullet and stay onsite

[princessap]

We are a family of five and planning our first disneyland trip next summer...I am debating between biting the bullet and splurging for onsite vs offsite. What are some offsite but close hotels people can recommend for families of five??
Thank you!!
We frequent WDW twice a year so am trying to plan our one and only disneyland trip as best as possible!

 

[HydroGuy]

We are a family of five and planning our first disneyland trip next summer...I am debating between biting the bullet and splurging for onsite vs offsite. What are some offsite but close hotels people can recommend for families of five??
Thank you!!
We frequent WDW twice a year so am trying to plan our one and only disneyland trip as best as possible!

You will get a ton of advice here on a question like that (since there are so many options) that will be helpful but also maybe overwhelming.

First, be careful of off-site hotel claims about distance to DLR. Some are literally across the street from the parks but not across the street from the entrance to the parks. They thus may be a 1+ mile walk to get from the hotel to the park gates even though they are "across the street" or "one block away".

So before you choose a specific hotel, decide which of these categories will work:

1. Onsite Disney - close to parks but expensive (even more expensive than WDW hotels, and DLR does not have any Value options)

2. Offsite Easy Walking Distance - most of these are decent enough hotels, but not Hilton/Sheraton quality. More like Best Western/Marriott Courtyard/Ramada Inn quality.

3. Offsite Too Far to Walk Comfortably but More Upscale - Lots around Anaheim. Like 1-2 miles. Hilton/DoubleTree/Sheraton/etc. Note some of these hotels are south of DLR on Harbor Blvd. and easy to get to the Toy Story Parking Lot which has Disney buses you can ride to DLR.

4. Offsite but you do not care where because you will Uber or Lyft - Lots of those too. See this recent thread - https://www.disboards.com/threads/where-do-uber-and-lyft-drop-off-at-disneyland.3629816/

Whatever you do, do not stay offsite, rent a car, and drive to the parks. The least efficient option. See "Hidden Time Losses When Using a Car At DLR" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1381580

For me, I only do #1 or #2 based on this thread I wrote - "HydroGuy's Hotel Rule" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1199862

Number one key advice I have is do not make the classic WDW vet mistake about hotel choice. Since WDW vets are so accustomed to buses to get to parks, they choose a hotel farther away and plan to take a bus thinking it is like WDW. Yes that works, but it gives up a huge DLR advantage that it has over WDW with so many closer hotels where you do not need a bus. And it can waste a lot of time unnecessarily. See my Hotel Rule advice linked above.

The absolute closest off-site hotel is the Best Western Park Place Inn. This hotel and those near it on Harbor you can literally walk from your hotel room door to the park gates in 5 minutes if you hit the crosswalk light just right. Think about that. A hotel where the room to park walk is closer than some of the bus or boat drops at WDW are to the parks.

I had four sons and we have stayed at the BWPPI mini-suites many times. Sleeps 6 with two QBs and a couchbed also Queen size. Small fridge and microwave. Nothing fancy but nice enough and very close.

My #2 offsite favorite is Candy Cane Inn which is a notch up from BWPPI and lots of people around here like it. They are a little further from DLR but still walking distance if you have to. They have a shuttle that runs every 30 minutes and so I only walk when I mis-time the shuttle pickup and do not want to wait 30 minutes for the next pickup.

 

[princessap]

This is amazing!!!! Thank you so much!!! we frequent disneyworld a ton so DL is all new!! I was debating between theme park view at PPH or standard room at DLH if we were to do onsite...I get sucked into the onsite as its our only time most likely but its a big price difference!

 

[Frozen2014]

We stayed at Desert Inn & Suites this past August and were happy with it. It has older decor and breakfast is included but no hot items BUT (1) it is right across the street on Harbor (2) they have large suites for reasonable price. We would stay there again.

 

[Mysteryincorp]

We've stayed at Tropicana , I would agree with above PP that it is a closer walk than most bus drop offs at WDW. Tropicana was clean, pretty inexpensive and had a little market for souvenirs and quick breakfast items. Staying at one of those three or four hotels that are literally across the street is the way to go, in my opinion. Though you can't beat The Grand!!!!

 

[22Tink]

We never stay onsite in DL because we just can't justify the cost when we only use the room to sleep. We like the Best Western Park Place and the Tropicana Inn. Both are a 5 minute walk and the Best Western has a free hot breakfast. There are lots of good options that are a very short walk. Happy planning!

 

[Nevada Jen]

A lot of it depends on the age of your party. I think it's better to do an uber hotel of no one needs car seats or strollers. The motels right across the street just aren't nice enough for me for the price.

 

[meggles]

If you can budget for it, stay onsite! To us, it's worth it because we have a portion of each day where we take advantage of the amenities offered. We utilize extra magic hour in the mornings which allows us to start the day off on the right foot. We go to the pool/hot tub daily. We order snacks or lunch and cocktails at the pool. We explore the on-site hotels, do the scavenger hunt, and try to see one of the movies they offer nightly. We love the decor in the rooms and just the general feeling of being in the "Disney bubble."

