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Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is celebrated for its prime location, granting guests easy access to nearby attractions, and its high level of cleanliness with spotless rooms and well-kept facilities. Although the hotel's amenities receive praise, particularly the pool and club level, some travelers experience occasional maintenance issues. While the spacious rooms are comfortable, opinions are split regarding their modernity and value, with some guests finding them outdated and not reflective of the hotel's premium pricing.
The service is generally recognized as friendly and helpful, though experiences can vary. The hotel's atmosphere charms guests with its architectural beauty, despite some concerns about noise and dated elements.
Location
Convenient
Atmosphere
Charming
Rooms
Spacious
Value
Expensive
Cleanliness
Spotless
Service
Inconsistent
Amenities
Top-notch
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I recently spent one night with my wife at the Grand Californian, when we just had one day to spend at Disneyland and California Adventure and wanted to stay somewhere that would provide both great convenience for a short visit, but also a nice, more luxurious option than many of the chain hotels in the surrounding area in Anaheim. After staying here, I would absolutely return. It’s a really lovely themed Disney resort, with a convenience factor that cannot be overstated. Being able to go from our room to the Disneyland entrance in five minutes, or even quicker when going directly into California Adventure, was amazing.
As background, we travel to Walt Disney World about once a year, and it’s a favorite and familiar spot for our family trips. We had not been to Disneyland in many years, but are very familiar with what Disney offers in accommodations generally and were interested to compare their offerings in California and Florida. When traveling elsewhere, including other portions of this same trip, we usually stay at true luxury hotels, and we recognize that Disney resorts are overpriced for what they actually offer. You’re paying for a luxury resort room, but getting a room that is probably mid-tier at best. We paid almost $800 for the night at the Grand Californian, which is objectively overpriced, but we still ultimately found it to be worth it.
Trip Planning & Arrival Experience:
Prior to our stay, I completed online check-in on the hotel website, which is available starting five days before check-in. This is different from Disney World, where you can do it a couple months in advance. Online check-in was easy to complete, and allows you to skip the front desk at check-in, since you’ll get a text message once your room is ready and can use a mobile key feature in the Disneyland app to go there directly.
I also separately called to request a room with one king bed, since you can’t specifically book a set bed type in advance. The cast member I spoke with on the phone was very friendly and helpful with the request, but as is typical at Disney resorts, she noted that there are only a few king bedded rooms, so we may not get one. The request was ultimately not met, and we had a room with two queens, but we were able to check-in to the room so early in the day that we didn’t mind at all.
We arrived at the hotel very early in the morning, around 6:15 am. We wanted to have a full day in the theme parks and take advantage of the extra half hour in the parks in the beginning at 7:30 am on our arrival day. When we pulled up, it was unsurprisingly not busy at all, and the valet staff was friendly and helpful (although they didn’t really offer to help with luggage, which surprised me a little bit). Once I said I was going to do self-parking instead of valet parking, they suggested that I park in short-term parking spots that are near the lobby, handle check-in/drop off our luggage at the front desk, and then move the car to the self-parking lot after.
Entering the hotel, we were immediately impressed with what we saw. One of our favorite resorts at Disney World is Wilderness Lodge, and this hotel is the closest you can have to that in California. The hotel is lodge-style and designed by the same architect as Wilderness Lodge, so it has a similarly impressive soaring lobby with cozy seating and a fire. I’ve read that the themes of the two hotels are the same, but the Grand Californian is more of a craftsman, California-themed lodge that isn’t as focused on wilderness and a general “western” feel like the Wilderness Lodge. They look really similar, but there is some difference and nuance, so they’re not carbon copies of one another. It’s also nice that since Grand Californian is the flagship Disney hotel in Anaheim, it gets slightly elevated features, similar to what you’d get at the Grand Floridian in Orlando, such as fresh flower displays in the lobby, a pianist in the lobby at night, and little extras in the room, such as robes and turndown service at night. If you are more familiar with Disney World, this hotel is physically very similar to Wilderness Lodge, but service and amenity-wise, more similar to Grand Floridian.
