Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa

Amazing place to start our family holiday, my 3 kids were not disappointed. We used the recommended shuttle bus Karmel (separate cost) to take us from LAX straight to the Grand and they were great and reliable. We were all blown away by The Grand, it’s costly but it was worth it. From front desk, housing keeping, security guards, room service and people working on the grounds. The room had enough space for our family of 5, beds were very comfortable, bathroom was very clean, never had to wait longer than a minute for an elevator, pools were very nice, they had everything we needed, towels sunscreen, chaise lounges. The room blocked out the noise from outside as we had pool facing views. The advantages of early access and ability to walk to and from Disneyland and DCA as well as Downtown Disney was very convenient especially with kids needing to take breaks. We highly recommend this hotel for families with children Read less

This hotel is just OK- the room seemed older and the bathroom always smelled like mildew. The toilet ran and wouldn’t stop. We asked for someone to come and fix it and we were in and out of the room so I don’t think anyone ever came, it ran the whole time we stayed in the room. The location can’t be beat but the mildew smell and the room being older and just dark inside with the decor wouldn’t make me come back. Definitely not worth more than 200 a night and we paid way more than that. The staff was friendly and nice, but the room was very lacking. Read less

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! Read less

We booked a studio through Davids DVC here 11 months out. We arrived just after 10am and our room was ready by just after 11. The room was nice and had a theme park view over paradise pier. This would have been fine except for the fact that there was a leak in the bathroom sink and there was water all through the cupboard. We reported it at 11.30, went to story tellers for lunch and came back at 1.30 and it still wasn’t fixed. I called through to guest services and the person on the phone was incredibly rude and sassy. I asked how long it would be and that if we were going to have to move rooms, I’d prefer to do it earlier than later. She said she could move me to a room across the hall. I said that was a downgrade as we currently had a theme park view and the new room was not. She had this huge sigh and was incredibly rude. She put me through to reservations who were much nicer and ended up moving us to a comparable room and view. I found the different departments did not talk to each other at all as we had multiple phone calls from all different departments that had no idea what another department was doing. The rooms are ok. They need a bit of a refresh and more usb charging points. The shower is over a bath and has a shower curtain. I do like the fact that we had a balcony though. The kids caps were lost/stolen around the pool area on the first day. We put in a lost report but they were never found - which made me think they were stolen. This hotel is alot busier but the entrance direct into DCA is great (especially for trips back to the hotel in the afternoon and back from world of colour). We weren’t fussed about early entry for our two park days at this hotel so arrived to the security queues about 7.40am. Lines weren’t bad and it moved quick, but there were only 2-3 security staff on so moved slower than those into downtown Disney near Disneyland hotel. I don’t think I’d stay here again unless they updated the rooms. Read less