Why does it take over 90 minutes to park a car, Crowd Alert and lots of photos

Yes, we have talked about this a lot, but it is an ongoing problem with no easy solution.



This Wednesday afternoon, Disney closed the Parking Structure to incoming vehicles and were rerouting guests to other lots. Guests reported times of over 90 minutes from the time they got off the freeway to getting to the Main Entrance Plaza. They basically had the cars go down Disneyland Drive to the Simba Lot entrance, but had the cars make a left turn onto the back road next to DCA, with assistance of the Anaheim Police Department, as there is no left turn at the light normally. Cars then got to Harbor Blvd and were told to make a right on Harbor to the Buzz Lightyear lot.



Here is a marked map, starting at the upper right with cars exiting Southbound I-5 on Disneyland Drive.

http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3317976

This created a lot of problems. The Ball Road Flyover was closed since there is no outlet to Disneyland Drive Southbound. Also, they had Anaheim PD at the corner of Magic Way forcing everyone to go straight, so no access to the Downtown Disney Parking Lot from either direction.


Cars backed up on the exit from the former Timon Lot to get onto Harbor Blvd on Wednesday afternoon


This had a lot of folks confused, including Disney owned Hotel Guests trying to access their Hotel Parking lots, and locals just wanting to get past the Disneyland Resort and onto West Street.

It also caused a fender bender accident (requiring police and a tow truck) on Harbor Blvd at Disney Way, which slowed down the folks trying to exit the former Timon Parking Lot road to access Buzz Lightyear.


The corner of Disney Way and Harbor Boulevard


And since they were filling up Buzz Lightyear quickly, there was a large group of folks trying to board the Coach America Buses to get to the park.



Yes, it was Veteran's Day, but today is the start of the Christmas Season, Thanksgiving is coming up, and many special events will create parking hassles on a regular basis as Disneyland is seeing a larger percentage of its park visitors being locals.

So what to do? As mentioned earlier, one key is to get to the park as early as possible, before the main parking lots fill up. Currently those are the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure, Pumbaa and Anaheim GardenWalk locations. Follow the signage and police direction and park where they tell you. Trying to find a "different" lot will more than likely have you making a circle and coming right back to where they wanted you to park in the first place, or directing even further away. Also, think about carpooling or using public transportation. And if you are staying at a nearby hotel, leave your car at the Hotel/Motel and take a shuttle. Every lot at Disney requires the use of a bus/tram anyways (unless you get sent to Simba, which ends up being a long walk and no shuttle/tram service is available).


Cars are backed up on Ball Road to try and get onto Disneyland Drive at 1 PM on Wednesday, November 11th


Disney is trying to address the problem. They are no longer allowing most Cast Members to park in either the Simba Lot or the Ball Lot (which is the flat parking area just north of the Parking Structure). Work is also progressing on the new lot next to Buzz Lightyear and Pongo.


A look at the progress on the new parking lot


Alas, in hindsight, Disney should have had the new lot completed prior to closing down the Timon Lot for the CarsLand construction and moved the CM's to the Katella Lot to free up the Simba/Ball spaces for paying customers or even further away (such as a parking lot on the East side of I-5, where land prices are less expensive). But that didn't happen and everyone is paying the price for it. Not just the Disneyland Resort Guests, but also the CM's and folks that live, work and shop in the area.



And even when Disney gets the new parking lot open, you still will have the issues of the parking structure filling up, requiring those cars to be redirected to the Parking area south of Katella using City Streets. The good news is that the city is requiring Disney to install new computerized Traffic Light controls in the area, and to make lane adjustments (such as adding additional left turn lanes) on some of the roadways. But you still will have the cars on the city streets, and then you will have more buses on Harbor to take the folks to the parks and back. Hopefully they will reprogram the Main Pedestrian Crossing traffic light, so that the pedestrians have their own "cycle", since the current programming have guests crossing the street the same time that Trams/buses are trying to make a right turn to go Southbound on Harbor Blvd, which basically ends up with only a couple of Trams getting to make the turn before the light changes.


The Pongo Parking Lot, which is sometimes used for guests, and other times for CM parking, currently Guests have been using this lot a lot, which is near the Buzz Lightyear lot.

This Sunday, November 15th, a Cheer/Dance competition will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center. Then another, larger one will be held on Saturday, December 5th, which has already caused large numbers of hotel rooms to be booked in the area.

Other upcoming events in the Southern California area including two major College Bowl games. First, the Traditional Rose Bowl game on January 1st and then the BCS National Championship game to be played at the Rose Bowl on Thursday, January 7th. These games bring in large groups of fans that will spend a few days seeing the sights, along with the game.

The Largest Convention that is held at the Anaheim Convention Center, the NAMM Show, is January 14th through the 17th, which happens to be the same weekend as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday.

Then the Cheer/Dance competitions start back up in February through April.

Add to that the special discounts that Disneyland offers in the January through April period, both to locals, and to visiting guests, and you have busy times for the foreseeable future.

The Out-of-Town Guests ticket special is better than last year. Three through Six day ParkHoppers will be offered to all guests at less than normal advance purchase kids price. They are available at Disneyland.com/tickets, where you can see all the rules for the special offers.

Disneyland has installed Hand Sanitizer dispensers near the park entrances and at many Character Meet and Greet locations. (Including one next to Lighting McQueen and Mater, are they worried that oil transmits the H1N1 virus?)



Ironically, Disney recently just removed the Hand Sanitizer dispensers in the Big Thunder Ranch Petting Zoo area and were telling guests to wash their hands with soap and water, instead of giving them the option. Hopefully, when the Petting Zoo area reopens in January, they will install a couple of the dispensers in the area.

