Disneyland Hotel
Disneyland Hotel is a resort hotel at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. Opened on October 5, 1955, less than three months after Disneyland Park itself, it was the first hotel to carry the Disney name, although for its first three decades it was owned and run by an outside company rather than by Disney. Today the property consists of three main guest towers themed to lands of the original park, plus a fourth tower housing Disney Vacation Club villas, set around landscaped grounds at the western end of Downtown Disney.
History
Walt Disney wanted overnight lodging close to his new park, because Anaheim was then a considerable drive from most of Southern California's population. Building Disneyland had exhausted the company's available funds, so Disney turned to Jack Wrather, a Texas oilman who had moved into film and television production and already owned hotels in other resort towns. Wrather and his partner Maria Helen Alvarez agreed to build and operate a hotel bearing the Disneyland name across West Street from the park. Ground was broken on March 18, 1955, and the firm of Pereira & Luckman designed the original buildings.
The hotel that opened that October was modest by later standards: just over 100 rooms in low, two-storey garden buildings, with only a handful of rooms actually ready on the first day. Demand quickly justified expansion, and additional garden wings followed in the late 1950s. After a falling-out between the partners, Wrather bought out Alvarez in 1958 and became sole owner. Growth then turned vertical. The Sierra Tower rose in 1962 and was enlarged in 1966, the Marina Tower followed in 1970, and the Bonita Tower, named for Wrather's wife Bonita Granville, completed the trio in 1978. A convention centre added in the 1970s made the property a significant meeting venue in its own right.
Wrather died in 1984, and in 1988 The Walt Disney Company acquired the Wrather Corporation, bringing the hotel under Disney ownership for the first time. To clear space for Downtown Disney and new roads, much of the old hotel was demolished in 1999, including every surviving building from 1955. The three towers remained as the core of a smaller, re-landscaped resort.
Between 2009 and 2012 the hotel was comprehensively remodelled. The towers, briefly renamed Magic, Dreams and Wonder in 2007, took their current names from Disneyland lands: Fantasy, Adventure and Frontier, and public spaces were redesigned with a mid-century character incorporating artwork associated with Disney artist Mary Blair.
Towers and accommodation
The Fantasy Tower contains the main lobby and convention facilities and is decorated with material relating to Fantasyland. The Adventure Tower, closest to Downtown Disney, draws on Adventureland, while the Frontier Tower, at the southern end of the site near the rose garden and wedding gazebo, reflects Frontierland. Guest rooms in all three towers feature headboards that depict Sleeping Beauty Castle with fibre-optic fireworks effects.
A fourth building, the Discovery Tower, opened on September 28, 2023 as The Villas at Disneyland Hotel, the resort's second Disney Vacation Club property in California after the villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. Its rooms are themed to animated films including Sleeping Beauty, The Princess and the Frog and Fantasia.
Dining and recreation
Dining includes Goofy's Kitchen, a character buffet restaurant, Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar and the adjoining Tangaroa Terrace, both referencing the Enchanted Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise. The Villas tower added the Palm Breeze Bar.
The recreation area between the towers holds two pools. The Monorail Pool has waterslides designed to resemble Disneyland Monorail trains, while the E-Ticket Pool takes its name from the park's historic ticket books.
Transport
The hotel stands a short walk from the Downtown Disney station of the Disneyland Monorail, which carries guests directly into Tomorrowland in Disneyland Park, and from the entrances of both theme parks via Downtown Disney.