Hi Rachel!
Welcome to planDisney! Thank you for asking us hEAR this
Disneyland Resort vacation planning question. I'm happy to be your planEAR today! I love staying in the middle of the magic at a
Disneyland Resort Hotel. I don't, however, always love the booking system which only gives guests the option to book one room at a time. Due to strict fire code standards, Disney Resort Hotels nationwide must know how many guests plan on occupying a single room. And because Standard Rooms sleep a maximum of four or five, all sEARches with guest counts of six or more will auto-magically filter out any rooms that won't work for your group, even if you intend to book multiple rooms.
If your party is multiple-family units (ex: you + your children in one room, Grandma and Grandpa in a second room), your best option is to make two reservations: one under your name including the headcount of those who will be Disney dreaming in your room; and a second reservation for the guests in the other room. If you had planned on picking up the tab for both rooms, you can absolutely still take care of both bills by using your credit card for the deposits due at the time of the booking, and also picking up the remainder of the tabs later. You can make these two reservations online right now, or you can certainly call the Disneyland Resort Hotel Reservation phone line at (714) 956-MICKEY or (714) 956-6425. If you're interested in a room + ticket vacation package for both rooms, that number would be (714) 520-5060. (Pro Tip: if you call to book, mention that you'd like these rooms as close together as possible.)
Things get a bit more tricky if your group cannot be easily split between two standard rooms as connecting and adjoining guest rooms cannot be guaranteed. If your travel party is for example two adults and four kids, you would need to make the reservations as one adult + two kids in each room. Cast Members at the Check-In desk will be more than happy to try to accommodate room requests upon arrival. But if that's not something that you'd like to risk, then a
Disney Vacation Club Villa at
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa or a suite will be your best options at one of the three
Disneyland Resort Hotels. But not to fret as there are plenty of amazing Disney-vetted '
Good Neighbor Hotel' options, most of which are national or global chains, and some even within the same walking distance as
Disney's Paradise Pier Hotel. Pro Tip: These listings are populated as a ticket + hotel package, but you can certainly
book a Good Neighbor Hotel and theme park tickets separately.
I hope this helped to clEAR up any troubles you had, Rachel. And if you have any more Disneyland Resort planning questions We're All Ears!
~Kristen N.