Top 10 Reasons Our Family Stays at Grand Legacy At The Park
Carissa Houston is the author of Disneyland on a Budget: How Our Family Spends 30 Days a Year at Disneyland Without Breaking the Bank! (Amazon release date: July 15, 2015) and AllDayMom.com.
Even though we have never lived closer than 3 hours from Disneyland (we now live 6 hours away, in Arizona), our family has spent more than 150 days at The Happiest Place on Earth over the last 8 years!
We spend over a month out of each year at Disneyland and we need a great hotel to serve as our “home base” so we can make the most out of every day in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure! Our family has spent dozens of nights at Grand Legacy At The Park, and over the years we’ve watched it grow and change — for the better!
When you visit a foreign country, you know to ask a local to recommend a great restaurant. By the same token, when you visit Disneyland, you can be sure to choose a great hotel if you stay where the Annual Passholders stay! Disneyland Annual Passholders stay close, they stay cheap, and they stay loyal to properties that offer guests an extension of that famous Disney Magic!
Grand Legacy At The Park is a firm favorite among Disneyland Annual Passholders!
Here are 10 reasons our family chooses Ramada Maingate as our home away from home on our Disneyland vacations:
1. Location, Location, Location!
Grand Legacy At The Park is a 5-minute walk to the gate at Disneyland or Disney California Adventure! Seriously, I timed it.
Did you know: Grand Legacy At The Park is closer to Disneyland than the Disneyland Hotel is!
Staying at a hotel within walking distance from Disneyland is one of the most important choices you make when you plan your Disneyland Resort vacation! It’s great not to have to wait for shuttles or battle traffic.
We love to take a mid-day break to take a nap, or splash in the pool, or just veg out and watch Disney Channel and gather our energy before we hit the Parks again in the evening!
The quick walk back and forth between Disneyland and Grand Legacy At The Park makes that easy! Does someone need a change of clothes? Forget their ticket in the room? Need a sweatshirt? No problem: I can just run back to the room to grab what I need and get right back to the Parks!
Summer 2015 kicks off the year-long Disneyland Resort Diamond Celebration and three new night time shows! Take an afternoon break to let your kids catch their second wind so they can stay up late to experience Paint the Night, World of Color, and the fireworks spectacular, Disneyland Forever!
You’ll be waiting in line for rides all day in the Parks — don’t waste time waiting for shuttles and trams: Stay at a hotel within walking distance of Disneyland (like Grand Legacy At The Park!)
Carissa at Disneyland Park in 2015
2. Comfy beds and pillows!
My husband and I shopped for a mattress for 2 months before we found one we both loved, because I like a very firm mattress, and he likes to sink into a marshmallow! There must be something magical about the beds at Grand Legacy At The Park because we agree that they are some of the comfiest hotel beds we’ve ever slept in!
3. Price – Check out those Specials!
There’s no way around it: Disneyland is expensive! I’ve written the book on doing Disneyland on a budget (literally: the book will be released on Amazon this July!) and Grand Legacy At The Park offers the best bang for your Disneyland buck!
There are only 3 or 4 Disneyland area hotels that Annual Passholders frequent. When I plan a Disneyland trip, I check the prices for my vacation dates for each of those hotels. Grand Legacy At The Park consistently beats the price of the other three hotels because of their Guest Loyalty Specials: Guests in the know start their Disneyland vacation planning at grandlegacyhotel.com to check out the current Specials! Are you an Annual Passholder? You get to enjoy late checkout and a great rate so you can return to the Disneyland Resort over and over throughout the year! Driving in to Disneyland? Check out the Gas Special!
Grand Legacy At The Park is close, clean, and cheap: the Disneyland vacation hotel trifecta!
4. Free Valet Parking Upgrade!
Now, if you’ve never stayed at a Disneyland area hotel, you’ll just have to take my word for it, but Annual Passholders and frequent guests of the Disneyland Resort, you know what’s up next: Parking. Most hotels near the Disneyland Resort simply don’t have enough parking spots to hold their guests’ cars (at one unnamed Harbor Blvd hotel, I was told I would have to park at the shopping mall two blocks from the hotel — for $24 a night! I immediately moved my reservation over to Grand Legacy At The Park!)
Grand Legacy At The Park is in the same “limited parking” boat as the other hotels. Guess what Grand Legacy At The Park did? They hired a valet so they can accommodate all of their guests who drive in! (Valet service is a free upgrade for all Grand Legacy At The Park guests — but do tip the valet if he pulls your car out for you!)
Disneyland vacation planning tip: Remember to add up all of the benefits — and fees! — when you’re comparing Disneyland area hotels! Ramada Maingate offers free breakfast, free wifi, a $5 per night parking fee with free valet service upgrade, and does not charge a resort fee! We spend about $50 when we buy breakfast in the Parks — I take $50 off the top of Grand Legacy At The Park’s nightly rate when I’m comparing Disneyland area hotels because we can count on the free breakfast to help us fuel up for a magical day inside the Disneyland Resort!
5. Take a Break in the Pool!
The heated pool at Grand Legacy At The Park is huge and includes a beach entry. My kids love the super fun water features! The pool area features a hot tub and ample seating; the grownups can relax while the kids splash! We live in Arizona so my kids are in the pool year round, and they still love to spend an hour or two in the Grand Legacy At The Park pool on our afternoon breaks from the Parks.
6. Fuel Up with a Free Breakfast!
Continental breakfasts are sometimes panned for the bread- and sugar- laden selections and lack of protein. Yes, the free breakfast at Grand Legacy At The Park offers plenty of classic breakfast choices like donuts, bagels and cream cheese, toast, and oatmeal, but you’ll find a varied menu that includes healthy options!