Even though we had done online check-in, I decided to stop at the front desk anyway since I had a couple questions. The front desk cast member I worked with was extremely friendly and helpful, and apologized that she did not have a room ready for us, but gave me a good overview of the resort and suggested that we leave our bags with the adjacent bell services desk. The cast member there was very nice as well, and said that once our room was ready, the luggage would be automatically sent up, so we didn’t have to waste time later in the day coming back down and waiting at the front desk to retrieve it. Just as we were about to tag the bags, however, the front desk cast member came over and excitedly let me know that she found a room we could have immediately, which was a huge and pleasant surprise at 6:30 am. I’ve never had something like that happen in the past at a Disney resort.
After that, I moved our car to the self-parking lot, which is located just across the street from the hotel. It does require crossing a crosswalk on busy Disneyland Drive to get back, but the designated parking for the Grand Californian is the first lot you encounter after going through the parking gate, and it was an easy walk, no further than self-parking in some of the larger hotel lots at Disney World. Self-parking was $40 per night, while valet was $70 per night. Although valet would certainly be more convenient, I like having more control with self-parking and the cost savings was worth it.
Hotel Room:
We had booked a woods-courtyard view room, since it was the cheapest room type available at the time we booked, and overall, the room was nice. The room was probably the part of our stay that contributed the least to our enjoyment of the resort overall, but it served its purpose.
The hotel is a bit large with maze-like hallways, so it was helpful that the front desk cast member had given us a hotel map and pointed out the closest elevator to our room, which required walking outside to an elevator bank next to the Napa Rose restaurant. Although I know the weather is usually great in Southern California, and everything was covered, I was a little surprised at how many of the hotel facilities were accessed from outside, including basically all of the restaurants and the best path to our room. When we were there in early November, the mornings and evenings were quite chilly, so I would have not preferred so many brisk outdoor walks to get around the hotel. I believe we could have used a different elevator and walked through longer hallways to get to our room. We’re just used to staying inside for most things at Disney’s deluxe resorts in Florida, so the more indoor/outdoor California style here was a little different.
The room itself was in good condition, but not great condition, and had a little bit of a dated and worn feel. It certainly had a California craftsman style, which I liked, but the light green carpet felt tired, as did the fabrics and furnishings as a whole. It was nice enough, but I wouldn’t exactly call it luxurious, and the newer renovated rooms at Disney World in Florida run circles around the rooms here. I was also surprised to read that these rooms had been renovated within the past five years, since they absolutely felt older than that, as did the room hallways, which had a similar style and tired feel. I liked the room, and it conveyed a consistent theme throughout the hotel, which I appreciate, but I think very few guests would find the rooms alone worth the price tag here.
The room was also on the small side, and a little dark, but perfectly functional with a good number of drawers and luggage storage space underneath the beds. There were plenty of outlets with both USB and standard plugs, and a mini-fridge that’s helpful to have.
I’m not a fan of the bedding in any Disney resort, where there’s not much more than a sheet on the bed and pretty low-quality pillows. The mattresses aren’t the plushest either. For the price point, more substantial and upscale bedding should be offered, although I can’t really complain because I slept wonderfully here after a very busy day.
The bathroom featured an open vanity area with double sinks and decent storage with extra shelves below, and then a separate room with the toilet and walk-in shower, which was a tight space. I thought the tilework was all nice, and I liked having a walk-in shower in lieu of a tub (although I know many families with kids wouldn’t like this). The shower also had good water pressure and we found the bathroom to be perfectly functional, if a little small like the rest of the room.
There was also a small balcony with a little table and two chairs, and we had a view of trees that met the expected “woods-courtyard view”. It was pleasant, but would be an unexciting view, except for the fact that it was directly above the monorail track that runs from Disneyland right past the hotel, and it was a lot of fun to be able to watch the monorail come directly below. We were also right by the edge of California Adventure, so we could see the building containing Soarin’ in the distance. This location within the hotel was incredibly close to the entrance directly into California Adventure, which was a great benefit.
