We’re staying at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel at Disneyland Resort on its final day of operation before it transforms tomorrow into the Pixar Place Hotel. Our Pixar-themed room is ready, and we’re taking you on a virtual tour.
We have been hard on many of the modern Disney hotel rooms in recent projects. Paradise Pier wasn’t the best, but what it has become now is a vast improvement. There are so many small touches throughout that, at least at Walt Disney World, that have fallen by the wayside in recent years. Read on to see more of our photos and take the full tour.
Pixar Place Hotel Standard Room Tour
Hallway/Room Exterior
The hallways of Pixar Place Hotel are mostly black and white with pops of color. The wallpaper here is white and gray, with a dark gray floor covered in Pixar-themed line art. The door to the room is outlined in red-orange paint, with the doors a natural wood color. Round, bright spotlights dot the walls and are present between the doors.
Overhead are strips of lighting featuring Luxo Jr., the iconic Pixar lamp. The illustration demonstrates him jumping up and down, as he does in the Pixar bumper shown before the animated films. A Luxo ball is also present.
Room Entrance
Starting with the “Room Occupied” door tag, the stage is set for the level of detail you can expect. At Walt Disney World Resort, all of these tags are the same, but the fact that someone on the project team suggested that these be custom for the hotel is fantastic, and the tag itself is very cute.
Upon entering the hotel room, to your right is a sliding wood door that leads to the bathroom.
Bathroom
The bathroom is a little plain, but we don’t think we’re ever going to get away from white bathrooms at Disney resort hotels. That being said, there are some things present to break up the wash of bright white.
This back unit is actually the hotel room’s closet, which we think is quite an interesting placement. While the location is a little weird, the closet is nice and big, with plenty of room for storage.
There is no steamer included with the room, which we were happy about; instead, there is an iron and ironing board. Extra bedding is also stored here in the closet, and there is a stand where you can lay your luggage flat. We were surprised that, given the amount of detail present in the hotel room overall, the closet door handles were not shaped like the Luxo ball.
The “Conserve Water, Energy, and Waste” placard in the bathroom is even themed, specifically to “Luca.”
The “toilet art” for the room is none other than Luxo Jr., bouncing on a Luxo ball. We loved this extra touch of fun. Otherwise, the toilet and shower are pretty standard.
The shower has a wavy tile pattern on the walls and a hexagon pattern on the floor. The showerhead can be handheld or moved depending on your height.
The amenities are mounted, with shampoo, conditioner, and body wash available. The labels are also done in the hotel’s primary color palette. As you can see, these are not labeled as H2O+, as Disney bought the formulations and is now distributing them themselves. Here, they are labeled with the Pixar Place Hotel wordmark.
We have very few nitpicks about the room, but the bathroom sink is one of them; it’s quite plain. There is a mirror that extends out from the left wall, which is nice for those who need a closer look when getting ready.
Something that makes up for our sink nitpick, though, is the custom Pixar Place Hotel packaging for the shower cap. It makes us wish that the other amenities weren’t mounted so we could have even more bespoke packaging.
Back in the 1970s and 1980s, Disney hotels like Disney’s Contemporary Resort and Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort had custom packaging for their toiletries. We saw this also happen in Paris with Disney Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel, and even the other Disneyland Paris hotels. We love that this was thought of and included.
Entry Hallway
In the entry hallway is a light panel, where you can control all of the lighting throughout the room, as well as their brightness levels. The switches aren’t labeled, so it’ll take some experimentation to see which switches control which lights.
A full-length mirror hangs on the wall next to the panel, perfect for those last-minute outfit checks before heading out to the parks for the day.
Next to the mirror is more Pixar art, which appears to be a collection of concept art from “Turning Red,” “Toy Story,” “Soul,” “Up,” “Inside Out,” “Monsters, Inc.,” “Luca,” “Finding Nemo,” and “WALL-E.”
Main Living Area
What we love most about the main living area is that there is so much color present. So many of the recent Disney hotel room renovations, like at Pop Century Resort and the All-Star Resorts, have turned out very plain; that is not the case here.
We will say that there are a lot of empty spaces in these rooms, which is probably not an issue if you bring a lot of luggage.
The room’s layout matches that of Hotel New York – The Art of Marvel. Even the theming, with its focus on art and how it is represented in the rooms, is quite similar. We’ve toured the standard room there as well.
The wall to the right of the bed has a long ledge wide enough to store items during your stay. We think that there could have been another piece of art hung here, as it’s quite empty with nothing stored there along the ledge.
The climate control panel is also located on this wall, with two more outlets below it. The outlet here has a power icon and says “controlled,” which we can only assume means that there is a switch in the room that controls power reaching those outlets.
Above the bed is a large concept art print featuring “The Incredibles,” “Ratatouille,” “Toy Story,” “Brave,” “Finding Nemo,” “Soul,” and “Coco.” We’re unsure if the art changes from room to room, but we will be touring a 1-bedroom suite soon, so stay tuned for that.
The rug beneath the bed features a design inspired by Luxo Jr. There is also plenty of room for storage underneath the bed.
Another thing we never get anymore, at least at Walt Disney World, is special bedding. It’s difficult to photograph, but the bedding’s pattern is rows upon rows of circles. Occasionally, you can spot a Luxo ball or two hidden among them.
Several years ago, as part of Pixar Fest, Paradise Pier got a slight update and Luxo beach ball pillows were added to the beds in each of the rooms. These have since been removed, despite fitting into the new overall theme. Instead, we now have a cylindrical throw pillow to represent the Luxo ball. It’s quite hard for a pillow, so you’ll want to take it off of the bed before going to sleep. It seems it’s more for decorative purposes than it is meant to be used.