I relax my clean eating food rules (a lot!) on Disneyland trips, because where’s the fun if you can’t have a churro or a Dole Whip Float — or my favorite, a piping hot corn dog from the Little Red Wagon? I follow the Paleo diet and I always find plenty of healthy choices at the free breakfast at Grand Legacy At The Park:
Two or three fresh fruit choices every day (we most often find oranges, bananas, and apples), hardboiled eggs, and coffee and tea. Tip: Make yourself a hot tea or coffee in the morning and stash it in the in-room fridge to enjoy a cold pick-me-up on your afternoon break!
My kids love taking advantage of “Disneyland Mom” and they usually have a donut (chocolate, of course!), cereal with milk, and a glass of orange juice.
7. The Gift Shop is Open!
There’s nothing more irritating than expecting to pop into a hotel gift shop for something you need desperately only to find it closed! The Grand Legacy At The Park gift shop keeps generous hours and is stocked to solve “Disneyland emergencies” fast: the gift shop anticipates guests’ needs by stocking everything from sunscreen to comfy shoes so you can save yourself a trip to Target!
8. Staff Shout-out!
The more often I stay in hotels, the more I feel the impact a great staff can have on my stay!
We’ve stayed over 50 nights at Grand Legacy At The Park over 8 years, so it stands to reason that there’s been a hiccup here and there. My dad taught me not to judge a company by its mistakes, but by its willingness to fix those mistakes to win your loyalty. Grand Legacy At The Park goes all in, by empowering employees to make decisions on the spot, enabling each staff member to turn around any guest issue and ensure that your stay at Grand Legacy At The Park exceeds your expectations!
We all know that Disneyland deserves its reputation as a company with preeminent customer service, and Grand Legacy At The Park has obviously taken a leaf from Disney’s book! At Grand Legacy At The Park I get a sincere smile and prompt help whenever I have a need. I love that the staff is proactive: they stock often-requested items like towels and coffee cups behind the front desk for guests so they’re always prepared to deliver great service!
9. DIY Concierge Level!
If you’ve ever stayed on site at one of the Disneyland Resort Hotels you may have upgraded to “Concierge Level” where you get access to a lounge filled with unlimited yummy treats and drinks (for the low, low price of $150 extra per night!) I don’t know about you, but I’d rather take a longer Disneyland vacation (and stay out of debt!) by doing my own version of the enticing Concierge Level lounge! I call it “DIY Concierge Level”!
Grand Legacy At The Park makes it convenient to store food and drinks in your hotel room to enjoy in the room or the Parks: every room includes a refrigerator (big enough to hold a half gallon of milk in the door!), microwave, and single-serve coffee pot. Plus, the rooms are large enough to accommodate an ice chest as well as our luggage!
We take road trips to Disneyland from Arizona and I pack lots of fresh fruit and veggies, plus lots of fun snacks and treats — hey, we’re on vacation! When we arrive at Grand Legacy At The Park I stock the fridge (which is always cold and ready!) and organize the snacks. The in-room fridge and microwave — and the quick walk to the Disneyland gate — save us a ton of money in the Parks!
Disneyland vacation planning tip: Do your kids love popcorn?
1. Pack a few microwavable popcorn packets.
2. Buy a souvenir popcorn bucket on your first day.
3. Refill the souvenir bucket with popcorn you pop yourself in the in-room microwave as many times as you like!
If you’d normally buy popcorn in the Parks 3 times during your trip, that idea will pay for itself — and you’ll take home a great souvenir!
We like to take a break from the Parks in the afternoon and go back to our hotel room “so the kids can rest” (You know it’s the adults who actually need the pit stop!) The kids grab an ice cold soda from the fridge (we love those new 7.5oz cans: less sugar, and 8 cans costs less than one soda in Disneyland!) and munch on a snack while they watch Disney Channel. We adults grab an ice cold beer from the fridge (a beer costs about $8 in Disney California Adventure, and you won’t be driving, so enjoy!)
I love riding rides in Disneyland, that’s for sure! But truthfully, one of my favorite things to do on vacation is to walk into my hotel room after a day in the Parks: Someone has made the beds, taken out the trash, cleaned the bathroom, and folded fluffy, white towels — and that someone wasn’t me!
10. Rooftop fireworks viewing (Coming Soon!)
Even though I have “big kids” (ages 8 and 11), we rarely stay inside the Parks late enough to catch the fireworks — after a long day of rides they like to lounge in the hotel room before bedtime and watch a little Disney Channel. But when they hear the Disneyland fireworks start, you can bet they run out to the balcony to watch! My kids can’t wait to watch the Disneyland fireworks show in their jammies from the rooftop lounge at Grand Legacy At The Park! The new rooftop area offers a clear view of the night sky over the Disneyland Resort — that’s fireworks territory!
Grand Legacy At The Park is in the home stretch of its fantastic expansion! If your Disneyland vacation is coming up before the renovation is complete, rest assured: our family has not experienced the slightest inconvenience during the renovation! Stay where the Annual Passholders stay: Stay at Grand Legacy At The Park!
I totally agree with Carissa! We stayed at this Ramada 9 nights in June (on 3 separate trips). We were so happy with the location, staff, pool, breakfast, rates, … Everything she mentioned. We always use the micriwave and frig for drinks and snacks. We will definitely stay here again. We are excited for their new remodel to be finished.
Wow it seems like the Ramada would be a great place to stay at when planning a family vacation! I feel like if you can list that many awesome things about a hotel then it must be good! Thanks for joining the Link-It To Me Link Party! I hope you will party with us again this week! Pinning 🙂