Last week, Disneyland opened their newest hotel—The Villas at The Disneyland Hotel—and it is a stunner. Not only is this the newest of the new for Disney hotels, it’s also the model for future Disney hotels and renovations to come, featuring stylish decor, functional furniture, plenty of space for families and rather luxe amenities. Even someone who hates theme parks and themed hotel rooms will find themselves nodding in approval here.
Let’s get some basics out of the way first:
- This is a Disney Vacation Club property, which is a membership program that you buy into and then can use your member points at DVC properties and partner properties around the world. BUT it is open to regular guests with rooms starting at around $400 a night.
- The hotel has 344 rooms, ranging from small duo studios to deluxe studios, 1-bedrooms, 2-bedrooms and then 3-bedroom Grand Villas, which are two-story suites. (There are only 2 of these.) There are also plenty of adjoining room options.
- Villas might be a misnomer since aside from the 3-bedroom suites, the rest of the rooms are very much like hotel rooms and suites.
- There’s no new restaurant or bar on site, sadly, but there is a brand-new pool deck with a super cute Steamboat Willie splashpad. While the rest of the hotel is done up in a “world of color” Steamboat Willie stays true to his black and white origins.
- The hotel room design draws from four themes—Fantasia, Sleeping Beauty, Jungle Book and our personal favorite, The Princess and The Frog. Disney was mum on how these four were chosen but I think the former three speak to the heyday of Disney while the last one is about the future of Disneyland, including the new ride opening next year. There are also three “secret” themes. Read more on that below.
- Located at The Disneyland Hotel and wedged between the Frontier Tower and Goofy’s Kitchen, it’s within walking distance to Downtown Disney and the monorail into Disneyland. All in all it takes about 10 minutes to walk into either Disneyland or Disney California Adventure.
- Random Fact: Did you know Disney Vacation Club has their own theme song? We saw Kissy Simmons (who played Nala in “The Lion King” on Broadway) perform it at the Grand Opening.
We are going to do a quick break down on the rooms for you. Currently, pricing is not available for these rooms online but rooms are expected to start around $400 a night (in low season) for the Duo studio and goes up to many, many, many thousands of dollars a night for the Grand Villa.
These are the starting rooms and it is essentially a Murphy bed room. That’s right. You can pull-out the bed at night and turn it back into a sofa during the day. And aside from a TV, and in some cases, a balcony, that’s pretty much all you get. (Of course, there’s a bathroom too.)
The Deluxe Studio rooms are a bigger step up from a Duo in that you have a queen bed and a Murphy bed, along with a kitchenette that includes a small refrigerator, microwave, toaster and coffee maker and a much bigger bathroom. This is an ideal room for four people. *Note the cute message along the rug.*
We toured a 1-bedroom suite that was my absolute favorite of the bunch. It was The Princess and The Frog theme but had beautiful modern touches including a wonderful mosaic tile wall above the tub (also, the paint in the kitchen is now on the vision board for our own home remodel.) This has a separate one-bedroom as well as a sleeper sofa, a full kitchen, two bathrooms, a balcony and a little dining room table.
This room felt like the game-changer at The Villas at The Disneyland Hotel. It can sleep up to 9 which is so great. There are two bedrooms, one with a king bed and a stunning tiled bath, the other with two queens. Then there’s a double pull-out in a Murphy bed, along with a single bed that drops down from the wall. There are three full bathrooms, a full kitchen, a dining table, WASHER AND DRYER, and a balcony too.
There are two of these 3-bedroom Grand Villas and they each take up two floors. Of course, these villas are massive (they can sleep 12!) and are similar to penthouse apartments in New York, or perhaps more similarly, Las Vegas where your expansive balcony overlooks the Disneyland Hotel and the rest of Anaheim. You also have a full kitchen and dining area and a huge living area with an indoor/outdoor firepit.
This villa is where you will find the three “secret” theme rooms. Naturally, Disney reserves the best secrets for the deepest pockets. Two of the theme rooms are Moana and Frozen guest bedrooms on the second floor. These have two queen beds and dual-vanities in the bath. The third theme room is the beautiful primary suite on the downstairs level which is done in a Bambi theme. (That might be an odd choice for a bedroom but it’s still beautiful.)
BOTTOM LINE
As we mentioned above, pricing is not yet available for regular guests online as the property is surely testing out its newness with DVC members first. But you can expect these rooms to go for several thousand dollars a night. Why? Because right now in October, regular rooms at Disneyland Hotel are going for close to $1,000 a night.
Pricing aside, the best room to book is the deluxe studio. It’s super spacious and can easily sleep two adults and two children, possibly three, depending on the age/air mattress that you bring in. 🙂 Or if you plan on staying for a few days, the 1-bedrooms feel like little apartments where parents can have their own space and you can make your own meals.
OTHER STORIES YOU MIGHT LIKE
When You Wish Upon a Star…Disneyland Reduces the Price of a Kid’s Ticket
