Disneyland has released new hotel discounts for late Summer and Fall 2023 with room-only deals for the general public, Disney Visa cardholders, and Magic Key passholders. This post shares the details about the special offers, commentary about savings, staying off-site v. on-site, and booking recommendations.
These discounts are available at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa, Disneyland Hotel, and Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel. Savings vary based upon both room category (premium v. standard) and whether you’re an Annual Passholder, with prices also increasing during busier rate chart seasons.
That last variable has the biggest impact. If you’re a Californian or live in a nearby state and have flexibility in your travel dates, we’d highly recommend visiting Disneyland during a weekday during the early fall off-season. The rack rate charts are less expensive and crowds will hopefully be better.
Let’s start with the broadest discount, which offers the general public up to 25% off stays at the Hotels of the Disneyland Resort—valid from August 1 through September 30, 2023. Here are the savings:
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa
- Save up to 25% off select stays of 4-nights or longer
- Save up to 20% on Standard and Premium rooms, Sunday to Thursday nights
Disneyland Hotel
- Save up to 25% off select stays of 4-nights or longer
- Save up to 15% on Standard and Premium rooms, Sunday to Thursday nights
Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel
- Save up to 10% on Standard and Premium rooms, Sunday to Thursday nights
Book now through September 26, 2023. Travel must be completed by October 1, 2023.
Below are the discounts for Magic Key Passholders at Disneyland on select rooms at the Hotels of the Disneyland Resort—valid for Sunday to Thursday nights from August 1 through September 30, 2023. Here are the discount rates at each resort:
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa
- Save up to 25% on both Standard and Premium room types
Disneyland Hotel
- Save up to 20% on both Standard and Premium room types
Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel
- Save up to 15% on both Standard and Premium room types
Book now through September 26, 2023. Travel must be completed by October 1, 2023.
Finally, the discounts for Disney Visa Cardholders on select rooms at the Hotels of the Disneyland Resort—valid for Sunday to Thursday nights from August 1 through September 30, 2023. Here are the discount rates at each resort:
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa
- Save up to 30% on select room types
Disneyland Hotel
- Save up to 25% on select room types
Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel
- Save up to 20% on select room types
Book now through September 26, 2023. Travel must be completed by October 1, 2023.
A few details are worth emphasizing with the Disney Visa discount. First, you must use a valid Disney Visa Card or Disney Rewards Redemption Card to pay the deposit. If a valid Disney Visa Card or Disney Rewards Redemption Card is not used, the non-discounted room price will be charged for the duration of the stay. Second, the Disney Visa Cardmember must stay in a room on the reservation.
Finally, the only room types included in this offer are Premium, plus select Deluxe and Woods/Garden/Courtyard rooms; select Concierge rooms; and Paradise, Artisan, Junior and Family suites. It’s not valid for Standard rooms, select Concierge rooms or for Signature and Premium suites.
This means that if you’re a bottom-dollar kind of person, this isn’t a great deal. However, if you want to book something fun like Club Level at the Grand Californian (a great-but-pricey splurge), it’s a good way to make that price more palatable.
Normal exclusions and terms and conditions apply with all of these Disneyland Resort discount. Savings based on the non-discounted price for the same room type at the same hotel. Subject to availability as the number of rooms allocated for this offer is limited.
This discount cannot be combined with any other hotel discounts or offers; savings exclude applicable fees and taxes. Limit two rooms per reservation and occupancy restrictions apply per room. Savings are not available on signature suites or on previously booked rooms.
For the Magic Key Passholder Disneyland Resort discounts, a valid pass must be presented at check-in and the Magic Key holder must stay in the room. Yada yada yada.
These can offer pretty solid savings, especially as the date range this discount encompasses is mostly the off-season when travel to Southern California isn’t quite so hot (but temperatures are!).
We’ve seen some discounted prices as “low” as $400, and some as high as $800+. During my spot-checking, I found the best rates to be in mid-to-late August, with prices increasing progressively over the course of September 2023. That checks out, as that’s the popular Halloween Time at Disneyland.
In my searches, it was also incredibly common for Paradise Pier Hotel to be more expensive than Disneyland Hotel and not that much cheaper than the Grand Californian in August. (The dynamic changes in mid to late September, with PPH being cheapest and there being much more space between the three.)
To that point, there are certain dates, even eligible ones, when both Disneyland Hotel and the Grand Californian have nothing available under the discount. Those nights, prices can exceed $1,000. We love both of these hotels, but that nightly rate is a non-starter for us. To each their own, though!
As with Walt Disney world, we recommend requesting a fee-free Disneyland vacation price quote from Be Our Guest Vacations. Those Authorized Disney Vacation Planners will do the work for you and take the stress out of planning, finding the cheapest dates (if you so desire), making recommendations with plans, booking dining reservations, and monitoring your reservation for better discounts (it’s not going to get better than this).
If you’re wondering when the best time is to visit, check out our totally free 2023 Disneyland Crowd Calendars, which offer recommendations as to when the parks will be least busy and busiest. Although Disneyland crowds have been elevated and less predictable in the last couple of years, things are finally settling back into more familiar patterns.
Another good way to choose your dates is based on the best prices for resorts. This isn’t always a proxy for crowds as Disneyland only has 3 on-site hotels, but rack rates usually correspond with tourist season attendance projections. The lower the expected number of visitors, the lower the prices. (This does not take into account local visitor dynamics, which are huge for Disneyland.)
These are some solid savings, particularly if paired with an off-season rack rate at the maximum savings amount. Definitely worth considering if you’re thinking about a late summer or early fall trip, are pricing out Walt Disney World, and finding minimal savings. See our recently-revised Disneyland vs. Walt Disney World for the pros and cons of each coast.