There is not a lot of light around the bed, but there are lights just below the large art print above the headboard. Light panels above the side tables control them.
There are also reading lights that pop out from the headboard on either side.
As far as outlets by the bed, both sides have a set of two standard outlets, with one USB port and one USB-C port. The room phone is on the left side table.
A wireless charging alarm clock is present on the right side table — which also sports another USB and USB-C port. This room might hold our record for the most USB outlets in a Disney hotel room.
The drawers in the bedside tables are a decent size, but there is not a lot of storage space in the room overall, especially if you have four people staying in the room. However, the closet is quite large, so we think you’d be okay.
Another small detail is the Pixar Place Hotel pen and notepad on the left bedside table. Both feature Luxo Jr. and the hotel’s logo.
Opposite the bed is the desk area, with the room’s television mounted on the wall above it.
The desk is home to our favorite aspect of the room: the adjustable Luxo Jr. desk lamp. The lamp is attached to the desk so you can’t pick it up and reenact him “bouncing,” but it does swivel.
Behind the lamp is another outlet with two standard plugs, a USB port, and a USB-C port.
Similar to the Disney resort hotels in Paris, Pixar Place Hotel has a new 10-track music loop of all-new arrangements of Pixar music in a lounge style that fills the hallways and plays through the TVs in the rooms. In addition, when you use the TV for the first time, a short animation of Luxo Jr. being drawn plays onscreen, before scanning past various pieces of Pixar concept art.
The top left drawer in the desk opens to reveal the room’s safe, with an actual drawer underneath.
The included desk chair is a criss-cross pattern of red, black, and white. The back of the chair looks quite supportive and ready for any “working vacations.”
A Pixar Place Hotel folio is present on the desk, which includes a faux postcard advertisement for Great Maple, the restaurant found downstairs in the hotel (which we reviewed for breakfast and dinner when it opened), as well as an actual postcard that matches the art present in the room.
There is also a Pixar-themed placard detailing personal security devices for Pixar Place Hotel employees:
Thank you for choosing to stay with us at Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel.
Anaheim law protects hotel workers from threatening behavior, and, in compliance with Chapter 6.101 of Title 6 of the Anaheim Municipal code, this hotel provides personal security devices to its employees.
Please contact the Front Desk if you have any questions.
We hope you enjoy your visit!
Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel
You do not get to take the folio home, but you can take home all of the paper materials inside.
The room also includes a copy of “The Art of Pixar” to rifle through during your stay. Ours was positioned on a shelf by the TV.
Below it is the room’s ice bucket and two stemless glasses, perched on Luxo ball coasters.
Under the shelving, a single-cup Keurig coffee maker sits on the desk. There are two outlets on the wall behind it.
The top right drawer stores all of the coffee and tea supplies. Also in this drawer are two Pixar Place Hotel condiment kits, which feature more special packaging made just for the hotel.
The second drawer on the right holds two mugs and two more glasses, as well as more Luxo ball coasters. The third drawer is empty and can be used for additional storage.
The cabinet to the left of the drawers holds the room’s minifridge, which we think is a good size.
To the right of the TV and desk is another piece of art, featuring many different Pixar characters walking through swirls and stripes of color.
The piece features Hector from “Coco,” Bo Peep in her adventuring outfit from “Toy Story 4,” Remy from “Ratatouille,” Mike and Sulley from “Monsters, Inc.,” Kevin from “Up,” Mrs. Incredible from “The Incredibles,” Joe Gardner from “Soul,” and Sadness from “Inside Out.” The frame is lit. We hope that there will be a location in Pixar Place Hotel eventually where you can order the art from the room on-demand for your home, because we love this.
There is a large window to the far left of the room, with two layers of curtains that you can move back and forth for added privacy or to allow for more light to come into the room.
We stayed in a standard view room on the 15th floor, but we did get a great view of the Finding Nemo splash pad and pool area below.
There are two black coffee tables in front of the red pull-out sleeper sofa. Both fit together to make the best use of the space provided.
They are quite light and easy to move, but we could see the yellow wall across from the couch being damaged over time from guests moving the furniture around themselves. In contrast, the cushions on the sofa are much heavier than the table.
The sleeper is by American Leather, which we’ve seen at a lot of the Walt Disney World hotels. The sleeper is not made once unfolded, so you’ll have to make it yourself with the bedding provided in the closet. Housekeeping might be able to do this for you if you’re unable.
Overall Thoughts
Altogether, we were fine with Paradise Pier if we really needed the benefits of being a hotel guest at Disneyland Resort. We appreciate the effort that has been put into “plussing” this hotel, including the dedicated entrance to Paradise Gardens Park and Pixar Pier in Disney California Adventure.
Disney’s Paradise Pier Hotel was getting long in the tooth, and while it might have been nice in 2001, it did not feel nice in more modern times. The rooms now feel much better for the amount of money charged to stay here.
That being said, the price of staying at Pixar Place Hotel is still quite high. If you’re coming from Walt Disney World Resort, you may think this is more of a Moderate room, though it’s considerably larger than that room type. You still have to decide if this price point is right for you, but we think it’s quite comfortable inside and we enjoy the theme.
What started out pretty rough in its early stages has become quite nice, and much nicer than it once was. We think Pixar Place Hotel is a big improvement and are fairly impressed.
Pixar Place Standard Room Tour Video
If video is more your speed, you can watch our full room tour video below:
For more Disneyland Resort news and info, follow Disneyland News Today on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. For Disney Parks news worldwide, visit WDWNT.