I don’t have a great sense of the various room views at the hotel, but I get the sense that few rooms have a particularly exciting view of anything. I believe standard view probably looks out at the hotel front entrance and driveway, which I wouldn’t mind. I know you can opt for a Downtown Disney view (which I don’t see the appeal of) or a pool view as well (probably the nicest view overall), but I think most rooms just look at some sort of landscaping, with maybe a glimpse of something else in the distance. There isn’t the space in California that there is at the Florida resorts, so the hotel, despite being large and lovely, is more squeezed into the land and wasn’t designed with the goal of giving many of the rooms sweeping views.
One other note was that the heat in the room wasn’t working all that well during our stay. Despite the temperatures getting quite cold during overnight, the room was freezing and set at 65 degrees when we arrived. We increased it to 70, and found that after returning many hours later, it still had not quite reached the desired temperature.
Finally, I would note that housekeeping did a good job, and the room felt very clean when we arrived. They also did turndown service in the evening, which was nice, but seemed to be missing something. They left a note on the bed about having sweet dreams or something along those lines, which seemed like it was meant to be accompanied by a piece of chocolate, but there was nothing there. Not a big deal by any means, but I think that was a small detail that was missed.
Hotel Pools:
We didn’t have a chance to spend any time at the pools, but I thought the large pool area with three separate pools and a waterslide looked very nice. I was impressed to also see that the lounge chairs by the pool here seemed to be decently spaced out and had nice, thick cushions on them, which is not the case at the Disney resorts in Florida, where the chairs are pretty bare bones and more on top of each other.
Dining:
We unfortunately did not have time to try any of the restaurants at the hotel, but there are several. Napa Rose is the flagship fine dining restaurant, which looked very nice and we’ve heard great things about it. There is also a princess character breakfast at Napa Rose. Storytellers Café is the more casual restaurant, which is a buffet, with characters in the morning only. Hearthstone Lounge is the main bar of the hotel, which is located off of the lobby, and GCH Craftsman Bar and Grill are the final two options. The Craftsman Grill is the classic quick-service cafeteria-style option that most Disney resorts offer, while the Craftsman Bar is an outdoor restaurant/lounge with a nice view overlooking the pool that also serves full meals.
Service:
One of the key things that I often struggle with at Disney resorts is the staff service. Disney cast members at the resorts are generally friendly and perky, and want to be helpful. However, they aren’t trained to provide service anywhere near the level of what you’d get at a true luxury hotel. However, we really had no issues here, and the people we encountered here outperformed staff at other luxury hotels on this trip. Our most significant interaction was at check-in, but everyone was great, friendly, and helpful and getting us into a room quickly was huge. When we were sitting in the lobby later that night, I also appreciated that cast members were going around cleaning things up and making sure the lobby looked nice and clean throughout the busy evening.
Park Experience:
As I mentioned previously, the proximity to both theme parks was a huge draw of this hotel. We were only there for one full day and wanted a quick and easy experience, on which the Grand Californian absolutely delivered. I know a huge benefit of Disneyland over Disney World is that many non-Disney hotels are in walking distance to the parks. You could objectively stay at a nice hotel like the JW Marriott or the Westin with a relatively easy walk into the parks, a nicer room, and a better price (making it much easier to justify staying offsite in California versus Florida), but there’s no hotel quite as convenient as the Grand Californian or with the same Disney theming.
When entering the parks or Downtown Disney, you do security screening right in the hotel. There are two separate spots for this, one being in a courtyard close to the lobby for the entrance into Downtown Disney and Disneyland, and the second being right next to Napa Rose where you can enter directly into California Adventure. We were a little surprised to see a very long line at the security checkpoint into Downtown Disney the morning we were there. The line was already snaking around the courtyard before 7:00 am for a 7:30 am early entry into the park, but once the security checkpoint actually opened a few minutes later, the line moved and we were through quickly, still easily making it into Disneyland for opening. At later times of day, there were no lines at all for security in the hotel to get to the parks. We ultimately found it painless and easy to get from the hotel to Disneyland for opening, although you should expect it to be busy first thing in the morning.
