Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa
Encyclopedia
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is a AAA
Four Diamond Hotel located at the Disneyland Resort
in Anaheim, California
. Added as part of a major expansion of the Disneyland Resort in 2001, it is the resort's flagship
hotel and is the first and only hotel there to have been originally built and operated since inception by The Walt Disney Company
. This luxury hotel is designed to celebrate the early 20th Century Arts and Crafts era, showcasing the architectural style of Northern California. It also features a Disney Vacation Club
wing that opened in September 2009.
of the early 1900s. Despite the large scale of the hotel (750 rooms), the architecture still captures the key elements of the Craftsman style: wide sweeping roofs, projecting beams, exaggerated braces and colors that blend with nature. The exterior evokes the feel of National Park Service
lodges of the Western United States, particularly the Ahwahnee Hotel
in Yosemite National Park
and, to a lesser degree, the Old Faithful Inn
in Yellowstone National Park
. The interior design of the hotel also features the Craftsman motif, albeit on a larger scale.
Many Craftsman homes have a garden theme. For the Grand Californian, the theme was taken from a garden idea and scaled up so that the garden became a forest. The reception hall is based on the interior of the Swedenborgian Church in San Francisco
, increased in scale to accommodate the large reception desk. The central lobby is a living room done in immense scale with a massive fireplace and vast arching beams overhead, and furnished with chairs and sofas arranged around small coffee tables.
Many of the items found throughout the hotel have been handcrafted by modern practitioners of the Arts and Crafts movement using traditional techniques. Some early Roycroft items are on display in the lobby.
Many of the hotel's rooms and features are tributes to various Craftsman-era architects and designers. For instance, two of the guest suites, as well as the California Boardroom, pay homage to Frank Lloyd Wright
; the Napa Rose restaurant features a rose motif in the glass design which was inspired by Charles Rennie MacKintosh
. The Storytellers Cafe features a large tile mural that is a reproduction of an original design by the Gladding, McBean
Company for a Robin Hood Room in the Wilmington, California, public library.
Its name is based on Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
, its sister resort and Walt Disney World's flagship resort hotel. The two hotels do not share themes, though, as the Grand Californian is a Craftsman theme, while the Grand Floridian is of a Victorian
theme but both are Disney's two finest resort properties in the world. It does, however, share many thematic elements with Disney's Wilderness Lodge
(also designed by Dominick) with its national park lodge themeing at Walt Disney World.
on December 28, 2005, a Christmas tree
in the main lobby caught fire after electric maintenance workers replaced lights on the tree. All 2,300 guests at the hotel were evacuated within four minutes. The fire was contained by the hotel's sprinkler system
and by the Anaheim
Fire Department
. Two guests were treated for minor injuries, one of which was a severe headache. All guests were returned to their rooms by 7:00 AM; some were sent to other hotels in the area.
In response to a growing demand for guest accommodations in Anaheim, the Disneyland Resort
announced on September 18, 2007 an expansion of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa that would increase accommodations by more than 30 percent and include the first Disney Vacation Club
villas in Anaheim. The 2.5 acres (10,117.2 m²) expansion on the hotel's south side added more than 200 new hotel rooms and 50 two-bedroom equivalent vacation villas and marked the West Coast debut of Disney Vacation Club
, Disney's vacation-ownership program. During this expansion and renovation, a new swimming pool was added as well as a 300 space underground parking garage. Peter Dominick of 4240 Architecture Inc., architect for the original Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa designed the ambitious expansion to compliment his existing hotel. It will reflect the same California Arts & Crafts architecture of the existing hotel, which immerses guests in a turn-of-the-20th-century California experience. The project was completed in September 2009.
With the completion of this major expansion, Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa became the third largest hotel in Orange County, up from its previous fourth place standing.
American Automobile Association
AAA , formerly known as the American Automobile Association, is a federation of 51 independently operated motor clubs throughout North America. AAA is a not-for-profit member service organization with more than 51 million members. AAA provides services to its members such as travel, automotive,...
Four Diamond Hotel located at the Disneyland Resort
Disneyland Resort
The Disneyland Resort is a recreational resort in Anaheim, California. The resort is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks and Resorts division and is home to two theme parks, three hotels and a shopping, dining, and entertainment area known as Downtown Disney.The area now...
in Anaheim, California
Anaheim, California
Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was about 365,463, making it the most populated city in Orange County, the 10th most-populated city in California, and ranked 54th in the United States...
. Added as part of a major expansion of the Disneyland Resort in 2001, it is the resort's flagship
Flagship
A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, reflecting the custom of its commander, characteristically a flag officer, flying a distinguishing flag...
hotel and is the first and only hotel there to have been originally built and operated since inception by The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
. This luxury hotel is designed to celebrate the early 20th Century Arts and Crafts era, showcasing the architectural style of Northern California. It also features a Disney Vacation Club
Disney Vacation Club
Disney Vacation Club is a vacation timeshare division owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying real estate interest in a DVC resort. Disney Vacation Club's President is Claire Bilby....
wing that opened in September 2009.
