Fiasco to Park at the Parks - What can be done?

[Young at Heart]

The House of Blues had a show going on that night and was expecting 1,200 people.

Is THAT what was up with the madness over at the DTD lots? There was a pin trading night at Paradise Pier yesterday afternoon. I tried first to go to the Mickey and Friends but it was closed, simba was full, finally wound up in Lilo...

By the time I left 3 hours later the cops were turning people away trying to turn right onto Magic Way, and traffic was massively backed up on the bridge. What a mess. But if the overflow lots like Buzz lightyear were rented out to NAMM - Yikes.

Didn't I hear that they are demolishing the Anaheim Convention center structure directly across Katella from Timon? Something about expanding the Convention center.

All I can say is, perfect storm. NAMM convention, MLK weekend, big show at HoB. Wow.

But, folks, like an earlier poster said, with this economy we could be hearing about how empty the parks are and how more cutbacks in hours, entertainment, etc. are coming. I really think this will even out in the weeks ahead.

[Young at Heart]

Also, I will be very interested to hear how things go presidents weekend. No NAMM related crowds, and all AP's but Premium are blacked out Saturday and Sunday.

Is NAMM always MLK weekend? I know it is always in January. Since only SoCAl select was blacked out Sunday, maybe they need to add blackout dates to the other pass catagories.

[Scurvy Pirate]

Parking has been an issue for a while at the DLR structure and it's very frustrating for a place that's been open for 50+ years has no idea how to park cars. First, whomever planed it and whomever manages it now needs to be chucked off the top level because they have no idea what they're doing. They don't staff postions. They don't move the flow of traffic very well. They close off the bridge at odd times or when traffic is heavy like today - had the bridge been open, the back up wouldn't have gone onto the 5frwy this afternoon. Some days they have cars out to the freeway and they only have a few booths open, then you get inside and there are dozens of CM's standing around pointing. "Really? I have to go left with the other 30 cars in front of me??? Thanks for pointing." You have hundreds of cars merging into one lane causeing a huge back up on the "Up ramps" and the dumbest, frankly, is the green booth "Open" X that is right above the booth, when it should be at the start of the structure so you know what booths are open. Meanwhile, cars are merging and changing lanes because they don't know where to go until the last second.

I thank the CM's in the booths every time I'm there because they're working 2 lanes at once sometimes. The "Joe's" in the upper offices need to get out of their offices and see that there is a big problem at the Mickey and Friends structure.

You make a few good points in this post but I just had to highlight one thing.

We are lucky to have 3 CM's pointing at one time. The reason why we have CM's there is so people know where to go. Imagine your first visit to the resort and passing though the toll booths. Now do you turn left or right? People in RVs and oversized vehicles might make a right and try to go up the ramp when their vehicle wont clear the ceiling. You think theres a backup now. Just let a vehicle take off thier roof and no one is going anywhere anytime soon.

One more thing. As far as only having a few booths open at times there is a backup.... That would be the penny pinchers fault for wanting minimal CM's scheduled at a time.

[Zeus]

I remember last year when DLR ran out of parking, Disneyland partnered with the Hotel next to the convention center to use their spaces....

[Mac Daddy]

The structure was closed until 1730 and then was reopened i was stuck in all the traffic on disneyland drive they need to team up with the city of anaheim to figure out traffic contigency plans, (ie traffic officers) the light at ball and disneyland dr headed toward the structure only stays green for 10 seconds compared to almost 2 minutes if you stay on ball what a nightmare!!!!

All the NAMM traffic was also being directed on to Ball from the 57. Not sure that was such a great idea...

[Scurvy Pirate]

I remember last year when DLR ran out of parking, Disneyland partnered with the Hotel next to the convention center to use their spaces....

And there's "supposed" to be a plan to partner with Edison Field with shuttles. I wonder what happened to that idea. I'm going to speak to my manager about that.......

[TikiRoomLiz]

Well thankfully we ended up missing the Disneyland Dr. exit on Sunday and got off on Disney Way and parked on Pumbaa, so I guess we missed all the chaos because everything went pretty smoothly on that end.

