Is Staying On-Site Worth It Now?

[Jabroniville]

Hi all- my friends consider me the "Disney Expert" but I haven't been to Disneyland in a long time and a lot has changed since then- I usually go to WDW these days so I only really know that one well.

So my friend and his family (two adults, two girls under 10) are planning on going to Disneyland, and he wants to know if it's worth it to stay on-site (ie. and the DL hotel or Grand Californian, or maybe a good neighbor hotel). There's a ton of hotels nearby that are also walking distance, and there's still no Extra Magic Hours, so I'm not sure what the real benefit is anymore. Does it make any difference to Genie+ reservations? That's the only bit I can't find off-hand.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Steven G]

There is no park benefit to stay in the hotels right now, other than that they are close to the parks, and that GCH has a special entrance to DCA.

that could change, but there hasn’t been any announcements.

 

[disneylover102]

Absolutely no benefit to staying on site. Everyone has the same chance at genie+ and individual lightning lanes, rope drop, etc

 

[deedubb]

I totally don't understand why the extra magic hour is not back. Are they that shortstaffed that they cannot open 1 hour earlier? How they can charge what they do for on-site with absolutely no benefits boggles my mind. I love the Grand for its proximity, but the prices are insane.

 

[mseyre]

So many much more reasonable hotels all within walking distance. I just can’t bring myself to pay the on-site prices at DLR.

 

[gottalovepluto]

The benefits are walking distance if at GCH and park reservation availability (the hotels have their own pool of reservations) and I think room charging. If those benefits are “worth it” depends on the person booking.

I sorely miss early entry, to me it was the real benefit of staying on-site

 

[bethwc101]

I totally don't understand why the extra magic hour is not back. Are they that shortstaffed that they cannot open 1 hour earlier? How they can charge what they do for on-site with absolutely no benefits boggles my mind. I love the Grand for its proximity, but the prices are insane.

The reason they can charge it is because even now people are paying for it.
A lot of these people that I know of personally who stayed on site were people that have stayed there in the past and weren't aware of the "perks" even being a thing.
They just go because that's what you do when you stay at DL. You stay at a DL hotel.
And when I asked them how the could justify the crazy cost (in a very polite way) without extra morning or package delivery, every single family didn't even know those used to be things.

 

[whoever]

I don't believe it to be worth the premium expense with the current amenities/perks. That being said, we'll be staying onsite in October. I hope things have changed by then.

 

[Iceman93]

I'm also in the camp of "they're not worth it right now", but the intangible benefit of staying in the Disney bubble is a significant factor for some folks. If your friends want to do the full Disneyland Resort experience, then staying in a Disney hotel may be worth it even without the old perks.

 

[StormyCA]

(Cutting and posting my response from another thread)


My justification for staying at the Grand were distance, EMH, and package delivery (in no particular order). Well, and the ambience, too. They've removed two of my justifications and I'm having trouble justifying the price for the one remaining, especially since the hotels across Harbor are basically the same distance. So, the question now is: Is 'ambience' worth an additional $200-600 per night?

 

[chezcurrie]

While there are no onsite perks right now, my last two trips we stayed onsite at the DLhotel and the Grand - I did manage to get good rates. After the past 2 years we’ve been through it was worth it for me to be in the Disney bubble. Even small things like grabbing a dole whip with rum in the hot tub at DLhotel, or being able to easily sneak back to DCA one afternoon to grab Jack Jack Cookie Num Nums for the kids (ok fine, and riding Incredicoaster single rider.)

Are your friend accustomed to staying onsite at WDW? It can be a shock to some to exit the bubble into the real world. It was for my boys when we stayed at the Hojo, althought we had a fabulous time they visibly “melted” on the walk home. I noticed a difference this last trip that they never complained about the walk back to the Grand. As a PP mentioned, I had no prior experience with the “extras” so my point of comparison is different than a return onsite visitor.

 

[mouschievous]

We are staying at GCH in July solely because we have a DVC credit to use (using it for VGC). Otherwise, we would be staying at a Harbor hotel (or, more likely, not going at all). Even so, we are excited about one "perk" - riding Grizzly River and then going straight to the hotel!

 

[GatorChris]

There has NEVER been enough reasons to justify the rack-rate pricing of DL Disney-owned resorts. On our first trip to DL (after 7 trips in 10 years to WDW), we felt we had to stay onsite. The only "affordable" place was Paradise Pier. We had a epically terribly view of the city, and it was quite the walk to the parks. The next three years, we stayed at HoJo and grabbed a ParkView room for half the price of a ParkView room at ParaPier. And the walk to the parks was just about the same!

We stayed at DLH only once. And that was with a HUGE discount for the Dapper Days events. We did 4 nights. Honestly, it was good but never felt like how I feel at a moderate at WDW. I'm sure the Grand Cali would provide that bubble feeling you get at WDW, but the price is just too high. Especially with hotels within walking distance for so much less.

