The Hotel: The Original Disneyland Hotel

The Disneyland Hotel is a hotel in Anaheim in California on the west coast of the Unites States which belongs to the Walt Disney Company and is situated within Disneyland. It was the first hotel to officially bear the Disney name, and has been in operation since 1955, however it was not owned by the Walt Disney Company until 1988.

History

Disneyland in California was constructed by the Walt Disney Company in 1955, at a cost of seventeen million dollars. Disney had the desire to construct and operate a hotel bearing the Disney name but at the time did not have available finances, so they reached a deal with Jack Wrather to build and run one, who ran Wrather Corporations.

When Michael Eisner became the chairman of Walt Disney in 1984, he wanted to escape Disney's agreement with the Wrather Corporation and allow the Disneyland Hotel to be part of the Disney Company. However, when Wrather was approached by Disney he refused the deal, however when he died at the end of 1984 the Walt Disney Company bought the entire Wrather Corporation.

Hotel Facilities

The hotel has three guest room towers: Marina, Sierra and Bonita. Other buildings in the hotel complex are restaurants, stores, offices, sports and convention facilities. There is also a gazebo area where weddings take place.

The Disneyland hotel has five main restaurants which all have different themes: Goofy’s Kitchen, Captain’s Gallery, Hock’s Pointe, Steakhouse 55 and Croc’s Bits ‘n’ Bites. There are several bars, including The Lost Bar, The Wine Cellar, The Coffee House and The Lounge at Granvilles, as well as several shops within the hotel to purchase Disneyland souvenirs.

The original name of ‘Disneyland Hotel’ has been used for hotels at all of the other Disneyland sites in Paris, Hong Kong and Tokyo, all of which are very prestigious and usually priced accordingly with the luxury of the hotel, its facilities and location; all of the hotels are right near the entrance to the main parks, unlike a lot of the other Disneyland Hotels which do not have such close proximity.

Renovation in 2008

The hotel is rumoured to be going to begin a large scale renovation at the beginning of 2008 which will incorporate the Disneyland Hotel with the themed areas that are around the Disneyland park itself. The three towers of the hotel will be renamed Magic Tower (previously Marina Tower), Dream Tower (previously Sierra Tower) and Wonder Tower (previously Bonita tower).