Accommodation - Paradise Pier Hotel

There's nothing in the world quite like a Disney experience.  It's what they do.  Disney is all about the customer service the experience and the quality.  When you stay in one of the Disney hotels that is exactly what you get.  We've stayed at the Paradise Pier hotel on 3 separate occasions.  Each time was amazing.  What's more, the Disney hotel staff even knows when you check in, how many times you've stayed with them.  We've had room upgrades on that basis alone!

Some of the rooms at Paradise Pier also look out over the California Adventure attraction World of Color which plays each evening.  If you have small children this may be one of the best ways to watch World of Color each night, from the comfort of your hotel room while they sleep!

The hotel itself is located right behind the Grand Californian Disney hotel which backs onto California Adventure park.  One of the best selling features of staying "on property" is that you are close to the park - really close.  From the Paradise Pier you cross the street which takes you onto the Grand Californian property.  You walk through the lobby of that hotel and voila, you have the choice to walk into California Adventure park right by the Grizzly River Run or enter into Downtown Disney.

The ambiance of the hotel is possibly what keeps drawing us back.  When you're in the hotel's common areas there are always classic California beach tunes playing and the hotel is spotless clean and the staff so friendly. The surf side theme is a good one.  The rooms are spacious and have good decor.  You can also sleep 5 comfortably in these rooms as they all have a little day bed - Karly's favorite!  As  you can see this hotel stay was actually on one of our motor home trips as we have rubber maid totes for our luggage! 

The hotel also has some great amenities.  One of my favorites of course is the roof top pool!  That's right, the roof top pool.  The pool is very little person friendly with a slide and a shallow area.  As with all other Disney hotel pools it is also staffed by life guards.  That means that Mom and Dad can relax a bit and catch some California sun.

If you're staying in the Paradise Pier or one of the other close by hotels you mustn't forget to book a character breakfast at the hotel.  We'll need to do a whole post on character dining soon.  The Paradise Pier offers a character breakfast with Lilo and Stitch.  The breakfast meal itself is a grand buffet which has amazing food and the characters perform a little song and come visit your children right at your table and take some time to visit with them and sign autograph books and pose for pictures.  It's quite the experience.  Of course, your meal is crazy expensive but something to be enjoyed!

For the runners in the room the other thing to know about the Paradise Pier is that it's a central fixture to many of the Disneyland runs.   In January of last year we went down for the Tinkerbell Half Marathon and stayed at the Paradise Pier.  From looking that the maps we figured it was in the center of the action and boy were we right!

The corals for the start of the run were literally right outside the front door of the hotel and the finish of the run was in the side parking lot.  If you are looking for proximity to any of the Run Disney races check out the maps provided and then look at the Paradise Pier.

Running in Disneyland is different from running in Walt Disney World as far as logistics and travel go.  The Disneyland races you can walk to the start line from any close by hotel.  In the World you really need to take a shuttle to the start line there's just no other way to get there.  That means for Disneyland you can squeeze a few extra hours of shut eye in and get up and walk to your start coral.