How I Saved Over $1000 on the Most Expensive Disneyland Hotel

For many families, staying at an on property Disneyland hotel is a bucket list item for their Disneyland trip but the cost of these hotels often get in the way.

Disneyland Resort's three on property hotels are all within close proximity to the theme parks and offer incredible theming and easy access to some of our favorite Disneyland restaurants. 

The high cost of these hotels is something I see our readers talking about consistently and with good reason, these hotels are far more expensive than any of the nearby affordable options in Anaheim. But yet, so many of us want to experience a Disneyland hotel for the first time, even just once! Here's my best tips on how to do that and make it more affordable.

How to Make Disney Affordable- A Series on Mickey Visit

This is the second in a new series here on Mickey Visit called “Making Disney Affordable” where I share different discount tricks and hacks to help you afford your vacations. Disneyland is considered one of the most expensive vacation spots in the country and many of our readers are always asking for tips on how to make a Disney trip affordable again.

My name is Lindsay and I've been covering Disney discounts for over seven years but I started following these discount trends far longer than that. I'm a single mom and started taking my son to Disneyland before I began my role on Mickey Visit and used every couponing/budgeting trick in the book to make it happen.

A Disney trip can be affordable if you are savvy about utilizing discounts and plan your trips strategically! In these series I cover not just Disneyland but Walt Disney World (see our last series on this NEW Walt Disney World discount hotel hack) along with Disney Cruises and Universal theme parks. I visit Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and the Universal theme parks multiple times of the year and I have sailed on every class of Disney Cruise ship. I want to share my experience for all these different destinations and help our readers budget for these magical experiences. I have booked with multiple different travel resellers from Get Away Today (our preferred partner!) to Undercover Tourist.

My goal with this series is to share my budget knowledge with our readers so you can all experience Disney in a more affordable way and make these trips attainable for the average middle class family. In this second article of the series, I want to talk about how to make staying at Disneyland on property hotel a bit cheaper and less out of reach for the average family.

Why Even Bother With a Disneyland Hotel?

Right off the bat, it's important to know that staying at a Disneyland on property hotel is NOT necessary for at trip to Disneyland. In fact, to make a Disneyland trip truly cheap then you should only stay at hotels off site which we cover extensively in our Disneyland hotel guide.

But the point of this article is to focus more on how to make a stay at one of these three hotels MORE affordable than usual and how to avoid paying the rack rate. We all know that staying off-site is the cheapest way to visit Disneyland but many families want that experience of an on-site Disneyland experience and are willing to pay a bit more… but don't necessarily want to break the bank.

Disneyland has three on-property hotels: Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, Disneyland Hotel, and Pixar Place. The most luxurious of these options is the Grand Californian Hotel & Spa with the Disneyland Hotel falling not far behind with Pixar Place often billed as the most affordable but lately is often the same price as the Disneyland Hotel.

For years staying at the Disneyland Grand Californian Hotel & Spa was a dream but I could never justify the high room rates until I was able to coordinate our trip with one of the best Disneyland hotel discounts and saved over a thousand dollars on a seven night stay! To this day, this is still one of my favorite Disneyland family trips because we were finally able to enjoy my “bucket list” hotel.

Never Pay Full Price for Disneyland Hotels

Disneyland offers discounts on their hotels throughout the year. Keep in mind that room rates change throughout the year regardless with the highest rates falling during holiday weekends and popular times like Halloween and Christmas.

So to truly get the best Disneyland room rate, you need to think about picking a time of year when room prices are already lower AND when a discount is offered. Never pay rack rate for a Disneyland hotel!

When it comes to the cheapest time to visit Disneyland, the spring months are always going to win in comparison to other months of the year. This means that roughly mid-January towards the end of May will always offer the cheapest hotel rates with the exception of holiday weekends and spring break which we highlight in our Disneyland crowd calendar.

If you want the experience of staying at a Disneyland hotel, I recommend visiting during the spring which technically stretches into the beginning of June with many hotel discounts. This is how I timed my Grand Californian stay which took place during the end of May which allowed me to combine lower regular room rates with a 25% room discount for a huge per night savings. I ended up saving around $175 per night which added up quickly for a seven night stay.

Spring Hotel Discounts Are Best

READ MORE- Pixar Place Hotel vs Disneyland Hotel and Grand Californian

When we look at historical Disneyland hotel discount data for the year, you'll notice that it's common to see anywhere from 15% to 25% off hotel stays making these discounts look similar regardless of the time of year.

But the main difference is WHAT these rooms are priced at to begin with. Room rates will increase for the Halloween and Christmas season which means that 25% discount is working a lot harder to create savings vs. a hotel stay in the spring months when room rates are far lower.

Another consideration to watch for is making sure the discount applies to standard rooms as well, not just premium rooms, which is never going to be as good of a deal if you are looking to just get the cheapest room rate possible on one of these coveted hotels!

Currently, Disneyland is offering this spring discount that runs through March 20, 2025:

• Save up to 25% (weekdays or weekends)
  • On select stays at a Disneyland Resort hotel of 4 nights or more
• Save up to 20% (Sunday through Thursday nights)
  • On select stays at:
    • Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa
    • Disneyland Hotel
    • The Villas at Disneyland Hotel
• Save up to 10% (Sunday through Thursday nights)
  • On select stays at Pixar Place Hotel

This is the first time we've ever seen the Pixar Place Hotel added to the discount lineup since the hotel was transformed into its Pixar theme! But don't be fooled, those savings aren't that great especially when you compare them to the others. The rack rate for Pixar Place continues to be far too high and I truly don't think it's worth the price at the moment when you can get the Disneyland Hotel for a similar cost.

The next released discount applies to summer and early fall travel in honor of the Disneyland 70th Anniversary for guests that book early:

• Guests that book early can save up to 30% on select stays of 4 or more nights at a Disneyland Resort hotel from May 16 through September 26, 2025. Guests can book now through May 15, 2025. Travel must be completed by September 27, 2025.

Just by playing around with this deal and different dates on the Disneyland website, I could see how much the prices vary depending on the week you pick. The week of Memorial Day, 4th of July and the last few weeks of September in this deal are drastically higher than other dates. I also noticed that July trended as the most expensive in this timeline with June and August being far less per night. Play around with your dates and plan your travel around the cheapest rate, this is the best way to make one of these hotels attainable!

You can book this deal and combine these savings with discount Disneyland tickets by using our trusted travel partner Get Away Today. We negotiated on behalf of our readers to get the lowest prices on Disneyland tickets! Just pay $200 down to put your plan on layaway and make payments until two weeks before your trip date. Book this deal!

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