Space: Are advanced parking garages the answer?

[jsmith11618]

Amtrak is your better option on the weekend, with more trains to choose from.

You can also get off at the Anaheim station and take the ART bus to/from Disneyland. It comes by every 20 minutes until 11:30 PM.

Taking the train could be made even more convenient with better shuttles, but I suspect the reluctance to use the train is more cultural than anything else. People in southern california just don't think of it as an option.

Atleast on the San Diego side the train is hard to use due to lack of parking, why pay downtown San Diego prices, then pay for the train, and then wait for shuttles, when you can just drive the entire thing and pay parking at Disney.

For a family the train also becomes expensive, far cheaper for a family of 4 to drive then take a train.

[Trevor]

I think $5 per gallon for gas IS an upcharge!
Guh.

True but it doesn't stop anyone from parking so it really doesn't help out Disney.

[Rammikin]

Just to add a bit more detail to your comment: There is plenty of free parking at most Amtrak stations in San Diego county, including San Diego Old Town, Solana Beach, and Oceanside. Round trip tickets for a family of 4 from Solana Beach to Anaheim: $60.

Atleast on the San Diego side the train is hard to use due to lack of parking, why pay downtown San Diego prices, then pay for the train, and then wait for shuttles, when you can just drive the entire thing and pay parking at Disney.

For a family the train also becomes expensive, far cheaper for a family of 4 to drive then take a train.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

I don't think people have digested how much gas costs have gone up.

When the ARTIC to Disneyland streetcar is in place, Amtrak needs to hire LA Metro's ad agency and show how competitive, easy and stress free a trip up from San Diego can be. Or down from LA County (Union Station - which will soon have not just the Red/Purple subway lines to mid city and North Hollywood and the Gold Line to Pasadena and East Los - but also trains to Long Beach and Santa Monica when the "Regional Connector" tunnel opens.)

Two trains and a streetcar from all of these locations to the Main Gate.

Can you think of anybody who'd have loved that? Somebody with a fascination and lifelong love of trains maybe?

[G24T]

Atleast on the San Diego side the train is hard to use due to lack of parking, why pay downtown San Diego prices, then pay for the train, and then wait for shuttles, when you can just drive the entire thing and pay parking at Disney.

For a family the train also becomes expensive, far cheaper for a family of 4 to drive then take a train.

As someone who drives this route I sympathize with this. The Santa Fe station's lots are owned by 5 Star Parking, a company that is known to gauge customers because of it's alter-ego providing parking for cruise ship travelers. Old Town station does have free parking but it's saturated with tourists, weirdos, and the homeless (3 things that San Diegans don't like encountering and would rather pretend they don't exist). The only decent station is Solana Beach but that's already a far drive for anyone that lives south of there.

Driving to Disneyland isn't really that much of a pain. Traffic between North County & Irvine is really predictable so we just time our trips to avoid the peak times. In a Honda CR-V I use half a tank of gas round trip and since my pass comes with free parking the damage comes out to $26.

What if Disney nixed the free parking for AP's and everyone had to pay up? How much time do you think it will take to raise enough money to expand Mickey & Friends? I think they could raise the money in less than 3 years.

[swampymarsh]

What if Disney nixed the free parking for AP's and everyone had to pay up? How much time do you think it will take to raise enough money to expand Mickey & Friends? I think they could raise the money in less than 3 years.

Probably 5 as it is. APs you could say pay $100 for the parking priviledge, assuming some part of the Premium AP is for parking too. Maybe a little more than half include parking so 400,000 APs per year. That's $40,000,000 a year time 5 years builds a $200,000,000 small Disney garage.

Of course they have been making that money already, and making $15 off everyone else and it doesn't go right to reinvestment in parking, it pays the electric bills for the Haunted Mansion to operate.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

But do they want a wall of parking garages around the whole resort, taking up valuable land?

Even a mixed use building with a hotel/restaurant atop parking makes more sense.

And we've demonstrated how close Disney is to plugging into the regional rail system.

High speed rail will replace airplanes plus rental cars for a lot of Nor Cal visitors someday.

[G24T]

But do they want a wall of parking garages around the whole resort, taking up valuable land?

I believe that if you expand M&F into the Pinocchio lot and move the over-sized vehicle parking to the Toy Story lot, the resort will be able to populate everything plus a third gate & water park.

High speed rail will replace airplanes plus rental cars for a lot of Nor Cal visitors someday.

That someday is a long long time away though. We'll be lucky if Oakland to Anaheim gets completed by the year 2037.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

The Toy Story Lot = The third gate.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

L.A. Metro: How Los Angeles is becoming America’s next great mass-transit city. - Slate Magazine

Meanwhile Southern California is becoming less car dependent.