Save hours in line at Disneyland
On-site hotel guests’ exclusive early entry park access ✨
Hey guys, I hope your fall is off to a great start! My September is joyously studded with Disneyland fun - both in Paris and California!
We’ll get to my upcoming adventures at the end of this post, but first, let’s talk about Disneyland’s hotels.
In case you missed it, the past two newsletters covered the top reasons you should consider staying on-site at Disney World and at Universal Orlando. Now it’s time to talk Disneyland!
Here are those past two newsletters if you need to catch up. I can wait.
Disneyland’s on-site hotels
Unlike the big selection at both Disney World and Universal Orlando, there are only three on-site hotels at Disneyland. Here you can choose from the classic Disneyland Hotel, the Paradise Pier Hotel (soon to be renamed ‘Pixar Place’ hotel), and the Grand Californian Hotel.
All of the hotels are just a few minutes’ walk from the Disneyland and California Adventure gates. In fact, the Grand Californian has its own entrance directly into California Adventure theme park!
The Disney Bubble and true convenience
Staying on-site at Disneyland checks a lot of boxes. As company-run properties, you get that Disney Bubble experience that is so great at Disney World. The proximity to the parks makes a stay at any of these hotels really convenient, much like the Universal hotels in Orlando.
However, there are only three Disney-owned hotels in Anaheim. Which means a lot fewer rooms than in Orlando, and often much higher prices. With dozens of other options just outside the resort, can you justify staying on-site at Disneyland?
Here’s a question to ask: do you want to get top value from your park tickets? If so, you should consider staying on-site.
Exclusive early park admission for Disneyland’s on-site hotel guests
The biggest reason to stay on-site at Disneyland is early park admission.
Both Disneyland and California Adventure open early every day ONLY for on-site hotel guests. Early admission is just 30 minutes, but you won’t believe how much you can do in that first half-hour.
Note that as of mid-2024, Disneyland alternates early admission between the two parks, depending on the day of the week. Here’s the current info.
By efficiently using Disneyland’s early admission, you can easily save hours waiting in line every day. Seriously. In those 30 minutes you can often knock out 2, or even 3, top attractions.
These are rides that have hour+ waits later in the day. For each one. But you can be done with them before breakfast.
A fraction of the total park guests use early admission
Let me hit you with some numbers.
Even if all three Disneyland hotels were completely full (like 4 guests to a room full), that would be about 12,000 people.
The max capacity at Disneyland park is 85,000, California Adventure about 50,000.
Even if every guest showed up for early admission on the busiest day of the year, that would be less than 10% of full capacity.
Would you like to visit Disneyland on a 10% capacity day? Well you can, for 30 minutes anyway, any day you’re checked into one of these hotels.
In reality, far fewer guests actually show up for early admission
More realistically, less than 5% of max capacity will use early admission on any given day. Which means short waits at a bunch of popular attractions. It’s like you’ve got the park to yourself.
You need to know that not everything in the parks is open for early entry. However, anybody who’s already there when the rest of the rides open has a big head start. This was the topic of my May 12th newsletter.
Rope drop double-up
ONLY Disneyland on-site hotel guests get early entry
This is an important point. In the past, Disneyland gave early entry to outside guests too, if they had a certain type of ticket or were staying in a partner hotel.
This is no longer the case. You must be checked in to one of these three hotels to score that bonus 30 minutes.
Every day of your stay counts
But you don’t have to wake up in a Disneyland hotel to get early entry. You can start early on your check-in day too.
So if your SoCal vacation includes a stay elsewhere, consider heading to Disneyland super-early to check-in and head to the park for that head-start entry time. Odds are wherever you stay the night before is a lot less expensive than any of the Disney hotels.
Have you stayed in an on-site Disneyland hotel?
What do you think makes it worth it? Let me know in the comments.
Next stop: Disneyland Paris!
Next week I get to spend a day at Disneyland Paris! 😲🏰🎉 Watch my Instagram for lots of photos & video. You can find me on Insta at instagram.com/goinformednet/
Then I’m going to Disneyland!
Yep, the one in California that this whole post is about. And it’ll be Halloween time!
Did you see my post about Halloween at Disneyland? Looks like it was pretty convincing 😉
I think I’m the luckiest person around. It’s going to be a crazy Disney month. I will have soooo much to tell you about, so thanks for subscribing and following.
And thank you for sharing this newsletter too. You guys are the best. ❤️