[Ride Warrior]

Additional high rise parking structures will need to be build. Disney should do this even if it means building them at a greater distance from the resort and using more transport vehicles. Good news is that this all seems to me to be the price of success.

[pratt55]

In the past when the hotels offered free shuttle service we would use it rather than having to find a parking spot. When the majority of the hotels had to switch to ART which costs $4 per person per day it became cheaper and easier for us to just park ourselves using our PAP.

Could ART be part of the problem and not part of the solution?

[Imagineerfan]

This is what carpool lanes are for on the freeway, and it has actually worked from the way I see it.

That may be the way you see it, but carpool lanes actually make traffic worse. Studies have shown that on average carpool lanes carry only 7% of the traffic. That means that on a 5 lane feeway 20% of the roadway surface carries only 7% of the traffic and on a 4 lane road, 25% of the roadway surface carries only 7% of the traffic. In addition, studies have shown that the vast majority of carpools (cars with 2 or more people) are ones that would have happened anyway and are not a result of folks who would normally drive alone pairing up. So no, carpool lanes have not worked.

But back to the main point of the thread, if Disney wants the busiess they need to invest in the required parking to accomodate the desired crowds.

[Coheteboy]

Well thankfully we ended up missing the Disneyland Dr. exit on Sunday and got off on Disney Way and parked on Pumbaa, so I guess we missed all the chaos because everything went pretty smoothly on that end.

What time did you show up? Pumbaa is one of those lots that most people don't know about. They're never told to go there so it's one of those "if you know it's there, it's helpful" things.

[Coheteboy]

I've personally never had a parking problem other than waiting a half an hour to get into the parking garage. Granted I don't live super close so I come early in the morning, but still, when I wanted to meet up with Coheteboy yesterday and he couldn't even get parked because there was nothing left, I was more than annoyed that there wasn't another option for parking.
Besides the MLK holiday, there was a convention going on, it also must have been military day because we spotted a ton of them there who had all gotten free tickets, on top of that, The House of Blues had a show going on that night and was expecting 1,200 people. All of those things combined put the parking situation into absolute havoc. The crowds at BOTH parks were insane. I can honestly say I didn't really enjoy myself yesterday because of the crowds. We got onto six rides total for the whole day and that included the Mark Twain, Carousel and the train.
Not my ideal day and it's not like I go all the time so I really wanted to go on rides and let loose and have fun and that wasn't even possible. We even tried to go to things that would normally have a minimal line, and they had massive lines too. It's not just the parking that needs to be controlled, but the park capacity as well. I saw several people just walking aimlessly because truly there was nothing to do if you didn't want to wait an hour for it. In all my life, I have never seen the parks this bad, except for maybe the day after Christmas a couple years ago, and that only seemed to be Disneyland, DCA was completely empty.

Aww well that's a bummer too. And to think of all the days when Disneyland was empty and all I wanted to do was walk around hehe. That really does sound scary.

[Scurvy Pirate]

What time did you show up? Pumbaa is one of those lots that most people don't know about. They're never told to go there so it's one of those "if you know it's there, it's helpful" things.

On days that we do open Pumba we normally open it around 8-8:30 and shut it down around 1.

[ZedIzDead]

It's amazing what a little research and common sense can accomplish. I had every intention to visiting this last weekend. Then I found out about Namm, and figured with the MLK weekend it was going to be nuts. So we spent a nice day on the beach instead. Sounds like I made the right call.

Is there really a parking problem? Or was it just alot of stuff going on this last weekend and people didn't get in and are bummed about it. Because I have visited many times on crazy days and never ever had problems. Other than maybe waiting a long time for a tram, but that's about it. Even when I showed up on some of DL's busiest days (like the 4th of July) yeah the park was packed all to hell, but I always managed to get a spot.

[Darkbeer]

OK, there are less parking spaces at the Disneyland Resort now than a few years ago.

