While planning our California family vacation from Australia, we asked our 18-year-old twins and their two friends one question: After visiting Los Angeles, should we go to Disneyland or Palm Springs?
24.01.2025 - 22:35 / thepointsguy.com
It's going to be an exciting year at Disneyland as the park prepares for its 70th anniversary celebration this spring. The celebration will see the Southern California theme park debut new entertainment offerings, including a new attraction with an audio-animatronic figure of Walt Disney.
For guests staying at one of Disneyland's on-site hotels, the excitement doesn't have to end when you exit the park gates and head back to your resort. All three hotels are undergoing exciting enhancements, including new concierge lounges, refreshed guest rooms, new themed suites and a new design for a fan-favorite restaurant.
Here's what's coming — and when you can experience these updates for yourself.
This summer, the Disneyland Hotel will open an all-new concierge lounge for guests staying in the property's club-level rooms. The hotel's current E-Ticket Lounge is now closed to make way for the new High Key Club.
Inspired by Disneyland's early years, the High Key Club will feature a fun and colorful midcentury modern aesthetic, with opening-era park artifacts and a custom soundtrack of classic songs from the park. The new lounge, which is in the hotel's Adventure Tower, will be nearly double the size of its predecessor.
In addition to being a comfortable place to gather or grab complimentary food and beverages, the High Key Club will be a prime viewing location for Disneyland's nighttime spectaculars. Similar to other Disneyland club-level lounges, the High Key Club will broadcast music from the show to provide the full experience.
Rather than overhauling its concierge lounge, Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa is adding a second lounge where guests can enjoy complimentary snacks and beverages in a relaxing atmosphere. The new two-story, club-level space will stretch between the hotel's fifth and sixth floors, overlooking the Great Hall lobby.
The giant sequoia — California's state tree — will inspire the lounge's design, in keeping with the hotel's California craftsman style. The new lounge is scheduled to open in 2026, but guests can still enjoy the concierge lounge at The Veranda in the meantime.
Guests at the Grand Californian will also soon experience fully refreshed guest rooms featuring new decor, bedding and more. This includes standard rooms and the hotel's Disney Vacation Club Villas.
The new decor will remain in line with the current design, with bold new accent colors and artwork in each room commissioned from local plein air painters.
The hotel's award-winning Napa Rose restaurant is also getting a new look. The new design is inspired by California's history of winemaking; it will feature rich colors and textures alongside authentic details like flooring and columns made from French oak — a wood
While planning our California family vacation from Australia, we asked our 18-year-old twins and their two friends one question: After visiting Los Angeles, should we go to Disneyland or Palm Springs?
Once a bohemian enclave popular among surfers and backpackers, the Oaxacan town of Brisas de Zicatela (or “La Punta,” as locals call it), just south of Puerto Escondido, has evolved into a buzzing tourist spot, its big waves and boisterous mezcal bars now attracting a still young but decidedly less countercultural crowd. Hotel Humano, the latest offering from Mexico City-based Grupo Habita, both embraces the area’s lively ambience and offers a refined respite from it. The 39-room, three-level property opened in late December on a busy street that becomes a party strip every evening, but its striking design creates an elegant barrier between the action outside and the considered details within (while an enforced municipal ordinance also requires loud music to stop at 11 p.m.). The building, designed by Jorge Hernández de la Garza, follows the current fad, in local architecture, of disguising heavy concrete structures with earthy textures meant to evoke vernacular constructions; here, breeze walls made of pale clay bricks provide privacy and shade, allowing air to sweep through. Linen lampshades, toffee-hued glazed tiles and big stainless steel sinks by Madrid-based Plantea Estudio add a lighter, contemporary touch, most effectively in eight suites featuring terraces with soaking pools. Guests and visitors alike can enjoy Humano’s casual cafe and juice bar in the double-height lobby, French fare by the self-taught chef Marion Chateau served in the palapa-covered poolside restaurant and the rooftop bar’s concrete bleachers — La Punta’s best spot to take in the sky at dusk.
Feb 6, 2025 • 8 min read
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