We’re going on Oct 30th to California Adventure and want to do rope drop. How early should I be arriving to park our car, AND which lot should I use? I’ve heard Toy Story is best. We’re staying on Harbor Blvd, and it seems the hotel is 1 1/2 miles from that lot.
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If you’re staying on Harbor, Toy Story Lot is the closer lot. They advertise that they open 60 minutes before park opening and state that you should expect to arrive at the park at park opening (so they set you up to know it will be some time/travel to get into the gate and I would allocate at least 30-40 min from arrival to park into scanning into the park).
You can get there 70 minutes before to be lined up at the entrance, but I wouldn’t go any earlier as there’s not overflow area in the entry of Toy Story lot so if you get there and a line has built because they’re not able to start letting guests in, you’ll be backed up on a city street that’s about to become busy with traffic to get to the park.
Also, Harbor does have medians all along it so if you’re staying north of the Toy Story lot (and would need to go south on Habor & turn left to get to the Toy Story lot), you’ll turn left onto Katella and use the entrance on that side of the lot.
If coming from the south (and need to head north to get to the Toy Story lot) then the entrance from Harbor is on the right side of the street & you won’t have to worry about a median.
Once you enter & park, you’ll do security before boarding a shuttle. The shuttle ride is short 5 minutes or less depending on lights and drops you off at the esplanade that is the plaza between the two park entrances. You’ll get to enter that area through a gate that bypasses the Harbor security tents dedicated to Harbor pedestrian traffic.
Then you’ll be able to line up for park entry on the DCA side. Depending on how quickly your shuttle departed and/or how many other guests coming from all other ways (onsite guests, the Mickey & friends/Pixar Pal parking structures, or from the Harbor pedestrian traffic) there may be lines forming already. Especially if they have not yet started scanning entry to the park (sometimes it’s closer to 7:15am when they start and sometimes it’s right on time for early entry at 7:30am).
But once they start scanning guests in it should move fairly quickly and if you were on an earlier shuttle leaving the Toy Story lot you’ll be able to be in the park before the rope is dropped.
You’ll definitely be behind the earliest onsite guests as they give priority to opening the security entrances that service them to give first dibs at earliest/best positions for entry. If you make the first shuttle out of the Toy Story lot, you should have a leg up on the majority of the Harbor pedestrians as they don’t open the security tent on Harbor until the first Toy Story lot shuttle is approaching (usually it’s within 10 minutes of 7am).
For when it’s time to go back to the lot, if the line for the shuttle is atrocious and you’re up to it, the walk back to the lot isn’t bad at all. And you’ll have 7-11, CVS and Walgreens all in your path to stop for any provisions you may need for the hotel.
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Do you think maybe is better to go to the other parking lots?
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No because they have same advertised opening time, will be a lot more of zigging and zagging around from Harbor to get to than the Toy Story lot and from what I’ve surmised, will have longer security lines and you’ll still have to either walk through Downtown Disney or ride the tram to reach the esplanade/park entrances. So it’s still a 30-40 min. process.
And I don’t know what the current procedures are now with Pixar Pals, but when Mickey & friends was the only lot, Disney had to keep the area clear from blockage of traffic (or charged for traffic control from the city) so it used to be the case that you could still be directed to head towards the Toy Story lot if you came at a peak arrival time and they didn’t want to block traffic.
And again, not sure if it’s still the case, but people would arrive 20-30 min. early to be in position for getting through as close to the front of rope drop as possible, so on busy days it would be backed up even before opening. And they were often having to open it a few minutes early, but it always sounded like a madhouse for those parking for rope drop at that time. I do think that Pixar Pals has alleviated a lot of that but because of that I don’t think they open it any earlier and it’s sitll quite busy at the security checkpoints for their lots, but I’ve never heard of any issue or lines at Toy Story lot security. And with coming from Harbor, I absolutely do not recommend trying to navigate to that side for that hassle.
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If staying north of Katella, wouldn’t it make more sense to just walk to the entrance?
And if they are staying south of Katella, there could be an argument of getting on the ART 4 bus.
When I mapped out what hotels to the north on Harbor would be t 1.5 miles to the Toy Story parking lot (at the corner of Harbor & Ball), I then checked how far the walk would be to the DL entrance and it was still .8-.9 walk. That could still be quite long and there could be good reason that someone doesn’t want to walk that. I know I have my reasons with my family why we don’t walk any more than we need to after the parks all day.
Plus while there’s nothing terrible about the sidewalks near the freeway on/off-ramps and I’m sure many do feel safe walking it, and it’s probably pretty accessible if there are mobility devices at play, but all the area of Harbor/Ball & north is not an area I personally want to walk through or spend much time in. And I’ve had family stay at the Ramada there on Ball & Harbor and they said the walk at night was quite dark, so would hesitate to go that far in anything less than a large group. Which even with a family of 6 I wouldn’t consider us a large enough group.
The ART bus coming from the south though is a very good option! And would save a bundle on parking vs. the fare.
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I didn’t even realize there are hotels north of Howard Johnson! I thought the HoJo was as far north as it would go. And that is about the farthest north I would dare walk from Disneyland.
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Oh I would totally recommend walking form the Hojo! But what got me looking at the map to check the distances was that I didn’t think Hojo was quite 1.5 miles to Toy Story. And I was right, I started first by checking from the 4 Points that’s just on the other side of the 1-5 ramp and probably THE VERY farthest north I would attempt to walk (with a group who were amenable & able & large enough in number and/or experience to not have to feel vigilant and on guard after dark).
But that 4 points wasn’t even 1.5 mi so I scrolled up the map to the Ball/Harbor area and the farthest one I tried (the Ramada) was 1.4 mi. And we do stop at the Shell to get our first round of gas and road trip snacks for the way home so it’s not horribly unsafe. But it is much less kept and much more of a rowdy/flavorful crowd than what you’ll find just down the block at DL, so zero Disney bubble feel there.
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I just saw this post and wanted to add my daughter and I have been parking here lately at the Gardenwalk and walking right in for Rope drop. It is open 24/7 and there s always security around and the also have clean rest rooms to use. $18 for a day and sometimes we have it validated at the Gachapon store. I’m not sure where the other parking lots are but this ine is real close
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