The most obvious one is the shrinking of the Timon Lot. Just a couple of months ago it shrank again, this time for the World of Color equipment, supplies and parking for the construction workers.

Part of the Simba lot (North end) that is usually used mainly for DtD parking is fenced off to allow for Grand California Valet Parking.

And of course, the former location for the Grand Californian Valet Parking Lot is being used for the expansion to the Hotel and DVC units.

And then there is the new Bakery building that is almost finished, located north of the current parking structure. (And on very busy days, Disney has used parts of the lot that is normally CM parking for additional guest parking).

Add to that the fact that Disney has an agreement with the City of Anaheim to share parking lots. Many times Disney uses the convention center lot, but this weekend, the City needed parking for the NAMM show, and requested that part of the Simba Lot be made available to them, along with the Buzz Lightyear lot next to the Strawberry Field.

So what to do?

Long term, more parking will have to be built, and more than likely that will be going vertical with new parking structures.

Short term.

Working with the city to modify the parking lot sharing agreement is one possibility, and as mentioned above, using other large lots in the area, such as Angel Stadium and the Honda Center for overflow parking, and provide shuttles when you have a major convention and a busy holiday weekend at Disneyland.

Add additional parking spaces at the Strawberry Field. That would require Disney to terminate its agreement with the Strawberry growers, and not sure how long the lease of the land for farming uses remains. It would be pretty easy to get the needed permits from the city, as the area is already zoned for parking.

Speed up the completion of the Grand Californian Construction, as the hotel was built with underground parking, and the Valet Parking can move back, allowing the fences to come down in the Simba Lot and return the spaces to regular guest parking.

Require more CM's to park at the Katella Lot on very busy days. This will open up some of the Simba Lot and make available much of the parking spaces to the north of the Parking Structure. But that would require Disney to make more shuttles available to the employees, and have more dropoffs than just the Lion King/Hotel Shuttle drop off area.

If nothing gets done, the problem will get worse.

When they start the CarsLand expansion, they will need the area currently fenced off in the Timon Lot for the project, and will need a place for equipment storage and Construction Worker parking (and Construction Workers have a clause in their union contracts that they get priority parking, as many of them bring heavy tools with them every day). I presume when that happens, that Disney will close off the remaining portion of the Timon to the public, and use that for the Construction workers.

Also, when the DCA makeover is finished, the goal of the major improvements is to drive more ticket sells, aka crowds, which will need more parking spaces.

Also, the city of Anaheim is planning to tear down the Parking Structure on Katella Avenue that is used primarily for Convention Center parking, and build a new hotel with a lot of additional convention meeting space, which is needed for the NAMM show and other events. Most folks expect that as part of the deal, the city will build more parking structure on the Convention Center property next to West Street (Which is the same street as Disneyland Drive, just a different name south of Katella). This might require one of the current structures to be torn down and replaced with a larger, taller structure.

Also, if Disney green lights the Pumbaa parking structure, there will be the temporary loss of those spaces until the structure can be opened, so carefully timing and a quick build would be very helpful. Something like close the lot right after the NAMM show and try and have it built by Peak Christmas season. But if they want to go at least partially underground, similar to what GardenWalk did across the street, you would have to add another year to the schedule. Short term - not so good, but better in the long term, since you will have more spaces available.

And of course, looking into the long term future, Disney has a major parking problem of they decide to build a third park. In that case, you would need to find parking for the Cast Members, both the current ones parking at Katella Lot, and for the additional CM's hired to work at the Third Park. Plus you lose your parking spaces currently used by guests on very busy days, and for the convention center (Buzz Lightyear).

More than likely, the Third Park would have a parking structure built beside it for the guests, but Disney would have to relocate the CM parking area, more than likely moving it to the east side of Interstate 5, since there are some decent size lots available in the area. But then Disney would have to hire more shuttles for CM's as the length of time to get to the park would be longer.

Lots of issues, and hopefully Disney is looking at some of the short term solutions to help prevent this from happening again.