Disneyland crews officially broke ground on a multiyear transit and parking improvement project that will add thousands of new parking spaces and dedicated shuttle areas as the park continues its planned expansion.
Disneyland Park President Jill Estorino announced the groundbreaking on Monday, calling it “an exciting step forward for Disneyland Resort and the City of Anaheim.”
“The arrival experience is an important part of every guest visit, and I’m grateful to the City of Anaheim and our community and construction partners for helping to bring this project to life,” Estorino said.
This new parking structure and transportation project is multifaceted. It will provide about 6,000 new parking spaces for theme park visitors who choose to drive, while also creating dedicated areas for shuttle services and ride-share.
Additionally, the new facility will have on-site security screenings to allow for more seamless entrance into Downtown Disney and the Disneyland Resort itself.
Disney officials say the parking structure and transit hub will be built on the eastern side of Disneyland Resort on a portion of property where some of its cast members park.
When this new transportation hub opens, there will be dedicated access for traffic along the busy Disney Way, which officials say will “parking and traffic flow throughout the resort area.”
But what many people are most excited about doesn’t involve vehicles at all.
When completed, the facility will also feature a brand-new pedestrian bridge that crosses over Harbor Boulevard.
Pedestrians will get improved walking access to the theme park, which officials say will be an “all-new esplanade arrival experience.”
And it’s not just those who park or get dropped off at the new facility who will be able to use the pedestrian bridge. It’ll be publicly accessible to and from Harbor Boulevard.
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Despite its abundance of transit options within the park itself—trains on 15-minute intervals, horse-drawn vehicles and free double-decker buses along Main Street, and the first daily operating monorail in the Western Hemisphere—transit options are a bit limited to the park.
Many of the roads around Disneyland are large with multiple lanes, speeding drivers and long waits for crossing lights. Local bus services will drop off guests at the front gates, but they can be somewhat complicated to navigate if you’ve never done so before.
There’s a massive and impressive transit hub in Anaheim about 4 miles west of Disneyland that has bus service on 30-minute intervals, but no direct line to the park via rail.
- Could you imagine a Disneyland subway stop like at Universal Studios Hollywood!?
There are plenty of options to get there, and Disney does an admirable job of making it relatively painless to get in and out, but more options for pedestrians and ride-share users is inarguably a big win.
What changes are coming to Disneyland in the coming years?
Disney’s parking upgrades are one piece of a complicated, yearslong expansion plan that will significantly increase the park’s overall footprint while introducing new attractions and experiences.
Disney has already announced plans to build a new water-based attraction inspired by Pixar’s “Coco” film, which will be located in Disney California Adventure, transforming space previous utilized for backstage operations. Another large expansion in the Marvel-inspired Avengers Campus is already underway with visible construction in an area previously unused for attractions.
At D23, the biennial fan event at the Anaheim Convention Center and nearby Honda Center, park officials announced that Tomorrowland, one of the oldest areas of the theme park, will be undergoing a much-needed and long overdue revitalization.
At D23 in 2024, which I covered at the time for KTLA, Disney officials announced that a portion of Disney California Adventure that is currently occupied by Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! would be reimagined and completely rebuilt as a land inspired by James Cameron’s “Avatar” films—although it appears that plan has been put to the backburner to instead focus on the Tomorrowland project.
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Theme parks have been among the most important and lucrative business sectors for Disney, and have been a focus of the company as it aimed to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, in which its U.S. and international parks were shuttered for several months (or longer, in Disneyland’s case).
New Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro was chairman of Disney experiences under Bob Iger, and had stints as president of both U.S. theme parks.
In short: the theme park sector is increasingly important to Disney’s bottom line, and Disney officials expect more guests will continue to flood its parks if it continues to offer new attractions and experiences, and make it easier to get in and out in order to spend their money there.
- Don’t expect lowering prices to be among the potential tactics to grow consumer interest
Ambitious improvements to Disneyland, as well as parks across the globe, are going to be the new normal. And, while not as sexy as a Tony Stark ride-along or a journey into the Land of the Dead, mobility and parking improvements is a major part of that equation.
“These enhanced parking, transit and arrival offerings are the first step in our next phase of construction, creating the infrastructure necessary to prepare for future growth and to welcome more guests as new experiences are added,” Disney officials said.
Construction on the new parking structure begins in earnest this fall. It will take multiple years before it is fully operational.
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