If you’re thinking about taking a trip and are still undecided on dates, we’d recommend late August into early September 2023. This should be the sweet spot after Los Angeles and Orange County schools go back into session, and Halloween Time at Disneyland crowds arrive in full force. With regard to the latter point, see our Guide to Halloween Time at Disneyland.
If you’re looking for a resort recommendation, I’d go with Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa if you can swing the higher cost or even want to splurge on a single night stay. The Grand Californian is a true luxury resort and thematic gem–think of it as the best parts of Wilderness Lodge and Grand Floridian, combined in a single hotel.
Grand Californian is the nicest hotel in Anaheim, and one of the best hotels in Orange County, period–and there’s strong competition in Newport and Laguna Beach. I’ve also found myself drawn more to the Craftsman style over the years, and love exploring the quiet corners of the Grand Californian.
We did a quick staycation at the Grand Californian just last week, and it was an exceptional experience, as always. To each their own, but we’d rather pay more to do GCH even if that means fewer nights than at DLH.
Highlights of our stay included eating pizza from GCH Craftsman Grill on our balcony while people-watching the crowds in Downtown Disney; leaving our balcony door open at night (something you can do in SoCal because humidity isn’t an issue!) and falling asleep to that excellent Disney100 background music loop; and knocking out a ton of attractions during Early Entry.
We love Disneyland Hotel, but it’s just not on the same level as GCH. It’s a sentimental favorite, a love letter to Walt Disney and his original theme park that fans will adore. However, it’s just not as high of a caliber of a hotel when viewed objectively. DLH is also not nearly as close to the parks–Grand Californian’s private entrance into DCA is huge.
The construction occurring on the new DVC tower at Disneyland Hotel gives me further pause. I also don’t think the combo of Goofy’s Kitchen, Tangaroa Terrace, and Trader Sam’s are even remotely on par with the dining scene at the Grand Californian.
We also stopped into Paradise Pier Hotel last week and it was…uh…interesting. We’ve joked that the new Pixar Place Hotel is “not to be confused with the Hyatt Place Hotel down the street” but the thing is, you really could confuse the two!
The new lobby is partially-complete, and embraces the aesthetic of a sleek and modern mid-tier hotel. Once you get past the window-dressing of the stylized lights and the contrasting colors…there is no there there. This is strikingly similar to a dozen-plus third party hotels near Disneyland, with the only difference being some Pixar character art on the walls. Are you willing to pay a $200 nightly premium for that?!
Suffice to say, if you’re thinking about Paradise Pier Hotel, perhaps reconsider. This is an “upgrade” from our previous recommendation of avoiding PPH at all costs. While we still wouldn’t recommend it, but the new private entrance to DCA does change the equation just a bit.
Just keep in mind that with that upgrade comes a downgrade, as construction is ongoing to convert it to Pixar Place Hotel. The guest impact of construction is significant, with most of the new offerings not opening until later this year. On the plus side, Paradise Pier Hotel doesn’t really have “amenities,” so there’s not much of value that can still close at this point. Hopefully Great Maple and other amenities debut before the end of this special offer period.
Our perspective on Paradise Pier Hotel remains that you might as well just book a third party hotel that’s off-site. This isn’t us being snobbish–it’s the opposite. There’s no sense in spending an outlandish sum of money when you can get comparable quality for $150/night or so.
There are a ton of great off-site hotels that are closer to the parks, cost less money, and are objectively better than PPH. As you can see in our Disneyland Area Hotel Rankings & Reviews, there are 30+ off-site hotels we prefer to PPH.
If you’re looking to book a third party hotel, we do not recommend going through Disneyland’s Good Neighbor search engine, as that’ll cost you more. Instead, consider booking a discounted hotel + ticket vacation package via Get Away Today. In addition to the package discount, some hotels have ‘4th night free’ promos.
Save an extra $10 by using code TOURIST at checkout (valid on 2-night and longer stays). Click here to check out the package discounts available. This is in addition to any package or bundle savings on tickets and hotels. A lot of these third party hotels will have great rates during the late summer and early fall off-season, as pent-up demand is slowing and that isn’t a big time for travel to Anaheim (or conventions), anyway.
There have been several big on-site perks introduced recently, but Early Entry is the biggest new selling point of the Hotels of Disneyland Resort. Early Entry occurs 30 minutes prior to each park’s opening every day, and offers access to select attractions, dining and shopping.
We’ve taken advantage of this in both parks, and share the experience in our posts about Early Entry at Disneyland and Early Entry at Disney California Adventure. Suffice to say, it’s a nice advantage for Fantasyland or Avengers Campus, while also offering a strategic starting point for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Cars Land.
Ultimately, Early Entry is an on-site perk that could tip the scales in favor of staying at one of the three Disneyland Resort Hotels if you’re on the fence. With that said, all 3 of these hotels are pretty pricey, and that perk alone isn’t enough to justify the on-site stay. The better/easier justification is simply because you want to, whether that means a single-night “treat yo self” stay or going all-out on a deluxe Disneyland vacation.
Either way, saving a bit of money always helps, and that’s what these discounts offer. That’s about it in terms of current Disneyland discounts and our thoughts on booking a stay at one of the on-site hotels in the coming months. For now, we’ll just say that if you’re in need of a Disney fix and are on the fence about doing Walt Disney World or Disneyland…choose Disneyland!
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
Your Thoughts
Thoughts on the new on-site perks coming to the Hotels of Disneyland Resort? What do you think of these hotel discounts for Disneyland Resort? Do you feel like these rates for the Grand Californian and Disneyland Hotel are fair, or still overpriced? Is there availability for your dates? Is 10% to 25% off enough to convince you to book a trip, or are these prices still too high? How do you feel about Paradise Pier Hotel v. off-site third party accommodations? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? Any questions? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
