My family and I had the privilege of staying at the Disneyland Hotel this summer for a work conference I had there. Being a huge Disney fan, I was excited to finally have this dream come true because our family could not have been able to afford to pay cash for this stay. The most basic rooms at this hotel go anywhere from $600 to $900 dollars per night depending on what month you plan to go!
I know many people are on the same boat as me of not being able to afford this, so here’s a way you and your family could also stay there using credit card points and miles if it is one of your family’s dreams to experience this hotel and all of the Disney magic it brings.
Chase Points
Use Chase Ultimate Reward points because they transfer to cash at a 1 point to 1 cent ratio. Not all credit card points do that so if you will be using points to try to stay at the Disneyland Hotel, Chase is the way to go.
Chase cards that you could open that earn Chase Ultimate Reward points are:
Chase Sapphire Preferred-60,000 point welcome bonus ($600)
Chase Ink Business cards – 75,000 point welcome bonus ($750)
If you use player 1 and player 2 strategy you and your spouse could each open one of the above cards and then have $2,700 to put toward a few nights at the hotel and a day or 2 at Disneyland with your family.
Capital One Venture Miles
Capital One miles would not be cashed in. You would be using the “Purchase Eraser” feature in which you can charge travel expenses to your Venture or Venture X card and then later use points to erase that cost. You can erase 1 cent with 1 point on any purchase that codes as TRAVEL. Anything not coded as travel cannot be erased.
Opening the Venture card or the Venture X would earn you a 75,000 miles welcome bonus for each card ($750).
This is another good card that you can use to “erase” one hotel night. If you and your player 2 each open a card, you can “erase” two of your family’s nights at this hotel.
When booking your hotel stays, do not book directly with Disney because it will not code as travel. It codes an entertainment for some reason. You would have to book the hotel through a third party site, like Expedia.com for example.
If you plan to open any of the cards stated above, I would appreciate it if you used the links located in the linktree at the top of this blog or located in the link in my Instagram bio. It is a no cost to you way to support my page.
My Hotel Experience
We stayed at the hotel for 3 nights. We drove over and were able to check in early around 10 am even though check in time was 3 pm. I went into the lobby and asked if my room was ready by chance and it was! So don’t be afraid to ask. We unloaded our suitcases and then headed off to Disneyland for the day.
As we walked to our room I was very excited to see all of the Disney touches they have everywhere you look. From the Mickey and Minnie statues that greets you at the entrance of the hotel, to the Alice In Wonderland themed waiting area, to the wooden floors filled with iconic Disney images, and so much more. Walking into our room took my breath away. Alas my childhood dream came true. I love the Disney greeting to your family on the television. The headboard with castle and twinkling lights was so magical for me and my young daughters. As you explore the room you’ll find more Disney magic. The Mickey hand light holders were so funny to me. I can only imagine what goes through a child’s brain as they see it all.
After dropping off our luggage we headed to Disneyland. It is about a 10 minute walk from the hotel, through Downtown Disney, and to the front gate of the park.
That night we came back to the room fully exhausted and ready for bed. The TV has a storytime feature so I played a few stories for the TV to read to the kids and then put the kids to bed. Their favorite part of that night was the castle headboard with the twinkling lights that we kept on all night as a night light for my little ones.
The following day I woke up earlier than the kids and went to walk around the property in the stillness of the morning. I would suggest you do this. I grabbed some coffee from the corner store next to Goofy’s kitchen and went to sit in the lounge area of the Tangaroa Terrace restaurant located next to the pools. The cool breeze and the water noise from the water slide made for a very relaxing morning.
Your only food choices are: 1) room service 2) Tangaroa Terrace 3) Goofy’s Kitchen 4) to leave the property. I did everything except Goofy’s Kitchen.
We did breakfast by the pool at Tangaroa Terrace. Skip the the fruity drizzle if your kids are picky eaters. My kids are not very picky but they did not enjoy that.
My favorite item was the poke bowl at Tangaroa Kitchen. It was a 10/10. I highly recommended.
My kid’s favorite was the chicken teriyaki plate from Tangaroa Kitchen.
We ate out once, but if you leave the immediate Disney area Anaheim loses its magic, so we mostly stayed on property. I wanted my kids to experience room service for the first time in their lives so they have something to aim for when they are older. We’ll see if it worked out for me later in life. We did room service breakfast. It’s brought up in a full cart. The breakfast was okay but the presentation made the kids very happy and they said it made them feel fancy.
Besides food, I had a few other favorite things from the hotel. You can set up a wake up call from Mickey Mouse. You can set this through the phone in the room for whatever time you want and it can be a daily ritual. My 6 year olds got a kick out of it. Well, one of them did.
The best part of the hotel according to the kids was the pool. We spent most of our days out there. My kids were 14, 11, and 6 and I felt completely relaxed in a chair and letting them play. The pool has multiple lifeguards and free life vests kids can wear. The water slides weren’t scary and my 6 year olds loved going on them.
The hotel offers some activities so be sure to ask at the hotel lobby what they have scheduled for while you are there. Some are free, but most cost some money. I wanted to do the free tour of the hotel where they give some history of the hotel, but that was only done on the weekends. My kids were able to do a free cell painting activity. It was very fun and the trivia they taught while we were painting was very interesting. Be sure to grab the activity flyer from the front lobby.
Overall, It was a very cute hotel with lots of Disney touches everywhere you looked. It makes for wonderful childhood and family memories. I know my kids enjoyed it and I can say my inner child was also satisfied. I would definitely recommend you stay at this hotel at least once in your life. I wouldn’t do more than 2-3 nights there though. That time frame is enough to enjoy what the hotel and what the area has to offer.