Hotel Description
Designed by architect Peter Dominick of 4240 Architecture Inc. (formerly part of Urban Design Group Inc.), it is based on the Arts and Crafts movementAmerican Craftsman
The American Craftsman Style, or the American Arts and Crafts Movement, is an American domestic architectural, interior design, landscape design, applied arts, and decorative arts style and lifestyle philosophy that began in the last years of the 19th century. As a comprehensive design and art...
of the early 1900s. Despite the large scale of the hotel (750 rooms), the architecture still captures the key elements of the Craftsman style: wide sweeping roofs, projecting beams, exaggerated braces and colors that blend with nature. The exterior evokes the feel of National Park Service
National Park Service Rustic
National Park Service rustic, also colloquially known as Parkitecture, is a style of architecture that arose in the United States National Park System to create buildings that harmonized with their natural environment. Since its founding, the National Park Service consistently has sought to provide...
lodges of the Western United States, particularly the Ahwahnee Hotel
Ahwahnee Hotel
The Ahwahnee Hotel is a destination hotel in Yosemite National Park, California, on the floor of Yosemite Valley, constructed from stone, concrete, wood and glass, which opened in 1927...
in Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park
Yosemite National Park is a United States National Park spanning eastern portions of Tuolumne, Mariposa and Madera counties in east central California, United States. The park covers an area of and reaches across the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada mountain chain...
and, to a lesser degree, the Old Faithful Inn
Old Faithful Inn
-Sources:*Barringer, Mark Daniel. Selling Yellowstone: Capitalism and the Construction of Nature, Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 2002. ISBN 978-070061167-3...
in Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park, established by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Ulysses S. Grant on March 1, 1872, is a national park located primarily in the U.S. state of Wyoming, although it also extends into Montana and Idaho...
. The interior design of the hotel also features the Craftsman motif, albeit on a larger scale.
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
, increased in scale to accommodate the large reception desk. The central lobby is a living room done in immense scale with a massive fireplace and vast arching beams overhead, and furnished with chairs and sofas arranged around small coffee tables.
Many of the hotel's rooms and features are tributes to various Craftsman-era architects and designers. For instance, two of the guest suites, as well as the California Boardroom, pay homage to Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright
Frank Lloyd Wright was an American architect, interior designer, writer and educator, who designed more than 1,000 structures and completed 500 works. Wright believed in designing structures which were in harmony with humanity and its environment, a philosophy he called organic architecture...
; the Napa Rose restaurant features a rose motif in the glass design which was inspired by Charles Rennie MacKintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh
Charles Rennie Mackintosh was a Scottish architect, designer, watercolourist and artist. He was a designer in the Arts and Crafts movement and also the main representative of Art Nouveau in the United Kingdom. He had a considerable influence on European design...
. The Storytellers Cafe features a large tile mural that is a reproduction of an original design by the Gladding, McBean
Gladding, McBean
Gladding, McBean, LLC is a ceramics company located in Lincoln, California. It is one of the oldest companies in California, a pioneer in ceramics technology, and a company which has "contributed immeasurably" to the state's industrialization...
Company for a Robin Hood Room in the Wilmington, California, public library.
Its name is based on Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is a AAA Four Diamond Award–winning, Victorian themed luxury hotel and spa located at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. The property opened on June 28, 1988 as the Grand Floridian Beach Resort. The name changed to Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa...
, its sister resort and Walt Disney World's flagship resort hotel. The two hotels do not share themes, though, as the Grand Californian is a Craftsman theme, while the Grand Floridian is of a Victorian
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
theme but both are Disney's two finest resort properties in the world. It does, however, share many thematic elements with Disney's Wilderness Lodge
Disney's Wilderness Lodge
Disney's Wilderness Lodge is a resort hotel located at the Walt Disney World Resort. It opened on May 28, 1994. The resort is owned and operated by Walt Disney Parks and Resorts....
(also designed by Dominick) with its national park lodge themeing at Walt Disney World.
Theme park entry
The hotel has its own entrance to Disney California Adventure park, located at the Golden State area. The entry is officially only open to guests of the Resort hotels and guests re-entering with handstamps.History
At about 3:00 AM PDTPacific Time Zone
The Pacific Time Zone observes standard time by subtracting eight hours from Coordinated Universal Time . The clock time in this zone is based on the mean solar time of the 120th meridian west of the Greenwich Observatory. During daylight saving time, its time offset is UTC-7.In the United States...
on December 28, 2005, a Christmas tree
Christmas tree
The Christmas tree is a decorated evergreen coniferous tree, real or artificial, and a tradition associated with the celebration of Christmas. The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Livonia and Germany in the 16th century...
in the main lobby caught fire after electric maintenance workers replaced lights on the tree. All 2,300 guests at the hotel were evacuated within four minutes. The fire was contained by the hotel's sprinkler system
Fire sprinkler
A fire sprinkler system is an active fire protection measure, consisting of a water supply system, providing adequate pressure and flowrate to a water distribution piping system, onto which fire sprinklers are connected...
and by the Anaheim
Anaheim, California
Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city population was about 365,463, making it the most populated city in Orange County, the 10th most-populated city in California, and ranked 54th in the United States...
