Disneyland Hotel Review's: Paradise Pier

I get a lot of questions about Disney hotels from clients. Since we have either visited or stayed in each hotel I thought I would take the time and do a series of information and reviews from our experiences with Disney property's.

For this post I will focus on Paradise Pier at Disneyland.

We have stayed at Paradise Pier twice. Once in 2007 and again in 2013. It is the cheaper choice of the three Disney owned properties at Disneyland. It is a nice boardwalk themed hotel with very large beach-style rooms and great views. It was clean and the staff was inc
redibly friendly and helpful during our visits.

The walk to the parks is a little bit long but not too bad at all - about 15 minutes from hotel to Disneyland's entrance. We stayed there when our son was 2 and never had a problem walking back to the hotel to rest. I also really enjoyed the walk through downtown Disney to/from the parks and you can catch the monorail into Disneyland from Downtown Disney which is fun too. The landscaping is beautiful and the pathways are wide and clean.


Rooms:


We really loved our room at Paradise Pier. They are pretty large, bright and cheery and clean. They sleep up to 5 people. The bedding has changed a little since this photo was taken, but the size, cleanliness and of course the view are the same. We had a view of the pool during our second stay and were on a lower floor and our first stay had a view of California Adventure park. Both were wonderful.



Pool:

The pool at Paradise Pier is a roof top pool. It is located on the third floor terrace and is clean and a lot of fun. We usually visited there at night and really enjoyed it - although it was a little busy.
















Lobby: 

The lobby is smaller than I would usually like and is pretty disappointing as far as lobby's go. There is an entrance area that has the check in/out desk, concierge and entrance to their restaurant. Down the hall there is a door to a tv room that play's Disney cartoon's (see photo). Our then three year old loved it. There is also a door to an arcade area. I'm not a huge fan of the main floor of the hotel. It doesn't feel very inviting or open to me. When you first walk in you are greeted by a Goofy statue though, which is pretty darn cute. The photo on the left looking up at the ceiling the  main entrance.







Restaurant: 
PCH Grill is a beach themed restaurant located in the main entrance area at Paradise Pier. They offer a breakfast buffet (character dining) and a dinner buffet. We have not been to either as we prefer to get to the park's and enjoy the park ambiance while we eat, but I have heard wonderful thing's about both buffet's. Prices range from $15 - $60.  For menu information check Disneyland's website.

Overall:
I would give this hotel a rating of 3 out of 5. It is comfortable and clean. If you're wanting to feel like you're staying in the Disney bubble it is an okay choice. There are hotel's of equal amenities and of equal distance that are a cheaper option so it really depend's on what you're hoping to get out of your vacation. Their lobby is very disappointing in my opinion, but they do maintain the Disney customer service. If you have any additional question's please feel free to ask me!

DIY Bleach Spray Character Tee

My son and I are always doing DIY projects for our one on one time.  We love this DIY bleach spray tee shirt so much we have done it four times. Today I'm going to share two of the final products with you.







What you need:
- Cotton tee shirt (we used Fruit of the Loom 100% cotton tee's from Walmart)
- Spray bottle
- Bleach
- Contact paper/Sticker
- Character Silhouette

1: Cut out your silhouette.

2: Tape your silhouette to a sticker or contact paper and cut out the image. Since I'm cheap I used the sticker that came on the shirt.

3: Stick your image to the tee shirt. We also added this circle for some extra details. It was just a crust shield for a pie. I taped it into position and then removed the tape so it didn't leave any lines. For the second picture we covered the rest of the tee to get a different look. 

4: Add a paper bag to the center of the shirt so that the bleach does not go through to the back. 

5: Fill a spray bottle with 1/2 bleach, 1/2 water. We used the travel bottle from Target. You can use any bottle, but make sure it spray's evenly or it will leave funny circle's with the bleach. 

6: Lightly spray the bleach over the tee shirt. It takes a few minute's to start to change color so we spray a little and wait to see how it look's. You can alway's add more. 

7: When you have it the way you like it quickly rinse in cold soapy water. We rinse them in the sink really well and then throw them in the washer right away. 

Here is the final product! 

DIY Mickey Headband

As a mom to two wonderful boy's I get to make many fun boy-type projects, which I fully enjoy. Sometime's though, I get the itch to create girly thing's, which either leaves me making them for myself or for my adorable nieces.

This one I made for myself for our last Walt Disney World trip, although I wear it at home all the time too!  This is one of my favorite headband's because it is so stretchy it never gives me a headache yet it stays in place. I also used material's that I already had in the house, which alway's makes me happy!

What you need:
- Pair of nylon's

- A few piece's of fabric
- Felt

- Hot glue gun and glue

- Scissors

1: Cut two strips of fabric. Mine were 1/2" wide by 15" long.

2: Cut one of the two strips in half to make two smaller strips.

3: Cut three pieces of felt. I cut mine the size I wanted my Mickey to end up. I like to leave a little extra to cut off after your done glueing so that I don't run out of space. I also leave my felt in the shape of a square so that I have some finger room to maneuver around the hot glue gun without getting burned. You can cut the corner's off later. 

4: Tie a knot in the end you are going to begin glueing first. This create's a center for the fabric and also prevent's burning your finger's. 

5: Start glueing your longest piece of fabric's knot to your felt beginning in the center and working your way around to make a "rose". 

6: Repeat step 5's process with the two smaller pieces to make Mickey's ears. 

7: Take a pair of old nylon's and cut one leg off. Then sew the foot of the nylon's to the top of the leg to create a circle that fit's your head.

 

 8: Glue your Mickey to the nylon's starting with Mickey's head so that you can make sure it is centered. Make sure to glue it over your stitching so that it is hidden under the Mickey.

Another idea would be to add a bow to make it a Minnie instead. I opted out of this since my boy's are huge Mickey fan's right now. If you wanted to do this -  I would tie a bow in some ribbon and glue it to the ear! If you do so share a picture. I would love to see how it turn out.