Hello and welcome to planDisney, Sophie. We're so glad you found us to ask this question. It won't be long until you will be walking down Main Street, U.S.A. towards Sleeping Beauty Castle and I'm thrilled to help you prepare.
I love staying in the Disney bubble whenever I can and I'm so excited to hear that you will be staying in the magic at the
Disneyland Hotel. You are most welcome to use the direct park entrance at
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa. Keep in mind that during busy times, this entrance may be restricted to guests of the hotel. Just make sure that you have a theme park reservation for Disney California Adventure Park to access this entrance. I love walking over from the Disneyland Hotel to use this entrance as well as the
Pixar Place Hotel Guest entrance.
When it comes to
Disney Gift Cards, you can absolutely use them to pay for your meal at
Goofy's Kitchen in addition to using them to pay for your hotel stay. Just let the Cast Member know at check-in that this is the form of payment that you would like to use. For ease, you may also want to consider consolidating the balances into one Disney Gift Card. You can do this at the Disney Gift Card site by logging into your account and clicking on "My Cards" at the top of the page. You can
transfer up to $1,000 onto one Disney Gift Card.
Whenever I'm staying at a
Disneyland Resort hotel, I always make sure to take advantage of the benefits. One of my favorite perks is Early Entry to enter and enjoy the parks 30 minutes before they open to the general public. Make sure that your theme park reservations align with the designated theme park offering this benefit for each day. My favorite perk of all is being within walking distance of a refreshing DOLE Whip when staying at the Disneyland Hotel. I love heading down from my room to enjoy one of these delicious treats by the fireplace outside of Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar and watching the world go by.
Sophie, I hope this is helpful as you are preparing for your magical adventure. Please come back to visit us with any other questions you might have as you continue to plan. Here's wishing you a most wonderful visit to the Happiest Place on Earth!
Michelle