I’m twenty two. I have an annual pass to Disneyland (aka dland). There’s no shame at all because this is of course the happiest place on earth where you can check reality at the door and live in fantasy land (or adventureland, tomorrowland, etc.) for a day. The disclaimer here is the magic starts once you’re in the park (or so we thought). Anything that happens before you enter Disneyland follows Murphy’s Law, which I experienced this past Sunday.
On January 4th, A and I decided to go to dland. It was the first non-blockout date of the year for our Southern California annual pass and would be our first visit back to dland since the two week Christmas/New Years block out. We made our drive to dland in the early afternoon around 2 p.m. We were already forewarned by our cousin, V, that parking was going to be a bit more crowded than usual as V’s friend, T, said that parking in the Mickey and Friends Parking Structure (MFPS) was already up to level 6. A and I thought we would divert this problem by parking in the Timon and Pumba Parking Lot (TPPL) off of Harbor Blvd. (As a side note, TPPL is a better place to park if you’re leaving late as the trams aren’t as crowded compared to those headed for the MFPS and you avoid fighting everyone to get on the trams.) We were wrong. Any car turning into the TPPL was directed to U-turn back out onto Harbor Blvd. and to the MFPS. This has happened to us before so we weren’t too surprised. We, however, were surprised when we reached the MFPS and were met by lines and lines of cars waiting to enter to the structure. These lines and lines of cars are typically only a problem during the morning hours when everyone is trying to get to dland early, but rarely are encountered in the afternoon. During our 30+ minute wait to reach the pay booths, we noticed that (1) some cars headed up the ramps to the higher parking levels, (2) a line of cars in the far right lane were directed to make parking spots in the far far right lane by simply slanting their cars in and parking, (3) some cars were being directed outside towards the left after the pay booths, (4) some cars went straight after the pay booths and parked in whatever space was there, and (5) what happened to us.
Five. What happened to us. For this, dland you suck (or at least in that moment you did). After an eternity of waiting to reach the parking booths, we were directed towards the left and out into the parking lot next to the MFPS where oversize vehicles or cars that arrive early park. The warning here is by the word “directed” I mean pointed to go to the left and outside where no Disneyland worker seemed to be and left to figure out Disneyland parking by ourselves. A and I took a turn down one aisle and looked for spots. Turns out, there were no more open spots in our aisle and we had no option but to turn right at the end of our aisle (thanks a lot MFPS for “directing” us to a lot with no spots) . (You may ask us why we didn’t turn left and go down another aisle to look for spots. Well, what you fail to know is that Disneyland designed its lots in a way that allows traffic to flow in one direction and unless we wanted to be crushed by another car too eager to find a parking space then we had no other choice but to follow the flow of traffic.) After our right turn out of the aisle, we found ourselves exiting the lot! A and I had no clue what to do because no parking attendant was on hand to show us where to go. Angry and confused, we contemplated our next move and decided to head back to MFPS. After turning right at Ball Rd. to head to the MFPS, we were met by traffic cones and a policeman that diverted us away from MFPS and towards Downtown Disney. Once we were on Disneyland Way, we had no clue what to do or where to go to park. Again, thanks Disneyland for diverting us somewhere and not having any worker or signs show us where to go. A and I weren’t about to go back where we just exited so we drove down Disneyland Way towards Katella Ave. As we neared the streetlight, we noticed one of those traffic signs pointing us down Katella Ave. heading towards Harbor Blvd. to park. No way, jose. We weren’t about to be directed to the TPPL or to one of those “no trams, walk miles to dland” parking lots so we veered right into the Simba Lot near the Paradise Pier hotel. At these parking booths, no attendants were present unless you count the guy holding a traffic cone so A drove past him before we could be stopped (though I doubt he would have stopped us). We took a turn down one of the aisles closest to the entrance of Downtown Disney (on the AMC movie theater side) and drove towards the end of the aisle where to our surprise were lots of open spots (it was a free-for-all but there were enough spaces for a fair amount of cars to park).
Disneyland Way as seen while riding the Monorail
The good thing about our parking debacle (the silver lining in the gray dark cloud) is that we figured out it is quite convenient to park in the Simba lot (usually we avoided this lot as it seemed like a far walk to dland and no trams serve this lot) and take the Monorail into dland. Not only do you avoid the walk down through Downtown Disney to dland, but you also avoid the lines at the front gate and you’re dropped off in dland between Finding Nemo and Autopia. Another benefit is you avoid the issue of walking out to the trams, standing in line waiting for a tram to come at a point where your legs are jelly, and fighting to get on a tram when the park closes because you can hop on the Monorail to get back near the Simba lot. (Yes, there is a short walk out to the Simba lot, but there’s also a walk out to your car in any of the other lots as well.) Moreover, I found that taking the Monorail in from the Simba lot allows you to miss any traffic of people caused by the parades. You know, the frustrating time when you’re trying to get from point A to point B once inside dland but you can’t because workers are directing you to only go this way when you want to go that way and then you’re just stuck and lose valuable time (hey, those tickets cost a lot of money nowadays and time is money). (Funny side question: How come there are workers all over the park during parades, fireworks, Fantasmic, etc. to direct you where to go, but there is no one in the parking lot to direct you where to go when you need them?)
Now that part of the story pertains to what happened before I got into dland. Once in the park, A and I had a good time shooting Zurg, making a video on Matterhorn, and hearing the yelp yelp yelp (or was it yip yip yip) on Big Thunder. It was when we met up with V and T at 7 p.m. did we wonder if Murphy followed us into the park.
While in line for Big Thunder, where we were oh so close to getting on, did the ride apparently have “technical difficulties” and we were told to turn around and exit the line. A little time later when we were sitting in the bobsleds waiting to enter the mountain at Matterhorn we had another announcement of “technical difficulties.” Luckily, we didn’t have to get out of our bobsled like the people behind us and we got to see the lights get turned on inside the ride (see below). We did, however, have to wait 20 minutes for the ride to operate again. Later on during the night, after hearing the train running on the tracks again at Big Thunder, we ran to make it on the ride. As we sprinted through a near empty line, we heard blah blah blah “technical difficulties” blah blah “exit” blah.
I guess some things just weren’t meant to be.
NOTE: If my parking story sounds confusing and you’re wondering how I got from point A to point B, blame Disneyland and their parking and their streets for making it hard to navigate around without clear signs on where to go. You would think that for what they charge per person per ticket they would spend a bit more hiring people to work in the parking lots.
1 Comment | In: Happenings | tags: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Disneyland, Matterhorn, Mickey and Friends Parking Structure, parking, Simba parking lot. | #