Disney is continuing in its replacement and rebuilding of all the bridges in the area. The current project is the bridge that is used to access the Carnation Plaza Gardens.

Knott's has closed its Pink's Hot Dog location to rebuild and improve the venue

Knott's has moved up the upgrade to the new Pink's Hot Dog location. They opened it up in October to service the Halloween Haunt crowds and was going to leave it open until January, but decided to go ahead and close it down to speed up the construction and have a better venue for serving the famous Pink's Hot Dogs next year.



Also, don't forget Knott's serves a great Thanksgiving Day Meal. However, it is very popular and reservations are highly recommended.

Six Flags Magic Mountain is offering free admission to its park on Wednesday, November 25th to those who bring a full bag of non-perishable groceries to the park.

http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/20617/

Quote:

For the seventh consecutive year, Six Flags Magic Mountain will collect food for the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank during an annual holiday food drive.

On Wednesday, Nov. 25, guests who bring a full bag of non-perishable food items will receive a free park admission ticket, good for that day....

Through the public's generous donations, this drive continues to be the largest single-day food collection effort for the Food Bank. All donated food will be given to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank.

Also, the dates for the yearly Toys for Tots drive have been announced. Note, due to problems in prior years, they want to see the receipt or price tag that proves the toy has a value of at least $15.

http://www.the-signal.com/news/article/20616/

Quote:

To help Santa Clarita Valley locals get into the spirit of the season and help spread some holiday cheer, Six Flags Magic Mountain will offer free admission to anyone bringing a new, unwrapped toy valued at $15 or more to the theme park the weekends of Dec. 5, 6, 12 and 13 for its annual Toys for the Holidays drive.

http://ocresort.freedomblogging.com/...-disney/24847/

Quote:

Bill Simmons, an ESPN.com columnist known as the Sports Guy, is set to sign copies of his new book at Downtown Disney on Friday, Nov. 13.

Simmons’ second book is “The Book of Basketball: The NBA According to the Sports Guy,” which gives a look at the past, present and future of pro basketball.

The book signing is set for 4 p.m. at the ESPN Zone, 1500 S Disneyland Drive in Anaheim.

I presume most of you have seen the news that was mentioned at the top of the MiceAge front page yesterday and/or the MiceChat Boards: New Chairman Of Disney Parks And Resorts

Basically Bob Iger told the two gentleman that they were going to switch positions for the betterment of the company. Listening to the Quarterly Earnings Conference Call yesterday, which featured Bob Iger and Tom Staggs (in his last conference call as CFO) there were some interesting comments, one of which has the switch being made to help groom a replacement for Bob Iger when he retires. (This comment came from one of the outside "analysts" and not a Disney Representative). But it makes sense. Having both men learn more, and seeing how they both perform in the new roles gives Bob Iger a better idea of which one would be the better choice in the upcoming years. Also, some fresh blood might bring some positive change, or so they hope.

Disney spread out the filming of the Disneyland Resort filming of the Disney Parks Christmas Day Parade this year. (Yes, Disney has changed the name, which used to be called the WDW Christmas Day Parade) in my opinion, it is a good decision as it does feature multiple parks across the world.

Saturday, Disney was locked into filming the Dance Troops segment, as it was prearranged months in advance, and it is also hard to get all those kids to take a day off of school for the filming. But it was short, and started around 11 AM, so it wasn't that bad of a traffic jam, as a large portion of the guests have already entered the park and have left Main Street.

Sunday, Disney decided to film in New Orleans Square and in front of the Castle, once again keeping traffic being blocked to a minimum on a busy Sunday at the parks.

Monday was the main "Parade" segments that feature Ryan Seacrest as host. The park opened at 10 AM (actually Main Street at 9:30), but they didn't start until about 11 AM to allow the flow of guests to enter the park before they really congested Main Street. Having the main shooting on Main street on Monday really helped with crowd control, though they needed to "pad" the audience at times, having folks move to one side of the street to get the "full" look the director wanted.



The main features were the USC Marching Band, with director Dr. Art Bartner. He has a long history with Disneyland, as he was the director of the Disneyland All American Marching Band for 28 years each summer until he retired from Disney in 2005.


Dr. Art Bartner is in the USC Cardinal Red Jacket


And then they filmed a musical number featuring Demi Lovato, a Disney Channel star at the end.



Here are a few selected photos....












This is Phineas and Ferb in their first apperence in any Disney Park as Characters.


Ryan Seacrest is working the crowd











The link to the full album...

http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/Theme-Pa...10270267_H3zGf

John Lasseter was in attendance on Monday


Louis playing it up to the guests






The evil Witch Doctor








The "Bling" you get if you are one of the audience members picked to perform on the Mark Twain during the show




The link to the full album...

http://darkbeer.smugmug.com/Theme-Pa...10275610_c5nHa

Knott's has refurbed another Ghost Town Building






Work continues on the replacement of the Launch Cable on the Xcelerator attraction at Knott's














The new World of Color Control Booth


The Christmas Tree went up on early Tuesday Morning. Note they have to bring the tree to Town Square prior to installing the Wreaths over the street (even though the tree is in two parts, they are still too tall for the street decorations).






One of the new elements for the Christmas Parade


Poor Eeyore has to walk...




Looks like someone had to take part of the sign backstage for repairs



The French Market in New Orleans Square has had its front door redesigned to keep flying insects out, to keep the Health department happy. Now the back door is being redesigned/enhanced.


The new Princess and the Frog photo op in the Court of Miracles in NOS


The new President of the Disneyland Resort, George Kalogridis, attended the special Veterans Day Flag retreat.




Our friendly DCA Feral Cat near Taste Pilots Grill


One of Knott's Feral Cats enjoying the Pan for Gold Shop

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