The benefit of having an extra half hour in the park for resort guests on the morning we arrived was a great timesaver for us. Once the Disneyland gates had opened, things were well organized for resort guests to get their room keys/reservations checked at a spot near the Plaza Inn, with a spot to wait past that near the entrance to Tomorrowland, while all other park guests were queued separately. We were allowed into the park right at 7:30 am that day, and made our way to Fantasyland, which is where the bulk of the early entry attractions are located, other than Space Mountain and Star Tours. Although the line for Peter Pan in particular got a bit long immediately, we did that ride quickly enough to avoid the line, and all of the other Fantasyland rides had no real wait at all during the early entry period. We got a lot done with a calm and enjoyable park experience. Especially since there are only three resorts in California, as compared to many more in Florida, we found the early entry in Disneyland to be more beneficial than it is in Florida, as the parks feel more crowded and the lines get longer more quickly at Disney World.
Later in the day, when we had hopped to California Adventure and were just ready for a break for a couple hours, having the hotel basically right in the park was amazing. The entrance is across from Grizzly River Run, and it was great to go from a really crowded park to the quiet serenity of the hotel so quickly. Later that night, we went to see World of Color, and I was so happy that leaving the park after the nighttime show was an amazingly smooth experience unlike what I’m used to at Disney World when trying to get back to the resorts in the room. We were back in the hotel within 5 minutes after the show had ended. You can’t beat convenience like that, which is what I loved about this hotel. The other Disney resorts in California (the Disneyland Hotel and Paradise/Pixar Pier) just aren’t as close to the parks (while still convenient), and they don’t look as themed or luxurious, so I don’t know that I’d see the same benefit from staying at those.
One minor other benefit is that you do have room charging privileges in the parks when staying at any of the Disney resorts. A barcode will show up in the Disneyland app on the same page as your hotel reservation, but it’s a little weird that it won’t show up until your room is ready if you’re going into the parks on your arrival day. However, I did find that it was a little bit of a pain to use in the parks. A lot of cast members didn’t seem very familiar with room charging or had to ask a colleague to help with it, so it ended up taking longer and more effort than expected to make simple purchases. In the future, I’d probably just use Apple Pay in the parks to save time.
Overall:
Overall, our one night at the Grand Californian was very nice, and I was happy we splurged on the night here to make a short trip to Disneyland as convenient and fun as possible. I think staying here over other much cheaper hotels in the area is ultimately a judgment call based on your budget and needs, since the Grand Californian is objectively very expensive and the rooms feel a bit small and dated. However, if you want a full Disney experience and maximum convenience, I think it’s a great option and we’d be happy to return on a future trip to Disneyland.
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Date of stay: November 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
Room Tip:It doesn't seem like room views are all that important here, and most aren't spectacular, so I'd...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We chose this hotel because of its prime location with a private entrance to California Adventure, and with Disneyland Park just a five minute walk away passing through Downtown Disney to get there. Each day of our stay it was so easy to leave the parks for a few hours of downtime before our nighttime return. The half hour early entry for hotel guests was very beneficial and we appreciated that it included the first day of our stay even though check in was not until after 3pm.
Besides the convenient location, we thought highly of the rest of the hotel especially the grand lobby with fireplace nook. The rooms are nice and comfortable, but a bit narrow. The room décor follows the craftsman theme of the hotel which is a little dark but ambient lighting around the edge of the ceiling effectively adds light. The bathroom had double sinks and our balcony with two chairs had a peek-a-boo view of California Adventure through tall pine trees.
We had most of our meals in the parks, but we did enjoy a tasty breakfast at GCH Craftsman Grill which has a nice outdoor patio at the edge of one of the hotel’s pools. As for those pools, there are three with nice comfortable cushy lounge chairs around them. I wish one of them was designated for adults only, as I like to swim laps which was difficult to do.
The best part of the stay was that we realized by the second day that this hotel allowed us to totally immerse ourselves in the Disneyland halo without the need to leave, see a car, or a non-park road. Plus we did not need to travel around by bus, tram, or monorail, although we did ride the last one just for fun. You can’t get that experience anywhere else at a Disney property in the States.
