Spotlight on a Disneyland® Resort hotel: Disney’s Paradise Pier® Hotel

Family fun at Disney's Paradise Pier® Hotel

Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel® standard rooms are easily large enough for a family of five

​


​By David Platt, your Mouse Master specialist

I recently completed the trifecta of on-property Disneyland® Resort hotels by staying at Disney’s Paradise Pier® Hotel for the first time. Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel  has a lot going for it. Among its highlights: the largest standard rooms of all three Disney-owned hotels, which can easily sleep five with two queen beds and a couch that converts into a day bed in some rooms. Each room features a fun beach theme, tying in with the Paradise Pier land in Disney California Adventure® Park.

Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel is consistently the least expensive of all three Disney-owned hotels, making it an attractive option for families wanting to stay on-property on a budget. That lower price comes with some trade-offs, though— it’s the furthest walk to the park of all three hotels. Keep in mind, though, that we’re talking a longer walk by just a few minutes. While Disney's Grand Californian Hotel® & Spa is about a five-minute walk to the Disneyland® Park main gates, the Disneyland® Hotel is about a ten-minute walk, and Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel is about a fifteen-minute walk— still easily doable for most park-goers!

Staying at Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel comes with all the great perks of staying onsite, the most notable being early entry into either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure Park every day of your stay. While any three-day-or-greater ticket gets you one early entry into Disneyland Park, staying on-property is the ONLY way to get early entry into Disney California Adventure Park and have a fighting chance of getting onto Radiator Springs Racers or Guardians of the Galaxy- Mission: BREAKOUT! with a short wait. 

Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel has (in my opinion) one of the hidden-gem restaurants of the entire Disneyland Resort: Disney’s PCH Grill, which hosts the Surf’s Up Breakfast with Mickey & Friends every morning. This delightful character breakfast features such characters as Stitch, Daisy, and Minnie— and it’s the only character breakfast in the entire Disneyland Resort where you can meet Mickey. For dinner, the PCH Grill hosts the Beachside Bonfire Dinner Buffet, featuring foods based on California ‘beach eats.’ It’s a great dinner experience that’s hardly ever crowded.

Want a fantastic view of Disney California Adventure Park? Upgrade to a Premium View room (located on one of the top floors) and it’s all yours. On our recent visit, my daughter and I finished off our trip with a snuggly viewing of World of Color from our hotel room window. We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect end to our latest Disneyland Resort adventure; World of Color in your pajamas is hard to beat! 
​
Honestly, I wasn’t sold on Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel before I stayed there. I thought the walk would be too long. And I’ve been so thrilled with the Disneyland Hotel and Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa that I kept wanting to return. Would I return to Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel for a future visit? Absolutely. The walk is EASILY doable, even if you have small children. The Premium View rooms can’t be beat, and are a fraction of the cost of Theme Park View rooms at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. I think my on-property hotel decision for future visits just got a bit more difficult. 

Disclosure: While I received a travel professional discount on my stay at Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel, the discount did not influence my review.

---

The Premium View rooms can't be beat