We live about 7-8 hours away (driving) and we'd rather only visit 1-2 times per year and be able to stay on site vs. visiting more often and staying off-site. There really is something magical about being right there especially when you can see the parks from your room (the Grand or PPH view level). To me, at this point, our experience of DLR is about 70% the parks and 30% the resort experience. It doesn't seem like much but the few times we've stayed off-site we've felt like some component was missing.

If it's your only trip to DLR I'd highly recommend on-site!

 

[elaine amj]

To me, one of the biggest perks of DLR is getting an affordable hotel directly across the street. So unimaginable at WDW. I used my points for a free room at Fairfield inn across the street. Yes, i could also have stayed at the nicer Residence Inn a little further away - but walking distance was a huge perk to me. It was a basic room in a basic motel, but man, being able to walk across the street was amazing!

 

[LYSE]

There are going to be strong opinions on on site vs off site.

If you can swing it I say stay onsite, it makes it that much more of a Disney vacation, getting the extra hour of park time everyday of your stay really makes a difference.

Personally I am never staying off site again, being in the bubble is worth it for us.

 

[tarheelalum]

Plenty of decent hotels within a short 10 minute walk to the park on Harbor Blvd. Also you could stay at one of the Anaheim convention area hotels and walk to the Toy Story parking lot for the free bus to Disneyland.

If you stay onsite the only place you want to stay is at the Disneyland Hotel. It is by far the best hotel at Disneyland imho.

 

[NewbieMouse]

HydroGuy's analysis above is spot on. Personally, I have stayed onsite twice but just can't justify the price difference at DLR (I have stayed on site at WDW and DLP, and could easily justify it and think it really adds to the experience - but DLR is very different from WDW & DLP). We could afford to stay onsite at DLR but feel that the value we get with staying at BWPPI allows us to redirect that money to other things. BWPPI is not a luxury hotel, but they have just recently renovated, have a free breakfast (which saves us a lot of money with two young teens and also precious morning park hours), and like HydroGuy said it is a very short walk from the parks. Tough to beat. Maybe with the money saved you could do something special, like WOC dessert party, some nice sit down meals, etc. Just IMHO.

 

[OhStuffandFluff]

You will get a ton of advice here on a question like that (since there are so many options) that will be helpful but also maybe overwhelming.

First, be careful of off-site hotel claims about distance to DLR. Some are literally across the street from the parks but not across the street from the entrance to the parks. They thus may be a 1+ mile walk to get from the hotel to the park gates even though they are "across the street" or "one block away".

So before you choose a specific hotel, decide which of these categories will work:

1. Onsite Disney - close to parks but expensive (even more expensive than WDW hotels, and DLR does not have any Value options)

2. Offsite Easy Walking Distance - most of these are decent enough hotels, but not Hilton/Sheraton quality. More like Best Western/Marriott Courtyard/Ramada Inn quality.

3. Offsite Too Far to Walk Comfortably but More Upscale - Lots around Anaheim. Like 1-2 miles. Hilton/DoubleTree/Sheraton/etc. Note some of these hotels are south of DLR on Harbor Blvd. and easy to get to the Toy Story Parking Lot which has Disney buses you can ride to DLR.

4. Offsite but you do not care where because you will Uber or Lyft - Lots of those too. See this recent thread - https://www.disboards.com/threads/where-do-uber-and-lyft-drop-off-at-disneyland.3629816/

Whatever you do, do not stay offsite, rent a car, and drive to the parks. The least efficient option. See "Hidden Time Losses When Using a Car At DLR" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1381580

For me, I only do #1 or #2 based on this thread I wrote - "HydroGuy's Hotel Rule" www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1199862

Number one key advice I have is do not make the classic WDW vet mistake about hotel choice. Since WDW vets are so accustomed to buses to get to parks, they choose a hotel farther away and plan to take a bus thinking it is like WDW. Yes that works, but it gives up a huge DLR advantage that it has over WDW with so many closer hotels where you do not need a bus. And it can waste a lot of time unnecessarily. See my Hotel Rule advice linked above.

The absolute closest off-site hotel is the Best Western Park Place Inn. This hotel and those near it on Harbor you can literally walk from your hotel room door to the park gates in 5 minutes if you hit the crosswalk light just right. Think about that. A hotel where the room to park walk is closer than some of the bus or boat drops at WDW are to the parks.

I had four sons and we have stayed at the BWPPI mini-suites many times. Sleeps 6 with two QBs and a couchbed also Queen size. Small fridge and microwave. Nothing fancy but nice enough and very close.

My #2 offsite favorite is Candy Cane Inn which is a notch up from BWPPI and lots of people around here like it. They are a little further from DLR but still walking distance if you have to. They have a shuttle that runs every 30 minutes and so I only walk when I mis-time the shuttle pickup and do not want to wait 30 minutes for the next pickup.

Is there a general rule as to when to make an off-site hotel reservation? I have tried looking for our dates for BWPPI and it says there is no availability for middle of July 2018. Thanks for your help!