There is no resort fee, but valet parking is $65 with self $35, which is about a five minute walk away from the hotel.
When we were on our way out of the hotel at the end of our stay we ran into Sleeping Beauty exiting her Princess breakfast, and she said to us “It looks like you are going on an adventure.” That just capped off our “Disney adventure” in a charming way.
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Date of stay: September 2023
Value
Location
Service
Trip type: Traveled as a couple
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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The bathroom drain smelled like mold and mildew. All the mouse has to do is poor household bleach in the drain monthly to remove the build up of mildew which normally occurs. I do it in my own home. Other than that, our room was clean and comfortable. The hotel is perfectly situated for park access. We are Disney World passholders, and only “wish” the mouse offered a discount out in Disneyland, especially for the resort expenses. The hotel staff was quick to attend to our needs. One tip - if you use valet for your car and need it early morning to exit, call ahead to have your car brought to the door. When we left for LAX with a rental car, there was only one valet on duty and he was busy. He could have used a helper. There were two issues with the gym - the Peleton bikes were great to see but not use because they were not calibrated. Also, bottled water is available for gym users but is quickly removed by other guests who take it for their use. The gym needs an attendant and maintenance.
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Date of stay: September 2024Trip type: Traveled with family
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We have stayed at some of the nicest hotels in the world. I only mention this for the sake of comparison. We have never arrived to a top-tier resort and not been greeted by eager staff offering luggage assistance. What was even worse is that, upon our arrival, there was a hotel employee who clearly saw us arrive and only offered assistance AFTER our suitcases were in hand and we were walking through the hotel doors. After lugging our suitcases down two long hallways, we entered a room that was clean but quite small. Furthermore, there was no mini bar, snack bar or complimentary bottles of water. A hotel that charges $800+/night and doesn't offer guests complimentary bottled water? There was also no nightly turndown service. We surely don't need nightly turndown service but again, when you spend $800/night at a hotel, there are certain amenities that you expect. This hotel charges an exorbitant amount purely based on its location, which is frankly insulting, especially when it is too cheap to offer its guests basic amenities like bottled water, a mini bar and excellent service. Save yourself the money, stay somewhere off property and take an Uber to the park. There is nothing spectacular about the rooms or the hotel itself and they certainly do not go above and beyond to make their guests feel welcome.
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Date of stay: June 2023
Rooms
Location
Service
Room Tip:A room close to elevators
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This is a jaw-droppingly stunnning resort. Based on Craftsman, Mission, and California Bungalow styles, you will find soaring spaces, colorful stained glass, epic use of wood, granite and marble throughout. We stayed six days and there is a serenity throughout.
The cast members (staff) were faultlessly polite, friendly, helpful, and welcoming. For instance, a bell person saw us walking to our rooms and he smiled and said, ‘Welcome home.’ He had not brought our suitcases and we had never interacted with him, yet he reached out to us—an old lesbian couple and welcomed us. Wow.
Our room was was great. We had a king accessible on the ground floor. It had plenty of room, blind wands, and a shower you could roll into, along with a heavy duty shower seat and wall shower wand for ease of cleaning, as well as an overhead rain shower, which could be on or off. We had a small porch with an accessible ramp, plus two chairs and a cafe table for outdoor meals.
The restaurants were all great. The pool was enormous with lifeguards and a zillion loungers for your swimming and sun bathing pleasure. There was also an accessible pool arm lift for those with different mobility needs.
I can’t rave any further. You will spend a lot here, but you will feel you got everything you deserve and more. Make happy memories with someone you love here.