 

[smartlabelprint]

I would recommend:
Marriott courtyard theme park entrance
The 3 new hotels on Manchester: home2suites, Hilton garden inn or holiday inn express
Residence inn convention center
Hyatt house
There’s also a new Westin and JW Marriott.

 

[Squinty]

For us, the biggest benefit was EMH. Even though that’s gone, we are still staying at GCH for our upcoming trip. We are not frequent visitors (once every 1-2 years) and had always wanted to stay there once. Because of the pandemic, it’s now been 4 years since our last trip. My kids are now teenagers, and we have other family vacations we want to do before they leave they nest, so this may be our last hurrah. So in our circumstances it’s worth it to us.

 

[bookgirl]

I have been offsite in the past and honestly didn't feel like the few small perks that onsite got were worth the major up cost.

I was at DLR in Jan and I stayed at Disneyland Hotel. It was a planned splurge and I wanted the nostalgia and ambiance of an onsite trip. It delivered in that way and I had a good time. The monorail back and forth inside Disneyland was great. If there had been extra hours that would have been nice too but there wasn't so there you go. But distance was not any better than when I stayed across the street on Harbor. In fact the walk was super crowded in the morning cause you get funneled into small paths and there are also people stopping at various storefronts to grab food and then in the afternoons there are tons of shoppers.

I will say that with Harbor hotels, the closest ones are the older ones and you have to drop your level of expectations, because they are motels and pretty bare/basic. The newer ones are built further from the parks and then you may be closer being onsite. I think your ability to walk or willingness to use uber/ART/transit will be the big consideration.

I loved the onsite stay. I'd stayed onsite again, IF I got a decent price. That being said I foresee staying offsite if I go back.

I think there are perks coming, from talking to cast members and some surveys I got after my stay, but right now, unless you specifically wanted an onsite stay I do not think there is an advantage.

 

[sjmac42]

I love DLH (Grand and PPH, not so much) but onsite at DL is not the same as onsite at WDW. With no perks atm (EMH, package delivery), limited services (such as housekeeping, room service, lobby entertainment, in room amenities etc), which other hotels/motels have no trouble providing, the value of an onsite stay in Ca has been further diminished. There are also hotels/motels as close or even closer to the parks than DLH and a couple closer to DL than even The Grand. IMO they have also never been destination Hotels in the same league as say Animal Kingdom Lodge, Yacht and Beach Club, Wilderness Lodge, even Port Orleans Resort. They also don’t have transportation to the parks (although The Grand is in DCA), no lakes/rivers surrounding them and much much smaller grounds than any WDW resort. Onsite in California has generally been more expensive than onsite in Florida as well.
The benefits atm are really only the Disney ambiance, although even that seems to have been diluted, room theming and proximity (which can be matched or bettered by other hotels/motels).
All this in an environment where prices for staying onsite have increased substantially since the parks reopened, many newer hotels have been built in the area, no real perks to speak of and I have to make my own bed! No, imo staying onsite is not worth it and likely never will be again in California. The onsite hotels in California are not destinations in themselves, simply nice hotels with great pools, Disney themed rooms and when they return, perks such as package delivery and Extra Magic Hours early entry. That’s not worth an extra $400 to $800 p.n. atm and that gap is likely to keep increasing.

 

[gelatoni fan]

The benefit of the Disneyland Hotel is the Disney theming and the benefit of the Grand Californian is the entrance to the park. I don't think those are worth paying that much extra for but it's up to you.

You can pay less for higher quality off site and if you're at one of the Harbor hotels right accross the street, you're closer to the park entrance than the Disneyland hotel.

 

[CO2CA]

We've been strictly off-site people. Have been going for 22+ years and always stay across the street on Harbor. That was also our plan for this March, but hotel availability was abysmal for the week we booked our flight. I've never seen anything like it, but figured out it was the Natural Foods Expo at the Convention Center. We thought about changing our time to the next weekend, but then thought what the heck, let's stay onsite and so we booked the Disneyland Hotel standard room. On a whim I checked hotel availability after I had already booked and the Club Level Premium View popped up, so I snagged it. We always thought staying on-site was way out of our league because of how pricey it is. We prefer to go more often while doing things less expensively.

We are celebrating our birthdays and graduation so it's special. We're already planning for the Grand at Halloween lol. Just being who we are, we won't be too good to stay off-site again but it's nice every now and then.

The hotel is special because of the theming, pools, access to themed restaurants (i.e. Trader Sams), and access to DtD. The missing perks aren't a big deal to us, because we probably wouldn't use EMH anyway. We can also carry our own packages back to the room, though it would be nice to send them.

 

[DLgal]

It's worth it to us when we choose to stay in a hotel near the parks. We like the proximity of GCH. That alone is worth it.