Paradise Pier Hotel at the Disneyland Resort will be rethemed to multiple Pixar franchises, Disney announced Thursday.
The retheme — which isn’t entirely Toy Story-focused, as WDW News Today reported in March — comes nearly four years after Pixar took over the Paradise Pier section of Disney California Adventure.
“Guests will gain a new perspective on some of their favorite Pixar worlds and characters through carefully curated artwork, and décor that reveals the creative journey of the artists who helped bring these stories to life,” Disneyland public relations director Kelsey Lynch wrote on the official Disney Parks Blog.
At a limited media briefing held on Wednesday, Disneyland Resort president Ken Potrock said “tens of millions” of dollars will be invested into the hotel re-do, which will include changes to the rooms, lobby, exterior, and pool. He also emphasized that the hotel will be designed in a way that allows for new Pixar properties to be quickly incorporated.
Concept art of the Paradise Pier Hotel retheme (Disney)
Paradise Pier didn’t start out as a Disney hotel. It was first built and owned by a Japanese company, Tokyu Group, in 1984, under the names Emerald of Anaheim and later the Pan Pacific Hotel. Disney purchased the property in 1995, changing its name to Disneyland Pacific Hotel, and switching to its current name to 2000.
The revamped hotel, which doesn’t yet have an official name, will also get its own dedicated entry into DCA just for guests. Paradise Pier guests did have their own entrance to the park from 2001 to 2004, located next to what is now Corn Dog Castle. The Orange County Register reported that the modern version is expected to take guests to the Paradise Gardens section of DCA via a backstage walkway through the vehicle entrance of Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel.
Guests at all three of Disneyland’s on-site hotels will see one major, pre-pandemic perk return: early entry. In the past, this was called “Extra Magic Hour” and allowed on-site guests to enter either Disneyland or DCA one hour before other visitors. Disney did not specify exactly how the new benefit will work, but did say it would return in late summer 2022.
Potrock also announced new dining options coming to Downtown Disney. Din Tai Fung, renown for its soup dumplings, will open a location at the shopping and dining district, and two existing locations — Catal and Uva Bar — will be revamped and renamed into Paseo and Centrico, respectively.