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Date of stay: March 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled with family
Room Tip:Make reservations whenever possible. At the Storyteller Buffet, go during breakfast or lunch to...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We stayed in a 2 bedroom suite facing the pool. While it was a lovely view and the beds were very comfortable, the rooms are beginning to show their age. They look like they haven’t changed since we stayed there 10 years ago. We loved the shower and the spaciousness of the suite. Definitely plenty of room for our family of 6. Lots of toiletries to use including a dental kit, loofah & wall mounted shampoo, body wash & conditioner. The cons of this hotel is that it’s way too busy and it’s tough to snag a reservation at the onsite restaurants without advanced planning. There was rarely a place to sit in the lobby and it was quite noisy. Our kids did enjoy the bedtime story & pictures with Santa, but it was challenging to hear him due to the acoustics of the lobby. We were disappointed to learn that even as registered hotel guests spending $2k a night on our suite, that we couldn’t take our Disney rental stroller into the hotel. We wanted to take a short break in our room and return to the parks after we let our kids rest. They made us park it outside the metal detectors. When we returned to retrieve it an hour and a half later, it was gone! There was no offer by the staff to bring us another stroller so we had to walk all the way back to the stroller rental kiosk in front of Disneyland to get a replacement. What a huge inconvenience and we barely made our lightning lane reservation at DCA. This was a very lackluster hotel guest experience that Disney needs to improve upon and it completely negated the perk of us using the hotel guest entrance into DCA. The housekeeping, bellmen and room service staff are quite exceptional, but in the future, I think we will opt for the Presidential suite over at the Westin, because there just aren’t enough luxury perks offered for the price of the suite.
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Date of stay: December 2024Trip type: Traveled with family
Room Tip:DO NOT rent a stroller from Disneyland. Use a 3rd party service or else you will be forced to...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We stayed 4 nights at Disney’s Grand Californian Resort in a Concierge level room with a standard view and it was amazing! The resort is connected to Disney’s California Adventure park with its own entrance, allowing hotel guests to easily go from hotel to the park and back. There’s also direct entrance to Downtown Disney allowing you to avoid the crazy crowds at other security entrance locations. With Concierge level, you have access to The Veranda which is the Grand Californian’s concierge lounge. Food is available all day long essentially with short 1 hour breaks for the staff to switch out foods between breakfast, lunch, dinner & dessert times. If you have some down time from the parks and know that you’ll be taking advantage of resort and The Veranda, then Concierge level can be worth it, but if you plan to spend your entire days in the parks and eating at restaurants, it might not make sense. For my family, my kids loved the food in The Veranda. For our 5 day trip, we only ate 3 meals in restaurants and the rest of our meals were in The Veranda. Each day, there were new foods in a buffet style that was fun for the kids to choose whatever they wanted along with desserts at lunch and dinner. Evening dessert was great because you can also watch the fireworks from Disneyland at 9:30pm. The staff is amazing and they allow you to take as many drinks and food with you to your room (if your kids want to watch a movie or show on TV) and drinks for the parks. There’s also beer and wine starting at lunch. Overall, it was an amazing stay and we’d do it again when we want a slower Disneyland trip that feels more relaxed for our vacation!
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Date of stay: June 2024Trip type: Traveled with family
Room Tip:The Veranda staff have cup holders if you want to carry multiple drinks back to your room and may...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
We thoroughly enjoyed staying at the GCH, centrally located - saved an abundance amount of time. The staff was attentive and kind. The food and drinks spot on. The Christmas decor amazing. Rooms were fresh and clean. We had 3 rooms in a row for 5 nights extremely quiet including the halls. Soooo why the 4 Stars?? Water pressure and temperature - extremely poor, we stayed in room #3240. The family 2 doors down, full pressure and hot. I fully understand there is a huge amount of people taking showers at the same time in order to enter the parks early, so take a shower in the evening - not quite as bad, but not good either. I do understand how this happens during the construction phase, along with the extreme cost to rectify the situation and most likely only happens in several rooms in the grand scheme of things. Would I stay there again(?) most likely, but definitely not in the same room.