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

There are pros and cons to both staying onsite and off. Being in the bubble and getting into DCA early are a couple of the perks of staying onsite. We always stayed onsite up until last year we tried staying across the Harbor Blvd entrance at Park Vue. We loved the closer walk than staying at DLH and the free breakfast was nice. But last time we stayed at DLH again because we found a great deal and it was worth it for the early morning. I missed the shorter walk though and the monorail was always down when we wanted to go from Tomorrowland back to our room. The walk was tough but another reason we chose to stay was the hot weather and having a nicer pool. We don't spend a lot of time in our room, so staying offsite is fine for us, especially going in cooler weather when we won't swim anyway. So for me, staying onsite is worth it if they're having a deal on rooms but paying 4-5x the cost of staying across the street isn't worth it to me. Oh and park vue and some others have free parking, which is nice too if you have a rental.

 

[HydroGuy]

Is there a general rule as to when to make an off-site hotel reservation? I have tried looking for our dates for BWPPI and it says there is no availability for middle of July 2018. Thanks for your help!

No general rule but during busy times 4 months has usually been good enough for me. I wanted the BWPPI for our October trip in a few weeks and tried to book that in August. So two months. They had availability the week we wanted but not on the days we wanted. So I booked at the CCI - my personal #2 offsite hotel.

Last month I booked BWPPI for next June and had no problem. But we decided to do GCV and I canceled it. Not sure why you had a problem for July 2018 there but you may try calling. 10 months out has never been a problem for me.

When I go to the D23 Expo I always book hotels a year out because I know it will be busy. I usually book extra days before and after because I do not know the exact days we will do the parks a year ahead. Once it gets 2-3 months before the Expo and we have a plan for how many parks days we want and when, I modify the reservation I made a year in advance. The D23 Expo is the only thing I do that for though. Otherwise it is 4-6 months ahead and sometimes only 1-2 months.

 

[OhStuffandFluff]

No general rule but during busy times 4 months has usually been good enough for me. I wanted the BWPPI for our October trip in a few weeks and tried to book that in August. So two months. They had availability the week we wanted but not on the days we wanted. So I booked at the CCI - my personal #2 offsite hotel.

Last month I booked BWPPI for next June and had no problem. But we decided to do GCV and I canceled it. Not sure why you had a problem for July 2018 there but you may try calling. 10 months out has never been a problem for me.

When I go to the D23 Expo I always book hotels a year out because I know it will be busy. I usually book extra days before and after because I do not know the exact days we will do the parks a year ahead. Once it gets 2-3 months before the Expo and we have a plan for how many parks days we want and when, I modify the reservation I made a year in advance. The D23 Expo is the only thing I do that for though. Otherwise it is 4-6 months ahead and sometimes only 1-2 months.

Thank you so much for this information!! It is so helpful! I will try calling.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I've never stayed onsite. I've been at least 15 times. Bwppi is great.

But as a family we prefer a hotel that is in hydroguys thread #3 classification. Homewood suites convention center. It's a couple of years old. They serve a really nice breakfast buffet. They have dinner with wine or beer Monday through Thursday included as well.

We walk comfortably there. It's too much work for us to get our stroller undone and set up again.

We take the toy story bus back to the room unless a kiddo is sleeping in it. The walk is about 15 minutes.

We're late 30's pushing a double stroller. Overweight but not obese.

 

[V.I.N.CENT.]

We've done all three. Stayed onsite, across the street, and down the road with a shuttle. Kid was little, onsite and across the street worked. The one issue I had with on site was the size of the rooms at the Grand. Pretty small compared to other options. As our child has grown, we seem to do just fine with a shuttle. Big thing you need to research is to make sure the shuttle serves your hotel exclusively. Some make multiple stops, it really stinks. There is a fourth option we tried, a hotel located within a 10-15 min walk down Harbor. Probably the worst out of the four options for us. Tolerable in the morning, stinks going back for breaks and home for the evening. We also use the shuttle option because we save hotel points from a credit card to get a free stay for a week each year.

 

[goooof1]

On site for loads of extra fun......or EASY walking distance--across the street near the crosswalk. You really do NOT want to hassle with the shuttles....(though, Candy Cane has a dedicated and reliable shuttle if you feel the need, but they are pretty close and a relatively easy walk).

 

[Aimee_Jane83]

Personally for me I will take affordable convenience over staying onsite simply because I like to put my money into other fun things when I am at Disneyland. But it all depends on what you want. If you stay onsite you will get the full Disney feel, especially at the Disneyland hotel, but there are some AMAZING hotels just across from Disneyland. No joke a 5 minute walk to the main gates. We always stay at the Tropicana and the Best Western Park Place Inn. Both are literally on the crosswalk to Disneyland. So close in fact that in the evenings you can stand on the balcony of the Tropicana and watch the Disneyland fireworks with a great view. Both are budget friendly. I agree with the poster above, having a nice hot breakfast in the morning is most definitely a perk to the Best Western and saves you money.

If you want to stay off site and visit the resort hotels you are always more than welcome to do so. You just cant use their pool areas, but you can still go into the hotels, have a look around and even attend a character meal that they have at one of their restaurants. Its reasons like that that I stay off site so I have more money to spend on fun things like character meals, guided park tours, dessert packages for WOC or Fantasmic Dining.