Harbor Blvd Pedestrian Entrance UPDATE!

[judimouse]

Those yellow bumpy things along the pathway feel pretty good under your Converse after a long day of walking though...

Thought I was the only one that walked on the yellow bumpy things. Makes me feel like i am getting a foot massage.

[BFJen]

I wish they would make an entrance like they have in front of the Disneyland Hotel - I love the sorcerers hat! and it's even better when it lights up!

Or better yet, refund John Stamos and get the original back!

[Baloo]

I agree that this area needs to be beautified.

The most logical thing at this point is to wait till the timon lot is finally shuttered and then use part of the timon loading area to make a lush garden with wide walkways. maybe help create a small green barrier between this main entrance walkway and the bus/shuttle loading area.

the balance of the tram route and south side platform (which is never used could very well be used to expand HPB. There is actually enough room in that space for a very large show building or two.

The millionare building could easily be removed and turned into a nice court area with a queue for this new show building. or they could leave the millionare building and use the extra large fastpass queue between the millionare building and monsters inc exit as an access path to a new attractions queue

[Baloo]

But, you really have to be looking for that type of thing, now.

In the old days it was in-your-face type of thing. Now they've planted trees, the hotels have been renovated. The whole look of Harbor Blvd has been cleaned up.

It used to be the most notorious street in Orange County.........cosmetically, at least, things have been cleaned up.....compared to the mid 1980s.

In the mid 1980s, and some of the 90s, the hotels/motels looked really ramshackle and falling-down, there were no trees etc.

its actually sad to say but DTD has had a few working girls scouting the restrroms between the ice cream shop and hot dog shop.
Good thing is that security was made awrae and they are keeping there eyes open for this problem before it escalated.

[Pisces]

"its actually sad to say but DTD has had a few working girls scouting the restrroms between the ice cream shop and hot dog shop.
Good thing is that security was made awrae and they are keeping there eyes open for this problem before it escalated."

Yes, I imagine the Libby Lu entrance to the GCH is especially troublesome. Which feels strange to say. When you are labeling something "Downtown"-----and everything that implies. If you've got one thing, then you've got the other, ahem, if ya get my drift.

Time for a little history lesson:

Most all of those motels along Harbor Blvd were built in the 1950s when Disneyland opened. (And they had become very run-down-hadn't been renovated until the late 1990s even.)

Anyway, Orange County has always been an extremely expensive place to live and not everyone could afford the deposits needed for apartment rental. The low income who settled in those Disneyland area Harbor Blvd motel places were called "motel people".

This from the Los Angeles Times: "...some hundred Orange County motels were inhabited almost exclusively by the working poor, people who made, say $280 a week sanding airplane parts, or $7 an hour at Disney's "California Adventure Park" ""

What happened was the gentrification, and renovation of Harbor Blvd pushed out many of the "motel people" and working poor and those places are pretty much completely tourist occupied now.

I'm telling you, and I cannot emphasize this enough: Harbor Blvd around the Disney resort has really changed considerably from its former run-down, sleazy facade of the 1970s-early 1990s, to the good-neighbor, sanitized and spiffed up/palm tree lined street it is today.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Well then they shouldn't have any problem replacing that orange sign! LOL.

[Loomis]

Thought I was the only one that walked on the yellow bumpy things. Makes me feel like i am getting a foot massage.

Exactly!

I'm thinking of getting them installed at home. Nice to be able to do the Bumpy Walk after a busy day on your feet at work

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Put them all around the resort if you want to! LOL. That'll eliminate the stroller problem and make it soothing on your feet. But then you'll have people standing up and complaining at the Shareholders Meetings... And a new Save Disney campaign to get them taken out.

Actually, aren't they just on the sides, where you're not supposed to walk cause it's too close to an oncoming bus? So anybody who knows about these bumps has been breaking Mickey's rules at the Kingdom.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Anyway, Orange County has always been an extremely expensive place to live and not everyone could afford the deposits needed for apartment rental. The low income who settled in those Disneyland area Harbor Blvd motel places were called "motel people"....

What happened was the gentrification, and renovation of Harbor Blvd pushed out many of the "motel people" and working poor and those places are pretty much completely tourist occupied now...

Well that orange sign reminds me of the tacky days... The whole Harbor entrance needs some Disney magic to say WOW this is Disneyland Resort over here.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Shag design - yeah. It won't get dated any faster than the Harris orange banner of incompetence that is there now...

Well Shag's design of the Entrance marquee is pretty close to the actual old fashioned one.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Maybe the Golden Gate Bridge could go over the Busplanade if it's leaving DCA. Just kidding.

[mickhyperion]

For the past couple of years, I have been disgusted when I've walked through the Harbor entrance to the resort. The waist high green poles with the lights on them and the green traffic cones need paint badly. Even worse is the bench that sits on the Disney tram side about halfway down... it obviously hasn't been painted in years and years. It's beyond a little chipped and worn, it's horrible. All the railings in the surrounding area are in the same shape. It's obvious that Disney considers this the ghetto entrance. This is my first impression of the Disneyland Resort on my trips and as a result I always walk in disappointed. You would think for the 50th they could have gotten to this area.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

It would be great if all the hotels that operate shuttles to Disneyland (Good neighbor hotels) would speak up to the Mouse and ask for a better Busplanade. Maybe if Micechatters staying at these hotels made some comments on their guest satisfaction cards or spoke to the front desk, they would have some pull.

[mickhyperion]

Maybe someone local like Darkbeer could take some pictures and forward them on to Al for an attention grabbing exposé. If not, I'll take some myself and post them after my next visit.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Democracy in Action, folks.