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Date of stay: December 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled with family
Room Tip:It's pretty pricey for a barely warm shower
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
This hotel was stunning and, hands down, one of the nicest hotels I’ve ever stayed at. There are so many reviews saying that Disney charges luxury prices for non-luxury accommodations and, truly, I don’t understand that. You can see from my reviews I’ve stayed at a handful of 5-star hotels comparable in price to the Deluxe tier Disney resorts and the Grand Californian, and they were considerably worse than this one. Compared to, for instance, the Fairmont Lake Louise, our room at the Grand Californian was enormous and intuitively designed for my family of 5 with the convertible sofa. I think this is the first hotel I’ve stayed in the U.S. or Canada (ie not in a developing country with cheap labor) that had turndown service. The staff were so friendly and helpful with any and all questions. The lobby could get crowded, but I could usually find somewhere to sit, and the ambiance with the pianist and hearth and gorgeous decor was unmatched. Now, with such a glowing review you may wonder why I am deducting a star. On our last day, we had a very negative experience at the Napa Rose princess breakfast that 2 days later still rankles. I don’t need to rehash it here as they have heard my complaints, but for a meal that’s almost $150 a head, the experience needs to be flawless. Not only did they screw up our reservation and meal in a spectacular fashion, they blamed us for their mistake and I had to elevate to a manager to get the barest of apologies. (Thankfully, Disney’s legendary customer service was still alive and well in the park, where guest relations were able to fix our missed lightning lane reservations that resulted from Napa Rose’s reservation mistake). I get that humans are human and make mistakes — we all do! But when you make a mistake, accept responsibility and at least attempt to make it right. Secondly, I had similar challenges with the door lock as other reviewers noted, when both my app and the key card they gave me stopped working. The first cast member behind the desk I talked to was very nice but the fix required me to come back later but the lines were way too long. Third, though I expected that March would not exactly be pool weather to this East coaster who is used to swampy summers, the pools were not heated to any degree I would advertise as “heated pools,” and they were unbearably cold even for my kids who are generally unfazed swimming in 60° weather. One of the pools was also shut down which, again, it was cold, so that’s fine but — why shut down all the chairs on the pool deck too? Made it very hard to find a lounger or chair to sit on with half of the chairs taken out of use. Finally, I will note that the soundproofing in the hotel was not great. If you’re a light sleeper, bring a white noise machine or earplugs. All in all the last 3 concerns are pretty minor. Had it not been for the Napa Rose fiasco, this would be a 5 star review from me. The location, ambiance, and amenities were outstanding and I’ll remember this trip forever.
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Date of stay: March 2024Trip type: Traveled with family
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Excellent hotel in the heart of Disneyland, direct access to Disney California Adventure Park is a great plus. The rooms are not huge, but if spacious and very comfortable, the beds and pillows are very comfortable and rest very well. Soundproof windows allow you to rest without hearing external noises. The service is first rate and all the staff are very friendly. Restaurants and bars have very good variety of dishes and drinks, the prices are a bit high, but they are worth it. The store is very complete and very good size, there you find everything from a souvenir to a snack or medicine. It is very worth the investment as you really enjoy the hotel.
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Date of stay: August 2024
Value
Rooms
Location
Cleanliness
Service
Sleep Quality
Trip type: Traveled with family
Room Tip:Vale mucho la pena cenar en Napa Rose, el restautante con estrella Michelin y desyunar en el...
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Los Angeles, California323 contributions54 helpful votes
If its hot good luck finding a lounger. I have rented the cabanas a Disneyworld and I would say they are defiantly worth it. I know you can rent them for a full day or partial. You defiantly need a day at t he pool to recover from the park. I suggest you do a full day at the pool. On a hot day its amazing! When you make your reservation ask them about renting the cabana. They go fast.
There are more places to choose from in the Anaheim area.
PRICE RANGE
$763 - $1,192 (Based on Average Rates for a Standard Room)
ALSO KNOWN AS
grand californian hotel, grand california hotel, disney california hotel, disneys grand californian hotel, disney grand california hotel, disney grand californian hotel, disneyland grand californian hotel, disneys anaheim
LOCATION
United StatesCaliforniaOrange CountyAnaheim
NUMBER OF ROOMS
1,019
Prices are provided by our partners, and reflect nightly room rates, including any mandatory fees. Taxes not included. Please see our partners for more details.
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