Fire Department
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
. Two guests were treated for minor injuries, one of which was a severe headache. All guests were returned to their rooms by 7:00 AM; some were sent to other hotels in the area.
In response to a growing demand for guest accommodations in Anaheim, the Disneyland Resort
Disneyland Resort
The Disneyland Resort is a recreational resort in Anaheim, California. The resort is owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks and Resorts division and is home to two theme parks, three hotels and a shopping, dining, and entertainment area known as Downtown Disney.The area now...
announced on September 18, 2007 an expansion of Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa that would increase accommodations by more than 30 percent and include the first Disney Vacation Club
Disney Vacation Club
Disney Vacation Club is a vacation timeshare division owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying real estate interest in a DVC resort. Disney Vacation Club's President is Claire Bilby....
villas in Anaheim. The 2.5 acres (10,117.2 m²) expansion on the hotel's south side added more than 200 new hotel rooms and 50 two-bedroom equivalent vacation villas and marked the West Coast debut of Disney Vacation Club
Disney Vacation Club
Disney Vacation Club is a vacation timeshare division owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. It allows buying real estate interest in a DVC resort. Disney Vacation Club's President is Claire Bilby....
, Disney's vacation-ownership program. During this expansion and renovation, a new swimming pool was added as well as a 300 space underground parking garage. Peter Dominick of 4240 Architecture Inc., architect for the original Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa designed the ambitious expansion to compliment his existing hotel. It will reflect the same California Arts & Crafts architecture of the existing hotel, which immerses guests in a turn-of-the-20th-century California experience. The project was completed in September 2009.
With the completion of this major expansion, Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa became the third largest hotel in Orange County, up from its previous fourth place standing.
Guest Rooms
Rooms are generously sized and feature either one king-sized bed, two queen-sized beds, or one queen-sized beds and bunk beds.The Villas at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel
The vacation villas, added as part of the hotel's expansion, including kitchens, living and dining areas and other home-like amenities. The guest rooms feature the same decor as the hotel rooms in the original structure and continue the Californian Craftsman motif.Dining & Shopping
- Napa RoseNapa Rose (restaurant)Napa Rose is the award winning premier restaurant of the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California.The restaurant, located in Disney's Grand Californian hotel, specializes in California Cuisine and has a Napa Valley wine theme...
- Being Grand Californian's flagship restaurant, the restaurant is designed in the rich Arts and Crafts style. The restaurant also features expansive windows overlooking Disney California Adventure and an open air terrace with fire pits. Much of the design of this restaurant is inspired by the work of Scottish architect Charles Rennie-Mackintosh. - Napa Rose Lounge - Located adjacent to Napa Rose, indoor and outdoor seating is available on the terrace.
- Storytellers Cafe - Murals depicting scenes from famed Californian stories, including Mark Twain's The Jumping Frogs of Calaveras County and Scott O'Del's Island of the Blue Dolphin, grace the walls of this restaurant. Grilled sandwiches, wood-fired pizzas, salads, seafood, and other "home-style" dishes are served at this restaurant.
- Hearthstone Lounge - This lounge is designed in a lodge like atmosphere and indoor fireplace which features a hearth and a porch which overlooks Disney California Adventure and ouside fire places.
- White Water Snacks - This quick service snack bar evokes the atmosphere of a campground picnic pavilion complete with nearby waterfall and located nearby the Redwood pool.
- Acorn's Gifts and Goods - A shop.
Recreation & Activities
- Fountain Pool - The pool features an artisan-crafted turtle fountain.
- Redwood Pool - The hotel's feature pool which offers deck lounge chairs, poolside service, and activities. The 100-foot water slide is styled around the stump of a giant fallen redwood tree and the entire pool area matches the style of neighboring Reedwood Creek Challenege in Disney California Adventure. Also two whirlpools are available and a children's pool.
- Mariposa Pool - Added along with the expansion, the Mariposa Pool features a round design and includes four private cabanas and a hot tub.
- Madara Spa at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel - A full-service, 4,000 square foot, fully equipped workout facility and spa with massage service and saunas.
Meeting Facilities
Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa offers 20000 square feet (1,858.1 m²) of meeting and event space. The 12000 square feet (1,114.8 m²) Sequoia Ballroom features a large pre-function space and can be broken into eight smaller rooms. The Trillium Room is a smaller spaced room designed to accommodate 350 guests. Brisca Courtyard is located on the northern side of the hotel an allows for outdoor even space in Californian inspired landscaping. Also, the hotel offers the California Boardroom and eighteen meeting rooms. There are two business registration desks and a meeting-only designated porte-chochereA business center is available for photocopies, faxes, personal computer workstations, and Internet access.Books
- Winter, Robert; Vertikoff, Alexander (2004). Craftsman Style, pp 227–233. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. ISBN 0-8109-4336-0.